Los Ultimos Días de Los Festivales de San Juan y San Pedro

   The Festivals of San Juan and San Pedro came to an end with fireworks at midnight on Sunday. I loved being able to participate in and see the various traditions, concerts, celebrations, and everything else that helped make the first ten days of my experience in Spain unforgettable. Last Friday, after my excursion to the castles, I went to a concert in La Plaza Mayor with a few friends. The band was listed as a Jamaican orchestra so we were excited to see a steel drum performance. There was nothing of the sort. Instead, it was more of a spectacle consisting of various popular songs and dances from around the world, acrobatics, and odd images playing in the background. We had a great time.

   Dancing is Spain is worlds different than dancing in the United States. "Grinding" is replaced with actual face-to-face dance steps. The people dance to have fun and without embarrassment. And just about everyone dances. There were whole families dancing, couples from every stage of life, friends, single people, anyone. And this type of dancing is what happens everywhere, not just in the streets, but in the clubs, too. I seriously love it. I told my boyfriend we are going to be taking dance classes when I get back. He misses me so much that he agreed.

The "Jamaican Orchestra"

   On Saturday, I went to a rugby game to see los lobos de Segovia play another club team. My friends and I got a little lost along the way. Apparently, I'm not any better at understand directions in
Spanish than I am in English. We ended up asking three or four people along the way of trying to find the pitch. The problem with directions here is that the roads aren't labeled clearly and there aren't many distinct landmarks outside of the historical quarter. To add to that, all of the roads have nicknames, so the name posted is probably not the one you were told. Also, three of the four people we asked had absolutely no idea what we were talking about. After about an hour of wandering around, we finally found the game and we even got there before it started (muchas gracias a both Spanish and rugby time.) I had a lot of fun watching the match with some of my friends who had never seen rugby before. Unfortunately, we had to leave the match early, but I like to think Segovia won. ¡Va lobos!

   Later that night, some of us met up for dinner and ended up sharing a giant box of fresh sushi. There was about 50 rolls with everything ranging from fish eggs to octopus to things we couldn't identify (the menu was in Spanish.) I tried both the fish eggs and the octopus and actually liked them. Spain is the country that eats the second most fish in the world and all of the cities get shipments of fresh fish every morning. This was definitely some of the best sushi I have ever had. After that, we met up with others from our program and experienced the nightlife. According to my professor, there are over 20 bars just in the small city of Segovia.

The rugby pitch overlooked the mountains. It was beautiful.

I live right across the street from this sushi place and it's reasonably priced. That's a dangerous combination.

We usually meet up at the aqueducts. It's a pretty central location from everyone's houses.

   Sunday was the last day of the festival. I spent a good part of the day doing homework and trying to catch up on sleep. During the normal siesta time (3-5pm) I went for a jog and found a really nice, hilly path that leads me along my favorite structure, the aqueduct.

   All week long my host mom was talking about the carnival and was so sad that I hadn't gone to it yet. So, I got some friends together and we headed to the fair. It was a riot. It was pretty similar to the fairs you see in big parking lots in the United States, just with way less safety regulations. Two of my friends and I rode the "DishDrop" which was a whirly-twirly ride that had basically no guard rails around it. Anyone could walk up the to the ride while it was in motion and get squashed (but no one did.) It was totally worth 3€. Then, we walked around the rest of the carnival to see the games and the rides. One of my friends spotted the most hideous prize I have ever seen in my life and as a group we spent around 12€ trying to win it. And we did. We were able to see the fireworks signaling the end of El Día de San Pedro and the festivals. We all walked home with sore cheeks and abs from smiling and laughing so much.

I am most likely going to post pictures of the aqueduct every single time it's somewhat relevant :)

Yep, we paid 12€ for that. Apparently, it's a popular children's TV show character, which is enough go give me nightmares. 

La Ruta de Los Castillos [the route of castles]

   All of the students in my program and two of the professors left Segovia at 10:20 in the morning and headed to the pueblo of Santa María la Real de Nieva to see Our Lady of Soterraña Monastery's cloister. A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walkways or open galleries. Many of the historic religious buildings here have cloisters because they allow a building to have a garden that is protected from the diverse weather experienced in this area.

   The architecture of this historical site is considered Gothic. Gothic architecture is characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vault, and the flying buttress. Yes, the flying buttress apparently has something to do with architecture.. (Although, I found that on Wikipedia, so maybe not.) Inside the cloister, there were beautiful pillars with extremely detailed pictures carved into them. These pictures mostly represented biblical stories. On one of the walls, there was a plaque with symbols on it. Because only the noble and clergymen in medieval times could read and write, the sculptors used symbols to "sign" their work. On many of the pillars, you could still see these "signatures." This monastery was constructed from 1393-1399 so that was mind-blowing. I saw signatures that were over 400 years old.

The Monastery

  

The sculptors' "signatures" 

   Our next stop was the castle of Coca. This was my favorite site of the day. The Castle of Coca has Mudéjar architecture. Mudéjar means a Muslim artist or architect worked for a Christian employer. Spain is the only country in Europe where the Mudejar style can be found, due to the strong Islamic influence that came from Africa and took over many parts of the country. Common characteristics of Mudéjar or any type of Islamic art/architecture include: geometric patterns, murals of vegetation, plain floors, and beautiful ceilings. All of these characteristics stem from their religious beliefs.
   As a class, we were able to tour many different rooms in the castle. We walked up and down the winding, narrow, steep staircases to get from the various rooms. My favorites were the dungeon and the room of secrets. The dungeon was actually multiple stories tall, with a hole in the middle of every level except the bottom. (All I could think about was the Moon Door in Game of Thrones.) The knights would take prisoners and throw them down the hole into the next room, causing the prisoner to break bones and receive other injuries, but not die. They would throw the prisoner down each level until he got to the bottom, where he would sit with his injuries amongst corpse and others waiting to die, either from starvation or infection. The holes were kind of small, so naturally we asked the tour guide what would happen if the prisoner was too big to fit. She said they would cut your sides until you fit through. The medieval times were ruthless.
   On a less morbid note, the room of secrets was built in such a way that if you stood directly across from someone and both faced the wall, you could hear the other person's whisper. This is where the knights went to exchange secrets.
   An empty moat served as the first line of defense for the castle. Contrary to what is depicted in movies, moats were supposed to be empty so that the enemy would surely die if they fell in. The imagery of water being in the moat came from the castles in Northern Europe, in areas that receive a lot of rain. To their disadvantage, the rain water would collect in the moats, filling them, and breaking the enemy's fall.
   Surrounding the Castle of Coca is the most largest pine forest in Europe. Because of this, the castle now serves as living quarters for college students who are able to complete internships working in the forest.

My class in front of the Castle of Coca

The dangerous staircase

   After the Castle of Coca, we briefly stopped at the Castle of Cuellar, which has completely Cheistian architecture. It was interesting to get to see the differences, although I definitely prefer Mudèjar. In the past, the structure has served as a castle (defense system), palace (housing for royalty), and as a prison for captives during the war for independence against France. Now, it is a high school.

The Castle of Cuellar

   Our last stop was an organic winery and vineyard called Malaparte. There, we got to tour both the winery and the vineyard while the owner explained to us the process of growing grapes and making wine. After, we got to try to different types of red wine. The owner had two Great Dane dogs that we got to meet and that are also featured on all of his labels and logos. Naturally, I bought a shirt and bottle of wine. Anything for a fellow dog lover, I guess. 

Malaparte was the name of the winery, after a famous author.

Princess Nala de Malaparte

The rose bushes protect the grapes from pests.