Today was such a beautiful day here in Spain. This morning was SO COLD. I wore jeans, flats, a 3/4 sleeve shirt and a cardigan over it and I was still cold. It. was. amazing. I don't miss that part of Texas at all haha. Anyway we started the morning with the hotel's breakfast buffet, then we boarded our bus to Toledo!
Toledo is about an hour outside of Madrid. Unfortunately our bus driver did the press-and-release-and-re-press-the-gas-over-and-over-again method, so I got motion sick about halfway there. Luckily I didn't actually get sick, I just felt bad for a while. However it was worth it because the city is beautiful. It's a UNESCO heritage site and you can see the history everywhere. It was the capitol during the reign of the Visigoths, and the walls that surround the northern part of the city still stand. The other three sides have never had a wall because they're surrounded by the river and steep hillsides, so there was no need for one. The castle still stands as well, however our tour guide said that it's been rebuilt (I think) 4 times, and the most recent was after the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. We then went around and saw some of the sites of the city, like a synagogue that was converted to a church after the Reconquista in the late 15th century, when Queen Isabella gave the Moors and Jews the boot. It's sad, because Toledo used to be one of the cultural hubs, full of all different kinds of people where they could live together in (mostly) peace, and all of that went out the window. Still, it was cool to see the old churches, walk the cobblestone streets, and see doors as old as the 14th and 15th centuries. Like I said, you could just feel the history everywhere you went.
We also saw the Cathedral of Toledo (actually called the Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo), and it's HUGE, and seriously gorgeous. The stained glass windows stole my heart when we walked in. They were gorgeous. It was started in 1226 and wasn't completed until 1493. I would say I can't believe it took that long, but actually when you look at its beauty it's not hard to believe. Side note: Toledo has 80 churches (only 30 still used today), but it was considered a very holy city at one point in time, hence the phrase "Holy Toledo! Funny right? All this time I never knew the origin of the phrase.
Anyway, we then had a couple of hours of free time, so Amanda (my roommate) and I wandered around the city and looked for a place to eat lunch. We went to Bershka, which is a European clothing store that I've wanted to go to for a while and finally today got to go to! I bought two scarves, and I'm so excited about both of them! Then we just meandered the calles looking in shops and for lunch. I didn't know it until I got here, but there is actually a law in Spain that requires all restaurants to have a menu del dia, or menu of the day, that includes a first course, second course, dessert, and a drink all for around 9 or 10 euro (in Toledo those are the prices anyway, I've heard Salamanca is much cheaper to live in, or at least cheaper than Madrid). We ended up going down several calles and saw multiple places to eat, but neither of us could read the menus, so guess where we ended up eating? McDonalds! Haha, we both ended up getting a McPollo (haha), and it was good! We're going to be sure to take a dictionary with us when we go places from now on.
I bought some car sickness medicine for the bus ride home and ended up sleeping the whole way back... then slept an hour more when we got back to the hotel. When I woke up we had a meeting about Salamanca and our class schedule, which I'll share more on later. We then chilled in the room for a while then went out for dinner. We went to a place called Pan & Company, which was a sandwich place. It was really pretty yummy, and there was a guy outside giving out coupons, so we each got a sandwich, a drink and then some papas to share for only 8,75 euros total, which was a great price. Then we walked around the Puerta del Sol for a while, where there were street performers and things to see (including a Mexican mariachi band). Then we walked down one of the calles there and just enjoyed the atmosphere. I'm loving how you can walk basically anywhere in the cities. Everyone walks everywhere. It's so nice to not have to get in your car to go somewhere to eat or to buy groceries or clothes. I'm loving it so far.
Anyway, I do have pictures of everything mentioned in the post, but the internet here at the hotel isn't very good, so it would take forever to upload everything. Our resident director told us today that we should have internet with our host family (YAY) so hopefully I can upload some pictures there!
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