Ávila

Saturday, March 8th

This past Saturday, Karin's roommate and his girlfriend took us (Stephanie, Karin, and I) on a day trip to Ávila. Ávila is a town that is a little over an hour northwest of Madrid. The main attraction in Ávila are the city defense walls that were built in the 11th century, making Ávila and its walls an UNESCO World Heritage Site. We left mid-morning and once arriving in town, we walked around for a little bit and then Karin and I went on a journey to the top of the wall. You can climb/walk on probably about half of the defense wall and it's really cool. It gives you both a good view of the city within the walls as well as the surrounding city and landscape. There's really not much else to say about the walls and city so here are pictures. :)

Ávila Cathedral

View of the Cathedral from the wall

There were a lot of storks in Ávila

Basílica de San Vicente

After taking a tour of the wall and its towers, Karin and I were all cute and couple-y and we shared a lunch and we met up with the rest of the group. Then, we went on our next stop which was to try Yemas de Ávila, which are pastries that are popular from Ávila. Yema is egg yolk, so you won't be surprised to here that they are made out of egg yolks along with syrup, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Then they are splashed with a little bit of powdered sugar and voilà‎, you have yemas de Ávila. I just tried one and they weren't so bad, it tasted like pure sugar. I wouldn't crave them though and I wouldn't buy a box of them. Lisbon's pastries beat out the yemas, for me anyway.

After looking at some souvenir shops and hanging out in the sun for a little bit, we headed home. It was a nice little day trip and I'm glad that Karin's roommate took us with. Once home, I ate dinner at 6 p.m.! I know that is unheard of here in Spain! But that's when I ate and I didn't eat the rest of the night. Ha. I'm just glad my roommates didn't see or they would've thought it was despicable. Ha. :) Anyway, I ate dinner and then watched the movie About Time, because my mom said it was good, so I wanted to watch it. It was indeed good and it really has a good message about how you should try and live your life. Anyway, my night pretty much ended there and it was a great day. By the way, it's so nice and sunny here that my cheeks got rosy from the sun. :) Yay! Hope your spring comes soon and I hope our spring stays until summer. :)