Monday
After a busy weekend, I was desperate for a nap. Usually I don't have two classes on Monday but my teacher needed to cancel class on Friday and decided to have us make it up by attending class on Monday. I was pretty tired because I got in late Sunday night, so I was ready to take a nap, but I had another class to attend. After that class, I went home, ate lunch and took a long awaited nap. There was a "movie night" at 5pm that I missed because I had miscalculated the time and overslept. They use military time here and the email said the movie is at 17:00, but to meet at Plaza de Padilla at 16:30. I thought 17:00 was 6pm so I thought I had a few hours to sleep but when I woke up and checked my email for the location, it said meet at 16:30 (5:30pm) and it was 6pm when I woke up so I just decided to call my mom and catch her up. After I got off the phone, I pretty much just watched tv and ate dinner later that night, which was a salad, hamburger patty and patatas fritas y watermelon for dessert. They have a lot of the same shows as us, they just have Spanish actors record over the English voice.
Tuesday
Tuesday was pretty busy! We had class and an excursion to go on. After class, I went home and ate lunch and took a very short nap. *I'd like to say that in previous blogs, I said siestas aren't big, but I was wrong. Certain places do go on siestas. You will definitely find yourself needing a siesta after lunch*. We went to la Catedral Primada which was nice but I like the one in Segovia better, even though that one was smaller. I love how Spaniards preserve things here. Any ruins that they find, they just put glass floor on top of it or build stairs but they never destroy anything. They do that in order to keep it in its original form and I really appreciate that. This cathedral was no different. It was built centuries ago, yet they kept it exactly the same. After the Catedral, which lasted about an hour or two, we went to this place called Cristo de Luz (there's a legend here that some priest put a lit candle in a box and buried it in the ground in the year 700. And in the year 1014, the current king found the box, opened it and the candle was still burning, which is how it got its name). I thought the Cristo de Luz was interesting because I live on that very street and when I told my professor we went, he told me that legend. My group and I were pretty out of it that day. We all just wanted to go home and be in our beds, so we were ready to go as soon as we finished looking at the mesquita. Afterwards, I walked to a nearby store to buy myself a pop and went home, hopped in the shower, ate dinner and went to bed.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I just had one class and then went on two excursions. I had to present for one of my classes on "cocina castellana" and then spent the rest of the class time talking about Franco and what life was like after he died. This class is called Special Topics in Spanish Civilization and my teacher chose to look at the time Franco ruled and the after effects of his death. After class, I came home and did homework for my other class and relaxed until it was time to meet with my group in Plaza de Zocoder. We went to the Alcazar cafeteria to see an overview of Toledo. After that, we went to a street called "El Cristo de la Calavera" because its known to be the spot of a legend. The legend states that there was a beautiful woman that everyone wanted and two men that wanted her in particular, happened to be best friends. They met on this corner to fight for the woman, but every time their swords touched, the light would go out. They realized it was a sign that they shouldn't fight each other and instead ask the woman who she wants to be with. When they went to the woman's place, they saw a man out on the balcony and started laughing. The woman heard them but never saw them and after that day she knew her reputation was ruined. We then went to Plaza de San Justo, but it was linked to a restaurant that we frequently meet up at and because of that, when they began to explain the history of the plaza, I couldn't hear the entire story; all I know is that they moved the fountain from one place to where it's at now. Afterwards, we went to Plaza de Padilla because we had a dance class scheduled for that day. Only three of us went because the rest were tired. The class lasted about an hour and a half and we were able to learn the second part of the Sevillian flamenco dance. After that, I was pretty worn out and went home and hopped in the shower.
Thursday
On Thursday, we went to Sinagoga Sta la Blanca y Museo Sefardi y Juan De Los Reyes. At this point, I was tired of going to museums and cathedrals, etc. because all these places look the same and have pretty much the same type of stuff in there, so I didn't take many pictures or remember too much about these places. Although I do remember one, which was a giant picture in a small room and you're not suppose to take pictures of it. After looking at the picture, we walked to the museum, which took a while because the museum was huge, We then walked to the last place which I cant remember the name of. As I type this blog, days later, I found this day to be long and boring.
