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Published: July 14th 2008
Gates in Cathedral
The gates in the cathedral in Segovia.What a long week. We had classes 5 days this week, rather than the normal 4 to make up for a festival day we had off during our first week here. After classes Friday, we went on a little field trip just in town to learn more about Segovia. First, we went to the cathedral. It’s right in the plaza mayor. I’m sure I’ve posted pictures of the plaza with the cathedral in it. It was the last gothic style cathedral built in Spain. It took 200 years to complete (1500-1700ish). On top of all that, it is the tallest cathedral in Spain: not the biggest, the tallest. And boy is it HUGE!!! You really just wouldn’t believe how tall it is unless you saw it. Pictures do nothing. When you walk in, lining the sides of the whole cathedral are rooms separated by walls but open to the cathedral by gates. It looks identical to if you were to go into the indoor living area of the elephants, giraffes or any other big animal at the zoo. They’re very tall and gated off. The whole cathedral is lined with these. When the cathedral was built, you could buy one of
Ceiling of Cathedral
The ceilings in the cathedral. This is around the sides of the cathedral. There is a taller section in the center, still. these sections and use it for your burial. Some of these sections are open to the public, while others are closed and house buried important people of Segovia. I have never seen anything like the way this cathedral was built. On our excursion the following day to Salamanca, I discovered that all gothic style cathedrals are built this way. The rest of the cathedral was beautiful too, but you know, it’s an old cathedral. If you’ve seen one, I swear you’ve seen them all.
Following the cathedral was the alcazar (castle in Spanish). This castle is different than the other castles I visited on our first excursion because this castle housed the King and Queen, not nobles or a castle used for defense. Spain has 17 provinces, each with their own King and Queen (even still to this day). Segovia housed the King and Queen of Castille & Leon…very impressive! The castle was much more homey that the others (I guess as homey as cement blocks and tapestries can get). It is located about a 5 minute walk from the cathedral and sits atop of a huge hill, so we got amazing views. In case you have forgotten…Segovia is
View of cathedral
View of the cathedral and town from the alcazar. an EXTREMELLY hilly town. My legs will look amazing when I’m through. Even driving out of Segovia to the next town, my ears pop a few times because of the altitude change. So that was our field trip. And we all made it home in time for siesta. ☺ My friend Amy and I tried to go shopping after siesta, and when I left my house, the sky was beautiful, and after 2 shops, it down poured. I guess it’s either sunny here, or pouring. We sat under a shop awning and watched the river flow down the street since, as I said, Segovia is a giant hill. 45 minutes later, we just decided to tough it out and walk home in the pouring rain. It felt great to put a hoodie when I got home!
The next day, Saturday, we had our second excursion to Salamanca and Avila. We met at the bus station in town at 8:30am and after a 2 hour bus ride, we arrived in Salamanca. Our first stop there was the University of Salamanca. It is the 3rd oldest university in the world (first being the Spanish University in Bologna Italy, and second a
Alcazar
View of the alcazar university in France). On top of that, it is the first university in the world to put chairs in lecture halls. It used to be that the professor would sit, and the students would stand. Salamanca was the first school to change that. It was an absolutely phenomenal experience seeing the school. My two sisters, Claudia and Salomé go there. I am so jealous!!! There is a little superstition the school used to have. The main door in the university has intricate details all around the door. It is said that if you can find the frog amid all the other decorations after your final test, you will have passed your test. Maybe this only applies for your first semester or something. But we found the frog. Maybe that means I’ll pass my classes this summer! So the gift shops are full of frogs and “good luck” charms.
We also went into another cathedral. Again, beautiful. Same gothic style building, so it looked unmistakably similar to the cathedral in Segovia. A lot of important people are buried there. When we went, there was a wedding going on, so we crashed it and sat in. What a beautiful church to
Group on Alcazar
The whole AHA group atop the alcazar. have a wedding! They recently renovated one of the sides of the church, and to try and keep the authenticity, they tried to replicate the designs over the doors. They added in their own figure to show the decade that the renovated it: an astronaut! Very clever.
After the cathedral and University, we went to the plaza mayor (much prettier than the plaza mayor in Madrid) where we got 2 hours of free time. We shopped around and got some Universidad de Salamanca shirts and went to McDonalds to get McFlurry’s. You guys are really taking fast food advantage in the States! We googled McDonalds here in Segovia, and the closest McDonalds is 45 minutes away. Madrid is an hour away…so I guess we’re out of luck. And there is absolutely no fast food restaurants in Segovia. Only sandwich shops. Another bummer.
We left Salamanca around 4pm and took an hour drive to Avila. It’s a very small town but it’s known for having a relic of Saint Theresa. The relic is of her ring finger. So that literally means that they have the ring finger cut off and in a box so people can pay homage to it.
U. of Salamanca
The decorations over the door at the Universidad de Salamanca. Where's the frog??? It was interesting. Avila is another walled city, like Segovia, so we walked around the city walls and called it a day. We got home around 8:30pm.
As soon as I arrived home, my whole family was going out to the mall to return a shirt, so I came. Their giant supermarket (just like Meijer) is connected to their mall. Weird. It’s just a 10 minute drive from our house. My little brother, Jaime (pronounced hi-may), had to go to the bathroom as soon as we arrived to the mall, and it gradually got worse and worse as we stayed their longer and longer. I guess he “had to go” if you get my drift and is one of those types of people that can only go in their house. He kept arguing with his mom and sisters that the bathroom there wasn’t clean and he had to wait. I felt so bad for the poor boy! He was defiantly hurting. Anyway, we were driving home and his sisters were making fun of him and he was just dying. My host mom asked me if I knew what they were all yelling about, and I said yes and felt
Library
This is the first library in a university in the world. It includes books handwritten before a printing press was created. so bad for the boy. That must have been embarrassing. When our car was slowing down to pull in our garage, he jumped out and ran inside before we even parked. Made me miss the good old times of my brothers and I all making fun of each other. Oh, family love.
I got home, and immediately went out to meet all my friends to celebrate around 10:30pm. Saturday was our halfway point for the program! We got a pitcher of Sangria to share. We sat outside in the plaza mayor. And it would have been picturesque and beautiful had the weather not been about 55 degrees! It was freezing! But we were all wearing hoodies and it seemed like inside every restaurant was people dressed up in nice clothes, so we were out of luck and sat outside. It ended up being a great night though. Two of my friends from Central, Amy and Whitney, came over to my house after to watch a movie. Yes…it was a late night.
Today, I met up with Amy and Whitney again and sat at our favorite ice cream restaurant, La Colonial, for a whopping 3 ½ hours. I guess
U. of Salamanca classroom
Old classroom in the Universidad Salamanca. These are the first benches in a university in the world! that’s the life in Europe because a lot of people were sitting just as long as us. I kind of like it!
So I had a great weekend. Very busy, but very fun. Now we’re on week four! We have only 10 more days of class left (4 this week, 4 next week, and 2 our last week). When I think of it that way, it seems to go way too fast. I hope all you guys are having fun barbequing, eating hot dogs, going up north, going to Target, and all those American things that I miss. ☺
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