Tips for Trips: Segovia and Alcalá de Henares

'Sup guys! Hope your February is going well and you're not too bogged down with work and assignments. I know my friends and I are trying to figure out a way to get the work done quickly and proficiently so we can spend our time traveling and enjoying our Erasmus. I mean, travel is the practical way to educate yourself, after all! Apologies also for the bit of a gap between the posts, it's a process to find time for all these things, getting inspiration for good content and making sure it's good enough to write about!
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As I wrote about in the previous blog post about Erasmus and tips for the first two weeks of your Erasmus experience in Madrid, one of the biggest things I recommend for any travellers or prospective Erasmus students to definitely do is participate in ESN activities and TRAVEL! Travel gives a person the kind of knowledge that can't be thought. Only by travelling, in my opinion, do you truly get life experiences.
Since participating this semester in some of the trips so far, whether it be with the Erasmus Network or with friends, each trip offered something different and of course, provided awesome memories. In this post, I will discuss two of the places I have traveled to. Segovia, with the Erasmus Student Network, and Alcala de Henares, with my friends. I'll also be providing some advice on these places, what I'd recommend to do and see.

SEGOVIA

First, let's start with a little background on Segovia, shall we. Segovia is a city in the region of Castile and Leon, inside the province of Segovia, the neighboring

province to Madrid and near the city of Valladolid. The history of Segovia is actually quite cool. Apparently, the first know settlers in Segovia were the Celtic people but then possession of the city switched to the Romans. After that, it is believed to have gone through an Islamic invasion. A lot of different religious influence has passed through Segovia over the centuries, with large Jewish and Christian influences also inhibiting the city. The many spheres of contrasting cultures can be seen throughout the city.

On the weekend of the 20th of January to the 22nd of January, my friends, 100 Erasmus students and myself traveled to a middle-of-nowhere type of place in Guadalajara as part of the Erasmus Integrational Weekend. That weekend consisted of partying, alcoholic beverages and Spanish-themed activities including paella and Sangria (Got us all the way turnt up). The weekend started on Friday and went on until Sunday. Sunday morning after breakfast, with all of us different shades of yellow and green due to hangover, slowly sipping water and orange juice. We made our way to the city of Segovia, which was a two hour bus journey. The journey was so rough. You could hear faint whispering of the same things "I'm dying" or "I'll never drink again".

We drove and arrived in Segovia. We disembarked the bus and the first thing
we saw was the aqueduct. The thing was huge! Huge but magnificent to see. The air was extremely fresh, which made me thankful for the scarf I brought. We walked slowly towards the aqueduct which was kind of like the border to enter the town part of the city. Being that we were still kind of lethargic from the previous nights, the first thing on our list was to get good, strong coffee. We walked a little bit down the Avenida Acueducto and came to a Dunkin' Coffee shop. The smell of coffee kind of yanked us in the door of the store. 

A sandwich and coffee later, it gave us a little bit more energy to continue to look around Segovia. We took the narrow path of Calle Cervantes and Calle

Juan Bravo which led us to the Plaza de Medina del Campo. A cool little pocket on the street with a street perfomer/puppeteer entertaining the passing crowd

. We stopped and looked around at the Iglesia de San Martin. The narrow streets gave a similar vibe to that of an Italian street, with high building lining the narrow street and the bustle of the locals too. Not spending too much time at that Plaza, we kept making our way down the street. Not long after leaving the Plaza de Medina, we came to the main plaza in Segovia, the Plaza Mayor. Similarly named to the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, it however was not

similar to it's Madrid counterpart. As we came out of the narrow street to the big square, to the left we noticed one of the more famous buildings in Segovia. The Catedral de Segovia stood tall with the sun shining down on it. The square was not overly packed with tourists either. We decided to spend more time in the Plaza on the way back, and continued on. 

We kept walking through more narrow streets. We thought we were stumbling into the residential area of Segovia but we were actually on the path to the most famous building in Segovia. The Alcazar Castle, or the "Disney Castle" as my friend said. The castle was pretty amazing. It is situated at the confluence of two rivers, which made the surrounding landscapes of the castle quite rocky. In the distance also you could see the Guardarrama mountains, which made the views quite cool too. The history of the castle is quite cool also. The Alcázar was originally built as a fortress but has served as a royal palace, a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy. It's now functioning as a museum.
We made our way back towards the Aqueduct. On our return, we stopped in the Plaza Mayor for a coffee and decided it was maybe an appropriate time to head back to the aqueduct and find a place to go for lunch. We took our time on the way back and went in search of a place to eat. We eventually came back to the aqueduct and found a quaint Italian pizzeria called "Trattoria" just near the massive arches. We ate and chatted before deciding to go to the top of the building adjacent to the aqueduct to get a birds eye view of Segovia. This concluded our day in Segovia, as not long afterwards, we were on our way back to Madrid.

