Holy Toledo

Okay, so if you know anything about Spain then you might know what I did on Friday based on the title of this blog. Toledo is a town in Spain. It's actually the former capital of Spain. It is also a World Heritage Site because it is known as "The City of Three Cultures" because of the historical co-existence of Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

Pause on Toledo for a second though, before we left for a day trip to Toledo. I had to go to my appointment for my empadronamiento. Don't ask me for the translation of that word, because I don't know it. Basically, I needed to take my renting contract to a citizenship office and get this document that proves I am indeed living in Madrid. This is a document that I will need when I go to get my TIE/NIE, which I have briefly mentioned before.

Puerta de Bisagra Nueva

Anyway, after that pretty simple, yet annoying to have to do appointment, Stephanie, Karin, and I left on a bus to Toledo. We were expecting the ride to take about an hour and a half, but it ended up only being 45 minutes, which was great! We really didn't have a plan going to Toledo. We asked a few people what to do/what to see and they said the standard answer cathdral, museums, etc., but those same people also said, "Just walk around and get lost." So that was pretty much our plan. When we got to the station, we headed up the hill in search of an entrance to get in (there is a huge fortress wall surrounding portions of the city). Anyway, we entered in through the first place we found, which apparently is called the Puerta de Bisagra Nueva, and the main entrance to the city..who knew? Thanks, Wikipedia.

After entering, we started walking towards what seemed to be in the direction of the center and we actually did find the cathedral! Woohoo! We thought about going it, but it wasn't really worth the money to us, not for that day anyway. Since it's a short and cheap trip, we can go back another time if we really really want to. And we still got to see the outside and it is a very beautiful cathedral.

Catedral Primada Santa María de Toledo

After seeing the cathedral and the town hall, we quickly stepped inside a tourist information place and they gave us a map and us, being still broke non-college students, asked the lady what the free things were. She told us and then she also gave us a voucher to get a discount at a Jewish church that allows you to go up into the tower and see the view. So we thought we would take that opportunity. Instead of walking straight to the church though, we took a stroll through what is known as the Jewish Quarter.

Escuela de Artes y Oficios

View of the outskirts

Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes

Puerta del Cambrón

La Judería

After that stroll, we went to a place that had mazapán, which is some sort of dessert that is "famous" in Toledo. Also, it's eaten a lot at Christmastime. It tasted like jelly beans to me...just a lot of sugar. I didn't think it was delicious, but it wasn't bad. 

Mazapán

After the mazapán, we walked to the Iglesia de San Ildefonso, also known as the Iglesia de los Jesuitas. Because of our coupons we received, we entered for 1.40 euros (instead of 2..woo) and we took a look at the church. We were also allowed to go up into the tower and see the view, so that was really cool and we took a ton of pictures up there.

Inside of the church

View from the top

At the top of the church

Once we got a good look from the tower, we went back down and found our way to the Museo de Santa Cruz (another free thing to do). When we got close to the museum, we stopped briefly in a plaza, under a tree. And then, I felt something fall on my head...I asked Stephanie, "Is that a leaf or bird poop?" Unfortunately, it was the latter. We were able to get most of it out so that's good and I don't know what it is about this bird poop thing being good luck, but that was the second time in my life and THIS year that that has happened to me! Anyway, we went into the museum and spent quite awhile there looking at art. We spent some time laughing at art, too, which you're probably not supposed to do, but we couldn't help it. There were some paintings by El Greco in the museum, also. El Greco is a well-known artist during the Spanish Renaissance and he lived in Toledo for most of his life. You can go to his home and museum in Toledo, but we skipped out on that. After the Museo de Santa Cruz, we had a small dinner at a café and we all wondered if dining and dashing was common in Spain. A lot of cafés have tables on the street and it seems like it would be easy to just up and leave. Now don't worry, I have never and would never do it. However, we were curious as to whether it happens. I haven't asked a Spaniard yet, but I will someday, I'm sure.

After dinner, we were all pretty tired. We could've gone to the Military museum for pretty cheap, but we decided it was too much. However, if I were to go back to Toledo, I would go there and go inside of the Cathedral. As we were walking back to the bus station, we passed a store called Taste of America. We were all curious so we went in to check it out. I knew there was one in Madrid, but I haven't been there yet. There was fall stuff towards the front, like Halloween candy, Halloween cookie cutters, pumpkin pie filling, etc. And then you had a lot of other random US American goods. For example, peanut butter, FrootLoops, Pepperidge Farm products, A&W root beer, pickles, Campbell's soup,pop tarts, pretzels, etc. Did you know FrootLoops were banned in Spain up until recently because the kind of processed sugar in them was banned in Spain? Interesting, huh? Anyway, it was fun to see what they had, but we didn't buy anything, because obviously it was way overpriced.

We got on the bus and went our separate ways once we got back in Madrid. I went home and watched Glee and Grey's Anatomy, which was a good way to relax after the long day, even though Glee was a tearjerker. My night was good and the day was even better.

Sorry it took so long to write this post.