holy toledo, batman!

Toledo, you are more beautiful than I expected. I swear I walked around today with my jaw dropped in amazement, snapping pictures of everything, and looking just as much like a tourist as the Asian families on vacation. Know what? Don't even care.

Before we met up with the group and took a bus to Toledo (about an hour from Madrid), a bird managed to drop a little surprise right on my bag. Bird poop here is waaay more disgusting here than in the States. Just a heads up.

When we got to Toledo, we stopped for a few minutes at an overlook of the city that seriously resembled the painting by El Greco. I was absolutely amazed by it. The architecture in that city is a mixture of influence from the Romans, the Visigoths, and the Arabs. I know it sounds kind of strange, but it is just incredible. The first place we visited was the Catedral Primada. I've never been in a cathedral before, but I think this one was a good one to start off with. Even though I didn't understand all of the relics and rooms and customs of the Catholic church, it was still beautiful and so easy to appreciate the art in that building. One room was filled with paintings by El Greco (seriously, Wikipedia him if you haven't already. I'm kind of a nerd, so I don't want to type out everything I know about him and bore you to death...) so of course I was terribly excited. The professor I toured with, Ester, told us so much about the cathedral that my head was spinning!

Stop number two was possibly my favorite: "El entierro del Conde de orgaz" IN REAL LIFE. Also, right underneath it, is El Greco's grave IN REAL LIFE. Everything I've studied for the past six years is suddenly right here at my feet. The painting depicts the burial of a count with God and the angels waiting above for him, basically. El Greco likes to paint his face in his own paintings, and he is an onlooker in this one. His son is also in the painting as another onlooker. There are so many other little symbols in the painting that I've studied many times but I couldn't remember because I was so overwhelmed!

After touring with El Greco, we had some free time. My roommate Sara and two of our friends Joy and Cecilia explored Toledo, bought some postcards, and I found some gifts in a precious little shop with a precious old man as it's owner. He told me everything was 30% off, but he gave me a bigger discount because I talked to him so much. He said that Reed must be handsome to be with a girl as
beautiful as me. Duh :)

Next stop: a synagogue. The history of Jews in Spain is more interesting than this museum. It was pretty in it's own way, but they no longer worship in the Museo Sefardi Sinagoga de El Transito so it kind of lost itself on me. ( I just love knowing that people still worship in these centuries old buildings.) there were lots of artifacts, like a chair mothers would sit in to hold their child during circumcision and the knife they used...gross.

After that, we visited el Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes. This monastery is a large, hermoso building with a garden smack in the middle. The ground level and second level overlook the garden and are decorated with sculptures on the walls, in the corners, and everywhere else. The ceilings are wooden and painted with symbols and different representations of el Rey Fernando y la Reina Isabel. The two were from different countries (at that time during the 15th century) and with their marriage joined Aragon (Ferdinand) and Castilla y Leon (Isabel). The two were supposed to be buried there, but instead they are in Granada.

Whew! We finally started going back to the bus and stopped for some photo ops on the Puente de San Martin, which was awesome, of course. Now that I'm back in Madrid, trying to keep my eyes from closing and my legs from falling off (we walked A TON), I still can't believe some of the things I saw and experienced today. Four weeks is a long time...I got kind of homesick and wished for someone here who really knows me, but it is so, so worth it.

Sorry for the book. I don't want to forget anything when I go back and read this in July! Also, sorry for the lack of photos; I don't have a way to upload them to the IPad. Newb. I know.