Goodbyes, Castles, and SKYPE

Returning to Madrid from Porto was refreshing. I realized that when I leave and go on these trips, I miss "home" in my little (actually it's ridiculously big) apartment on Calle Francisco Lozano! Awe. :)

On Monday, I had a day off work, which was glorious after sleeping in the airport. I slept for a little when I got back, but then met Curt, TJ, and Glenn at the public swimming pool for the rest of the day. Juan met us there later, and we went back and made dinner at the apartment after. FYI... it is not just beaches that are topless. The whole pool was topless as well. Even the little niñas!

Tuesday night I walked into my kitchen and my roommates were cooking up a feast of tapas and Sangria. I ended up having a great night with them, as it was one of the last.. actually it was the last!... time that we were all together. I also have a pretty fab sangria recipe to bring home now.

Since TJ was headed to Italy last weekend (nbd), Thursday was the last night that the we could all hang out before Curt took off on Sunday. So we met up with Glenn for dinner, and then went to Templo de Debod to hang out. It's the huge Egyptian temple right by my apartment, and at night it is filled with people.

last botellón.

After hanging out with a group of French students on Friday night, I realized that my preconceived thoughts of French people were totally wrong. Everyone in the States always says how the French hate Americans and are cold or whatever, but they all have been the friendliest people I've met. I had no personal experience to base my opinion on before, which is why I'm glad I could change it. Anyway, Glenn, who is from France, lived in Scotland for 6 months, Mexico for 6 months, and now he is going to Austria at the end of the month for a year. He obviously has to be open minded to be willing to live and travel in the way... and I'm actually extremely envious. A couple of the girls lived in the States for a year, and said it was the best time of their lives.

And Saturday.... such a sad day! Saturday I had to say goodbye to Kristin, Curt, and Juan all in one night. It was terrible! I am actually struggling with the fact that things are going to be very different in August compared to July. Not just the fact that so many people are going to be gone, but the whole city practically shuts down. For example, August is the hottest month of the summer here, but all of the public swimming pools close down starting today. What? To keep myself busy and make the most of my short time left, I am traveling a lot this month. Starting with... yesterday (technically July still). I went to Segovia, a town just an hour outside of Madrid.

Segovia is a very famous city in Spain, much more famous than I had realized. It has three main features that I can tell you about or Wikipedia can. Either way, the city opens with this HUGE Roman aqueduct that is an incredible structure. It also holds the largest cathedral I have ever seen in my life, and a huge CASTLE, called Alcanzar. I started with the Alcanzar, where there is a tower and the actual castle itself. The tower was completely worth the never ending spiral staircase to the top, where I had just the most incredible view. From there I went down and walked through the castle, which was just beautiful. And, SO OLD!  I then walked through the Cathedral, which was huge. But also, quite creepy. It was extremely dark, and the whole exterior is lined with crypts. After this, I went and climbed to the top of the aqueduct, bought a few postcards for my wall, and decided to head home.

There were so many pictures to choose from, and since it takes forever to upload them, I chose very selectively. But hopefully you can get the idea from these:

The Roman Aqueduct. I thought it was quite cool that the city "started" with this. Like, wow.

Looking out to the city's entrance.

The Cathedral. Could not fit it all in one frame, but here is one side of it.

From the Plaza Mayor

Segovia from the top of the tower at Alcanzar. You can see the Cathedral and the old city walls.

Inside the castle! Oooooh...

I was obsessed with the stained glass.

Royal bedroom. The tapestry covered walls are amazing.

Largest, "most important" room. The ceiling is incredible.

View into the chapel

Proof I was ACTUALLY there.

From the outside.

long way down!

Armour room.

Alcanzar!

Inside the cathedral. Really hard to capture how big it actually was.

This one shows it a little better.

The crypts that lined the perimeter.

Inside one of the crypts.

Like, HUGE!

The city walls.

The walk up to the top of the Aqueduct.

Segovia and mountains

Incredible structure.

By 6 Sunday evening I was home.

Once I was back to my apartment, I had a serious SKYPE FEST with the family. I talked to Marianne for in an hour (who was in a very.... interesting state), I was able to call my Mom for the first time since being here, which was SO nice, and I talked to my Dad and Gail and saw more of their home improvements.... before I was finally at the point of exhaustion and passed out. It was 3 solid hours of talking to the family, which was so needed. Phil, I missed you.

Today I have been catching up on things I didn't get done this weekend. Work flew by. I am working on helping them subtitle their English videos with Spanish subtitles, which is kind of fun. I noticed today how much better I am at sending emails in Spanish, which used to terrify me. After work, I booked a bus ticket to Granada this weekend. I also bought a pass to Alhambra, which has been compared to the 7 Wonders of the World. I'm only going to be there a day, but since I'm going alone I think I can get everything done in 12 hours. Vamos a ver!