Sunday, February 8, 2009
Toledo!
Hi everyone,
Yesterday ISA took us to Toledo and it was a lot of fun. For one thing Carlos and Carmen led the trip and they're the funniest ISA directors. (Carlos loves to get on the bus microphone and talk about absolutely nothing. It's funny.) We also had this entertaining, passionate tour guide, Marcos.
Toledo is beautiful. It's on top of a hill (we actually took this outdoor escalator to get up the hill) and surrounded on three sides by the Río Tajo. We went on a walking tour of the city and explored the Monestario de San Juan de los Reyes and the Sinagoga de Santa María la Blanca. The synagogue was so interesting because it was a Jewish synagogue, but the architecture was very Moorish. Later on Christians converted it into a church. During the Middle Ages all of these cultures coexisted in Toledo (before the unification of Spain under the Reyes Católicos and the subsequent expulsion of Jewish and Muslim people) and it was interesting to see all of the cultures leave their own marks on one building.
We walked around some more and stopped for a quick bathroom/snack break. I bought a Coca Cola Light at this one taberna so I could use its bathroom and they gave me this little plate of chorizo and potatoes in this delicious tomato based sauce. It was amazing and I don't know what it was called because I didn't ask for it; the woman behind the counter just gave it to me. I'm seriously craving it right now. Then we went to the Iglesia de Santo Tomé and saw one of El Greco's masterpieces, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. I really enjoyed seeing the painting because we studied it for almost two days in my art history class this past week. I've really come to like El Greco's work. We also walked past the cathedral and on to the Plaza de Zocodover.
After that we had some free time. My new roommates (the other ones moved out because they wanted to have someone cook for them) and I went to lunch at this cute little restaurant. We ate and then sat and talked for a while and really got to know each other. I love Spain because you can just sit forever after you're done with your meal and they don't try to hurry you out of the restaurant and they don't annoy you by asking you if you want dessert 50 billion times. Eating meals is really relaxing here. Anyway, I really like my new roommates a lot and we went shopping a bit after we left the restaurant. I had kind of wanted to go to the Alcázar, but it was okay. It was nice exploring more of the winding streets. And after all that, we got on the bus and I took an hour siesta until I arrived back in Madrid.
Click here to see my photos!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment