During our drive up there we took a mini excursion to some caves in the mountains! we hiked along trails for awhile and eventually came upon some very steep sets of metal stairs leading down to two different caves. We split up into groups, so the caves wouldn't be so crowded, and talked about the cave paintings on the walls. Our teacher, Nacho (short for Ignacio), taught us how cave men painted and how we could try to understand what they were drawing. They drew things like deer, men, women, and fire. When we weren't learning about cave paintings we got to look at the beautiful, and also frighteningly high caverns! I couldn't believe how high up we were; if someone were at the bottom they would probably look like an ant.
When we arrived we had lunch in the restaurant under our albergue, which is a hostel, and the food was really good. After lunch as we were unpacking our backs something very strange happened; IT STARTED HAILING! All of us were very shocked, especially my friend from Hawaii who had never seen hail before. Needless to say the hail caused us to stay in our rooms longer than we had planned, but that gave us all time to chat with each other, laughing and having fun.
Once the hail had disappeared we all emerged from our hostel to go see Alquezar. We visisted the Catedral on top of the hill of Alquezar. We learned that it was built at the highest point as a place of defense against military attacks. Personally I thought the Catedral was on the highest point because it had the best view. While seeing the intricate pedestals and monumental sculptures, we also got to see the inner greenery and buena vista of Alquezar! My favorite part though was when we got free time afterwards to explore the town before dinner. My group of friends and I walked around the town and found a woman with a new black puppy that was too cute!
That night when we were all going to bed my room began talking about our home towns and things that they had in common like good or bad sports teams and school rivalries. It eventually spun into conversations about our favorite actors, movies, books, and the fact that not many people want to be part of Huffle Puff in Hogwarts. At some points we were laughing so hard that the teachers next door had to knock on the wall to tell us to quite down!
The next day we woke up bright and early to a buffet style breakfast of cereal, toast, chocolate croissants, and all sorts of delicacies. I especially liked the chocolate croissants and filled up on those. Soon after we headed out to another mountain trail to see a water fall. The hike so far was my favorite because it was the perfect temperature and weather for a hike, not to mention the trail was really fun. there were rocky up hills, and down hills on the trail, but the most exciting was the metal walkway attached to the face of the giant rock wall. It was a grated walkway so we could see the water flowing beneath us, and boy was it going fast! We were going to play in the water for a little bit, but because of the rain and hail the water had risen and become quite precarious.
On a major bright side though it gave us time to explore the town again letting us go to shops and cafes to enjoy some snacks or drinks. My friend Jada and I wandered around aimlessly talking, until we found a jewelry stand near one of the restaurants. The lady there was selling braided necklaces with some sort of tusk (not real) on the end. Jada and I got matching necklaces with different colors and chat with the lady. She said our Spanish was really good (probably the biggest compliment we could receive), but also that we could work on our accent. She assured us though that it wasn't that hard because she was from Romania and had learned Spanish and also German too. Jada knew some German and said a few words to the lady, but I sadly do not know German or what they said. It was nice to have a semi-long conversation with a local though!
We left Alquezar and began our journey home, but the adventures were not done yet. For lunch we stopped for a couple hours in the town known as Huesca (where my host mom was born I found our). We were given the challenge to take a selfie with each of the sites the profes had circled on our printed out maps. Jada and I took this challenge with energy and planned a strategic way to see all the sites and the town in one whole walk. This really tested our sense of direction, because on the map the street names were so small and in Spain the street signs are tiled to the walls, so they can be hard to find at times. We were successful in our challenge though taking a selfie with the Parque, Casino, Catedral, Ayuntamiento, and Museo, not to mention the fantastic ice cream and bocadillos we found along the way. We finally made it to the bus with a few minutes to spare, full and worn out. When we finally arrived back in Zaragoza all of us wanted to just relax and take a siesta.
In other words you can get a lot done in two days with SYA, a mental note for when we all start planning for independent travel after winter break.
Besos
Lauren
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