One cool aspect of my job is that I have team members all over the world: New York, Connecticut, Florida, Spain, Mexico, India, and the Philippines. I’ve been super fortunate to have gone to Connecticut and India earlier this year for working sessions to meet with people I’ve been working with for a whole year but never seen in person. On this trip I was able to meet Maria in Grenada and now two of my front end developers, Ivan and Ricardo in Segovia.
If I don’t get an opportunity to connect with someone local, either a friend or a stranger and just get a glimpse of what their life is like when I’m visiting a country, I feel like I didn’t get a deep enough experience during my trip. I’m so lucky to have two personal tour guides who are both co workers and friends to show us around Segovia for the day.
Ricardo is a history buff and was providing so much detail about everything we saw yesterday, I’ll try to recall some of the most interesting bits as best as I can because we covered a lot of ground in one day. We started the morning at the aqueducts in the center of the city. It was built by the Romans in the 1st century to bring water from the mountains 11 miles away. He pointed out signs on the ground which signifies an subterranean distribution system from the aqueduct to underground pipes called a castellum aquae.
The aqueduct was built by piling sand to build each layer of the stones. Once it was completed, they removed all of the sand from the finished structure. There are dimples in the stones which were for the cranes to pick up and lift them when stacking.
Ivan called out some spiky gates near the top. The government had to install those to deter people from climbing up and committing suicide.
Ricardo asked “Ok so you know the history of the aqueduct but do you know the legend of how it was built?” According to the local stories, the aqueduct wasn’t built by the Romans but by the devil himself. There was once a girl who would walk to the mountain every day to fetch water. She said that she would sell her soul if it meant she wouldn’t have to get water again. The devil appeared and made a deal with her that if he could build the aqueduct before the morning of the next day, he would keep her soul. Unfortunately, he lost by 1 stone and the aqueduct stayed.
Around 2019 a statue was put up as a homage to the story of the aqueduct. Not sure why he had to be so biologically accurate or had to be taking a selfie but here he is with the final stone that he missed.
Next we walked through the narrow streets of Segovia. Ricardo commented that the streets were slightly curved left and right in case of war, people fleeing would be less likely to be hit with arrows. We got to a viewpoint where you could see the mountains in the distance. There is a section of the mountains called La Mujer Muerta (The Dead Woman) who looks like a pregnant woman laying on her back. There are many stories about her but one story is that the woman’s husband went off to war and failed to keep his promise that he would return and marry her. She died of a broken heart and that is her body in the mountain.
We walked by the same cathedral we saw last night. There was a statue of San Frutos above one of the entryways. The monastery that we visited the day before on top of the gorge was named after this same saint. San Frutos was a Castilian hermit of the eighth century venerated as a saint. Born in the 7th century to a noble family of Segovia, Frutos and his two siblings sold their family possessions after their parents’ death and gave the earnings to poor. Source Ivan said that he and his brothers are celebrated on October 25th where a dance is held in the Plaza Mayor at midnight. Then, people gather in front of the statue where they believe he turns a page in his book.
For lunch they took us to a restaurant known for “cochinillo” roast suckling pig which is a delicacy in Spain and served for special occasions and celebrations. They can only use pigs that are less than 2 months old who are still eating their mother’s milk. Look how cute the pig is sleeping so comfortably on the plate in the street advertisement.
The meal started with 2 soups a large white bean soup and a soup called sopa Casteliana como la de la abuela (Your grandmother’s Castilian soup) which had soaked pieces of bread, and veggies, in a light broth. Both very tasty.
The waiter brought out half a pig with its tail and legs sticking out of the bowl. Ivan said that traditionally, the pig is cut with a plate because it’s so tender and then they throw the plate on the ground for…reasons, but they didn’t do that this time. Probably because they’ve run out of money in their ceramic plate budget.
The skin was very crispy and the meat just fell apart with your fork. It reminded me of Chinese Peking duck and roast pork.
We split the dessert: Cheesecake, flan, lemon cake with pop rocks on top, and a local dessert called Ponche segoviano which is layers of marzipan with cake and cream.
After our very long and heavy lunch I needed a nap but it was castle time. They escorted us to the Alcázar of Segovia and then let us enter and wander around by ourselves because they’ve visited this place at least 20 times. The castle was built in the 12th century, and is one of the most renowned medieval castles globally and one of the most visited landmarks in Spain. I was told that Walt Disney used it as inspiration for the castle in Snow White.
There was a cool medieval armory which made it very castle-y. We had an assigned time to go up to the tower which had a really nice view of the city. Also the castle had a sweet moat which was unfortunately not full of crocodiles.
Luke was basically our medieval castle guide as we wandered through the Alcázar. He quizzed us asking why we thought castle staircases twisted in a specific direction. I said because we’re in the northern hemisphere and they go one way, castles in the southern hemisphere twist the opposite direction. Hilarious answer but wrong. Knights were taught to hold their swords in their right hand so when defending a staircase from the high ground, their sword would have more space to swing at enemies.
Ivan and Ricardo met back up with us when we were done and took us to a few viewpoints in the city.
It was 6pm and “too early” to eat dinner since people usually eat at 10pm so we went to a tapas place to get a break from all the walking and get a drink. It was really fun chilling with these guys and talking about work, comparing lives in Spain vs US, and just hanging out. There came a point in the conversation where we were comparing Latin American Spanish vs Spain Spanish. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it but Spaniards use the word “vale” A LOT. It’s a filler word like “um”, it replaces “ok” to show you’ve received the information presented to you, and a bunch of other instances I haven’t figured out yet.
They started teaching us phrases that are specific to Spain. Like when something goes wrong you say “Me cago en la [insert location]” (I shit on the…). Common uses of this are “Me cago en la puta” (I shit on the whore) or “Me cago en la leche” (I shit in the milk).
If you’re having a great or terrible day depending on the context you say “Un Día de Puta Madre” (I’ve had a motherf*cking day). In the case of today, it was great 😀
I’m glad my Spanish has dramatically improved just today alone.
Ivan called the Lebanese restaurant we didn’t get a chance to eat at last night for a reservation. They said they only have a very early dinner availability at 9pm if that’s ok. (So weird)
Ivan’s wife Miriam and her friend Miriam also joined us for dinner. The food was so delicious. We got falafel, hummus with ground lamb and crispy pork skin, and shawarma with lamb and cochinillo.
What an absolutely wonderful way to end a trip. I’ve got old friends and new friends to share experiences with over some super delicious food while appreciating feats of engineering by the Roman empire. I told the table that this dinner will be one of my treasured memories for the rest of my life.
I’m very thankful that Ivan and Ricardo gave up their Saturday to spend with us. It’s going to be super weird flying home tomorrow and then seeing them online first thing at 8:30am for our morning huddle when I just saw them 36 hours earlier in person. The thought of being back at work after being on vacation for 2 weeks makes me sad. I heard the Powerball jackpot is $1.5 billion this week, until I win that, I will keep showing up to work to fund my trips ^_-
Thanks for the visit Andrew!! You have your home here whenever you want.