Tuesday 22 June 2010

Toledo at last! And the days after.

On Friday Kaja and I went to Toledo! We took a high speed train that left at about 12:30 and were in Toledo by 1! When we got out of the train station, we could see Toledo ahead. Toledo is on a big hill, which meant very tired legs at the end of the weekend. We got free maps at a tourist info center place and then began our walk over the river and up the hill to the hostel! The initial walk was really fun, up windy roads and through a pretty park. In the park we stopped for a snack because the hostel didn't open until after 2. There was a homeless man near us and when we left the park Kaja left an orange on a bench for him, still don't know if he ever took it!
The hostel was SO nice! It was a little more expensive than the other one, but we had a private room with two beds, a big window with curtains, a bathroom with a shower that didn't flood the whole room, a closet, and a tv! We decided we liked the private room a lot, but at the same time missed the community feel of the joint room hostel, where you eat breakfast and make friends every morning.
After we had settled in our room we went out to explore Toledo! We decided to leave Kaja's map and just take mine because I was the map reader! Outside of our hostel was the Puerta Del Sol, a giant stone archway, very cool. We sat outside of it on a wall and looked at where we wanted to go. Just then, a gust of wind blew my map off the wall and onto the roof of the house below! So we decided to just get lost in Toledo and then try to find our way back later!
First thing we did was walk to the Plaza de Zocodover, which was a pretty happening place. There were people in costumes, paella restaurants, and lots and lots of Marzipan.
Toledo is famous for it's Marzipan and lots and lots of swords for some reason. I wanted to get a small box of Marzipan at some point, but wanted to wait till the second day and I had no interest in trying to get a sword through Logan Airport.
ANYways from the Plaza de Zocodover we walked up a street to the Alcazar of Toledo, which was unfortunately under renovations so we couldn't go inside. We did wander around it a bit though. Then we walked across the city looking for the big Cathedral of Toledo. After a bit of wandering we found it! It was cool, but after just seeing Notre Dam in Paris and the HUGE cathedral in Seville, I wasn't as in awe of this one. It was still really impressive though. Then Kaja and I just wandered the streets some more! The wandering was really fun because of all the narrow streets and endless sword shops! We suddenly came upon this little children's park with an AMAZING view of some cool round building that we didn't know what it was. The sun was just starting to go down and we were tired so we sat in the park, Kaja working on her friendship bracelet, and just chilled out for a good hour. Then a bunch of really dark clouds ominously rolled in and after taking some pictures of the clouds, we decided it was best to move on!
We walked down the hill towards the mysterious pretty building. Just as we got there, a wedding was getting out and a bunch of fireworks went off! Very cool. We people watched for a while and then I found a map on the ground near the building and decided it was time to go home. Using my crazy good sense of direction, we walked around the base of the hill towards our Hostel. It was about 7 at this point, still too early for dinner in spain, but we were HUNGRY! We were also SO tired so we thought we would head to the hostel and plan out what to do for dinner. JUST as we entered the hostel, those giant ominous clouds opened up and it started pouring! We were glad that we had just avoided the rain, but now we were trapped in the hostel with no food and very hungry! We looked Kaja's map and found an Italian restaurant not too far away that looked pretty good. After about and Hour the rain seemed to lighten up a bit, so we quickly left the hostel and braved through the drips to our food! We made it there alright, but our last map was soaked!
The restaurant was really good and when we left it was about 11 and we were ready for bed! On our way home we stopped by a little convenience store and got a carton of Don Simon sangria (The best one Euro can buy) and some cookies! At our hostel we made some friendship bracelets and watched a soccer game on the mini tv with our sangria until we fell asleep!
In the morning, we had to check out of the Hostel by noon, but we certainly took our time getting out. We got to the front desk at about 11:45, but luckily they said they would hold on to our bags at the front desk so we didn't have to lug them around all day!
