we don't say vamos. we say VAMONOS.

Holy Toledo. Where to begin? I have officially concluded that trying to record all the incredible experiences I am having is nearly impossible.  There have been days where I have thought to myself at night, "this was the best day ever."  Then, the next day somehow ends up being even more incredible.  How does that even happen?  At this rate, I am seriously never gonna want to leave this beautiful place.

So even though writing all this down feels so overwhelming, I am gonna try to construct the best summary I can. Yesterday we went to Toledo for our first group trip.  Toledo is about  45 minutes southwest of Madrid.  We left Alcalá at nine sharp.  We were welcomed by a misty morning in the beautiful city of Toledo.  Seriously, it looks like a city straight out of Lord of the Rings or something.
Angél, our tour guide, hopped right on the bus and charmed us with his spanglish.  I know it is really important to listen to people speak Spanish, but I was so grateful he spoke both.  He spoke with basic spanish vocabulary, and would translate anything we didn't understand.  I learned so much more about the city and history of spain this way, and it was very enjoyable to listen to his charming way of speaking. He was just such a typical tour guide. haha

 
The very first thing we did was drive up to the highest point, where you can see the entire city. Absolutely breathtaking.

On our way back down, I remember our tour guide saying "do you know the difference between vamos, and vamonos? Vamos, is more like a question...or contains uncertainty, like "we go?" But vamonos is a very straight forward, LET'S GO! from here on out we don't say vamos, we say VAMONOS!" and the fun began. 

Mezquita del Cristo de la Luz (Mosque of Christ of the Light)

Only surviving mosque in Toledo. 

The Cathedral of Toledo

 "El Escorial" by Greco 

The hole they carved at the top to let some light in, and decorated in a baroque style.

Next stop was the church of Santo Tomé. I forgot to take a picture of it, and we weren't allowed to take pictures of the masterpiece of Greco, "The burial of the count Orgaz." But that was incredible as well. Below was our last stop on the tour, of the Jewish Sinagoga del Transito. I loved seeing how different the three different places of worship!  Catholics, Muslims. and Jews.  Toledo is known as the tolerant city, because for so many years all three religions lived in peace with eachother. 

After lunch, we said goodbye to Angél and well, the city was ours. :) 

 I am obsessed with narrow alleyways and streets. they are so common here. 

 Just chilling on top of a fortress, pretending to be shooting arrows, in defense of our city. haha

 I half expected some orks or something to come pull me off the wall. 

 Tagus River

Next time? sooo legit.  

 The most expensive house in Toledo

This adorable man is what we like to call, "The MAN of Toledo" He hand makes almost all of his jewerly and he let us watch as he was making a plate.  His name was very hard to pronounce so I can't remember, but I do know that he was just a cute, wise, old man.  He told us so much about the history of Toledo and Alcalá and he loved talking to us.  I was obsessed with him and I even bought some of his handmade jewerly.  I love when you can see the light in people.  This man radiated so much light.

Toledo was an adventure to say the least.  We ended up with a little taste of Mazopan, which was actually not that bad.  Mazopan is a pastry thing famous in Toledo.  I loved just chilling in the city.  We also went to the Bridge San Martin because I was dying to go see it.  What can I say, "I can do anything my heart tells me to."

Que Estoy Contenta! (oh, how happy am i?!)