After an hour on the bus, we have arrived to Toledo, which is a beautiful medieval city, with castle like walls intertwined throughout. The stonework and brick on all the walls are so beautiful and detailed. We went to lunch, where I had my first authentic Spanish cuisine, consisting of sopa de pescado (seafood soup) and empanadas (filled with tuna, eggs, and tomatoes…interesting?). We were given a three-hour guided walking tour of Toledo, where we came across small churches and boutique shops. Many of the shops had ancient shields and swords to purchase. Toledo is known for having gorgeous, antique swords and marzipan. (a sugar and almond paste usually in sweets such as chocolate…Mommy’s fav!) The city consists of small, narrow, cobblestoned streets, which wrap around like a maze. I was not able to learn much about Toledo on our tour because our tour guide had an extremely strong Spanish accent, which made the English very hard to understand. We then were taken back to our hotel, which felt a lot more American than our first hotel in Madrid. The rooms were a lot bigger and it had a large lobby and swimming pool. They also had a restaurant in the lobby, which was where we ate dinner. All these components are very unusual for a European hotel. We then had to wake up at 7am for the bus ride to Barcelona. We arrived in Barcelona at around 7pm, which made for a very long day. By the time we arrived in Barca, it was dark so we could not see anything in the city. We arrived to our resedencia, which is very nice and modern. The resedencia consists of nearly 6 buildings, with kids from my program dispersed throughout. My roommate and I have yet to meet our hall mates, but plan on doing that within the next few days. Our room is great and is about the same size of a dorm at CU. We have our own cooking lounge that we share with the other students on our same floor and a pool on the rooftop ay yi yiii!! Once we arrived and settled into our room, we did what the Spaniards do best…fiestaaa!!! Meghan, Lia (a new friend from Santa Cruz), and I went to two bars first before hitting up the club of the night: Sutton Club. Tequila shots and rum and cokes were the drinks of the night, as we then made our way across the street to Sutton. This club was specifically a club opener night for all new Spring ISA students. While there were hundreds of people there, it was fun running into new friends and familiar faces. While this was a “small”, one level club for Spain, it was the largest and wildest club I have been to yet. The 5 story discotecas will be hit up this weekend!! Our resedencia is located 5 minutes from one of the largest, most well known discos in Spain called Razzmatazz. Of course a night is not a successful night unless it entails late night eating. Meghan and I took a cab to nothing else but…McDonalds. I swear it is better than in the US. First night in Spain and I guess you could say we did it like an American…oh well, we still have all semester! The cab driver spoke no English and am proud to say that Meghan and I had a 20-minute conversation all in Spanish. The cab driver got a kick of how poor our Spanish was and decided to blast music as he zipped through the streets of Barca. Yo amo hablando en espanol porque es muy divertido!! After only being in Spain for nearly 4 days, I am getting more confident each day with speaking Spanish. I am trying to speak it when I can even though I’m sure it is terrible and they can tell I’m just another American speaking “Spanglish”. The one thing that is extremely difficult is how fast they speak it here…by the time I am trying to understand the first few words, they are already done telling me an entire story. Time for siesta…adios!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment