Toledo

This was a very busy, yet very fun, weekend. There were a lot of people visiting here. (Sam's roomate Meghan, their friend Ben who also goes to Notre Dame and his girlfriend Becca who is studying in Toledo with Sam. Ben and Meghan are studying in London) Everybody arrived on Thursday night and we spent Friday showing them a little around Madrid. We had a lot of fun and then on Saturday we left for Toledo. To sum up Toledo in 0ne word-Beautiful. The city is only 45 minutes away and the bus ticket was only 5 euro. The main part of the city is surrounded by a massive wall with a huge gate opening. The streets are all cobblestone, narrow and busy. The city is known for many things: art, blades, El Greco, Don Quijote/Cervantes and architecture for sure. I spent most of Saturday walking around the city with Sam. She showed me all of the places that she knows, where she goes to school and where she lives. I took a lot of pictures. Toledo is a very interesting city in that it has traces of history from Catholic, Jewish and Arabic pasts. Compared to Madrid, there were many smaller shops with very interesting things in them. Mom, there were Lladros everywhere. You would go crazy. Spending the day in the city where Sam lives was very cool. She definitely loves it there. As we were sitting in one of the plazas, some older lady came up just to tell Sam she was very pretty. I would love it there too. The atmosphere of the city is a lot different too. Things there are a lot slower and more relaxed. It doesn't have all the "hustle and bustle" of Madrid, but that is definitely not a bad thing. People were hanging out in the plaza listening to music, children were running around playing and everybody around was just plain enjoying life. I definitely was. We ate dinner at a little place on the corner and then afterwards had some gelato across the street. I felt like being brave so I ordered something off the menu that I had very little of an idea as to what it was. It turned out to be a great choice. It was a couple of fried eggs, french fries and some type of tomato-y sauce that, when mixed together, was an amazing brinner (breakfast-dinner). We hung out talking on the corner until we saw a huge procession for a festival for the Virgen. There were people carrying a giant float and a band. We went to a little bar for a bit and by that time everybdy was exhausted. The hostel that Ben, Meghan and I stayed in was very nice. It was my first experience with a hostel and it was a great one. It was basically adorable. Yeah I said it: adorable. I had a great night's sleep (8 hours). In the morning Sam, Meghan and I went purse shopping (yay for me) and walked around some more. Actual "yay" for me, I went and bought a knife. Toledo is very famous for their blades so I had to buy a little knife as a souvenir. We ate some breakfast and said our "goodbyes". Meghan, Ben and I took the bus back to Madrid and they left for the airport. It was a very successful trip. Everybody had a lot of fun.