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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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Whoa what a weekend!!!!
I am in between classes right now and I should mention that no Spaniard has been able to pronouce my name even close! Kelsa yo is what I usually get because on the registration it´s Chelsea Jo...my house Mom practices but it´s usually ¨kelsy..ch..ch elsi¨ Apparently the Ch is the hard part...thanks Mom and Dad!
Thursday night we went out to the Plaza Mayor and to the strips were all the young people hang out...and oddly enough it is mostly American music!!!! Very strange...we´re like all we want is a pub or discoteca to play spanish music!!! At 4am we came home (which was still early on Spanish standards!) We slept and got up to meet at the bus station at 10:30. We all got on a bus to go on our first group outing.
Part of the reason we can get away with 6 week courses is because of these trips...so we went to Los Castillos.
First stop was actually a cada de vino. (A wine tasting). In Spain wine is a very important part of a meal. It is never consumed to get drunk but rather part of the gastronomia. We went to Blanco Nieva...a winery. They showed us the vineyard...how it was made...and let us try 3 different types of white wine. And showed us the appropriate way to taste a wine. Here in Spain wine is cheaper than water and very important to the culture. It was a neat experience.
Afterwards, we got on a bus and went to the first castillo ¨Coca¨ This was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It is amazing...it´s huge and surrounded by a moat (spelling?). We actually got to tour the entire castle...all of the parts that are normally blocked off we were able to go into. So we climbed the winding spriral stone staircases where we had to duck to get through...only one person can go up at a time...it´s a fortress. But we all felt that we needed a sword and should be dashing up the staircase. We also went into this room that it probably as big as a kitchen maybe...and there are no windows and the door is usually covered...but there is a hole in the top. The used to drop prisoners bodies in the hole and into this ¨masmuertos¨ translates to more dead. Usually you wouldn´t die but just break enough bones to suffer for a while! Ugh. Of course they piled us in there before telling us what it was.
We also climbed to the very top of the castillo. where we could walk around the ledge and look out over the land. It was unbelievable!
Our next stop was a good 30 minute drive to another castillo. But when we arrived it was siesta time so everythingshut down. So we had a 2 hour break so we ate our sack lunches that our house Moms made us....ours were awesome! What a sandwich! AND it was quite literally on an entire loaf of french bread...I think she thinks we are going to starve...she tells us we don´t eat enough!!!
The next castillo wasn´t as cool. It was pretty but everyone was tired from being in the sun and it had actually been turned into a high school so it wasn´t as preserved. The neat thing about this castillo (whose name is escaping me...I think it´s Cual...something) ha! The neat thing was that it was built over many many years. So you can see the part from one century to the next.
The last thing we did was this interesting building across the street from the castillo...no one really understood it because you get so tired that your spanish just goes! But it represented the ¨peace of three nations¨ And through music, lighting and slide shows it told the story of this little building...a place of refuge and prayer for all. It was interesting...and once again art, music, photography are all universal.
We were all sooo tired!!! We went home and had dinner and actually went to sleep pretty early.
(Continue to Aranjuez blog)
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