I was Segovian in another life....

This past weekend we went to Segovia to celebrate Chema's little brother Carlos' birthday at his family's home. The trip itself almost didn't happen, due to the inexplicable way in which a fun Friday night miracuously transformed itsself into a painful Saturday morning at 7:30! How did that happen? I had no idea, all I knew was that it was now 11:30, I had slept about 4 hours and the phone would not stop ringing. It was Gabi's fourth wake up call of the morning, we were going to miss the bus if I didnt get up... and at that moment I could have cared less. Actually, I was so annoyed that I considered throwing the still ringing phone across the room. ThenI remembered that I paid 90 euros for it recently and throwing it would probably result in irreparable damage so I decided to answer instead, unfortunately I was physically incapable of controlling the stream of insults that flew out of my mouth when I heard Gabi's perky good morning chirp on the other end of the line- but I think she took it all in stride considering the long night I had.

I decided to listen to her and started getting ready so we wouldnt miss the bus, I think I packed with my eyes closed which proved to be quite misfortunate later in the weekend when I would discover mismatched shoes and no extra underwear were part of what I had chosen to take with me. In any case the pain I went through was worth it because they were all smiles when I finally managed to drag my ass down to the bus station and after a quick breakfast of champions (beer and tortilla) begin our sojourn to Chema's hometown... Segovia!

Home to an impressive Roman aqueduct, a fairy-tale castle, and a beautiful cathedral- Segovia is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in Spain. Also, the most typical dish is roasted suckling pig- can it get any better that that? As we all know, for Cubans roast pig is a way of life. It is one of the four major Cuban food groups: Assorted fried things, Pork, Rice, and Beans. Because of the important role pork plays in the Cuban-American diet, I can honestly tell you that I consider myself to be quite a pork connoiseur. It is more than a food for me, I have learned to equate roasted pig with happiness due to the amount of times we would serve it at festive occasions.Just the thought of a roasted pig makes me feel happy, when I am depressed I would probably prefer to dig into a bag of pork rinds instead of a brownie sundae. So I guess what I am trying to say is that if I say Segovian pork is good, just take my word for it. Aside from the great food, one of my favorite parts of the city is how incredibly old and mysterious it is. C's house is RIGHT NEXT to the cathedral, and one of our nights there we ate dinner on their rooftop terrace in order to enjoy the amazing view. Unbelievable.

I know I am dramatic, but I can honestly say that the way they illuminate the cathedral so that it looks so warm and golden at night and how it takes up so much of the sky and casts shadows over the hundreds of orange tiled roofs making you just want to lie on the shingles and watch the moon mist over for the rest of the night- made me spend the next few hours after dinner trying to imagine what kind of people had lived in the house centuries before.... sounds romantic right? Kind of ...until I remembered the Inquisition and began thinking about the fact that Chema's house is in what was then the old Jewish quarter and to top it off one of his best friends is a direct descendant of Torquemada! He was one of the most famous names of the Inquisition- an exceptionally violent Grand Inquisitor - in any case, that freaked me out in a major way and I actually had a hard time getting to sleep.