mas y mas

So it's safe to say I love Spain.

After our day at El Prado y el Palacio Real, we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and went out to a small Irish pub in Madrid. We sat at the bar for 2 hours speaking in Spanish with the bartender, Pedro, who was in his late 60s, balding, and hilarious. It was our (the roommates and mine) first encounter with a local like that. It's good to feel like a local.

Thursday we woke up and lugged all of our equipaje y malletas (luggage) down the elevators and left the hotel, making our way to the valle de los caidos y el escorial.

DISCLAIMER: our directores did not tell us about the weather, and we were not prepared for a soaking wet day.

We went to the valle de los caidos, which is probably the most humbling site I have ever seen. The road up to the valle is a narrow one lined with gorgeous redwood trees, and as the rain started to pour and fog started to settle, it was an eerily beautiful sight. As we made our way up the narrow streets, we all were marveled by the size of a cross in the distance. The cross is 492 feet high, and it is carved out of granite. The valle is a monument that Francisco Franco ordered political prisoners to make in the 40s and 50s, and 40,000+ soldiers from the Spanish civil war are buried there. The granite patio is lined with huge arches made of limestone. Photos, words, or videos will not do the magnitude of this sight any justice, unfortunately, but it was remarkable. The arches lead to a gorgeous basilica, which is equally as large as the arches outside, and the echos of the young boys in seminary were chilling on the foggy morning. In the basilica lies Francos tomb.

From the Valle, we went to El Escorial. It's a small town south of Spain. We visited the palace there, and it was also stunning. The coolest part of it was the murals on the walls--frescos. They were so crafted and detailed. What I find so unbelievable is that some of this art was drawn 500+ years ago, yet it is still entirely interpretable and understood today. In the palace there were doors carved out of wood, each crafted individually and flawlessly. The most amazing thing about the palace was the gorgeous granite staircase leading to the tombs of all the kings & queens of Spain and their parents. You walk down these stairs and you see these black marble coffins in the walls--adorned with gold. Looking up at the ceiling, all you see is gold. It is remarkable.

From El Escorial, we headed to Toledo. We got to the beautiful Hotel Beatriz, had yet another meeting with our directors, and headed into town. It was freezing and windy but undeniably gorgeous. We ate dinner in the city and went to a small bar the size of a studio apartment, ham legs hanging on the walls, and one simple tap. It was unlike anything I had ever seen.

The next morning, we headed into the town once more. Toledo is surrounded by walls-- as it was Spain's first capital and needed to be protected from the outside. It is still the religious capital of the country. Toledo is a city of three cultures-- jews, muslims and christians. Something very inspiring is the Jewish synagogue-- its architecture was done by a Muslim. All over the city lies evidence of the three cultures and their influence upon each other.

We took a bus ride through the city, and saw sincerely the most beautiful view in the world. We visited the Monestary of San Juan de los Reyes--it was commissioned by Isabel y Ferdinand to commemorate their victory in the battle of the toro (THIS WAS BUILT IN THE 1400s and STILL SO IN TACT!) You can see the coat of arms carved into the walls, and you can see how it changed after the wars and such. SO COOL TO SEE HISTORY. Also, it says "tanto monta, monta tanto" a lot in the monastery. It signifies the equality between Ferdinand y Isabel-- it was their idiom and way of life.

Definitely got lost from the group in Toledo town. Alexis and I were literally 1 minute behind the group because we got water from the vending machines, and when we looked up and down the street, the group was gone. We spent over an hour running around the town, entering museums we did not have admission to but telling the operators of the museum "creemos que nuestro grupo esta aqui..." and they let us go through. We finally found them after going to the city's tourism center and obtaining the phone number of the tour guide. I think Alexis and I walked through the entire town.

We left Toledo the next day after after a night of VERY scary winds. I slept maybe an hour, maybe two, because the wind was so fuerte (strong) and I was really scared. The trees brushed our windows and it sounded like a hurricane. I watched the BBC til about 5 am and sort of fell asleep, only to wake up at 7:30 for a day of travel.

We headed out of Toledo and made our way to Sevilla.

We stopped at las casuegas ( i THINK that is the name of the town) where Don Quixote saw windmills and thought they were giants and tried to fight them. Still entirely windy, we all almost blew away. On our way down south, the countryside was greener than I've ever seen....

and then we got to sevilla.


to be continued