Viva Madrid, Holy Toledo, and Hello Athens!

After settling into our hostel on Tuesday, we waiting for Francisco to pick us up for dinner. Here is a brief history for those of you who don’t know about Francisco.

Francisco’s dad, Frank, was a foreign exchange student for my dad’s family many eons ago. Frank is from Spain and married Marinez who is from Brazil. They raised their family of four kids (Paula, Carolina, Gabby, and Francisco) in Portugal. When I was growing up, Frank and Marinez would send their kids to the US for a month in the summer and they would stay with us. I don’t really remember when the girls came to visit, but I was 9 when Francisco (who was 15 at the time) came so I have a few memories. Francisco, since 2010, has moved to Madrid. I contacted him and he offered to take us to he favorite tapas place.

We went to a fantastic restaurant that put all our other tapas experiences to shame. Everything was delicious and catching up with Francisco was so much fun (and slightly embarrassing- his main memory of me is my love for Harry Potter and Spyro the Dragon video games.) It was so nice seeing a familiar face since. 

Ten bucks says my mom puts this picture on our refrigerator 

Wednesday was cold! We bundled up and spent the first part of the day on a three and a half hour walking tour of the city. We hit all the major sights (plazas Mayor, Sol, and della Villa, the Cathedral, the Moorish Wall, the Palace, and Cervantes’ home). We stopped in the middle for a quick break, and Kate, Michelle and I went to the world famous Chocolateria San Gines. There are pictures all over the interior of famous people enjoying churros con chocolate. We couldn’t resist and it was one of the better choices we made on the trip,

Cathedral of Madrid and remains of the Moorish Wall

Mmmm chocolate con churros

After the tour we spent the day out of the cold booking our tickets to Toledo for the next day, perusing the stores near Plaza del Sol for some warmer clothes, and staying bundled up in our quite fridged hostel. It was a shame the weather wasn’t on our side, but after three and half hours on our feet, a low key night was appreciated.

Thursday was almost spent entirely in Toldeo, a Mideival city outside Madrid. We wandered the streets that reminded us a lot of Carcasonne, had a lovely lunch, and went in the Cathedral. Inside were works by Raphael, Goya, Titian, Valasquez, and El Greco. It our vast (and slightly snobby) knowledge of Renaissance with the dark style of Spainsh painters. On a side note: I found more thimbles in Toledo than I think I have ever seen in my life. All shapes, sizes, styles, and materials.  I found a precious one in the shape of a flamenco dancer. It was thimble heaven! Our feet hurt, but it was a day well spent.

TOLEDO!  

Lots of knights, swords, and thimbles (how medieval?)

Cathedral of Toledo. 

A bit drizzly, but still a good time.

When we got back to Madrid, we made a quick visit to La Reina Sofia- the modern art museum. I was kind of overwhelmed. IT was fun seeing works from Picasso and Dali, but I had no idea what I was looking at half the time. It was weird looking at art that wasn’t made in the 15^th to 16^th century.
We spent the night packing. But we managed to have some fun.  The front desk guy at the hostel told us to play futbol in our room,  but we decided to go bowling instead with water bottles and rolled up socks. (picture to come-stay tuned!)

Today was spent entirely en-route to Athens. The airline was amazing! They gave us candy, played a movie, gave us lunch, coke, and two rounds of coffee! I was mega impressed!

We took a cab to the Marble Stadium to meet Jean. It's right next to our campus and you can see the Parthenon from it. We walked the few blocks to our apartment, got settled in, and went out for our first gyro (yummmm) with Shannon and Jesika. Now for a  weekend of getting to know my new city! 

View of the Parthenon from my new campus. I could get used to this.