An Afternoon in Ávila

Yesterday, I took an adventure! Bored with doing NOTHING for the past week (literally, I sleep until 2 everyday then go to the park and people watch/read/write), I forced myself to wake up early, walked to the train station, and bought a train ticket to Ávila!  Only an hour by train, it is an old city famous for ancient wall that surrounds it and cathedral in the city center.  With me I brought my camera + tripod (duh), a couple sandwiches for lunch, and a new book to read.

Really, what more could a girl ask for?

The train ride was quite relaxing; gazing out at the endless farm fields, covered with a thin layer of fresh snow, while listening to a podcast on my ipod, I had not a care in the world.  The falling snow was still beautiful when I walked through it to get from the train station to the city ruins...but after an hour of trekking all around the fortress, with soggy socks and wet hair, despite my umbrella, my adventure wasn't as -romantic- as I imagined it to be.  So, to warm up, I spent an hour browsing books in the only bookshop in town before purchasing a small book of poetry that I am going to try to work through this semester.

YUMMMM!

Afterwards I found a cafe and bought a cup of "chocolate caliente" (hot chocolate), which is actually just liquid chocolate: rich and creamy and fatty and DELICIOUS.  That adventure lasted another 45 minutes, until I got the hint that they were trying to set up for lunch and it was time for me to get a move on.   So with camera in hand, I bought my student ticket for 3.75€ and made my way, slowly, around the perimeter of the city from the walkway built up above.  Ideally, there would have been great views of the surrounding countryside, and of the cathedral and plazas within the walls, but I had no such luck.  After it stopped snowing in the morning, it gave way to a thick layer of fog that hung low to the ground all day, preventing me from seeing any further than a mile or so.

It was still beautiful.  Castles and old moats and bridges accompanied by stories about saints and war and kings and queens...the history here, like most of Spain, is rich and unique.  Although probably not worth the 7 hours I spent there all day, but it was a nice break from Salamanca!

One of the entrances to the medieval fortress

burrrrr!

the countryside

Bein' a dork 

Eerie

reallly errie 

Hey, I've BEEN to all those places! Cool.

Dark & gloomy

My next adventure: Classes starting on MONDAY. Seems as though my 6 week vacation is coming to an end. No more sleeping until 2pm, napping by the river, and browsing the shops for sales: I have exactly 110 days left here and I am GOING TO GET THIS LANGUAGE THING DOWN!!!

On a side note, I found out yesterday that Carrefour (the grocery store) carries JAMON and WHOLE GRAIN flavored Pringles. YES PLEASE!