Friday,Saturday and Sunday
Friday was the day me and my whole group had been waiting for. This was our first free weekend and we had decided way in the beginning to go to Portugal. So we all anxiously sat through our classes and then went home to eat lunch and relax a bit before we embarked on our journey. Since we're in Toledo, there aren't many forms of transportation here, so anywhere we would want to go, we would have to go to Madrid first, then catch a bus to wherever we'd like to go. So we grabbed our bags and began walking to the only bus station in Toledo, which thankfully wasn't too far from my house. The bus ticket was only 5.95 euros (one way) and it takes about 47 minutes. The bus has air conditioning and wifi and looks like coach busses- it's very long and as spacious as a bus can get. Once we got to Madrid, we hopped on a bus to go to the center of Madrid (Plaza Mayor) and walked around for a bit till we found a restaurant with a tv, since there was a soccer game about to come on. We sat there for a hour or so because we had time to kill (our bus to Portugal wasn't leaving until 11pm and we got to Madrid at like 4pm). We didn't eat in the restaurant because it was kind of expensive so we went to a nearby subway to get sandwiches for the bus (we had bought snacks for the bus on Thursday but a few were hungry then). After we got our sandwiches, it was time to start making our way to the airport to get on our bus. It was a seven/eight hour bus ride and we got there at 6:55am (Portugal is an hour behind Spain) and we had nine hours to kill because we couldn't officially check into our Airbnb till 4pm. So we walked around the station looking for a place to eat at but since it was so early nothing was open. At the same time, we were communicating with the host of the Airbnb to see if we could check in any earlier. She said we could drop our stuff off at 12 but that we couldn't come back till 4pm because the housekeeper needed to clean up the place. We were all fine with that, so to our surprise, it was a 54 minute walk (we were surprised because when one of the girls booked it, it said it was a ten minute walk from the bus station). But since we had time to kill, we decided to start walking that way and hope to find a place to eat. We walked maybe 10-15 minutes till we found a café and sat there for about an hour eating and talking. After that, we continued walking, admiring Portugal's architecture. It was different than Spain because the buildings were all different colors like pink, blue and yellow. About 20 minutes later we found this outdoor flea market and we decided to check it out. They had everything there from food to clothes to pot and pans. We spent maybe two hours there sorting through the tables pilled with clothes. It was all pretty cheap too. Some tables had everything for one euro to five euros (including shoes). None of us knew one word of Portuguese before we came but we picked up some words pretty quickly because some of the things they say sounds similar to Spanish. After the flea market, we continued our walk to the Airbnb and stopped at a McDonalds shortly after (we had a lot of time to kill before dropping our stuff off so we made a lot of stops). We sat in McDonalds for maybe an hour or more, then decided to see how far a grocery store was because we planned to cook that night instead of going out for food. Turns out there was one right next to the McDonalds we were at (p.s. Portugal McDonalds had different things: like pancakes but they were kind of flat and came with a chocolate syrup on top and the chicken nuggets had a sweetness kick to them) so we walked over and got what we needed for dinner. Afterwards, we went to the Airbnb and upon arrival, the host was walking up to the place so we were able to go right up to the rooms. We dropped our stuff off, freshened up a bit before heading out to find the "beach". Since Lisbon is on the coast, we figured they would have a beach, but when we arrived, it was just muddy sand and washed up items. We walked for what felt like forever. The sun was beaming down on us. We thought there would be somewhere in the beach with some sand that we could lay out on and walk into the water bur we never found it, so after a while, we settled beneath a tree and sat for maybe 45 minutes (I took a quick nap). We all got up and took some pictures off of the piers and then walked further down to settle under a willow tree for a few minutes until it was finally time to check into the Airbnb. When we got there, a few of us hopped in the shower & relaxed for two hours before getting up to get ready. We had decided to go check out their downtown area and their nightlife so we took Ubers and headed for the city. Around 4am we decided to call it a night and head back home since our bus was at 11am. Some of us packed up that night and some went right to sleep. In the morning, we woke up, figured our what bus we needed to get on to go back home. Our eight hour bus ride turned into nine hours because we ran into traffic (tip: always bring hand sanitizer wherever you go because they, including Spain, don't keep up with the bathroom and there was no soap on the bus) so we were all grouchy and tired when we finally arrived at the station. From there, we had to take Ubers to Plaza Eliptica and hurry to buy a ticket for the last bus departing to Toledo, because it was 10pm and the last bus was leaving at 10:30pm. This bus wasn't a direct one like the first one we took, so it took about an hour and half to get back to Toledo. Once we got to Toledo, we had to walk back where we came from because that was the only way we knew We then came to find out that there was a closed area, which was where we needed to pass by, so we had to hike up a huge hill (after hiking through Portugal's uneven high streets) to get around the gated area. Finally we got closer to our houses and parted ways to go home.It was about 12:30am when we finally made it home.
