Sofia Somewhere

Bright and early at 8:30 next morning, we hopped on the bus to Segovia. It was 2.5 hours with a change of bus in Ávila. In our less than half an hour in Ávila it was so cold, so when we reached Segovia, we were happy to be blessed with such sunny weather again. First thing on our agenda was finding the Cathedral since we wanted to catch mass at 12:30. We found it without much difficulty, and since we still had an hour to spare, we decided to have breakfast at the terrace of one of the cafés in Plaza Mayor. We sipped our coffees and ate our tostadas with tomate , all the while taking in the view of the Cathedral. The Cathedral is free to visit on Sundays from 9:30-1:15 (and celebrates mass at 11:00 and 12:30). After hearing mass, we walked around the Cathedral. It was another beautiful one, and again, I was awed by the columns, vaults, and ceilings. The main altar Vaults Windows Ceilings Our next stop was the Real Alcazar . This castle is supposedly one o...

One of Spain's most popular  puentes (long weekend) is the Puente de la Constitución y la Inmaculada . Both days are national holidays with Día de la Constitución (Constitution Day) on the 6th of December and Día de la Inmaculada (Immaculate Conception) on the 8th. Usually, the 7th becomes a day off too and Spaniards get a long weekend. Nice and Lia, two friends from my university in the Philippines who are currently auxiliars in Huelva, told me that they would be going to Salamanca for the puente, so I decided to join them that weekend. I arrived in Salamanca on Saturday morning and Lia and Nice picked me up at the bus station. It was so nice to see familiar Filipino faces! We first had breakfast at Café Real , right at Plaza Mayor. I was surprised at how cheap it was, considering it was in a prime location (€1,60 for a café con leche and a tapa of your choice). With some coffee and food in our stomachs we got right to talking and catching up, and it was non stop laughter an...

For the first puente (long weekend) in my stay here I decided to head to Madrid to visit Marina, a good friend who just moved there from Barcelona, and to drop by the Philippine Embassy to register as an overseas voter. It was the last day too for registration, so it was perfect. Lyle took the bus in from Granada and we met at the metro near the embassy. It was fairly simple and we got it done in under an hour. Success! After the embassy we headed to Tetúan so Lyle could grab some filipino goodies at the Asian store, then we went to Bar Vi-Valdez for lunch. Filipino food is always yummy, though the taste was a bit different from the last couple of times we ate there (change of cooks perhaps?).  We had a couple of hours to kill before Lyle's bus back to Granada so we headed to check out the Rosaleda and the Templo de Debod. It wasn't the season though so the Rosaleda was pretty much empty, with only several roses here and there.. I could imagine though what a beau...