This is the story of my 6 months of studying in Arizona in 2010 and subsequent travels in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Enjoy!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

2 days in Querétaro - Day 13 and 14

I have had two really nice days in Querétaro, with no specific quests besides enjoying the city and meeting my friend Vicente for dinner! :)

As you know I arrived around 7 PM Tuesday night to San Gallito, a hostel close to the historical center. It was sort of a struggle with the taxi driver, as he didn' know the address. Obviously I didn't know where we were going either, until I realised that I had a little map with the hostel's location, and adding a cross-street to the address helped! Still, a cheap way of getting around - I paid 37 pesos for the app. 20 min trip.

Remember I was a little worried if I would get a good nights sleep in the hostel with the mixed dorm? Well, I did. :) Luckily noone was snoring excessively, and people were moving around quietly. So I woke up around 7 the next morning, turned around to sleep a little more, and then had breakfast in the kitchen, before heading out in the town some hours later. It is pretty cold in the mornings, so I tend to stay in until shorts and a sweatshirt is warm enough. It takes another hour, and then the sweatshirt is way too hot. :)

Querétaro is a pretty town, and one thing struck me: I have never seen a place with SO MANY churches around! Its like there is another magnificent structure on every corner. So at one point I gave up looking into all of them, though they really are pretty and very different. Vicente told me later that at some point there had been sort of a competition to build the prettiest churches, which is one of the reasons that there are so many.

I walked around for a while, taking little breaks to look up words to expand my Spanish vocabulary. I can feel how I am really picking up on more and more words actually, and people are in general very understanding and helpful regarding the language, when you show that you are trying to learn! Sometimes though people get very excited about something and they will speak like waterfalls though you just told them that your Spanish is very limited! So I need to remember how to say ”please slow down!”

At one point while walking around I came a shop with fabrics, and I found a little piece of army green fabric that would be perfect to repair a big hole I had managed to make in the seem of my ”travel pants”, which was not controlled by just stitching it back together. I went back to the hostel (after getting lost, but finding a nice gordita con queso on the way) to repair the pants and Mom, you would be proud to see how nicely they have been fixed! :D A suitable Danish saying is “necessity teaches naked woman to sow”…

I sat in the yard for a while, writing the previous blog posts, and then went out to see the Regional Historical Museum. Turned out to be for free for students, pretty good as I did not understand any of the information texts, all in Spanish. But the building and exhibitions told some stories anyway, and the visit was worthwhile.

I was having dinner with my friend Vicente (whom I met in Russia almost two years ago), and we agreed to meet outside the gates of the hostel, ‘cause as he said: “Then you wont get lost…” Thank you for believing in my sense of directions, dear! :D We ate in a small, local, and very popular restaurant, Marisposa (/butterfly), and we both had 4 different tacos and a special ice cream (mantecado, if I got it right) with raisins and pieces of cactus. Uhm!

Was back in my hostel bed around 10, and spend some time reading before falling asleep.

1 comment:

  1. Hola Louise. I am very envious of your travels. I spent two months in el DF/Ciudad Neza con un amiga, que conoci aqui in Louisville KY, my hometown.
    I am very sad and worried about all the good people in Mexico because of all the drug violence. Be careful and spread your love.
    Patrick Logsdon

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