Toledo!!

Last sunday we took a group trip with the school to Toledo, which is a small city about an hour bus ride outside of Madrid. It is one of the oldest cities in Spain, and it used to be the capital when Spain still was in power of Flanders when it expanded up to Holland. It is filled with tiny, narrow, winding streets and there's really only one way in and out of the city. It's located on top of a hill, surrounded by a river that kept it safe from intruders. There is also a wall built around the city to keep it safe. Within the city are all cobblestone streets and the buildings are a mixture of brick and stone. The more stone people had on the outside of their homes, castles, churches, etc, the more money they had. It was a symbol of wealth. The morning began with a walking tour of the city where we saw an old Jewish synagogue which was still intact. There's a lot of influence from the Moors here because they used to rule over Spain. It was filled with intricate details and you could tell the difference between the stones of the European look versus the marble intricate details of the Moors. We also were able to visit the huge Cathedral of Toledo located in the middle of the city. It has very high ceilings and is filled with many smaller praying rooms inside of it. I'd been to Toledo before and had forgotten how beautiful all of the details of the city are. It was the real first chance I'd been able to feel the history of Spain and learn more about it's past rulers from the Moors to all of the Kings. The city was once the capital before moving to more centralized Madrid. It's a very small city and doesn't take long to walk from one side to the other so we were able to see a lot that day. It has great views and picture opportunities everywhere you look.

For lunch we found a little restuarant and enjoyed a nice plate of Paella, which is a famous rice dish here in Spain. It's commonly eaten with seafood or meat, but I was able to find one with just veggies :). It was delicious and it was nice to finally enjoy a true Spanish meal. It's hard to find a good Paella place in Madrid mainly because it's so large and also because it's so modern. The more out of the city you go the easier it is to find true ethnicity of Spanish culture. It's also a better place to practice Spanish because English is definitly spoken less.

Toledo is also known for it's gold and armory. We had fun looking at some intense swords and armor suits built way back in the day. They also have craftsmen who make almost anything from little gold pieces they individually place on either jewerly, plates, and anything else you can imagine. We also got a chance to stop on the mountains surrounding the city and get a great view of what it looks like from an outside perspective and it lead to some great pictures. It was a great day to learn about Spanish history.

So, the laundry here is a little different than home. A) the washing machine is about 1/3 what they are at home and B) there are no dryers. I was the first one out of all of us to take a try at this new laundry machine. That wasn't a problem but I then had to hang all my clothes on clotheslines outside of our window in the courtyard of our building. I'm terrified somethings going to fall and considering we're 4 stories up I can't guarantee I'd get it back. I feel as if I'm living back in time because I've never had to lay my laundry out before. I also don't know how it's going to dry considering its 45 degrees outside, but I guess it's a large learning experience. I put some of it on my heater and am just hoping it doesn't light on fire.

UPDATE: I came home from school to find all of the clothes moved on the line and my senora told me she moved them all and some of them were randomly dried. I'm not sure what she did exactly but my clothes were perfectly hung out on the wires and some even hung in my room. I'm not sure how she knew they were my clothes but it was funny to see it all moved around.