The Hanging Houses of Cuenca

I've skipped a few days by now, but nothing extremely exciting happened this week. We started classes again, which was crazy. It was a little hard to get back into a normal schedule after so much traveling, but also felt pretty nice. Traveling definitely takes a toll on my energy level! On Monday the 7th, I wrote in the good ol' blog, rested, and Skyped. Tuesday evening, we went to an activity with the Young Single Adults from the Alcala ward. They had a presentation of a spiritual lesson, then attempted to teach us a little bit of Romanian because one of the guys, John, is leaving soon for his mission in Romania. Learning Romanian in Spanish is a bit difficult I might add... On Wednesday evening, we went to the church house and played "futbol" with the Young Single Adults and most of the people from our group. Fun times!

Next day, Thursday the 10th, we headed out on another adventure to Cuenca. Cuenca is famous for its "hanging houses" which I didn't really understand until I saw them for myself. First, though, we stopped for a detour at the Monasterio de Uclés, which was explained as being a monastery, or basically a school, for boys. Our guide, Antonio, was saying something about "knights of the round table" or the "knight's templar" or something along those lines, but it was a little hard to understand him. We stopped, took a brief tour and learned some facts from Antonio, ate some traditional donuts, took some pictures (of course!) and loaded back on the bus to continue on our way.

Next stop: Cuenca! Luckily, this trip wasn't jam-packed full of things to do, so I wasn't completely exhausted by the time we got there. However, the weather finally started to get nice, so the heat was stealing our energy instead. It's just best to fight through it! Cuenca, along with its hanging houses which I'll be explaining in a little, is also known for its cathedral. Like all other trips, of course we got to take a tour!

The art museum was cool, but I suppose I'm not extremely deep and reflective, so I got through the museum pretty quickly. There were more important things to see, in my opinion! Just outside of the museum, we walked down a hill to a big bridge over a gorge and had our first prime view of the "hanging houses."

They're known as hanging houses, because literally, they were built on the very edge of the cliff, and they hang off the edge of the cliff. If you were to jump out a window, you'd fall hundreds of feet to your death. :) Nice image, I know. I was wondering why they chose to build so close to the hill, because you could tell how much erosion had affected the town, but I never found that one out.

Really, the best way to demonstrate this city is with the pictures. Words can only take me so far!

After the museum tour and views off of the bridge, we all had a couple of hours of free time to explore the city before we had to be back for our cathedral visit. I went with my friends Logan and Katie and Logan for a hike down through the gorge. Let me tell you, I was in really flimsy sandals, so it's kind of a miracle that I didn't die by tripping over a rock and falling off a cliff! Ha! We really had a lot of fun, though. We explored a bit of the city on our way, saw some beautiful lookout points, and went places that no one else in the group got to see. I was really glad we did it!

On our way down, we came across the ruins of a house that had some really cool graffiti inside. It looked like it would have been absolutely beautiful back in its day. I was sad it was destroyed now!

Next was the cathedral, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures, so I can't post any! Basically, though, it was very similar to many of the other cathedrals we've been to. After the cathedral, we walked up the hill back to the bus and drove home. Gotta love the day trips!

Portugal: Day 3

This day wasn't quite as exciting as the last couple had been, but that's ok! A person can only take so much adventure in one week. We woke up around 4:45 AM, got ready to go, checked out of our hostel, then called a taxi to take us to the airport. No problems until one of the girls couldn't print her ticket because it had been cancelled without her knowing it! I'm just glad that it wasn't me! Luckily, though, she made it on the flight with the rest of us and didn't have to pay any extra money. We made it back to Madrid after a very quick flight, took the metro, then the train back to Alcala, and finally walked home. It was Fast Sunday and Mother's Day here in Spain, which made for quite the exciting day. I made it back for Sacrament Meeting just in time, too, which was great. After church, I came home and ate, then conked out for a couple of hours. Traveling takes a big toll on me, I've discovered! The rest of the day was relatively quiet and I was able to rest up after a crazy weekend!

