Are we looking for a skull or a frog?

Okay, I know I said I would write about Huelva in this entry, but in comparison to other places I have been since then, Huelva seems, well, not as exciting. Perhaps it was because the monastery and ships of Columbus were only replicas or would  probably that over half of everything we saw that day was a replica. We did get to watch a pretty sweet video (in Spanish) about Columbus' voyage across the Atlantic and even though the same table that Columbus' maps were placed on or the same chair that Columbus sat in while he dreamed of what was on the other side of the ocean were not there, it was kind of cool to walk the same hallways and go into the same chapel that Columbus prayed in before leaving for America.
But now for the really cool stuff. We had a long weekend, thanks to Columbus discovering the new world, and therefore Jill and I decided to go up to the frozen North (exaggeration) of Spain to Segovia and Salamanca. Salamanca, I had known about previously because of the university that is there that is one of the oldest in Europe, but Segovia was a place we knew that had a castle, and that was about all we knew before heading there.
We got up early on a Saturday and took a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid where we caught a high speed train to Segovia. The high speed train was really fun. It took us out of the big city into the countryside though mountains and forests to the small city of Segovia. Oh, and it was rainy and cold outside, which made everything look really green or sometimes brown. Segovia is made up of buildings ranging from between the 12th and 15th century. Notable sites to see are the aqueduct built by the Romans without using mortar, la casa de Los picos, the cathedral, and oh, the castle, or in spanish "alcázar". We wandered the city in the cold for a while and then decided to go inside to a cafe where we split pastries and coffee and played words with friends on Jill's ipod touch. The next day we took a bus over to Salamanca. On the way we passed Avila, we saw the city walls, which look exactly like the medieval castle walls from princess story books, there were even plastic sheep and goats out on the lawn in front of the wall to help tourists imagine life back in the day. We got to Salamanca and it was partly cloudy outside, we went and saw the cathedral which has been added onto throughout the years, therefore the parts are referred to as la nueva y la vieja. We saw the casa de las conchas, which now serves as a public library and I learned later in a reading from my culture class that shells (conchas) are symbols of good works. The casa de las conchas also made me think of Mexico and eating the concha pastries from the panaderia. We saw the university, and we knew we were supposed to look for something in the facade but we couldn't remember exactly what it was, so we asked a group of tourists next to us who were all pointing at various parts of the school. We couldn't tell if we were hearing the word for skull or the word for frog, so we found 3 skulls and a frog with the head of a man wearing a crown. It was only later that we found out that the frog was on top of one of the skulls and that if you can find it without any help, you will get married within the next year. Oh well. It started raining so we went to get hot chocolate, which is really just a melted chocolate bar in cup, I thought it was way too much chocolate, but ate almost all of it anyways. We spent the rest of the day in Salamanca and then headed back to Segovia for the night.

In the morning we went and toured the castle. It is hard to describe it, I want to say massive, which I guess is a good description for a castle. It was the favorite home of Ferdinand and Isabella and it has beautifully decorated ceilings and hallways and windows that overlook the countryside. Even though it was a foggy day, the castle looked beautiful. The castle in portugal was more like a fortress, but this castle was more like giant house, and the different towers in this castle made it more of a fairy-tale castle.
Now it is Wednesday, I have already been to class, and tomorrow we are off to Toledo and then to Madrid. If only every week only had 1 day of school and 6 days of travel.

"To devote yourself to the creation and enjoyment of beauty, then, can be a serious business- not always a means of escaping reality, but sometimes a means of holding on to the real when everything else is flaking away..." - Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love.