Zaragoza was another adventure for sure. This time I decided to look at the public transportation before we got there and I determined the quickest and most failsafe way for us to arrive at our hostel from the train station, so that went much more smoothly on weekend two. Thank goodness.
We have decided that we don't have room to be surprised about anything in terms of hostels. Last time it was an adventure finding it, this time the shock came when we were told that bedding was an extra cost. Apparently this is rather common. Who knew?
Once we had sorted all that out, we decided to take our picnics that our host families had given us and lunch in La Plaza del Pilar. I'm so glad we did :) Buildings like that really make me think--there was some great emotion (love or fear maybe?) that made those people build such a massive monument. It's fascinating.
We then decided (from a recommendation) to cross the river and see the buildings that had been constructed for the World Expo that Zaragoza hosted in 2008. The Tercer Milenio. I don't think we realized how far away it was. At least I was an interesting trip...?
The buildings were quite impressive, but the area was utterly desolate. We were actually the only people there. Every once in a while a car would whiz by on its way to somewhere else, but we were the only living beings in the third millennium. We decided that it all made sense because everyone else just needed a few hundred more years to arrive. We were simply early to the party. It was a strange feeling.
After we made it back to present day Zaragoza (por fin!!), we were informed that we had somehow luckily arrived on the same weekend as El Noche en Blanco. We had no idea, but it meant we got to see some pretty neat stuff for free. Some of the guys even got Abrazos Gratis from a couple of local girls too (apparently that's pretty common too because I remember that happening in Madrid too).
We got to see a couple of museums of archeological digs dating back to CaesarAugustus for free and an "orchestra" concert that made me and Sammi want to dance. It was so lively and I'm pretty sure it was an all night gig. There were pages and pages of information in the booklet we got from tourist info but there was no way to do it all.
It had been a long day on our feet and we were all pretty tired and grumpy so we rewarded ourselves with ice cream cones (I still think that ice cream was one of the better purchases I have made so far) and returned to the hostel to sleep like babies. We were so grateful to sleep in Sunday morning for the first time all trip.
Sunday morning the Aljafería is free, so after a typical Spanish breakfast of toast we toured around in there. Again, the detail was astounding and I enjoyed every second of it. It's so impressive to me that all of that history has been preserved so well and I'm super lucky to get to see it.
The plaza was our go to for lunch of course, and then after we had some more time to kill. Naturally, we found the nearest chocolateria and snacked on churros y chocolate. ¡Que rico!
I was very pleased with our decision to ride the elevator to the top of one of the basilica's towers and see the view. Well worth 2€.
It was getting to be that time, so we headed back to the hostel to gather our bags and then back to the train station to grab some snacks to hold us over until late dinner at home. It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to Barcelona soon!!
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