Portugal: Day 2

On to day 2! We woke up around 8 or so, got ready for the day, ate some free breakfast provided by the hostel, then got on our way! The people who run the hostel were really cool, and they gave us a ton of suggestions of what we should do around the city. We heard about a flea market that was going on in the morning, so we decided to go and check it out!

It took quite a bit to find it because we like to take pictures a lot, it was uphill the whole time and a bit slow-going, and we kind of got lost again, BUT finally we found it! Wow. I've never seen so many vendors in one place! Anyone could show up and set up a stand to sell, so people took advantage of that. There was everything from new leather coats to old used door knobs from 50 years ago. It was pretty interesting to see! I felt bad for some of the vendors, because you could tell they were a bit destitute. They were trying to sell old, worn shoes and other things that no one would want to buy. I don't blame them though. We saw a lot of homeless people, and I'm sure work was hard to come by sometimes. I just felt like it was a yard sale gone wrong! However, I did find some awesome skirts that I absolutely loved! I really wanted to barter for them, but since I don't speak Portuguese, this was a little difficult. I asked my friend Priscilla to help me because she does speak the language, but she only got them to go down to 26 Euro when it was supposed to be 30. Oh well. These people were sticklers! I loved the skirts though, so I didn't want to pass them up!

After some great shopping, we headed back down the hill to drop stuff off at the hostel, then ran to the train to catch a ride to Caiscais. Caiscais is a beach town about 40 minutes or so away from Lisbon, which we were extremely excited for! When we got off the train, we quickly realized that this was another form of paradise! Portugal was just getting better and better. It was finally warm, we were at the beach, we had an awesome group of people...

Perfection! Plan number one was to find the the office of tourism so we could find out where everything was that we wanted to do, but it was closed (that darn siesta!), so we all unanimously voted to walk down to the beach and wait/take a nap until they opened. I chose the latter because I still hadn't quite caught up on my sleep from the night before! Taking a nap on the beach in the sun has got to be one of the best things to do! Love it. After some time on the beach, Brad from our group went and talked to the office of tourism to figure out our plans. It was hard, but we all made it up off of the beach to keep doing everything else we wanted to do that day! Plan number one: world's 3rd best gelato, declared by the Prince of Portugal himself. That may just be a rumor, but hey, we tried it, and it was DANG good! This place is called Santini's. I wish I could bring it home with me! I ended up buying a one scoop, two flavor cone of Mango and Passion Fruit. Good choice, my friend. Yum yum yum!

On our way to get gelato, we passed this sporadic street carnival that was playing really fun music. It looked super great, so we decided to go back! Super glad we did. They had a carousal set up, vendor booths, a stand for performers, and some other cool things. I saw a guy set up a little shoe polishing shop, which just made my day. I'm not really sure what it is, but Portugal also has some random thing about crocheting! At the carnival, we saw a table set up with a ton of crocheted clothes. Yes, this included crocheted lingerie.

This day just kept getting better and better! We also would be walking around town and would see random street poles that were crocheted all the way up! Some old lady has way too much time on her hands, or something. It was hilarious to see! Ok, so after the fair, we wanted to find some bikes that tourists could rent for free, but like always, we asked directions from a million people, followed a map, and still got lost. After maybe... 45 minutes to an hour and almost giving up completely, we finally found the place we needed! Phew. That was a chore for sure. However, I'm so extremely glad that we didn't give up in the end, because it was one of the best things I've ever done. We got to see a completely different part of Caiscais that was so extremely beautiful it was unreal. I felt like I was dreaming! The bikes, of course, were complete with a basket in the front. It could not have gotten any better, I swear. We rode along the coast for about an hour or so, stopping here and there for picture moments and also to check out an outcropping of rock. Here, some of us, including me, stripped down to our swimming suits and went down by the water to try and get a cool picture of the waves spraying up around us. Luckily, we had some success. However, the ocean is extremely cold around this time of year. Brr! Still, it was totally worth it. Afterwards, we rode back the way we came, and stopped for one more picture moment that happened to be right by a portable hot dog cart. Convenient, right? We took some awesome pictures, but also decided that we needed to try one of these hot dogs. They were more like gourmet hot dogs, and you can't pass up a gourmet hot dog from a hot dog stand along the side of the beach in Portugal!!! That was my justification, at least. They were super yummy! It consisted of delicious bread, of course, then a cabbage and carrot slaw, some special sauce, a hot dog, some fried straws like chips, a ton of mozzarella cheese, then two more special sauces on top. Ohh baby. I love my life!

