Our trip to Castilla has been very exciting so far. Yesterday early morning, we went from to Valladolid (via coach bus; that is how we are doing all of our travels these few days), a gorgeous little city about 2 hours north west (?) of Madrid.
After dropping our bags off at our hostel, we first went to the "Museo Oriental" with tons of objects and art pieces from Asia, with a tour guide that explained the diligence that went behind ever piece. We toured the town a bit more and then went our separate ways for some Spanish "tapas".
We reconvened afterward to go to the Christopher Columbus Museum, because Valladolid was the last town he lived in before passing away. The museum was very modern and although it's not the most interesting information ever, it was very interactive and engaging. After that, we walked all around the town and saw a ton of stuff, but I think we we are all a bit lethargic at this time. After some cafe (or "zumo de naranja"=orange juice) for me, we met at the hostel at 8pm to go to a pueblo for dinner.
Last night, some students took a bit of a nap and woke up at 2:30 am to watch the VP debates. I wanted to but at 2:30 am when my alarm went off, I decided it'd be best for my health to just sleep some more. In the morning I felt really great when finding some breakfast with my roommate and it definitely was the best decision at that time.
The dinner was really good. Finally, we got some pretty tasty, authentic, Spanish food, with wine and sausage and tortilla (potato and egg dish). I loved my "arroz con leche" (rice with milk) dessert; it was the perfect sweetness and temperature.
This morning, we started off by going to a castle! It was in a rural area and it amazing and the plateau looks a bit like Nebraska. We next went to "Villa de Libro", an extremely rural pueblo, to visit a professor at St. Olaf who knows a lot about some antique and modern musical instruments in Spain. We ate a really delicious lunch in this tiny town, with rabbit and pork chops (yum). This town really felt like there was absolutely no one around (although we saw a couple people here and there). It was so calm and so completely different than Madrid, and I think a lot of us really enjoyed this change of pace.
After that, we went to the monestary of this town, another church in another town, and honestly, the images of Jesus Christ and GIANT churches in rural Spain are kind of melding together and floating around in my head. Being sick probably didn't help either. I think I'm forgetting a couple things, but basically, we got quite the taste of rural and religious Spain.
We arrived at Salamanca around 8pm and came to our hotel rooms. I chatted with people a bit before everyone decided to go out and I decided to try to connect to some free internet with my roommate's computer (thank you!) and wait for my NyQuil to kick in (which it's doing right about now).
I just finished watching a good chunk of the debates on youtube while writing this out. Joe Biden spoke better than I thought he would, although so did Sarah Palin (grr). I'm thanking god for this free wireless internet and hoping all of you are doing okay. Keep in touch, and I will post like, HUNDREDS of photos that go along with this post on Sunday night/Monday. Until then, keep in touch.
Much love,
Jojo
3 comments:
Feel better Jojo!
The change in atmosphere is prolly better if you are sick, not so stressful.
<3
Hope you get better soon.
It is good to hear that the trip to Castilla is going well. Can't wait to read your next post.
Got enough of Christianity?!!!
It seems you found "payese" in Spain
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