Excursion to Segovia

On Friday, the program organized an excursion to Segovia, which is a beautiful city an hour away from Madrid.

So according to Michael, every historical city has an aqueduct, a castle, and a Cathedral. uhmm yeah pretty much it.

BUT here's a history lesson :]

Segovia's aqueduct is the tallest in the country.

There were hundreds, perhaps thousands (who knows, I'm not very good with math or estimating), of little black things flying around screeching. I thought they were bats, but it turns out they were swallows. Nobody knew why there were so many of them flying around the aqueduct, but our tour guide believed it's because of the unpolluted air there. uhm they were gone when we left. where did they come from?!

So these are buildings built outside of the fort. Behind the mountains is Madrid.

Our tour guide mentioned that in Segovia, people are very tough and hard-working, unlike Madrid, where people party, take too many siestas, and lounge around. 

I couldn't hear most of what the tour guide said because of her soft voice and long stories. She also started every sentence with, "This is very importante." She was telling us several legends explaining the woman lying down on the mountain. Can you see her face and impregnated belly?

I really like the decorations on the facades of the buildings. Each building has its own style.

(totally found a tutorial once on stumbleupon on how to make some 

of the decorations out of toilet paper rolls!)

Juan Bravo 

(Johnny Bravo)

The Jewish Living Quarters

American tourists

This Cathedral took 200 years to build! 

It's pretty magnificent to see in person. 

Gazebo in the center of Plaza Mayor

Pinwheels in the sky!

All the lions had their tongues sticking out.

It's like Sleeping Beauty's castle.

The "shoes" are pointy to kick unarmored horses.

Yeah no more pictures inside the castle because I started to get a headache. 

Queen Isabella was pretty bad-ass.

The apartment-mates minus Armine

More pictures to come once I steal them from other people's cameras...