Continuing on our way back, we stopped at another cool look-out point called the Inferno. So beautiful!

Finally, we quit distracting ourselves and got our bikes back on time. By this time, everyone was pretty hungry, so we decided to head back to Lisbon for some dinner, but of course we had to stop at least three more times on the way for more pictures. It was inevitable. :) The theme for our trip was "YOLO" or "You Only Live Once," so we went back to the beach and spelled it out. Why not?

Finally, back to the train and on our way to Lisbon. As luck would have it, right when we got to the train station, it started to rain and also had an accompanying rainbow. A perfect end to a perfect day at the beach!

As was common and expected, when we got back to Lisbon, we took at least an hour to walk around and try to find somewhere to eat. It's pretty hard to decide because one we don't speak Portuguese, two, mostly all the places to eat are bars, three, everywhere is pretty pricey, and three, we were all very tired but had to continue to walk in order to find a decent place. Finally, we gave up and gave in to a guy who was trying to get us to come into his restaurant. These kinds of guys were all over the city. They stand outside with a menu and try to offer incentives that will get you to say yes. For this one, we should have said no. The menu inside wasn't really the one the guy showed us outside, we weren't waited on for an extremely long time, and it wasn't really appealing to anyone's senses. On top of it all, I ordered some chicken, and the waiter apparently forgot to put it in, so while all my friends had their food, I was left waiting with a grumbly stomach. Finally he brought it, but everyone was already done with their food, so I told him (or really had my friend tell him because she was the only one who spoke Portuguese) that I didn't want it anymore unless it would be free because it had taken so long. Well, food service isn't quite the same in Portugal as it is in the U.S., so he said no and took it back. His loss. Everyone else gave me bites of their food, so I was fine. It saved me a few euro! Plus, afterwards, I got another Crema da Nata at the Panaderia, so it was all good. Although dinner was a bit of a setback, it wasn't enough to ruin what was almost a completely perfect day!

PORTUGAL! Day 1

Like I mentioned in the last post, Courtney and I woke up around 3:15 to take a taxi to the airport. We had planned on taking the bus, but it was a little sketchy to have to walk all around town at night, especially because Courtney lives in the more ghetto part of town. Well, our taxi came promptly at 4 AM, and we were on our way! Our cab driver was super nice. He knew a little bit of English, so he was trying to talk to us in English. It was so cute! He said he would listen to a radio program that teaches English to Spanish speakers as he drove around. We, of course, got to practice our Spanish as well. It's good to take any chance we can to speak to the natives. It scares me, but it's good for me as well!

