As we were getting into our third week, my roommates and I realized we should start traveling outside of Madrid. So, three of my roommates and I found a cheap bus ticket to a city called Cuenca and, with the reassurance of some cool photos on google, decided to make a day trip out of it. This Saturday, we woke up at six in the morning to catch the bus and arrived into Cuenca two and half hours later with no plans whatsoever. We got off the bus to just the usual sight of a city, with an atmosphere that was much more composed than that of Madrid. I instantly felt a slight panic, realizing that we had no idea where or how to found the sights we saw in those google photos. But my roommates were in a hopeful mood and were ready to make an adventure out of our day. Plus, we had ten hours ahead of us. So, after a quick cup of coffee, we were on our way.

In the distance we could see some intriguing hills, which had the possibility of inhabiting bears according to my roommates (being from the east coast of the U.S., none of them had seen a bear before). So off we went, “To the hills!” Sauntering through neighborhoods, along run-down streets, and up promising slopes, we came across a little bridge over a river. Out came our cameras and over the bridge we went. Past the bridge, along the side of the road, we followed stoney steps to the bottom where we found a pathway along the river. We continued to follow along the path until we found cute chalk-colored stones decorating the walkway.

After talking to some locals, we found out that we were actually pretty close to the tourist spots that pictured in the google images. A Spanish family pointed up to a hill nearby and said we could either take a bus up to the top, or we could walk up, which provided more opportunities for scenic photos. So we decided to walk up and found out that was the best decision we could’ve made. We found ourselves walking between colorful buildings, down pretty alleyways, and down hidden steps. Along the way, we kept coming across beautiful views of the either the city below or the green canyon that extended on for miles. The buildings we walked through were built on a hill, so everything had a unique way of being arranged. At the Plaza Mayor, which was almost to the top, we came across the Cuenca Cathedral and discovered cute little tourist shops. After eating a quick lunch in front of the cathedral, we decided to be even more adventurous and diverged our path down some stairs through a hidden archway. The path took us along the edge of the city that showed us more of the canyon and more rustic, green covered buildings. Interestingly, along this path, we saw a pair of blue eyes on the hill across the canyon from us. Seeing it we joked, “The hills have eyes!” Needless to say, I fell in love with this city.

Walking uphill the whole way, we collapsed on a patch of grass beneath a historic bridge at the top of our journey. After a mini-siesta we continued to explore the top of the city, where the views were even more extravagant than before. Another interesting thing we discovered was that Cuenca was home to several stray cats. Both being lovers of cats, my roommate Alex and I proceeded to have a photo-shoot of a pile of kittens with its mother for ten minutes. We could have gone longer, but our other roommate asked if we could please find another obsession. And we were easily able to. Every building was beautiful and every which way we looked offered us another incredible view of the city below.

Slowly but surely, we made our way back down the hill (taking plenty of pictures along the way). We decided to make our way back to where we would be in the vicinity of the bus station and find a place to eat. Back in the flattened part of the city, we spotted a little cafe hidden on the side of a building called Cafe Hispaña. We expected the cafe to be small when walking through the entrance, but the doors opened up into a large room with a mirrored bar, shelves of alcohol, hanging lights, tables along the outer walls, and an island bar in the center. We sat down at the bar in the center and were helped by nice, pretty waitress who spoke in broken English but who was very willing to help us. Having two hours until our bus would leave for Madrid, we took our time ordering different drinks and dessert cocktails from the menu (there were so many to choose from!) and had chocolate and caramel waffles as our dinner. It was a great way to end our day trip after all that walking. Our bodies sore and tired, we took the bus back to our home in Madrid, with tortillas españolas waiting for us from our host mom.