Holy Toledo!

This past weekend we went to Toledo and Madrid. Both were gorgeous, but I preferred Toledo.

We all met at the bus at 7 am Saturday morning. As you can imagine, nobody was really thrilled about that. After about a 4 hour bus ride, we arrived in the beautiful city of Toledo.

Toledo is known as one of the only cities where Catholics, Jews, and Moors all lived peacefully. As a result, it was a center of learning and commerce, and there are tons of churches (maybe this is why we say “Holy Toledo”??) We toured several cathedrals. They were all beautiful, but they all blend together after a while. Apparently the artist El Greco spent some time in Toledo, so I got to see several of his paintings in the cathedrals.

Toledo is also known as the city of gold because gold is so common and cheap there. I went in a little shop where an old man had his work station set up and bought a little gold hand engraved bird necklace for 7 euros, which is about 10 American dollars. Gold is so cheap in Toledo! If I had brought more cash I would have bought more.

After Toledo, we headed to Madrid. Madrid is HUGE. Think New York with prettier and older buildings. We got there around 7:30 at night, so the first thing we did was find somewhere to eat. We ended up at a place called Nebraska, which apparently is a chain of restaurants in Madrid where they speak English. Lucky us! It gets tiring to try to speak in Spanish all the time. Plus, we got our hamburger and French fry fix! After that we tried to get into a local discoteca (which is what they call clubs), but they wouldn’t let us in because we were wearing sandals. When all you can pack is what you can fit in your backpack, your fashion options are rather limited.

The next day, we went to the Reina Sophia and the Prado. The Reina Sophia is a museum that has more contemporary artists like Salvador Dali and Picasso. The Prado has older paintings by artists like Velazquez, Goya, Botticelli, etc. They were great! We spent most of the Reina Sophia trying to figure out what kind of drugs Dali and Picasso were on, and most of the Prado getting lost in their maze of rooms.

There is always tons of stuff going on in Madrid’s streets. We saw musicians, living statues, a Syrian protest, street artists, and vendors galore. I bought an enamel painting for 5 euros from a little old man in a park across from the Prado. He was so cute, and his work was beautiful!

The bus broke down on the way back to Salamanca, but we finally made it and my bed has never felt so good.  I didn’t even mind the lack of air conditioning.

It would take too long to write about everything that has happened this week, so I’ll just give you the highlights. Monday we made the 5 mile hike to the Corte Ingles, which is the Spanish version of Walmart, except it is 8 stories tall and way way better. We got snacks for class- mini brownies, Spanish brand Special K bars, and juice boxes. That night we went to the Irish Rover, met some Spanish guys, had actual conversations in Spanish, and hung out with friends in the Plaza. We stayed out way too late- class is not fun when you’re functioning on 4 hours of sleep. Tuesday it poured and we were caught outside in a hailstorm, after which it got very freezing so Taylor and I just stayed in and played Scrabble. Wednesday the weather was beautiful- I went to class, took a siesta, then met a friend from class to study in the park (he happens to be very attractive, if anybody reading this cares about those kinds of details). Then I wandered around, got some helado (which is super delicious Spanish ice cream- we get it every day!), found a nice sunny bench, and sketched a pretty building. An old local man sat down beside me, and we had a 30 minute conversation about drawing, school, and books. In Spanish! I will be a pro by the time I leave.


We are going to Portugal this weekend, so look for details about that in my next blog!