They're always very kind and willing to help us out, which is awesome! Well, we didn't have any problems getting to the airport, but when we were standing in line to get through security, I looked at my ticket and realized that it said my flight was for the next morning.... My stomach dropped to the floor right at that moment! I have absolutely no idea how that one got mixed up! Actually, I have a bit of an idea. In Spain, they do their calendars differently. Monday is the first day of the week, instead of Saturday. I probably looked at the date wrong and clicked the wrong button. It scared me so bad! Luckily, though, we made it through security without any problems, and we had plenty of time before we had to leave. No one was there at the airport! Getting there 2 hours before was definitely a bit early, especially since it was 4 in the morning. Oh well. Well, finally the time came to board, and lo and behold, I couldn't get on the plane because it was the wrong ticket... I told the attendant in my poor Spanish that I had bought the ticket for today and I don't know what went wrong, and she told me to wait on by the side so she could help me after she got all the other passengers on board. Well, we both sat and waited, biting our nails the whole time, until everyone else was on, then got her attention and... SHE LET US ON THE FLIGHT!!!! I was praying so hard! Whew. We were both giddy as we sat in our seats! Not only because we had just witnessed a miracle, but also because it was 6 in the morning and we'd only gotten 3 hours of sleep, and also because we were on our way to Portugal! Whoo hoo! I was loving life, for sure.

The flight from Madrid to Lisbon is very short. I barely dozed off for a brief nap when we landed safely at the airport. We got off, ran to the bathroom like everyone does after a flight, got some money out of the ATM, then jumped on a bus to go to the hostel. Success! We didn't get lost once. Right in time for breakfast as well! Perfect timing. :) We dropped off our stuff, ate some breakfast, then left for Sintra! The best way to travel in Europe is by bus or train, so we took a train! The train is always fun! I'm just glad I didn't crash, because I was pretty tired. No sleeping for me, though! You're not in Portugal every day, after all. When we got off the train, we found directions to what we wanted to do, then started walking up the hill to the main part of town. The city of Sintra is beautiful!!! I felt like we were in a tropical paradise. There were palm trees everywhere, beautiful flowers, moss and ferns growing on everything you looked, and everything you could want in a paradise! It was so great. The weather was a bit overcast, but it was definitely warmer than it had been in Spain. Nice change! We took quite a while to get up to the main city (there were just far too many picture opportunities!), but finally we got up there.

We walked around the city for a bit and took more pictures, then jumped on a bus and went up to the castle on the top of the hill. These bus drives in Sintra were absolutely nuts! First of all, the roads are teeny tiny, so the bus hardly fits on the street in the first place. Second, they drive like maniacs! I felt my stomach go up to my throat as we sped up and down the hill! Ha! I'm really glad we didn't die. It was quite the experience. Finally, we reached the top, but then we found out that it cost 17 Euro to tour both the castle and the palace. We weren't planning on that one, and we'd just spent 5 euro on the bus ride up. I wanted to spend my money on souvenirs instead of seeing another palace and another castle (since we'd just seen a ton in Burgos and Leon), so I opted out. Instead, the rest of us who didn't buy the tour pass walked around the castle on a path with a view and enjoyed the relaxing walk. I loved not having a set schedule! I've absolutely loved Spain, but I was totally worn out from going going going all the time. Relax time is super important, especially when you're on vacation!

After walking around the grounds of the castle and the palace, we took the bus back down the hill and hit the shops! Apparently, Portugal is known for their cork and their chickens. I never did learn the significance, but there were references to those two things everywhere, especially in their souvenirs! It was kind of fun. I loved shopping here! I bought a few things for some family and friends, and also enjoyed some bakery specialties with my friends!

So, as we've discovered, we're really bad with directions. No matter how many times we check a map and how many people we ask, we still seem to take at least an hour to get wherever we're trying to get! :) I guess that's good for building memories though! After everyone got back together from shopping and castle touring, we tried to find this restaurant that was recommended for a great Portuguese meal. Let's just say it took quite awhile to find. Lots of walking, and some complaints from some very hungry people! Ha! I actually wasn't that hungry, so I didn't mind too much. I've learned to just laugh at things like this instead of getting mad. Finally, we found the place and set down with our group of 11. None of us, except for our friend Priscilla whose family is from Brazil, spoke Portuguese, so that presented a bit of a challenge when trying to order. Basically, we went through the menu, she explained what everything was while asking the waitress, and everyone ordered through her! It was pretty comical, actually! I had just blown all the money I brought to Sintra on souvenirs, and I wasn't that hungry, so I decided not to order anything. Besides, ordering food in Europe is expensive! It was nice, though, to sit down and enjoy each other's company and revel in the fact that we were in Portugal!

