Andalucía, La Granja, Valladolid, Amsterdam, Madrid & a Month of Segovia Adventures

I suck, I'm sorry. I know it's been a month. Way too long, and I can hardly remember everything I've done since the last time a posted which was so freaking long ago. God, fall break seems like a lifetime, but it's also crazy to think so much time has passed. Really, where has the time gone? I have two weeks left before my parents come, and then adios, España! It's funny how time seems to move faster when you just want things to stop.

Anyway, the weekend after break, we had a group excursion to Andalusia in the south of Spain for the whole weekend. Spelling it like "Andalusia" looks wrong to me, so I'm spelling it the Spanish way from now on. We went to Córdoba and Granada, some pretty dang famous locales in the south. Oh, here's another thing about Spain: I feel like we all think Spain is sunny and warm all the time, but that's really just the south and the coast. It's beyond freezing here in Segovia right now, up in the mountains, but Andalucía was a nice and warm and balmy 75 degrees at the beginning of November.

We saw La Mezquita, which is the third largest mosque in the world and actually has a cathedral built inside of it. It's so bizarre to think that Spain was ruled by Muslims for 800 years and they built all these architectural wonders long before the US was even an idea in the back of someone's mind. The building is huge and has something like a thousand stone pillars inside, made to look like a forest of stone.

The cathedral part

We also saw the Alcazar of Córdoba and the gardens before heading back to the hotel, but it was getting dark so I don't have many nice pictures from there. The next day, we went to Granada, which was the last outpost of the Muslims in Spain. La Alhambra is in Granada, and it's apparently the most visited tourist location in Spain, which I totally believe. It's something of a mix between a military fort, a palace, and a walled village. It was very sunny and fairly warm, so I wore the least amount of layers I had in a long time and we had a good time walking around. 

ALSO WE MET AARON PAUL. I saw him when we were walking around early on the excursion, and no one believed me it was him and I was just saying "I swear to god, that's the guy from Breaking Bad" but everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Later though, two of the guys took pictures with him and everyone was like "Oh, I guess you were right." Suck on that. Anyway, later I was waiting with my friend Hannah for our friends using the bathroom, and I had a popsicle because it was pretty hot out, and Aaron Paul walked by and was like "I want that!" and we ended up talking to him and we got a picture and he was really kind and courteous! 

Killer views of Granada

Aaron Paul, in case you weren't sure.

We went back to Córdoba that night and saw some more pretty things Sunday morning, like the Barrio Judío, among other things. Overall, solid excursion and Andalucía was really cool! We even stayed in a hotel, which was like the height of luxury since I've been staying in hostels everywhere I went. I mean, they had towels. That's like gold for an American college student in Europe. 

The next week, we went to La Granja with our group. I went there with some friends back in September, so I've talked about it a little, but it was very different this time around. Last time, it was still summer, but this time it was so damn cold, and all the leaves were beautiful shades of red and yellow and orange. This time, we also saw the palace which is really pretty and had a bazillion tapestries inside. As a reminder to those who care about history, the palace at La Granja was the old summer palace of the monarchy. So it was definitely not built for habitation in winter, and it was like being inside a refrigerator with less food and more pretty things. 

Let's see, what did we do next? This is what I get for procrastinating for a month on blog entries. Oh yeah! That Saturday we woke up to snow in Segovia! It was so beautiful and so exciting because snow in Portland is a once in a blue moon event. It was like two inches, maybe, and it all melted by the afternoon but it was still awesome. 

Después.... We finally went and saw the castle in Segovia from inside that week during class. The tower was closed though, which was too bad, but I'll probably go back with my parents.

Fun fact: you can tell this is gothic architecture because of the point on the arches.

Fun fact: the artillery academy used to be inside the castle, until it partially burned down in the 1800s. The next day, it moved to the convent where it is now and no one even got a day off. Bummer. 

That next week, we had two birthdays in our group so we went out to celebrate. Look mom, I have friends!

Happy birthday, Garrett!

Happy birthday, Laura! Nice photobomb, Jen!