This time we had Kaja's weather worn map to guide us! We sat down and circled all the places we wanted to go. First thing, we wanted to revisit Alcazar, now that we had the map. It was still closed, but the library attached was open so we went in. There was a line for the elevators so we decided to take the stairs. A million flights later, we came out into the library. It had a nice view, but other than that it was pretty un-interesting. We took the elevator down and in the elevator was this middle aged British couple that we talked to a bit.
We left and went out into the gardens behind Alcazar. They had an AMAZING view of the river that runs around the hill. We took some pictures!
We then walked back to the Plaza of Zocodover (today there was a man dressed up as Jack Sparrow the pirate...?) and down Calle Commercial which is like a big shopping street. We did some clothing shopping, but didn't buy anything except some postcards, stamps, and some souvenirs. Then we intended to find some other museums but got crazy lost because most of the streets aren't marked! I was really hungry, so we decided to try to find a lunch place, but we happened to be in a totally dead neighborhood. Just then we passed a little church monastery place, Santo Domingo, and Kaja said she remembered reading that this little inconspicuous Monestary in the middle of nowhere happened to sell the best marzipan in all of Toledo! We went inside and came to a door that was locked and in a dark hallway. We made out a sign that said "light," we pressed the button and the light turned on. Then there was another sign that we saw that said to ring the bell. We did. Nothing happened. We almost left but then we heard a voice from behind a small door on the wall. She was saying, "Open the door" in spanish. We opened the small door and there was a wooden spool turntable thing in the middle so you couldnt see through. The woman's voice on the other side asked us what we wanted. I asked for a box of marzipan and after a bit of shuffling, the wheel turned and out came a box of marzipan! The woman then said, "4.50 Euros" and I put down the money and re-turned the wheel. She then returned the wheel with my change, and I guess pulled on a chain to shut the wheel door! This Marzipan experience was the absolute strangest food purchasing experience of my life! We never saw who was on the other side of the door selling the marzipan in this dead empty monastery! The Marzipan was good though, although I decided I am not the biggest Marzipan fan.
Then we found where we were on the map and went towards the Cathedral again to try to find somewhere for lunch. On the way we passed the "Ancient instruments of Medieval Torture" museum... I decided we should go in... Dun DUN DUNNN.
The museum was really really disturbing. They had SO many torture devices there with really gory descriptions, but what I found most icky was the fact that they all had really been used at one time or another, on many people! Halfway through the exhibit I started feeling really lightheaded and had to sit down. I think it was a combo of the hungry, thirst, and horrifying exhibit, but I thought I was going to faint! Kaja was worried too, my face started sweating profusely and got all washed out. She fed me crackers and poured water into my mouth until I felt well enough to get back up. Then I insisted that we finish the exhibit before we left, because I wanted to get our money's worth, but we sped- finished it so as to get out as fast as we could!
Finally, after nearly losing it, we left and found a place for lunch. We sat down and then realized that the couple at the table next to us was the British couple from the elevator at the library!! We talked a bit, then they left. Kaja and I both got some Paella, after all we are in Spain! It was SO delicious, mine was Chicken, hers was vegetable (Kaja is a vegetarian) but my mouth was seriously burned after it!
After we were stuffed to pieces, we decided to find some of the museums that we originally set out for that day. We found the Casa del Greco, which holds many of El Greco's paintings as well as is his original home, but it was closed for renovations!
Then we went into the Iglesia de Santo Tome, which is a big church that has one of the most famous El Greco paintings. Then we went to a Synagogue! This was called Maria Blanca and was a gorgeous building that is now used as a gallery of many paintings depicting Jewish suffering and stuff.
By then Kaja and I were getting pretty tired of spending 3 Euros at every place we wanted to get into. We kept walking though and found the last place we had wanted to see, a big Monastery. It turned out to be the building that we had seen the previous day while sitting in the park! ANOTHER wedding was getting out so we sat down and people watched for a long time, because we loved looking at all the dresses and the bride! Then we walked back up the streets, got some ice cream, and walked back to the Plaza Zocodover. We sat down on a wall and rested, then looked to our right and guess who was sitting there?