After lunch, we made our way back to the train station and headed home. We wanted to have enough time to still hit up one more site in Portugal before the day was over. It's really hard to do things in Europe, because all the places we've visited so far close extremely early, at least compared to the U.S. During the day, nearly all shops, minus some grocery stores and bars, close down for siesta from around 1-4, then they close for the night around 8:30 or 9. This is not good for tourists! We have to plan our plans around this, which can get tricky since we have a limited amount of time anyways. Anyways, we got back to Lisbon, stopped at the hostel for a few minutes to freshen up and drop off our souvenirs, then headed out again to find the bus stop and go to Belem. On our way, we passed the Plaza Mayor.

Like I mentioned before in an earlier post, most big cities that we've visited have a Plaza Mayor. This one overlooked the ocean and was very big, lined with shops, bars, and other restaurants, and complete with a giant statue in the middle. So pretty! I thoroughly enjoyed everything that Portugal had to offer! Next, we hopped on another train and rode about 15 minutes or so to a place called Belem. We wanted to see a tower on the beach, and we got there in perfect time! The sun was just setting, and it was absolutely beautiful. Plus, we got to dip our feet in the ocean for the first time! So much fun.

We probably spent about 2 hours or so here, then we caught the trolley back to the hostel in the heart of Lisbon. This trolley was crazy!!! It was so old and rickety, and super tiny too. More and more people started to pile on, and we were squeezed in there like sardines! They had signs hanging at the top of the car saying "Beware of pick-pocketers!" That was reassuring. :) I put my bag in front of me, though, just for safe measure! You can never be too careful. Oh! One more cool thing I forgot to mention about Belem. From the tower, we had a view of the rest of the city. There was a bridge that was a copy of the San Francisco bridge, a tall statue that looked like the famous one in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and a beautiful nearly-full moon. It was a perfect sight!

Ok, back to what I was saying earlier. When we got back to Lisbon, we just HAD to stop at this bakery shop right down the street from our hostel (mostly because it was the only one still open!) and get some treats. The best thing that Portugal has to offer in form of desserts, at least in my opinion, is a Crema de Nata.

These things may not look super great, and I first I thought they would be gross, but believe me, they are not. Yummy! Every time I think about them, I get an intense craving! They look like they were in the oven for too long because the tops are all black like they've been burnt, but they're supposed to look like that apparently. It doesn't taste burnt, either. It's more like it's been caramelized and made into the perfect little bite! Yum yum yum! This is definitely one of my highest suggestions for anyone who visits Portugal. TRY ONE OF THESE! :) After our treats, we headed back to the hostel. Thank goodness, because I was going to crash at any moment. Still running on 3 hours! I showered, got ready for bed, and Skyped my mom, but the bad thing about hostels is that you share a room with at least 4 other people and can't always be in control of what's going on in the room. Luckily, we had the room all to ourselves because we had enough people in our group to fill the beds, but they all wanted to stay up and play poker, and they couldn't go downstairs to play because everyone down there was drinking and having all kinds of "fun." I'm a very light sleeper, so I had to wait for everyone to decide to hit the sack, then I was able to get to sleep myself. Although it was a long and exhausting day, I had the time of my life. It couldn't have turned out any better!

