Segovia, Valsaín, Toledo and the Busiest Weekend Before Midterms Ever

That might be a bit of an exaggeration to say it's the busiest weekend ever, but I did do a lot this week. Thursday, our director took us to the Museo de Segovia, and we saw a bunch of cool things about the history of the area. Segovia is so old I can't even comprehend it, and there were ancient civilizations fighting over this land for so long. Here's some pictures because I'm too lazy to write more.

Because even people living forever ago needed tools

This is an ancient Celtiberian pig statue. Because carving vague shapes out of a giant boulder sounded like fun to them. 

Back when keys were the size of your arm.

A view of the castle from the museum

They make these fancy all glass chandeliers in the next town over, La Granja

Okay honestly, I really don't want to be writing this right now, but I'm also procrastinating so I'm at a bit of a crossroads. We have midterms this week, and then we're off for fall break and I will be traversing Europe with a few of my new AHA friends. So I probably won't post for a little while, and I need to get these out because I have so many new pictures from this week.

Friday, we had an excursion to "la montaña", which was really this small peak near a town called Valsaín nearby where there was a battle during the Spanish Civil War. It was pretty cool to see the views and the remains of the trenches and forts, especially as a history nerd. It was a bit of a climb, and I can't imagine getting up there with a bunch of artillery on my back, but the view was incredible and the weather was perfect. No words can do this justice, so here are some of the pictures.

In the trenches

That's a Ukraine soccer jersey, sent to me by my lovely parents

We saw some vultures. It was casual.

Because it's too perfect that they look like the Fellowship of the Ring. There's Gandalf up front, and all his merry men!

So there's Friday! I think I slept a lot when I got home, and then we went out and ate hamburgers for dinner at the place I mentioned earlier called Divine Boy. I can't help it, because burgers are so much cheaper here than in the States. Ron Swanson would love it here, except for the fact that it's not America.

Saturday was so. Damn. Cool. We went to Toledo, which was the former capital of Spain until 1561 (for those of you who don't know). The city is literally built into a mountain, and surrounded like a freaking moat by the Río Tajo. It was absolutely incredible. Walking in Toledo is rough - everything is up and down and up and down, and the incline is ridiculous on some streets, but it's worth every second. This city is famous for a few other reasons as well. For a long, long time, Christians, Jews and Muslims all lived there together peacefully, and it has a rich history and a lot of awesome architecture to show that off.

We started the day by entering through the main gates to the city, built to impress important people who came in to the former capital. Then we walked up some damn steep streets to a church that holds a museum of the Visigoths' time in Toledo. We had some free time for lunch, so we ate in the plaza at the cathedral, which is the second largest (after Seville) and the most important in Spain, because the highest ranking bishop holds his seat at that cathedral.

City gate

These streets are so narrow....

The church with the Visigoth stuff

Cathedral

Cathedral

Cathedral

Since we had so much time and a lot of us were tired, we went to a café for some café con leche, and then we decided to walk to the Alcazar, which is also the name of the castle in Toledo. From there, you can see some crazy mountains and hills and the Infantry Academy across the river. I thought the view couldn't get any better, but it did later.

Infantry Academy - "Por la Patria" written across the top

Alcazar of Toledo

Wassup?

Second cup of café con leche for the day

After lunch, we saw the Greco Museum (famous painter from Greece, y'all), and then we went to a museum of Jewish history in Toledo. Then we stood around at this pretty park, with another gorgeous view, and then we walked across the river for more unbelievable sights and our bus.

The view from the Greco Museum

Some paintings by El Greco

One of the last Greco paintings

Because any time there is an O, we take advantage to say GO DUCKS

An old synagogue

More of the Río Tajo

Look mom, I wore the coat. Told you. 

This is a totally normal construction in Spain

Crossing the river - this is unbelievable

The lovely bridge, and the lovely Hannah posing

All us kids in Toledo, except Andrew who unfortunately stayed back due to some knee problems. Pobrecito. 

