Update: Segovia

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[youtube=vEhYoLmOp8U]

Again, it has been quite a while since my last post, but I'll keep writing and sharing as long as things stay interesting (which they almost always are!). Among the things one thinks about in terms of immersing oneself in a particular place, the most obvious thing that comes to mind is of course the language! However, this trip has shown me quite a bit more about Spain culturally than just your typical Spanish idioms. Though, aside from your typical idea of what stereotypical Spain might be, everything else one might encounter is very much...American. Going to any mall/grocery store feels like I have been magically transported back to Texas. The general atmosphere is the same, you have your Fast Food section, your typical preppy, Abercrombie-like stores and the occasional 'we buy gold' sections...The grocery stores are familiar, though I must say your typical meat department has way more oddities you wouldn't encounter in the States; octopus and squid are popular (and quite healthy) while on the other hand you have half a lamb's head wrapped up like any other product (brain and all!). In that sense, they do seem to care a little bit less about making the consumer comfortable about what they are buying...and maybe a stop into a foreign grocery store might make any American stop and think about what it is they are buying (and eating): you will very much find whole pigs ears, sausages that make it more obvious it's wrapped in some sort of intestine, legs and shoulders of ham dangling from hooks, and even Goose barnacles (a Basque delicacy)!

Another thing in terms of immersing oneself, if one has the option to experience it, is of course driving in another country! I was lucky to have my good friend Ryan Smits (Happy Birthday by the way!), teach me in the States how to drive a manual car. Which, he would probably admit, I wasn't quite ready to go out on the road and start pulling out onto 'round-abouts' in a manual car...Unfortunately though really FORTUNATELY, I haven't had the wonderful experience of driving manual in Europe since we were able to get an automatic at the rental car center. The general rules of the road are generally very much the same, though where any stop sign would be placed in the U.S. a 'round-about' would be placed in Europe. And there are a TON of them...Also, pedestrians here as in the States have the right of way, however unfortunately that means they can step out onto a cross-walk whenever they feel like...and hitting a pedestrian here doesn't help you rack up points!

Anyway, as a segue to my trip down to Segovia, my drive down was really beautiful and the landscape is very similar to something like northern New Mexico or Colorado. Segovia is apart of the vast landscape known as Castilla y León, which is an area that reminds me immediately of my initial view of what the heart of Spanish culture and landscape really is, and it's pretty far off the beaten path of the well-traveled tourist areas...My trip to Segovia started because I was on my way down to the Madrid airport to pick up David, the musician I'm staying with. Segovia is about a four hour drive from Pamplona with the occasional toll-tag stops in between, and the average speed limit in most of Spain is 80 miles an hour, as opposed to the typical 60/65 in the States...Segovia is best known for it's best preserved Roman aqueduct, which rests among a more relatively modern city. I say relatively because the city itself felt like a pretty old town, but modern in terms of Roman times...Since the roads within the city are extremely narrow, I was happy to have found a parking garage a few blocks away from main part of the city where the aqueduct lies. I immediately went to find the main Cathedral, which is a prime example of Gothic architecture and took two-hundred years to complete after it was started in 1525. I'd hate to say it, but though this Cathedral is impressive, I have been somewhat spoiled in my experiences already of European architecture...most, if not all of them are the same old Gothic churches on the inside, and so it's when you find the unique ones like Sagrada Familia in Barcelona that you tend to really start taking notice...I did go inside for a good €3, but definitely found the outside much more interesting to observe. There were some kids playing soccer in the square nearby, and as I was taking a picture of the Cathedrals facade, one of the kids came up to me and said '¿Ya te vas?' (Can you go?) I was a little confused at first because I was clearly outside of their 'playing area' of goal posts made of tree and fat lady sipping coffee...I probably looked a little confused, so he said again, '¿Ya te vas? We're playing fútbol here?' Well to make the kid happy, I headed off on my own way, but despite my amusement of the situation at the time, he was quite rude!!!

My next stop was to one of the more famous castles of Spain, the Alcázar, made more famous because of it's striking similarities with Disney Land's Sleeping Beauty Castle. Now, looking pictures of the two, you do get the sense that Disney may have had the Alcázar in mind for a protype fairy-tale castle. It really was an incredible place set along the edge of the old part of town. The Alcázar was fortified since Roman days, though it takes its name from the Arabic al-qasr, later burned to the ground in 1862...So what you see today is a reconstruction of the original...The inside was really neat, on display they had a room filled with weaponry, knights armor, and a throne room. I took the typical €1 extra fee to climb these extremely narrow stairs to the top of the castle which provided a really neat view of the town. The only problem with a staircase like that is, there's only one way up and down, so meeting people going the opposite direction becomes claustrophobic really fast!

It was getting a bit late, so I walked around the town for a bit and headed back to the aqueduct where the main square of the town was. The aqueduct is an 894 meter long, 28 meter high, 20,000 granite blocked wonder of Roman architecture that contains not a single drop of mortar! Built in the first century A.D., this was definitely the highlight of the trip, and worth going to Segovia on its own...A little Churro stand was open that night, so I went and got some Churros with sugar. Churros in Spain I've noticed are the big munchie item for anyone out and about. There was a group of people huddle around in a circle nearby, so I decided to head over an see what the commotion was about. Inside the circle were a group of old ladies in folk costumes, with a small group of people playing medieval instruments. Right then and there the instruments started playing, while the old ladies started dancing about to some sort of organized dance, if you want to call it that. Though, in reality the music and dancing were pretty bad, the whole experience was quite neat to see, and everyone didn't really seem to care about the quality...It is trips like these that make the whole trip to Spain worth-while. I don't mind the everyday reminders of what American culture has done to the rest of the world...but quite frankly I don't need to travel half-way across the world to do so! Segovia was a worth while day stop, and I hope to write about more places like this soon!

At the moment I am currently at the house alone for the week, getting ready to play my second week with the orchestra. The first week went great, and oddly enough was conducted by one of my main conductors from IU! Hope everyone is doing well and ¡Feliz día de San Valentín!

Cheers,
-Zach

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Photos

Me at the top of Alcázar
Couldn't keep my eyes open for this one...

View of Segovia
Taken at the top of the main steps near the aqueduct

Nice view of Segovia's Buildings
Had a really nice view of the surrounding snow-capped mountains

Gregorian Chant Book within Cathedral
This was neat to see, since Gregorian chant like this was the basis for a good portion of my early music history course. This is a gigantic book full of all the chants needed to be memorized and sung by the congregation.