¡Hola Zaragoza!

Zaragoza sure is beautiful! After finally arriving to the city that I hadn't heard of previously I was pleasantly surprised. What was supposed to be a two hour bus ride turned into a four plus hour debacle. Originally when we got on the bus in Madrid it was too small. Half of our luggage was loaded in the back of the bus which was actually illegal. We drove to the bus depot to change to a larger bus and we were on our way. The trip from Madrid to Zaragoza was a lot like traveling across the American Southwest or even West Texas specifically. We made it to the city at about 1 pm after leaving around 8 am. After a short lunch that consisted of hamburgers we met up with Hans.

The first stop of the day was the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar. It was a beautiful church that had much to offer in the way of architecture. We took approximately 90 minutes to roam and sketch before meeting as a group. We have the chance to go to mass the next day but I decided against it since I am neither Roman Catholic nor fluent in understanding Spanish. After that we went to another church which was next door. It was called the La Seo Cathedral. It too was immensely beautiful. It was huge but also small. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of this church but hopefully some of my classmates did! This was the end of he instruction from Hans for the day so we left to our own devices.

Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar

Three of us decided to walk around a bit. We went to the Ebro River and the Puente de Piedra (Stone Bridge). The sun was setting and it cast beautiful light. We then started our way back to the hotel in a roundabout way. We stopped by the Teatro Romano completely by happenstance much to our delight. It was a cool sight to see. We continued onward to our hotel only stopping once for pastries before taking a break before dinner.

View from Puente de Piedra

Dinner was fantastic! We ate at the place next to/attached to our hotel and everything was setup upon our arrival including bottles of wine. The appetizer was a rice and chorizo dish followed by a haddock topped with pimento cheese cream sauce and couscous and ended with fruit for dessert. It was such a great dinner! I also sat at the table with Hans so I benefited when we ordered an extra bottle of wine! But seriously, it was fascinating to learn more about my professor and have a great conversation with him. It was a fun time!

Following dinner, I had grown tired of everyone calling it a night at like 9:30pm and me hanging out in my hotel room room alone (especially worse since it was Saturday) that I wanted to go out. I couldn't get anyone to go so I just went. We were around the corner from a large market/street/nightlife area so I just wandered. I stopped at this one place and went in. My waiter didn't speak English but I was so impressed with myself that I ordered what I wanted correctly. I got churros with chocolate and a glass of red wine. My Spanish teachers would be applauding me!

Yum yum yum!

It was a pretty fun evening and tomorrow seems to have more in store. Zaragoza Day Two and the first full day is upon us and it should be an interesting one. Stay tuned!