After a busy weekend, I was desperate for a nap. Usually I don't have two classes on Monday but my teacher needed to cancel class on Friday and decided to have us make it up by attending class on Monday. I was pretty tired because I got in late Sunday night, so I was ready to take a nap, but I had another class to attend. After that class, I went home, ate lunch and took a long awaited nap. There was a "movie night" at 5pm that I missed because I had miscalculated the time and overslept. They use military time here and the email said the movie is at 17:00, but to meet at Plaza de Padilla at 16:30. I thought 17:00 was 6pm so I thought I had a few hours to sleep but when I woke up and checked my email for the location, it said meet at 16:30 (5:30pm) and it was 6pm when I woke up so I just decided to call my mom and catch her up. After I got off the phone, I pretty much just watched tv and ate dinner later that night, which was a salad, hamburger patty and patatas fritas y watermelon for dessert. They have a lot of the same shows as us, they just have Spanish actors record over the English voice.
Tuesday
Tuesday was pretty busy! We had class and an excursion to go on. After class, I went home and ate lunch and took a very short nap. *I'd like to say that in previous blogs, I said siestas aren't big, but I was wrong. Certain places do go on siestas. You will definitely find yourself needing a siesta after lunch*. We went to la Catedral Primada which was nice but I like the one in Segovia better, even though that one was smaller. I love how Spaniards preserve things here. Any ruins that they find, they just put glass floor on top of it or build stairs but they never destroy anything. They do that in order to keep it in its original form and I really appreciate that. This cathedral was no different. It was built centuries ago, yet they kept it exactly the same. After the Catedral, which lasted about an hour or two, we went to this place called Cristo de Luz (there's a legend here that some priest put a lit candle in a box and buried it in the ground in the year 700. And in the year 1014, the current king found the box, opened it and the candle was still burning, which is how it got its name). I thought the Cristo de Luz was interesting because I live on that very street and when I told my professor we went, he told me that legend. My group and I were pretty out of it that day. We all just wanted to go home and be in our beds, so we were ready to go as soon as we finished looking at the mesquita. Afterwards, I walked to a nearby store to buy myself a pop and went home, hopped in the shower, ate dinner and went to bed.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I just had one class and then went on two excursions. I had to present for one of my classes on "cocina castellana" and then spent the rest of the class time talking about Franco and what life was like after he died. This class is called Special Topics in Spanish Civilization and my teacher chose to look at the time Franco ruled and the after effects of his death. After class, I came home and did homework for my other class and relaxed until it was time to meet with my group in Plaza de Zocoder. We went to the Alcazar cafeteria to see an overview of Toledo. After that, we went to a street called "El Cristo de la Calavera" because its known to be the spot of a legend. The legend states that there was a beautiful woman that everyone wanted and two men that wanted her in particular, happened to be best friends. They met on this corner to fight for the woman, but every time their swords touched, the light would go out. They realized it was a sign that they shouldn't fight each other and instead ask the woman who she wants to be with. When they went to the woman's place, they saw a man out on the balcony and started laughing. The woman heard them but never saw them and after that day she knew her reputation was ruined. We then went to Plaza de San Justo, but it was linked to a restaurant that we frequently meet up at and because of that, when they began to explain the history of the plaza, I couldn't hear the entire story; all I know is that they moved the fountain from one place to where it's at now. Afterwards, we went to Plaza de Padilla because we had a dance class scheduled for that day. Only three of us went because the rest were tired. The class lasted about an hour and a half and we were able to learn the second part of the Sevillian flamenco dance. After that, I was pretty worn out and went home and hopped in the shower.
Thursday
On Thursday, we went to Sinagoga Sta la Blanca y Museo Sefardi y Juan De Los Reyes. At this point, I was tired of going to museums and cathedrals, etc. because all these places look the same and have pretty much the same type of stuff in there, so I didn't take many pictures or remember too much about these places. Although I do remember one, which was a giant picture in a small room and you're not suppose to take pictures of it. After looking at the picture, we walked to the museum, which took a while because the museum was huge, We then walked to the last place which I cant remember the name of. As I type this blog, days later, I found this day to be long and boring.