THE BRITISH COUPLE! This was seriously strange, to run into the same couple at three different places! But, around then it was time to head back to the train station so we went down the hill, got our bags from the hostel, and walked to the train station! Then it was speedy train, metro, and by the time we were out of the Metro and walking to Kaja's it was almost 11 PM. We got to her house and after a little email checking and such, went to bed.
In the morning we uploaded the Facebook album of photos, available now on Kaja's facebook! Then after some breakfast we decided to go to Madrid for the day!
We took the metro to the Retiro Park again, because we loved that park! We sunbathed and worked on friendship bracelets for a few hours. Then we got up and went to the Prado Museum, which holds tons of fine art masterpieces. It was Sunday so we got in for free! We roamed around for a few hours before we got tired and went to go find some dinner.
We always have trouble finding dinner because Kaja wants good vegetarian food and I want good meaty food and neither of us want to spend a ton of money but also we don't want to starve! Normally we look for a supermarket to get some food, but then we found a vegetarian falafel place directly across from my favorite, McDonalds! Kaja got a big old falafel and I got a cheeseburger, but I must say, next time I am going for the falafel, it sure looked good!
Then we took the metro home, talked to Kaja's Au-parents for a while, and went to bed after watching last week's episode of True Blood!
The next day was Monday! I love sleeping over at Kaja's because then I can sleep in! After sleeping until 11 or so, Kaja and I biked to the nearby town of Bodilla del Monte to try, once again, to purchase our Abono passes for the metro/bus. We found a tabac, conveniently located with a photo taking place on one side and a photocopy place on the other! We got our pictures taken at the photo place, got our passports photocopied at the photocopy place, and filled out the form to get our Abonos! Now all that is left is for them to arrive in the mail in two weeks!! Finger's crossed that it works!
We then biked halfway back to Kaja's, stopped for a picnic lunch that we brought, and went the rest of the way home. It was then basically time for us to get our kids so I went to my bus stop.
There was a different bus driver than normal and I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a ride all the way down the street with the new guy! :(
Then we picked up the kids, they were really cute as they always are when I first see them after a weekend! At the Abuelo's house though it was a little tricky. They simply DO NOT listen to me when I tell them not to do things, I don't understand why! I do the same things that the abuelos and padres do, counting to three and getting very stern, but they just do not respect my authority! So when they both started climbing up this skinny tree bush thing and I told them to get down, it was a problem. They WOULD NOT come down, even when I physically tried to lift Carmen out of the tree she wouldn't get out, and started screamin! OY!
I then got the abuelo and he came out and promptly counted to three and they came right down, of course. He then told them they had to listen to what I said and the look on their face clearly said, "This is news to me!" Carmen and Rafa were like, "WHY???" Oh gosh.
Then Maica came and stayed for a bit while Carmen, Rafa, and I went swimming in the Abuelo's pool. After a wee dip we went back home. Maica said she was leaving for a half hour before the Spanish World cup game started, but I thought Rafa Sr was still there so I went into Carmen's room and didn't know where Rafita was. I helped Carmen with this tell-time game she has and tried to teach her how to tell time. Then we played with a little cash register she had. Then Rafita yelled something to us and we went into the living room. Turns out that Rafa Sr wasn't at home and the whole time that I had been with Carmen, Rafita had been watching TV and DOWNING a whole can of Pringles... oops. Actually I still don't know if Rafa Sr had been home, or gone that whole time, because minutes later he came in so he could have just stepped out for a bit. But I felt really guilty for not watching Rafita! Still, no one seemed to care that he went through the Pringles like that, so maybe its no problem!
Then we ate dinner and watched the World Cup, Spain won so everyone was happy!
Then I was done for the day, showered, skyped with mum and pop, and went to bed!!!
P.s. plan for this coming weekend is to go to Grenada! Also the kid's school gets out on Friday so starting next week is the different schedule! I'm excited to see how that works out!
xoxo
Julia

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like another amazing weekend! Can you
    learn to make Pialla? (how do you spell that?)
    I love you! XOXOX

    ReplyDelete