First Visit to Madrid

This morning, I was supposed to fly out to Portugal for our free weekend, but my credit card was denied for being in another country, so I had to call my bank AGAIN and work that all out. Fun times. Luckily though, we got it all worked out and bought some tickets. It was actually really nice to have a day off, because I was really tired! Instead, my friends Courtney, Christina, and I all decided to go into Madrid! Good trade off, I'll say. Madrid was great! We took the train into town with the Profe's, and they gave us some tickets to the Reina Sofia museum. It was so super great!!!! First, we had to find the place. Madrid is a big city! There are lots of streets, lots of buildings, and lots of people. We had a map, but I hate having to pull it out and look even more like a tourist. Everyone knows at their first glance that we're not from Spain, but it doesn't help when we have to pull out a huge map and have more problems folding it back up! Needless to say, we had to do this a couple times. I even worked up my confidence and asked a few people for directions! It can be a little scary for me, because many times I feel like I lack the skills in Spanish to ask and then to understand, but then I'm always happy to discover that I really can do it! :) Confidence boost right there. Finally, we found the museum, got some free tickets because we're students here, then started our tour. The museum is a modern art museum, so we saw many works that were quite interesting. I can appreciate modern art, but I don't always love it. I guess I just don't think as deeply, or as simply for that matter, as some people do. It takes a certain kind of mindset to really love some modern art. However, we finally got to a certain part of the museum and started seeing works by Picasso. WHAT?!?!?! Picasso!! Holy crap, it was cool. They had a lot of his sketches, a few of his less-known works, and also "La Guernica," which is an extremely famous painting. I've studied this in a couple of my classes in the past, and here I was seeing it in real life. Such a cool feeling! I was freaking out a bit. The whole exhibit that displayed "La Guernica" focused on the Spanish civil war, because that's what Picasso's painting is about. I was really surprised, because "La Guernica" is huge! It spanned across the wall. I always thought it was a lot smaller, so it was cool to see all the detail in real life. I felt so extremely lucky to be there!

Sadly, we couldn't take pictures inside the museum, but at least there are pictures online! :) I'll never forget that one! After the museum, we left to try and find a market that Profe. Pratt had told us about. It sounded super cool! Sadly, though, finding places on a large city map that's not extremely detailed is a lot harder than we thought... We quickly gave up and decided to stop at Starbucks for lunch instead. I had a lunch that my Gloria had packed me, but the other girls bought muffins, frappachinos, and hot chocolate! Perfect timing, too, because it started to pour right as we got inside. That wasn't good for when we had to leave, though. None of us had packed our umbrellas. Bad idea for Spain. It seems to rain a lot on us. I think we brought the rain here! After we took the train home, I went to Courtney and Christina's apartment, and Courtney and I got ready to go on our trip to Portugal in the morning! Courtney's "mom" Ana helped us call a cab, then Ana's visiting teachers who happened to be there at the time helped us find a tienda where we could print off our tickets and check in to the airport. We decided that I should probably sleep over at her place, so Courtney and I rode the bus back to my place, had dinner (American hamburgers!) with Santi, packed, then took the bus back to her apartment. Quite the night! It was bad planning on our part, but we went to bed around 12, only to have to wake up again 3 hours later to catch our taxi to the airport! Whew... Just livin' the life!

Leon and Burgos: Day 3

Third and final day of the Leon and Burgos trip! First, we woke up in the morning, had breakfast, then loaded the bus for our awesome bus driver to get us a bit closer to the cathedral. I must say, all the bus drivers we've had are absolute pros and what they do. Driving is pretty insane in Spain, and it would not be an easy task to drive a bus, especially in the tiny little streets that have cars parked on both sides. Sometimes I thought for sure that we would scrape against other cars or sides of buildings, but we never did! It was a miracle! When we got on the bus, I had a bit of a scare. The first night of our trip, I had gotten 100 Euros out of the ATM, but when I got on the bus, I realized that it wasn't where I thought I had left it. I frantically thought of every place it could be, but I only remembered putting it in my pocket, and it wasn't there. I couldn't check my backpack, either, because it was in the bottom of the bus and we were already going. The whole time we were touring the city, I was really worried! 100 Euro is a lot of money... More like $130. Not a good thing to lose! However, after many prayers, I asked the bus driver when we got back to open the hatch, and I found it in my backpack. Whew! I am so blessed! :)

Like I mentioned before, today we got to tour the cathedral at Leon. Very cool, just like all the others! What I liked about this is that we didn't have a tour scheduled, so we were able to wander off on our own to enjoy the beautiful aspects of the cathedral. My friend Lexi had a travel book of Spain that mentioned this cathedral, so she read us some of the cool facts about the cathedral, and we were able to go explore them on our own.

