Day Trip: Segovia, Castile and León, Spain

 

One of my first substantial day trips was to Segovia, a city located in the province of Castile and León. It took about 30 minutes from Madrid to Segovia by high speed train (it travels approx. 200 mph at certain points) and from the train station, it’s about a 15 minute bus ride to the center of Segovia. Segovia is possibly the oldest city I have visited, possibly dating back to 75 BCE, and the oldest part (founded by the Romans) is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Since Romans founded the city hundreds of years ago, it’s no surprise that some of the oldest structures still intact in Segovia were built by the Romans. The Roman aqueduct that separates the new city from the old city. Built between the 1st and 2nd century AD, the aqueduct still streches over 700 yards, which is incredible considering it’s age. My travel companion L and I walked from one to the other, which while not difficult because of length, was somewhat difficult because of the changes in elevation. Needless to say, it was worth it though.

(From upper left, clockwise: A view from center of town, the Alcazar (one end of the aqueduct), the other end of the aqueduct, another view from the center)

One of the next most striking features of Segovia, is the massive Alcazar, a castle built by Spanish royalty in the early 12th century. The Alcazar is now open to the public so we explored the royal chambers and the highest tower, which was previous used as a prison.

Also on the older end of Segovia is the Cathedral. This is a massive complex featuring over a dozen altars, each dedicated to a different, a museum, and a courtyard.

Segovia is an amazing little city to escape the international feel of Madrid and experience something closer to the “real” Spain. Lastly, I leave you with a pine cone wall and a view of the country just beyond the walls of Segovia.

My First Week in Food

Those that know me well know that food, both preparing and consuming it, is a passion of mine. Many gastronomes consider Spanish cuisine to be of some of the highest quality, both in ingredients and flavor, in the world. So part of my desire in coming to Spain, was to expand my adventure in the food world; to experience a cuisine different than mine and throw my hat into the ring of preparing a new type of food. That being said, here’s my first week in Madrid, with a look at the food I’ve been eating.

*Note: the pictures of lower quality, are mine, whereas the better looking ones are stock photos. I haven’t gotten used to taking my camera everywhere nor taking pictures of food that I have not made.
 
First meal over the Atlantic: a chicken with seasoned rice dish, served with a Caesar salad, a semi-frozen roll, and a small package of Milano cookies.

The airplane dinner, served by the wonderful flight attendants of United Airlines.

First meal in Spain (technically): a croissant with a small side of fruit, also served by the flight attendants of United.

We were flying over Spain when breakfast was served so I suppose, by a technicality, this was my first meal in Spain.

First meal in Madrid: Potatoes with Fried Eggs and Chorizo, Paella, and Coquettes; with a caña of Mahou

I touched down during the early afternoon, and promptly made dinner plans with some fellow folks in the program for 8pm; a tad early for a Madrid dinner, but some of us were jetlagged and wanted to get to bed early. We asked the receptionist at our hostel for a dinner recommendation and she mentioned a good tapas place. Tapas means small dishes in Spanish, and that is a good definition of what they are. Tapas are just small plates of food, meant to be shared with your friends while you drink. We each ordered one thing off the menu, I chose the potato dish, and shared it. The potato dish that I ordered came up first and it was rather disappointing. It was literally fried potatoes, next to two fried eggs, and a strip of Chorizo, talk about uneventful. Coquettes came up next which are a potato dish, filled with different items, in our case ham and cheese, and then deep fried.
Very unhealthy, but quite tasty. Lastly we got a small dish of paella mixta. Paella is a rice dish, similar to risotto, that was invented in Valencia, Spain and incorporates rice with stock, meat, and the important spice, Saffron. Our paella came with seafood and chicken, and was not bad, but was overly salted.

Of course, with our tapas, we all had cañas (about a half pint of beer) of Mahou, the beer of Madrid.

Mahou is best described as if Budweiser and Busch light were to have a love child. Needless to say, I am not impressed by this Spanish beer. I will however, continue to try other beers here until I find a drinkable substitute for our wonderful selection back in the States.

First meal that I prepared: Chicken Caesar Salad

After the first few days of fried, carbohydrate heavy, food, I really craved a salad. So I picked up some chicken that I sautéed, added some lettuce, and dressing, and had myself a chicken Caesar salad. Of course I needed some bread though, so I had some baguette with goat cheese.


Favorite dish, so far: Tortilla Española

At the moment, I am really loving tortilla here. It’s simply potatoes, onions, cheese, and eggs, but it is so good. I could eat it for every meal, if it was acceptable.


Favorite meal: Doner Kebab

My favorite meal included a dish called Doner Kebab. Think a gyro (chicken or lamb), with a salad, all coated in a hot sauce and a garlic sauce. Absolutely delicious, and horrible for your health. Served with French fries, that you can coat in even more garlic sauce, and a Coke made with real sugar. I’m drooling just writing about it.


Trashiest meal: the following Monstrosity

Cook noodles that you got from the Spanish equivalent of a dollar store, add some ground beef, cheese from northern Spain, and of course, a delicate sauce of ketchup, and you have yourself one, extremely, trashy meal.

First Week in Madrid

It has been a whirlwind of a week here in Madrid; from getting off the plane 8 days ago, to finding a piso (room in an apartment), to making new friends, cooking abroad for the first time, exploring the city that is my new home for the next 9 months, and successfully finding a way to watch the Wolverines beat their opponents.
I can only imagine it’ll get crazier once I start working.

Bank of Spain

I should begin work on Monday, but a few issues are complicating that. First, my lack of a schedule. I called both my schools on Thursday and Friday, IES Juana de Castilla said that I’ll be getting my schedule over the weekend, and the secretary at IES Las Musas said the principal would call me back in an hour, well that never happened. Regardless, I’m showing up to one of the schools on Monday, whether they like it or not.

IES Juana de Castilla

IES Las Musas

The second factor complicating the start of work is the an ongoing strike in secondary education. Spain is suffering a horrible economic recession, and in an effort to cut spending, the provincial government of Madrid has asked teachers to work 2 hours more per week, without an increase in pay. While this doesn’t seem like much, it means more students per week, less teachers (they are firing teachers too), and less qualified teachers (the government is firing the more expensive, qualified teachers).

Striking at Juana de Castilla

The first sign says “it isn’t two hours more, it’s 3000 less jobs/workers” and the second sign says “it isn’t two hours more, it’s an attack on public education and a benefit to private education”. It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out.

Today I’m going to a Spanish barbeque hosted by Felipe’s friend, so it should be an interesting day. Expect more posts during the week in the future, once I have a more definitive schedule the posts should improve in both quality and quantity. I’m also adding some pictures to previous posts, so take a look for some updates.