Madrid (Parte Dos) y Toledo

Yesterday was quite adventurous. We got up pretty early, had a super yummy b’fast at the hotel, and did a walking tour of Madrid. After that, we went to the Reina Sofia, which is a big art gallery/museum. It’s huge and we were only there for a few hours, so we mainly focused on Picasso, Dali, and Miro. We got to see Picasso’s Guernica, which was very cool. After all that, Nick and I decided that we’d find somewhere new for lunch. We walked and walked…and walked some more. And ended up back at the hotel and eating at the McD’s next door. We have a good excuse for giving up though! I could only sleep from 12-2am and I think Nick didn’t get much more than that. So after all that walking, we were just beat! Although, right after lunch, we decided to walk our tour route all over again in search of the ever elusive Telepizza. We never did find it, but we did run into a bunch of ISAers who were going out to watch the Barcelona v. Manchester game. It was quite exciting…it was actually my first time to sit down and watch an entire soccer match. Whoo! The group decided to keep the party going (Barcelona won!) but I went back to my room to see how well I could repack AGAIN. Whoo!

On to Toledo! (Pronounced toLAYdo. Not toLEEdo. ToLEEdo is in Ohio.) We got up early, and worked on getting the entire San Sebastian group (40 of us) and the Sevilla group (about 200 people) onto buses to go to Toledo.  Very exciting.  After the 40ish minute drive, we picked up a tour guide who gave us a quick overview tour of the city. The bus then took us to the top of the hill that the city is on and we got off and took a 2.5 hour walking tour. Very pretty. SOMEONE (ahem, Sarah) told me Toledo was very cold. And since I couldn’t figure out how to get the TV on and the internet was pretty shaky, I decided to wear jeans. Not my finest choice. But it was good! We saw lots of cool things. A lot of cathedrals and castles and swords and famous paintings and such. After the tour, we grabbed some lunch and headed back to hotel which is super pretty. My roomie and I spent our three hour break just chatting in our room. We then had a meeting with the San Sebastian directors just to go over some random details about San Sebastian. We found out some interesting things! Like, my university ID will get me like 2 hour spa dates for like 6 euros, and lots of other interesting things. I also found out that San Sebastian is known as two things: the smiling city and the running city. I like both of those things! Maybe I’ll fit in better than I thought...

Tonight was lots of fun. I’m enjoying getting to know my classmates quite a lot! There was lots of laughs and lots of gelado tonight, which always make for a good night. I’m ready to be in San Sebastaian! So ready. Pray for our team as we make the 7 hour journey north! Vos amo! (That means I love you all! Or at least that what Nick says it is…)