We
woke up and happily left our sketchy hostel, made a quick stop at our favorite
donut place, and then were off to the headquarters for Juliá Travels again.
This time, we were off on a day trip to Toledo, a beautiful city north of
Madrid. The drive there was about 1 hour each way, and I entertained Julia by
making her listen to my beloved Spanish music playlist on my iPod. Once we
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| Catedral de Toledo |
arrived, we walked around with our guide and 20 of our closest friends, and
learned the medieval history of the city. I noticed that the information he
gave in this Spanish speaking version versus his English speaking version was
much more detailed, and he actually skipped out on repeating some of the
interesting facts when he would repeat his speech in English. Luckily Liz and
Julia had me there! ;) We stopped for a while in front of the cathedral, and
then made a quick stop at the museum dedicated to 16th century artist,
El Greco. The museum is built inside of an old cathedral, and at one point it
had been a Jewish synagogue as well. The fusion in the architecture was
probably my favorite part to see. I was also happy because when I originally visited
Toledo in 2007, I took a photo of a beautiful Spanish house with flowers under
the window, and I coincidentally walked by the same house again and was able to
re-create the photo. The walking tour then finished up with us having an
overlook view of the river and surrounding hillsides. It was a short-but-sweet
tour, but I am glad my friends got to see this small and charming Spanish town!
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| View from Toledo |
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| The Re-Created Photo! |
Back
in Madrid, we left the tour office and walked to a nearby restaurant for some
tapas. I personally think the tapas selection in Valencia is better than what
they have in Madrid- but then again I’m a little biased! After lunch, we headed
back over to Parque del Retiro. The last time we went, we just explored the
huge park on foot, but this time we decided to experience it via rowboat. We
rented boats on the large pond in the center of the park, like so many visitors
do, and it was a great experience! We had so much fun relaxing, resting in the
sun, and just taking it all in. I was fortunate enough to get to sit in the
middle, so Liz and Julia did all the work!
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| Rowing at Parque del Retiro |
Once
we left the park, we went back to our “beloved” hostel, and got ready for a
girls night out. No melting power outlets this time! We decided to once again
head to the “La Latina” district, and things were off to a great start. The
first place we went to upgraded our sangria glasses to a giant pitcher. I’m not
sure why exactly, but it was amazing. This pitcher was not for the faint of
heart either- delicious, and potent! After the sangria, we were all feeling
very cheerful, and so we headed to a British style pub for some cider. While
there, I could see that two fellow travelers kept looking over at us, and so
being the nice girls that we are we struck up a conversation with two friendly
Brits named Joe and Adrian. They had spent some time studying in Spain as well,
and of course asked us “where the good clubs were”. Since none of us really had
any idea, we all 5 decided to head to a nearby discoteca together. The ensuing free beverages, strobe lights, and
loud music made for one of the most fun, if not THE most fun, nights out I have
ever had (randomly salsa dancing with guys from the Philippines, as well as Liz
relationship counseling a guy from Ireland were just added bonuses)! We all
stayed at the dance club until about 5am (yes, Spanish clubs are open that late
on a Tuesday night!), and then we parted ways with all our new friends. We came
back to the hostel around 6am, and felt very proud of a truly epic night out!
The only downside? The girls had to get up at 7:30am to leave for the airport!
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| One of the few surviving discoteca photos! |
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