Last weekend my flatmate and I went on a trip to Segovia (Castilla y León) for the bargain price of 20€! The trip was run by the Erasmus Madrid Agency who organise trips to other cities in Spain for Erasmus students staying in Madrid. (You can check out their Facebook page here.)
The coach was supposed to leave from the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (the home of Real Madrid) at 10am on Saturday morning, but of course we left late – the Spanish have no concept of time! When we eventually arrived in Segovia (the coach journey only took about 1hr30mins) it was a beautiful sunny day! The first hour was spent visiting the incredible Roman Aqueduct and taking a gazillion group photos. After a mini tour of the area we had about 3 hours of free time, so naturally Lena and I sat out in the sun and drank sangria to our hearts’ content (and tried not to share it with the local wasp population!)
Once we’d ll supped up it was time for more visits. First we took a wander around the beautiful cathedral of Segovia where we heard endless tales from one of our Spanish guides about how his English girlfriend broke his heart. (Why did we have to mention which uni we went to!?) The cathedral was very lovely and even had an inner courtyard, but if you’ve seen one then you’ve seen most of them – with a few exceptions of course! We tried to tag along with a Spanish tour but skulked away with our tales between our legs after only managing to understand a few words in each sentence! I really need to join a tandem session…
Next up was the castle! The alcázar de Segovia, which wouldn’t look out of place in Bavaria. It looks like something out of a Disney film and supposedly provided inspiration for the one in Snow White. We paid an extra 2€ on our tickets to be able to go to the top of tower, however after a day of walking, walking and more walking, we decided to give the stairs of death a miss. Besides, the views from the walls around the castle had amazing views anyway! The rest of the castle was lovely though and provided a few costume ideas for when return to uni next year. (Ahem, Ocean, ahem, knights in armour).
After visiting the castle we had 4 and half more hours of free time! How did we spend it? Stupid question…
Several hours and glasses of sangria later we met up with the rest of the Erasmus group to go to “the biggest club in town!” Granted, it probably was the biggest club in town, but bigger isn’t necessarily better. For a Saturday night it was DESERTED, but we made the best we could out of a pretty rubbish situation. The problem over here for many Erasmus students is that the Spanish body clock seems to tick in a completely different way. Their day starts just as early as the next nationality’s, but it ends way later with meals taking place at absurd times. Over here a night out starts around midnight-1am and doesn’t end until 6-7am and this had clearly taken its toll. Along one side of the main dance floor was a line of huge leather sofas, and all along these huge leather sofas snoozed two dozen exhausted Erasmus students who had given up on the night.
All in all it was a pretty good trip, but I would seriously suggest going to bed early the night before any of these, wearing comfy shoes and packing plenty of water! If you decide to make the journey of your own accord, regular trains run between Madrid and Segovia and only take half an hour.
For more on Segovia check out Patterns of Segovia.
itchy feet 
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