"No se gano Zamora en una hora." (Rome wasn't built in a day)

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all well. I'm so happy that fall has started and I am truly enjoying watching the leaves change their colors. Today (Oct 12th) is Spain's National Day. Basically meaning NOTHING is open today. They celebrate it a lot differently than we celebrate our 4th of July. There aren't really any celebrations except for a small parade in Madrid where the armed forces march down the main street and the military's marching band accompany them. The Royal family as well as the president and vice-president watch from a booth. Today, I also believe that they are welcoming home some of the troops that were over in Iraq. Until now, I didn't even realize Spain was involved. They don't have many people fighting over there, but a few troops.
Mercado Campillo-The main market in Valladolid to buy fresh fish and meats.
The only Roman church in Valladolid.
IES Emilio Ferrari. The school I work at.
This is the public library, which I now have a library card to.
The main river that flows through Valladolid. El rio Pisuerga. Also, if you notice on the left side there is some sand; I have been told many times by my students that that is Valladolid's "beach". If they only knew what our beaches looked like...hehe.

So this past Saturday I traveled to a small city called Zamora. It is a city in the region of Castilla-Leon and only an hour and a half away from Valladolid. I decided that this time around, I'm going to visit all the main cities in Castilla-Leon because I just love this region of Spain. I feel like it is the oldest region. Mayuka and I decided to take a day trip somewhere and we decided on Zamora because neither of us have been there. We spent the first half of the day there looking around at the old Romanico (Romanic) churches and buildings. The Romanico architecture is absolutely beautiful. We also visited the cathedral of Zamora and the ruins of the castle that once stood there. The castle was really neat to visit because even though there were only ruins, you can distinctly see where the rooms were divided, where the kitchen was and even the moat. Also, from the top of the castle there was a beautiful view of the entire city and the surrounding pueblos. The city was very interesting.
El rio Duero and a view of the villages around the city of Zamora.
Mayuka and I in front of one of the Romanic churches in Zamora. They look huge from the outside, but they are actually very small.
Plaza Mayor with a church placed right in the center. That's the first time I've seen that.


The Castle of Zamora.
Inside of the castle.
The cathedral of Zamora.
This is Zamora's cathedral's "imagen" that they carry during the processionals of Semana Santa.
Mayuka and I loved these little statues...they're so silly!

After visiting the city, Mayuka and I returned to Valladolid and found this Mexican restaurant close to where I live. The restaurant was decorated with bright colors and little figurines of mariachis. The menu had so many great traditional Mexican dishes and I was surprised that the food was so good. I had been to a Mexican restaurant before in Spain and hated it, but this one was fantastic. They even made the food a little spicy which is somewhat of a feat for Spain. After lunch we headed out to a bar to watch Spain's National football (soccer) team play against Armenia. They one 2-1. :)

Well, nothing more to say. Wish you all well and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Love, Celeste