Okay, where to begin… Friday was the field trip to Segovia, to see the Alcázar and the Cathedral of Segovia. We were told 9:00, so we tried to get there then, but were about 2 or 3 minutes late. Before we got to the meeting place, we found 3 other girls who told us the bus had just left—2 of them had watched it drive away at 9:00am on the dot. In our defense, this was the FIRST time that we haven’t had a 30-minute window to arrive there before actually leaving. (we later found out they started taking attendance at 8:30, but we were only told 9:00). So, 3 of the 5 of us girls needed to be there for a class credit (myself and another girl were just going for fun, so we didn’t absolutely have to be there. Which was good for my own sanity/stress level). So one girl, Karen, called Antonio, one of the professors on the trip, as we ran to the train station (several blocks away from where the bus left on campus). Antonio told us that there are only about 2 trains a day that leave from Alcalá to Segovia, so he seemed to think it unlikely that we would be able to catch one. We got to the train station and looked at the schedule: A train was leaving for Segovia in 6 minutes. We quickly and impulsively bought tickets, and caught the train in time. The problem was, we had no idea how long the trip would be. After about 30 minutes, we asked a man sitting near us how long until the Segovia stop. He said he didn’t know, probably about 30 minutes. At that point we thought, “Oh then we’ll beat the rest of the group!” So we settled into our train seats and enjoyed girl time…
About 2 ½ hours later, we arrive in the train station in Segovia. Then, we were supposed to meet up with the group at Alcázar, so we looked at a map outside the train station. It looked like a long walk (from one corner of the map to the other) but we didn’t have a choice. On our way in what we were hoping was the right direction, we stopped and asked a Segovian man if we were going the right way. I told him we were trying to get to Alcázar. He looked surprised for some reason (and I panicked for a moment thinking: we’re probably in the wrong town or country or something), and asked me to repeat that. I told him we needed to get to Alcázar, and asked if we were going the right way. He said It’s very far from here… we said we know, but we have to get there. He told us that we were following the right street so we continued…
As we approached Alcázar, we saw the top of a beautiful building on a hill nearby. One of the girls thought it was Alcázar, but I knew it was the Cathedral (which would be the 2nd stop of the group on the field trip) from looking at pictures of the 2 places on Google the night before. Around that time, we got a phone call from Antonio saying they were leaving Alcázar (so yes, we missed that tour completely) and to meet them at the Cathedral. Luckily, at that point we knew where it was (because, luckily, it’s a huge building on a hill that stands out like a sore thumb. But it’s way bigger and more beautiful than a sore thumb!) So we cross the street, cross a bridge, hike up some steep stone steps (and take a photo op break in the middle, because the view was beautiful), and find ourselves in the middle of really narrow walkways between old buildings. I felt like I was in a medieval town or something. As we were walking semi-aimlessly up the hill, getting deeper into the town and hopefully closer to the Cathedral, I asked an old woman walking by if we were going the right way to see the Cathedral. She said yes, turn right at the next sidewalk and it’ll be straight ahead. We told her thank you and continued on the route she suggested. Well, she gave good directions because we made it!
We celebrated the victory for a minute or two, relieved we had made it there before the field trip group, when the same old woman caught up to us and came to talk to us again. She asked us where we were from, and we told her the United States. She said “¿y hablaís castellano?” (Castellano is the politically correct term for Spanish here, because of the other “dialects” that are also considered the national languages of the country). She was surprised we spoke “Castellano” so well! We then asked her if she would take our picture in front of the Cathedral. Here is the picture she took:
 |
| Please excuse the disheveled state of my hoodie... |
After taking the picture, she said (in Spanish) “If you want to see another beautiful building with a beautiful view, you should visit Alcázar, it’s just down this street and to the left” We laughed to ourselves, (and I thought ‘Yeah we’ve heard. Sensitive subject’) and thanked her for all her help.
Just a couple minutes later, we see the group from the Universidad de Alcalá walking up the street that the lady indicated led to Alcázar. There were cheers and hugs as we reunited with our friends. Then the professors (Antonio and Carlos) leading the trip told us we had about a 1 ½-hour break for lunch and to go shopping or whatever we wanted to do, because there was a Mass going on in the Cathedral so we couldn’t go inside yet. Our paranoid group of girls, however, decided to stay close to the meeting area so we wouldn’t miss the group AGAIN.
Karen and I (2 of the original 5 lost girls—or “La Cinco” as we called ourselves) sat and ate with a girl named Sarah, who told us the Alcázar was only a 5-minute walk from the Cathedral. So she took us there so we could at least see the outside of it, and see the view the old lady had told us about. As we approached it, Sarah our “tour guide” said “Creélo” (which means “Believe it.”), which was a very fitting phrase to introduce what we saw. Basically, this is what we missed:
 |
| This picture of course doesn't do it justice... See facebook for more, including the amazing view and a real-live MOAT! It was incredible. |
But I am glad I at least got to see the outside of it! It was apparently a castle where a King lived at some point (I would know more details if I hadn’t missed the tour… sorry.)
Then we walked back to the Cathedral to meet the group (20 minutes early this time), and we toured the inside of the Cathedral. As we left the Cathedral with the field trip group, a group of 6 girls going straight from Segovia to Madrid, to catch a bus to Valencia (3 of the original 5 including myself, plus 3 others) were getting a little nervous about getting back to the train station in time, to get to Madrid and catch our bus (a bus that we already bought tickets for the night before—a bus that would lead us to the hostel that we already paid for the night before as well. In other words, a very important and expensive bus. Later, you’ll see why I emphasize that…). We followed the big group down to where we hope was a familiar area that we could find the train station again. I was about to ask why we were following them on a different route, when we saw this:
This famous aqueduct of Segovia goes back to the Roman days, as in like, Jesus time. Incredible. I had completely forgotten that it was in Segovia until we came across it with the group (still led by Antonio and Carlos at that point). I was thankful we didn’t miss the opportunity to see it! From there, we ditched the big group and the 6 girls (Kaitlin, Karen, Sarah, Christina, Sami, and me) plus another group of American students from the Universidad headed toward the bus station to get to Madrid in time to catch our bus to Valencia. (The 6 of us, plus the rest of the big group all had the same bus to catch). We thought we were going to catch a bus that was supposed to leave for Madrid at 4:07 that was a high speed bus and would get us there by 5:30ish (Our bus to Valencia left at 7:30, so we were hoping for a 2-hour window to get from the train station in Madrid to the bus station in Madrid, where our all-so-important bus was waiting to leave for Valencia). However, when we finally got to the bus station, with just enough time to buy tickets to the high-speed train, the lady at the station said that that particular train leaves from a different station, about 5 kilometers away. There was no way we could make it there in time. So, we settled for buying tickets for the 4:50 train, leaving from that station, that would get us to Madrid a little later, but hopefully by 6:25ish. We had time to rest in the train station as we waited for it to leave at 4:50. We even got on the train about 30 minutes early, settled into our seats once again, and relaxed for a while.) However, as we approached Madrid, we realized the train we were on (which was supposed to arrive in Madrid at 6:36 on the dot) was running late…. (story continued in part 2.)
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario