Toledo!

Day 3:

So we never made it to the Explores bar the night before… we just stayed at the Irish pub where we became very good friends with that bar tender who is from Ireland and married a girl from New York and now lives in Toledo (how romantic), his name was Amen and he was the best. They opened the top part of the bar just for my Azahar group because we ovi “don’t just invade France and Iraq, we (Americans) invade Irish pubs in the middle of Spain.

The next day we went to see the Cathedral of Toledo and it was prob the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. I was in such shock of all the detail and how enormous this place was. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but I just hope I always remember what I saw. I guess it is also my first European church too, so maybe that is why it was so amazing. There was a huge painting (to the very top of the ceiling, which is very tall) or Christopher Columbus carrying Jesus on his shoulders to the ‘new world’. Something that was also very interesting to me was the fact that they just had dead (important) people, such as kings and queens and bishops, embedded into the very detailed walls with statues of their bodies carved in stone laying on top of them (so detailed also). The whole time I could not fathom how people did all this art, detail, and amazing painting back then. There isn’t even a place built like this today, I just kept asking the professors, how did they do this?

After the Cathedral my friends and I walked around again and decided to not have a heavy lunch to save euros so we found a little supermarket nearby, and got these cheese and prosciutto (no idea how to spell it) sandwiches and they may or may not have been the best things we have eaten and only (3 eruo!!) so we got them and walked our way back to the hotel and took a nap for 4 and a half hours (to say the least it was hard getting back to the time difference). We awoke and went to this church (Church of Santo Tome) which was really cool and had a ton of history (but not as cool as the cathedral). Then we walked around the city and the square near the hotel where everyone seemed to hang out had the most adorable children running around. I do not know what it is about this country but they produce the most beautiful offspring. The children are just beautiful, everywhere we go. Then we ate dinner, and went out to our last night in Toledo, and you guessed it we went to that Irish pub again.

Once again they had to call in Amen and open the top part of the bar so we could all have a good time, they played a ton of fun music and we were all dancing, it was a great bonding moment. They started to play Irish music and Kendall and others brought out their dance moves, it was hilarious.

Day 4:

We woke up, I have realized how much of a morning person I actually am not, it is prob the hardest time of the day for me. We went to an old synagogue/ museum and had our lecture over looking this amazing view of rural Toledo with these homes embedded in the mountains. The synagogue (Sinagoga del Transito) was very cool to see, since it will be the only Jewish thing I am seeing on the trip. I took a ton of pictures because I know that mom will LOVE to see them and it is incredible how it is still there and how there was such a prominent Jewish population in this beautiful city. We also saw all of the old artifacts, torahs, clothing, etc. in the museum. It was so interesting and I was teaching people around me a lot of things that my professors didn’t even know (brownie points). It was cool that I could have given the tour (I was being cocky, weird.)

We all got on the buses to go to Cordoba for a 4 hour ride and said goodbye to Toledo, I hope I make it back one day to show someone I love this amazing city (but you only need 2 days there, at most). We finally made it and we got to our hotel where I was so excited I finally got internet!! So I talked to people in my family and some friends (sorry if I didn’t get to talk to you, time was limited and I was very busy). It was so good to be back with reality and actually a weird feeling not having a cell phone this whole time, but I actually like it, it is kind of liberating. Then we all got ready to go out, we heard about some bars but we decided to ask the guy at the front desk (best idea). We found this very good bar and it was a lot bigger then our Irish pub in Toledo (thank goodness) and we all were having fun dancing to Spanish music and attempting to salsa dance the best part was watching the American boys in my group dance (hilarious but were surprising not too bad).

Day 5:

Waking up this morning was once again my least favorite part of the day, always at 8:00 am. Thank goodness my roommate Jacquline is very understanding about me in the morning and handles it well, I know I can say that on behalf of all of my family members that deal with me in the mornings is not the most pleasant thing (she deserves a trophy). We had a lecture that was very interesting but I was not in the mood but I forced myself to pay attention. We went to the Great Mosque (which is pretty great) and got tours by our professors and that place was absolutely AMAZING! There is so much history there and I learned soooo much! It is once again unbelievable how they made this HUGE place.

Then we once again had time to walk around and explore the city, so we were hungry too and had to get lunch so we found a cute little place with tapas. But we didn’t get tapas. We were so hungry we got pizza (whops). It was amazing and well needed good food. We walked around and ovi got lost in good style with my friends, this city isn’t as pretty as Toledo but it was still nice to see. We made it back and decided to go for a run with my friend Jordan (oh and I bought a watch, I needed one so bad). This run was AMAZING! Because not only were we exploring, we saw things and were working out at the same time, we want to do it in every city. Now we are waiting to eat at nine and I have been hungry since 6 so we are going! Adios!

ps. made really good friends from Fordham....they are amazing!