Backpacking pt. 2 - Segovia

Alcazar de Salamanca (Castle)

Aqueduct

Day 2 of my backpacking excursion through Spain landed me in Segovia! But wait, we almost landed ourselves in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Our bus tickets had a different Segovia station that consisted of a patch of dust on the side of the road. The bus drive was like, “okay time to get out this is your stop”. I spoke to him in Spanish and said this isn’t where we intended on getting dropped off. The only bus stop available was the one we had. He let us stay on the bus till we got to the actual city of Segovia. If he made us get off I don’t know how we would have gotten back to civilization. Anyways, this time we were able to check into our hostel right away which made things SO much easier. Our first stop in Segovia was a visit to the Alcazar of Segovia (which literally means Segovia Castle). This castle is one of the most distinctive castle-palaces in Spain because of its shape.  Another fun fact about this place is that it is one of the inspirations for Walt Disney’s Cinderella Castle. While in the castle, Emily and I asked a group of middle aged ladies if they wanted a picture taken of the entire group so no one was left out. After that they asked us if we wanted one so of course we said yes! We got into a little conversation in Spanish and actually followed them all the way to the top. While we were climbing up, one of the ladies asked me if we were from FRANCE! I said no, the United States, and then she proceeded to compliment how good my Spanish was! This feeling was awesome. Once we finished exploring the castle we headed down to the main square where the Aqueduct is. The Aqueduct is one of the most significant and best-preserved ancient monuments left on the Iberian Peninsula. It was originally meant to transport water and boats. While we were there, a 100k marathon from Madrid to Segovia was taking place. We saw the first guy finish at about 2pm. This guy must have broken world records or something because he was the only one to finish that early and he had a fan club wearing the same shirt he was wearing with sponsors on it. We hung around to see if anyone else was going to finish. While we were waiting, a baby stroller flipped over. I thought it was the wind or maybe some packages weighed it down. Sure enough adults started running over to pick it up. The baby (about 11months old) was inside of it sleeping. The best part is, HE NEVER WOKE UP! This kid must be a heavy sleeper. I was dying at how hilarious this was. Some other things we did that afternoon included exploring another cathedral (this one we snuck in for free), watching a little portion of a historical play, seeing a bride and groom take wedding pictures by the arches,  and seeing a muscle car show all of which was totally unplanned. That night, all the other runners finally started arriving at the finish line from earlier. We stuck around and watched this which was cute because all the dads would grab their children or wives or buddies and cross the finish line with them. Sometimes the best trips are the spontaneous ones, and that is how we navigated through the weekend.