February 2, 2014

{The sad part was that I woke up homesick because I was going to be missing my brother’s birthday and Superbowl Sunday.  I didn’t really care about the game, to be honest.  I mean, I wanted the Broncos to beat the Seahawks, but I sort of checked out two weeks ago when the Niners lost.  Regardless, I was homesick.  My family always has a party and I was missing all my cousins and brother and sister.  I woke up exhausted, and still feeling the effects of the WORST DAY EVER (link), but I was excited because there were people down to explore TOLEDO!}

To give you some background, Toledo is this cool suburb of Madrid and former capitol of Spain.  It’s this architecturally beautiful city because it’s a melting pot of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish culture. During the medieval times, Toledo was known for it’s handcrafted swords and daggers and became the leading distributor for weapons to the crown.  The city is surrounded on three sides by the Tagus River, which really helped them out in the medieval times when everyone was trying to conquer everyone else.  This allowed Toledo to become a haven for religious freedom during a time when tolerance was uncommon.

Walking around the city we could easily identify the cultural influence of all three religions.  The city is within the ruins of old castle walls, and the typical gothic architecture was mixed with the Moorish and Jewish influence.  This means that the Cathedral was domed and some of the entryways are circular and spiral rather than the typical Gothic.  It was a really special experience to walk around a city that felt so out of touch with the modern world.  The views from the bridge made the city feel like it belonged in a story with knights and princesses, not wifi.

However, Toledians…. Really didn’t like us.  We made the mistake of going to this HORRIBLE tapas bar where we clearly were not welcome.  The waitress straight hated us and the waitress who “didn’t” told me to calm down when I answered her question wrong.  Tranquile por favor.

After tapas we walked to the other side of the city because we saw this awesome “castle” that we wanted to see.  We walked down the stairs to the bottom of the city, hit a dead end, walked back up the stairs, down a hill, then up another hill to find…that we were in a creepy deserted hospital and police station.  We were out of breath, but we GTFO out of there real quick.  Note if you’re in Toledo – if you’re outside the castle walls, you should go back (unless you’re on the bridge, in which case, soak in the view and imagine sword fights and kinds and parades and royalty).

I would highly recommend a trip to Toledo if you are ever around central Spain.  It really is a place that makes it easy to imagine the world the way it used to be.  The city really sets the scene for your imagination – a very beautiful place.