Toledo
Rewind to Friday: El Tigre was fun! It is said that you know how good a tapas place is by how many napkins are on the floor. The messier the floor, the busier the restaurant, the less time they have to clean. I had queso manchego, a type of cheese on slices of bread. I’m not too picky of an eater, but I’m trying to be more adventurous in what I eat. It’s hard in Spain because everything is either pork or seafood. I won’t eat pork and I’m not the biggest seafood fan, but picked a hard limit on pork. I just ask waiters if there’s pork in anything and if I can order a dish without it because I’m allergic. I get strange looks, but it’s easier than saying I’m kosher in a predominately Catholic country. We have yet to try paella (stopppp no yelling! We’re waiting to find an incredible place) so maybe I’ll cross the seafood line then.
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This past weekend was our first excursion with Nebrija outside of Madrid. We went to Toledo for the day! It was beautiful and ancient, with a pleasant mix of old building structures and modern interiors. Some buildings date back as far as the 8th century. Try and wrap your head around that! One thing I found interesting was that amid the Arab architecture, there is an ancient Roman road. Toledo is known as the “City of the Three Cultures” because Muslims, Christians, and Jews peacefully lived together.
A fair amount of the architecture is Arab, and dominated by horseshoe shaped doorways. It’s repeated throughout the entire city. We entered a former mosque, that then became a church, and it has conflicting architecture because the Christians added on their style of things, etc. It’s basically like HEY WE ARE CONQUERING THIS AND MAKING IT OURS. The outside of the mosque still has Arabic written on the side. It’s pretty neat.
We also visited this HUMONGOUS cathedral. It’s beautiful and still in use. The cathedral has a treasure room, and for major holidays, some things are taken out and used. Baptisms occur in the bath used when it was built. It surprised me that every aspect of the cathedral is still utilized. There are TV screens throughout the cathedral for when large services are held. I found it to be an amusing mix of eras.
After the cathedral, we visited the Jewish quarter which I was so excited to go to! The areas of the quarter are marked by tiles of Hai, menorahs, and the word sephardi in Hebrew. But the synagogue we visited was SO disappointing. It was like nothing! It was a synagogue, and then was taken over and became a church, and then it became a hospital for prostitutes to repent (yes, you read that correctly. I made sure I heard right too), and then it was a warehouse for storage, and then it was left empty for many years and now it’s a museum. The synagogue is called Santa Maria la Blanca, no joke. I went to comment on the hospital for prostitutes because really, it’s like what?! and I accidentally called it a hospitute, which sounds like a real word and everyone laughed.
We had a break for lunch and went to a bakery for mazapan (marzipan). It’s a Toledo specialty and OH MY GOD is it delicious. I told Maria, our tour guide, that my stomach was happy and she laughed. I instagram-ed a picture. Candice said they look like slugs, but it’s ok because it’s delicious.
After the lunch break, an optional tour was given at Synagogue of El Transito. It’s a Jewish museum now, and it was so cool to see Torahs and Megilahs and a bunch of other Jewish paraphernalia (Google had to help me spell that). There was a lulav and etrog and seder plates, everything! It was a nice way to end the day after being disappointed by the previous synagogue/church/hospitute/warehouse.
Saturday night, we went to Kapital. It’s a famous Madrid nightclub that’s 7 stories high. Everyone who’s been to Madrid has said to go, and the study abroad advisers recommended it too! There is nothing like it and it was so much fun! Our apartment went out and we ran into other people from the program, too. It’s very easy to get lost inside. I didn’t get back until 6:30 am the next day! It’s as though time in Spain is on pause and when it feels like an hour has gone by, it’s really been 5. Guess we’re officially madrileños!
Sunday was a chill day, as we all woke up mid-afternoon. Today we had class as usually, and while David and Matt took a siesta, Jordan and I went to the market. We actually went to a different H&M than the other day first. It’s a BEAUTIFUL store. I cannot emphasize that. You walk in and it’s marble and emerald in color. There’s a staircase on each side to lead you to the upper levels of the store, and glimmering chandeliers hand from the ceiling. BEAUTIFUL. It also had much better stock than the other store, so I’m guessing it could be a flagship location. Jordan had luck and found two button downs and green shorts with blue swordfish embroidered on them. Then we went to the market. It’s been a relaxing day so far.
I want to thank the parents, friends, and families for the feedback. It’s been wonderful to know that I’m writing to someone other than my parents and future self. More pictures are on Facebook of Toledo and other adventures :)