This cathedral was a bit dim, and it had a ton of extremely detailed stained-glass windows. Apparently, this one was built in about 40 years. That's unbelievable to me! To see the intricate detailing, you'd think if took hundreds to thousands of years. Like the other cathedral, though, this one was added upon by different people with different styles, so some of the aspects were different. This was most apparent in the stained glass windows. Some had many panels with many different events going on and smaller pieces of colored glass, but others had larger panels depicting only one event. I don't think I would have picked that out on our short visit there, so it was good having that resource.

After the cathedral tour, we headed outside to a cloister that was connected to the cathedral. Apparently the tickets that our professor bought were for both things, so we figured we might as well take advantage of it! Outside we found a different view of the side of the cathedral, and some relics of what used to be on top of the cathedral, like this spiral turret. I don't know why it's not still on top, but it was neat to see it up close. After walking around the courtyard for a bit, we gathered with the rest of the group and got to go inside some of the doors that led out to the courtyard. Inside were more relics that were arranged into a museum setting. We couldn't take pictures in here, so I don't have any to show! There were a lot of figures with different symbolism, mostly of Christ and Mary. It seems a little weird when you don't know about it, but once you learn the significance it's actually really cool.

Next and last stop after a few more hours of driving was another castle in a city called Coca. The sun had just started to shine through the clouds, so we all climbed up on top of the castle and basked in its warmth! It's been so cold, so whatever sun we could get was paradise. We were all exhausted, too, so it was nice to have a moment to relax. This was a really pretty castle, though! What we were seeing was actually not what it really looked like, because much of it had been destroyed, so they recently restored it. I liked it a lot though! Profe. Hague went and got us our tickets, then we headed inside for a tour. They've since turned this castle into a school, and people actually attend it! We all that would be super cool to go to school in a legit castle, but we quickly changed our minds once we realized how absolutely freezing it was inside.

We decided that this castle
only belonged to women,
because this sign was
everywhere!  Girl power!

Castles don't retain any heat. At all. I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't understand how people could stand to live in castles or to use their cathedrals or churches, because they're absolutely freezing! Even when it's cold outside, the castle is ten times colder inside. The only thing I could think of is having fireplaces every 10 feet or so, but we only saw a few, and absolutely none in the churches or cathedrals. I wish I could go back in history and see the everyday life of these people. It's so cool to see and to learn about! This tour was a bit harder to understand than others have been. Our tour guide had a different accent because of the region that she was from. I didn't think that made a huge difference, but I'm surely learning that it does! My favorite accent so far has been the Segovian accent. It was the most clear, and people slow their speech down and don't slur their words as much. This tour guide did the opposite of everything I like, so it was nearly impossible to pick out what she was saying! When this happens, I usually just smile and nod my head like I know what's going on. Throwing in the courtesy laugh when you think she's told a joke is always appreciated as well!  Finally, we were on our way home.  I was so glad to finally get back.  Traveling is awesome, but it sure does take a toll on your energy level.  I still had a great time though!

Leon and Burgos: Day 2

Next day! Woke up pretty early, ate got ready for the day, ate breakfast at the hotel (which was pretty fancy, I might add!), then left with the group and walked to the Plaza Mayor (it was completely empty today because all the shops were closed for the holiday) and then to La Catedral de Burgos. WOW! Man, these people who built the cathedrals are geniuses. I keep saying this, but it's absolutely amazing to see all the detail and handiwork that went into these buildings, especially knowing that they didn't have modern technology and machinery to assist them.