Friday,Saturday and Sunday
Friday was the day me and my whole group had been waiting for. This was our first free weekend and we had decided way in the beginning to go to Portugal. So we all anxiously sat through our classes and then went home to eat lunch and relax a bit before we embarked on our journey. Since we're in Toledo, there aren't many forms of transportation here, so anywhere we would want to go, we would have to go to Madrid first, then catch a bus to wherever we'd like to go. So we grabbed our bags and began walking to the only bus station in Toledo, which thankfully wasn't too far from my house. The bus ticket was only 5.95 euros (one way) and it takes about 47 minutes. The bus has air conditioning and wifi and looks like coach busses- it's very long and as spacious as a bus can get. Once we got to Madrid, we hopped on a bus to go to the center of Madrid (Plaza Mayor) and walked around for a bit till we found a restaurant with a tv, since there was a soccer game about to come on. We sat there for a hour or so because we had time to kill (our bus to Portugal wasn't leaving until 11pm and we got to Madrid at like 4pm). We didn't eat in the restaurant because it was kind of expensive so we went to a nearby subway to get sandwiches for the bus (we had bought snacks for the bus on Thursday but a few were hungry then). After we got our sandwiches, it was time to start making our way to the airport to get on our bus. It was a seven/eight hour bus ride and we got there at 6:55am (Portugal is an hour behind Spain) and we had nine hours to kill because we couldn't officially check into our Airbnb till 4pm. So we walked around the station looking for a place to eat at but since it was so early nothing was open. At the same time, we were communicating with the host of the Airbnb to see if we could check in any earlier. She said we could drop our stuff off at 12 but that we couldn't come back till 4pm because the housekeeper needed to clean up the place. We were all fine with that, so to our surprise, it was a 54 minute walk (we were surprised because when one of the girls booked it, it said it was a ten minute walk from the bus station). But since we had time to kill, we decided to start walking that way and hope to find a place to eat. We walked maybe 10-15 minutes till we found a café and sat there for about an hour eating and talking. After that, we continued walking, admiring Portugal's architecture. It was different than Spain because the buildings were all different colors like pink, blue and yellow. About 20 minutes later we found this outdoor flea market and we decided to check it out. They had everything there from food to clothes to pot and pans. We spent maybe two hours there sorting through the tables pilled with clothes. It was all pretty cheap too. Some tables had everything for one euro to five euros (including shoes). None of us knew one word of Portuguese before we came but we picked up some words pretty quickly because some of the things they say sounds similar to Spanish. After the flea market, we continued our walk to the Airbnb and stopped at a McDonalds shortly after (we had a lot of time to kill before dropping our stuff off so we made a lot of stops). We sat in McDonalds for maybe an hour or more, then decided to see how far a grocery store was because we planned to cook that night instead of going out for food. Turns out there was one right next to the McDonalds we were at (p.s. Portugal McDonalds had different things: like pancakes but they were kind of flat and came with a chocolate syrup on top and the chicken nuggets had a sweetness kick to them) so we walked over and got what we needed for dinner. Afterwards, we went to the Airbnb and upon arrival, the host was walking up to the place so we were able to go right up to the rooms. We dropped our stuff off, freshened up a bit before heading out to find the "beach". Since Lisbon is on the coast, we figured they would have a beach, but when we arrived, it was just muddy sand and washed up items. We walked for what felt like forever. The sun was beaming down on us. We thought there would be somewhere in the beach with some sand that we could lay out on and walk into the water bur we never found it, so after a while, we settled beneath a tree and sat for maybe 45 minutes (I took a quick nap). We all got up and took some pictures off of the piers and then walked further down to settle under a willow tree for a few minutes until it was finally time to check into the Airbnb. When we got there, a few of us hopped in the shower & relaxed for two hours before getting up to get ready. We had decided to go check out their downtown area and their nightlife so we took Ubers and headed for the city. Around 4am we decided to call it a night and head back home since our bus was at 11am. Some of us packed up that night and some went right to sleep. In the morning, we woke up, figured our what bus we needed to get on to go back home. Our eight hour bus ride turned into nine hours because we ran into traffic (tip: always bring hand sanitizer wherever you go because they, including Spain, don't keep up with the bathroom and there was no soap on the bus) so we were all grouchy and tired when we finally arrived at the station. From there, we had to take Ubers to Plaza Eliptica and hurry to buy a ticket for the last bus departing to Toledo, because it was 10pm and the last bus was leaving at 10:30pm. This bus wasn't a direct one like the first one we took, so it took about an hour and half to get back to Toledo. Once we got to Toledo, we had to walk back where we came from because that was the only way we knew We then came to find out that there was a closed area, which was where we needed to pass by, so we had to hike up a huge hill (after hiking through Portugal's uneven high streets) to get around the gated area. Finally we got closer to our houses and parted ways to go home.It was about 12:30am when we finally made it home.
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