The bus took us up into the mountains across the river to a viewpoint where I literally saw the coolest thing I've ever seen, which is this:

I still can't believe this place is real. Anyway, we were exhausted after Toledo but we went out anyway because we won't be in town for the weekend for a few weeks. 

Here's some of the hoodlums I hang out with. Whatever. 

So in other news, Wa-who? Good job ducks, and good luck next week against UCLA! OOoooOOO!

I just can't get enough

Segovia is the best place on earth. Do I have the authority to say something like that? Probably not, but I'm saying it anyway. The people here are amazing, the city is beautiful, and they have burgers here made with nothing but meat and eggs.

This past week was oddly busy though not in the usual study abroad way, when you're constantly traveling. I was actually here all week, again. But it was so nice! I intern three days a week in the evening, so that takes up a lot of my time. Sometimes all of us AHA kids meet up at a cafe or at our favorite (cheapest) bar in the evenings just to chat or play cards. It's a terrifically crazy and laid back culture.

I did learn a few interesting things this week. I want to talk a little about some of the Spanish customs that I never knew about until coming here. I think I mentioned earlier that people greet each other by kissing both cheeks. This is done between women, and between men and women, but between men it's just a hand shake. It's also not polite to yawn openly in front of people, or stretch in your seat. That is kind of tough for me, because I don't think yawning is that big a deal in America, and I definitely stretch in my seat all the time back home. I catch myself stretching sometimes and try to cover it up awkwardly. The yawning thing is tough, but if you cover your mouth with your hands it's okay.

One thing that's very different here is that wine is definitely not considered an alcoholic beverage. It's part of the gastronomy of the region. I mean, that doesn't mean people don't drink wine to get drunk, because they definitely do. They're actually really creative about it! Red wine with coca cola is calimoxo, red wine with sprite or lemonade is tinto de verrano. In many places, wine is cheaper than water, especially since you don't get water for free at a restaurant or cafe here.

On Saturday though, I ran into a few of the cadets at a cafe and they shared some really interesting cultural viewpoints I would never have known otherwise. This was probably my favorite part of the week because I learned something I couldn't have just found out myself. They said that in Spain, the military is not respected the way it is in the States. If you can imagine the kind of negative stigma there was toward servicemen in the US around the time of Vietnam, that's the closest comparison I can think of. It's definitely not the same, people don't loathe soldiers here, but they do associate the military with Franco (if you don't know who Franco is, for God's sake please check Wikipedia.)

They mentioned that they will occasionally meet people who, upon finding out they are in the military, will tell them they don't want to be friends with them. It's a tough position, and I think it's so sad that these young men and women who dedicate their lives to their country aren't given the respect they deserve by their own citizens. So, that was fascinating. It's very different from the US where soldiers are now held to the utmost respect and have many well-deserved perks for being in the military. These guys here deserve that.

Besides my eye-opening chat, my weekend was pretty normal. It was my mom's birthday this weekend (my real one back in America, not my host mom), so I spent Saturday morning making her a video from around the city. I walked around like a weird tourist with my iPhone out at a 90 degree angle, shooting random spots from my home to the Alcazar castle. I also had another burger from Divine Boy, and it was freaking fantastic. Here's a photo so you can all drool at the awesome.

Nom nom nom nom nom.

Oh, on Friday all of us who stayed in town this weekend went out to a Syrian (I think) restaurant, and I had shawarma and hummus and it was magical, and it reminded me of Caspian's in Eugene. I also went on an unexpected hike (in leather, knee-high boots) on Saturday and got these lovely photos of Segovia from across the valley. 

And here are a few pictures from Saturday night. 

My long-lost brothers Andrew and Nacho, and Andrew's biological sister Mary who was visiting and thus is also my sister, and Laura who just wants to be in the picture hah. 

The cadets do this dance where the motions are the steps of loading a gun or something... 

Just because it looks like Laura is being sassy about the girl behind her. 

Great win, Ducks! Huck the fuskies! And what happened there, Cardinal?