TOLEDO
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
41
51
Trip End
Dec 22, 2007
Toledo,
Spain
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Hope you are all healthyand happy! A notbeforeyou read the spacebar on the compis notworkingwell.
Sooooooo this past weekend our group went on a trip to Madrid, Segovia, And Toledo. It was more fun than I expected yet frustrating cuzmostfolks choose to speak in english thus my full immersion iscompromised. That is ok I continue to be a brat and speak almost entirely in spanish. A number of folkshave picked up on this and willstart conversations with mme in spanish even though with all others they speak english :)
But yes, we went to the Prado(nowmysecondtime) But the just opened a newwing the week we went so thatwas cool to seesome new stuff.Ialso had more appreciation forsome of thestuff because we just finished studyingit in myclass. Wealso vistited the ReinaSophia which i s the modern art museum in Spain. It was not near ascool as theTAtebut still a lovely experience to checkout art. And heck when it isall paid for bythe program ya can´treallycomplain. The study abroadtuition as so far been t he best spentmoney on myeducation I think. WE get so many ¨free¨ benefits that it works out nicely. But yes we also dida walking tour ofMadrid andlearned a littleof thehistoryand those of us in the Barocco art class analyzed the buildings :) Oh Ialso wentto eatchurros and chocolate witha group of folks in our group which was goodfun. Our third day in Madridwe went tothe Escorial which isa huge palace/library/school/monesstary that was buildby Felipe II to commenmorate a battleand basically toi show his loyaltyto thechurch. HE was a crazy partier the first part ofhis lifeand lived likea monkthe second half. His goal was thatthe king would like as a monkand the monkswoulad live as kings. Hisbedroom was aafewfeet fromthe alterin t he church so he could always open the doors on on sideof hisroom and ¨go to mass¨ without leaving his bed. Asa child I can remember wishing Ihad a roomlike that :)
Then we went to the Valley of theFallen which is this ridiculous buildingthat Franco built (OKso it is a church not just a building) but he is buried there andit hasall these military symbolismand such. Idon´tknow I have troubleseeing it as a holy place with all itsimplications... The arcitecture is incrediblet though and there is a huge crossabove it on the mountain that is also awesome. When we got back fromthis trip to the ouatskirts of madridLacey and I splurged (Well we used our food money from t he program... andthenI itook food from the continentalbreakfastevery morning for lunch :) )andwe wentto se Jesucristo Superstar. Translation Jesus Christ Superstar. It was in Spanish and VeryGuay. Ilove musicalsand I reallylike the music in thatone.
Our seats were... special... we couldn´texactlysee the faces of thepeople but we couldhear the music and see movement belowso that is all that matters.
The next daywe wentt o segovia Wherethere is a big aquaduct (Itreminded meof Moreliabecause of that) and we dida walking tour and then hadtime tojust wonder about... Ithnk I visited churhs... oh and we visited the alcazarwhich is the castle that snowwhite´scastle was modeled after. (Side note we a lso visitedthe palace in madird) But yes segoviawa s a charming down andat themomentI don´tremember much ofit...though I know I likedthe tour itwas interestignas always and coveredalot about the jewish influence in segovia.
On our wayhome westoppedin Toledo and visited synogaues and a famous painting byel greco. Wealso wandered through the windingstreets and bought marzapanwhich is traditionalfrom Toledo. I still have one piece left :) It is notexactlythe sameas thesee´s candyversion because ait is not smothered in darkchocolate but still tasty.
Those are the highlights asbriefly summarized as possible. Of my normal life nothing new.Continueto LOVE LOVE LOVE my salsa class and am contemplating lookingfora place to take classes in the US whenI getback. Though it isa bitfrustrating because Ipickup on itmuch fasterthan mostofthet class so we are moving WAY to slowly in my opinion :) Ia ms o demanding... HAVE A FANTABULOUS WEEK ALL!