We met up with our guide, then took a tour through the cathedral that lasted a couple of hours. This cathedral took hundreds of years to build, so there are many different styles inside. Each family of royalties would put their own kind of designs into their part of the castle, complete with their own coat of arms inscribed everywhere. Patrons who donated money to the cathedral were also entombed here. Apparently there were catacombs underneath the cathedral, but sadly, we didn't get to see them!

Like I said before, the detail in this cathedral was absolutely immaculate. So amazing to see! Your neck gets tired from looking up the whole time!

The stained glass was amazing as well!

I have to say that one of my favorite parts of this cathedral were two paintings that we saw: one by Leonardo da Vinci depicting the Virgin Mary, and another one by Velazquez of Christ on the cross. These are absolutely famous paintings throughout history, names known by many, and I was sitting right in front of them, in real life. Jaw drop! It was so amazing! Europe is so cool. This is when I wish the U.S. had a bit more history to it.

This painting of Mary has the same style as the Mona Lisa, if you look carefully! :)

Next, our guide took us on a quick tour of the main square of the city, telling us some of the brief history, then the tour ended. Afterwards, we stopped at a pasteleria real quickly to buy some treats for later, then loaded up the bus and hit the road!

After driving for another hour or two, we came to another little town with an old church (and also to have a bathroom break!). I want to say that the church was Moorish, but I really can't remember. As you can tell, we saw a lot in these three days! It's hard to keep everything straight. I really liked the design of this church though! It was very cool to see.

More driving, then we came to Leon, another larger city with a cathedral and other cool history. Professor Pratt was telling us that the Romans invaded this city and left their own influence on it. Throughout the city, we saw a few random Roman style pillars that were still standing. On top of one, there was a huge stork's nest! There's a legend of sorts here that says if you see a stork in Spain, then you're going to return someday. Well, let me tell you, I've seen a lot of storks! :) I'll take that as a good sign. We did a little tour of the city and saw another old church, and then this building.

This is a castle built by Gaudi! Cool cool cool! It reminded me of Cinderella's castle. It's actually a bank, interestingly enough.

In Leon, they've taken a lot of the old castles and other buildings and turned them into banks, hotels, shops, or apartments. Pretty sweet. A few minutes later, we came up to another cathedral! I'm telling you, they're everywhere! This one was also very grandiose and beautiful. This cathedral is currently under renovation to restore some of the parts that are getting too old to stand any longer. Half of the reason that these buildings still look so good today is that they've been renovated and restored throughout the years. We didn't tour this cathedral this night (that was for the morning), but we walked all around the outside, then throughout the city as well. I love walking through the cities! Cobblestone roads seem to be a city code because they're everywhere. It really takes you back in time! I also love to see the small streets that look completely European. Even though I've seen hundreds by this time, I still can't help taking a picture of them. They're so quaint and fun. I love to see them! Next on the agenda: dinner time!

Our professor showed us places where he loves to go, then we were free to try whatever we wanted. I decided to stick with the professors for dinner, and we went to this little bar/restaurant. A few friends from the group chose the same course. I must say, it was a lot of fun! It's really a lot more enjoyable to tour when someone knows what they're doing.

Professor Pratt has been to Spain like 18 times, so he's definitely an expert when it comes to things to do! However, we did not have the same taste in what to choose for dinner... He ordered tapas for everyone to share, but almost all of them included seafood. BLAH!!! Everyone quickly learned of my aversion to seafood. Plate 1: mini octopus, complete with tentacles. There was also a potato salad of sorts with seafood, mutton that tasted like silk meat (that's a bad thing...), a fried potato dish, and lots of bread. I definitely ate a lot of potatoes and a lot of bread! Even though I wasn't too fond of the food, I still had a lot of fun!

Busy day, but it was lots of fun! After dinner, we walked home in the rain, then I completely crashed at the hotel. Everyone was doing something fun, but I fell fast asleep as soon as I got back. :) These trips are awesome, but they wear me down! Oh well. It's worth it!