This weekend, my Spanish Culture and Civilization took a class trip to Navarra, the northernmost part of Spain. In class, we are learning about Spain and its culture during the Roman, Gothic and Baroque periods. This weekend, we went to two castles, two cathedrals, and two monasteries to look at the architecture from these periods. My favorite part was the castles. The first was El Castillo de Olite, built in 1402 for the king of Navarra. It was very well preserved and we got to climb all of the narrow, winding stairwells to the towers of the castle. The most beautiful part was the Queen's Garden, which is still maintained today. The other castle, El Castillo de Loarre, was on top of a very high mountain. It was built in 1020 for the Navarra military, then was converted to the home of cloistered Benedictine monks. The best part about this castle was the amazing views of the mountains! Although we spent much of our time on the bus, it was still a great weekend. We stayed in very fancy hotels, which was awesome compared to the hostels we are all used to! We had four course meals and got to sleep in air conditioning for the first time in a month. Plus, I became good friends with all of the kids in my class and now I have some native Spaniards to study with!