TIPS:
Here is some advice on what to do and see whilst in Segovia in January:

• Wrap Up! - When on top, looking over all of Segovia, it can get quite chilly up there. And also when you're walking around the gardens of the Alcázar, the breeze can be quite cold. A good jacket and a scarf is not a bad idea to carry with you when walking about in the city.
• Start with Caffeine: It's not a bad idea when traveling anywhere, not just Segovia, to start with a coffee, tea or something. Even if you're not hungover, it'll give you that added boost of energy to go on and discover wherever you are. And if it's a cold day, it'll warm you up! Two birds, one stone!
• Landmarks: Segovia is not a huge city. But to fit within the touristy agenda, I'd highly recommend the landmarks of Segovia i.e, The Alcázar, Catedral of Segovia and the Iglesia de San Martin. All of you architecture lovers out there, the wide variety of diverse architectual design is quite cool throughout the city and you get different cultural vibes too!
• Try the local cafés and restaurants: Dining in Segovia is great. Walking from the Aqueduct to the Alcázar, we came across many cool looking eateries. Places that serve spit-roast pork, authentic Spanish cuisine and of course, being that there is a strong Italian influence, there is some nice Italian places in Segovia. Trattoria, for example, their food was, out of 5, a solid 3. It was a small place that managed to accommodate a group of 7. Their salad wasn't great, my friend who ordered it rated the salad 1/5 but their pasta's were good. I recommend looking around Segovia for a place to eat. And be sure to check out TripAdvisor!
• Go with a group: One of the factors that made Segovia great, from a student perspective, was going with friends. Maybe being there hungover, I wouldn't recommend that. I was there and discovered the city with six of my friends. As a student, the city of Segovia is a very culture-rich place that's incredibly laced with history. My personal recommendation would be to go with other people and share the culture and history exploration together 😊

ALCALÁ DE HENARES

On Saturday just passed (11 February), after a night of burgers and beer, as a way to pass an afternoon, some of us decided to do some kind of guys trip. Not

really travelling too far, but taking inspiration from the ESN trip from a couple of weeks before hand, Alcalá de Henares was picked as the places we would go. 

Leaving the Atocha Renfe station by train at 11am, we traveled the 40 minutes from the center of Madrid to the town of Alcalá de Henares, to the northeast of Madrid. Taking the Cercanías line C2/C7, you can get to Alcalá for free with your Madrid transport card.

A little history about Alcalá de Henares, I guess! The city dates back to the Bronze Age and since then has had a roman influence since their acquisition in 1st Century BC. The city went through different faces, from Roman takeover, to the Moors arriving in 8th century. Conquered in the 12th Century under the Archbishop of Toledo. Interestingly, one of the first meetings between Christopher Columbus and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, happened in Alcalá de Henares in 1480. Just some fun historical facts 😄

Back to the story, we arrived in Alcalá and it was raining. Just our luck, it was

raining. We exited the train station and, under the impression that the city was the famed UNESCO World Heritage Site, were underwhelmed by the initial first impression of the place. However, we walked from the station, using google maps to take us to the center. We walked until we came to the Plaza de Cervantes. A plaza famed for it's dedication to Cervantes. We stopped for a moment to take the typical tourist picture of the plaza before deciding that we should probably take a coffee to start of, before walking around looking at the city.

We walked not too far down the Calle Mayor, just off of the Plaza de Cervantes.

Very discreetly hidden on the right is an alleyway which leads to the cafe in which we decided to get our caffeine fix. Café Hemisphero was the name of the place. It was a case of half and half at the cafe. Half of us ordering a coffee and other half ordering a hot chocolate to warm up after being in the drizzly rain. The coffee was quite good, but what was served as hot chocolate was more like a chocolate pudding. Thick and needed the use of a spoon, not exactly the hot chocolate we were expecting to see. It was good though, but sweet.

Post Coffee, we used TripAdvisor to figure out our next destination. We passed the number one must see attraction, the University of Alcalá, which was an

impressive building, but closed. So our next destination became the Cathedral of the Santos Niños. We entered to see that the seating area in the church to be enclosed and blocked by metal gates, an odd feature. We were met by a curator with who we paid €2 to just take a quick trip up to the bell tower of the church. However spectacular the view was, the €2 literally covered just the view and not entry into the rest of the church, which cost extra. After being told this, we left and decided that it was the socially acceptable time to get food. We walked to the Universidad de Alcalá where there was wifi access and used that to find where we were to eat. One thing I noticed about the city is that Heron birds were EVERYWHERE. On every rooftop. 

We walked through the streets until we stumbled upon a retro 50's diner called "Tommy Mel's". We were instantly greeted by an English-speaking waitress who organized a table of eight, which was great. The places was kinda quiet

though. We ordered. And although the sign on the wall said "served in 8 or 9 minutes" we were actually served in about 15 minutes. I ordered the pot roast. Tender beef served with potatoes. I will say, the portions were small but the food was good. I was still sort of hungry leaving but wasn't complaining.

After lunch, we took a walk around the town, a roundabout way making our way back to the train station. We were all deep in conversation to really notice anything from the town after that. After a 15-20 minute walk, we were back in the station, boarding the train back to Atocha.

TIPS:

• Bring an umbrella: Alcalá is cool to look around, but it was raining when we were there, so I recommend being weather-ready. Bring an umbrella or a hooded jacket.
• Research before going: Really look at what you want to see in Alcalá before going there. There is cool building and stuff to see around the place but it's advisable to have an idea about what you want to do and see, it'll save you from standing around using different apps and google maps to make a plan on what to do
• Go with a group: Alone, I am sure I would not have enjoyed Alcalá, from a student's point of view. As there was 8 of us, it made for a better day and better experience in Alcalá.

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That's it for this post! I hope you enjoy it and that these tips help if you're considering visiting these places!

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Thanks to my friends Teemu and Max for their help and feedback on Segovia and Alcalá! Be sure to check their Instagram's

Teemu: Timmyyk

Max: immonenmax

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And don't forget to check me out on my social media too!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePoorStudentTraveller/

IG: Davidcandykeane

Twitter: Davidko49

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