When most of the group went to the Canary Islands for the weekend, I went to Valladolid with the rest of the girls who didn't fly away toward Africa. The Canaries belong to Spain, are west of Africa, by the equator, perpetually hot, and are volcanic islands with an active volcano still pumping around. Valladolid is the capital city of the province of Castilla y León, where Segovia is located. It doesn't have many monuments to see because they were mostly all destroyed in various wars and battles over the years, but it does have a lot of shopping and some very pretty parks. Also, we found this playground for adults which had exercise equipment and was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen, but actually so fun. 

Jen, me, Katie, and Adaleni in front of the Cavalry 

Plaza Mayor

Churches in Spain are ridiculous 

Lol adult playground 

Our program did a really cool thing for us Americans and organized a Thanksgiving lunch with all the students and teachers. Since a lot of us were going to travel on Thanksgiving though, we had our lunch on Tuesday, and there was a real turkey. In SPAIN. I was expecting like turkey breast sliced up for everyone, but it was a pleasant surprise. 

The least Thanksgiving-y meal, but one I'm most grateful for

Marian, our program director 

Andrew looking like a Von Trapp child, with Alyssa 

Post-meal lethargy with Adaleni

And then I went to Amsterdam on Wednesday after classes, until Saturday. It's a fascinating city, but I'm too sick of writing to explain much. We saw the Anne Frank Museum, and the Reijksmuseum and the I Amsterdam letters and a bunch of other things. There are some great street markets where we ate a lot of our meals (mmm stroopwaffles!), and we checked out the red light district which was fascinating and bizarre. I spent an hour afterward googling prostitution in the Netherlands on my phone, because the economics there are ridiculously interesting. 

In front of the Reijks

Qué pasa, Van Gogh? 

Katie and I failing at cute tourist photos

I know this is stupid long, but I'm not done yet, sorry! Just a little more. I got back from Amsterdam on Saturday and I went to get a drink with two other people on our program who had their birthday, and this time they were both born on the same day, same year, same state. What a coincidence, that of 13 people, we have so many freaking birthdays within three months! Anyway, all these Irish people showed up, many of whom I had never seen before, but they were friends of the birthday girl from her internship here. It was really weird to hang out with English speakers other than my AHA friends, but it was cool to meet new people. The cadets had a big party at the academy in honor of their patron saint, Santa Barbara, and I could hear the music from all the way down the street when I was walking home in the morning. I even saw cadets in full dress uniform inside a club. This is so crazy to me because if that happened in America, I'm pretty sure you'd get kicked out of the army. I didn't get much sleep, because I had to wake up early for an excursion to Madrid to see the museums, but it was a fun night. 

Madrid on Sunday was beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and it was at least 10 degrees warmer than in Segovia. We went to the Reina Sofia, which is a modern art museum, and the Prado, the big classic art museum in Spain. I really don't get modern art, so that was kind of boring for me except for Picasso's Guernica. That said, I think I like the history of the Guernica more than the painting itself. The Dalí paintings were kind of cool, but they look what I would imagine a bad trip on drugs would look like. 

The Prado was much cooler. There were way more paintings in one room, and it was set up nicely so you could see everything pretty quickly. Less walking, more seeing - I approve. We only had about an hour before we had to go to catch our bus back to Segovia, but I feel like I saw way more than I could have in another museum like the Reijks or the British. The most important was obviously Velasquez' Las Meninas, and I liked it more after my friend Alison explained the meaning behind it. That said, I am so not an art person so I feel like others could have appreciated all that a lot more than me. 

Outside the Reina Sofia

Retiro park in Madrid

By the Prado

And, well, that's it. Football season is closing down, so... Yeah. I have less than two weeks left on my program, and it's very bittersweet. I miss my friends and family, I miss American food and my mom's cooking, but I'm going to miss Spain so much. I've made so many great friends here and seen so many amazing things, and it breaks my heart that I'll never have them all in the same place again. But this has been an amazing experience and I wouldn't change it for anything.

See you all soon.