Thursday:
Toledo has one movie theatre out in the suburbs and my friends found out that it was showing the new Black Panther movie in English (with Spanish subtitles) so we made that our evening plan! It was nice to watch a movie in English and have popcorn—almost felt like being back home, but with way less butter haha!
Friday:
Today brought yet another school funded day trip—this time to El Escorial! We spent most of our time touring the monastery and palace, which included a crypt where many of the former kings and queens of Spain are buried.
I then had to register for classes for next semester, which made for a stressful bit of time trying to get all registered. I joined the group again for lunch and then walked around the gardens—a gorgeous view!
We got back on the bus and made it back to Toledo by sunset
Saturday:
4 AM is much too early to be waking up, yet here we are again...Managed to get up and meet my friend for our taxi to Madrid (no buses were running early enough this morning.) We made it onto our train in Madrid and slept the two hours to Valencia in Eastern Spain where we would be spending most of the day! Needing to restart our mornings, we stopped for a quick breakfast—waffles and Valencia's famous orange juice!
We began exploring the city and spent the day going from plaza to plaza and from church to church, taking in as much of the gorgeous city as we could! My host father, Ricardo, grew up in Valencia so he was very excited to see pictures of me in his hometown!
We then headed to the Central Market and the Ciudad de los Artes y las Ciencias (a beautiful collection of museums and theatres, along several reflecting pools.) We grabbed some lunch nearby—I had Iberian pork which was also served with some sort of citrus sauce? A strange mix of flavors, but they sure love their oranges here. We walked around some more and then headed back to the train station to head back to Madrid!
Upon arriving in Madrid, we found a quick dinner (crepes!) and headed to the nearby theatre for opening weekend of the Spanish version of the musical Company, starring Antonio Banderas! It was a wonderful show (maybe my favorite I've seen so far) and made for the perfect end to the night! We caught the very last bus back to Toledo, finally making it back home to end a very long and very fun day!
Sunday:
Thankfully, got to sleep in a little bit before heading over to Marivi's sister's house for a family lunch. Ricardo and Marivi's sister made us all paella (rice with chicken and different types of seafood) in the biggest pan I've ever seen (I've been waiting to try paella until I could have it homemade, especially by a Valenciano like Ricardo since it is his region's specialty!) It made for a entertaining time watching them make it and for a wonderful lunch!
When we got back, we decorated for Christmas so it was nice to be able to decorate a Christmas tree and was a great way to end the week!
Los amo y los extraño a todos,
Bryce