Yesterday I arrived in the magical city of Toledo. It was a last minute decision to come here: I figured I had some time to kill, in a sense, as I have no fixed plans other than meeting Bridgy-Didge in a few weeks, and LP did say it´s the number one tourist destination. After being quite impressed with Madrid (and, really, wanting to see if it were possible for MORE people to be in one place - if more tourists means more people) and being unable to get any further accommodation in Madrid, I locked it in. And, not that I need to justify it any further, how much cooler a word can you get than ´Toledo´? It´s like a burrito and torpedo all in one, and reminds me of watching Speedy Gonzales cartoons. So needless to say, I was psyched!
And, an idiot. It would appear that, as bad as I am at maps, I am also hopeless when it comes to reading - at the least, numerically dyslexic. (I know, right, who would have thought?!) Somewhere, my little brain picked up that it was three and a half hours to Toledo. So you can imagine my utter shock when I had barely even settled in for the trip; had barely stowed my overhead luggage; was at a really crucially exciting part in my book ... and we reached Toledo.
Toledo is 28 minutes from Madrid. Just so you know. And I wasted the first leg of my Eurail pass on it, theoretically paying $100 for what would have cost about fifteen on a single ticket.
Genius! What a genius.
So confused was I, so confused by this turn of events, I was sure I must be in the wrong Toledo. That there was a suburb of Toledo connected to Madrid, and I was in it. Loaded down with bags and not a person in sight speaking English, I was starting to fret about being in some Epping-like backwater of Spain´s capital, and having to waste another leg of my Eurail pass on the 28 minute trip back!
It was a look up to the heavens that saved me. No, no - not divine intervention. Screw that - don´t be preposterous! The thing is, when you´re at the train station in Toledo, and you look up you see ... amazement. You see thousands of years of history perched on a hill. You see, possibly, the most aesthetically pleasing city I´ve ever cast my eyes on - if you´re into the whole Roman-meets-Moors-meets-Visigoth-meets-Sepheric-meets-Christian history thing, and therefore architecture thing - which I definitely am. It was stunning! The first thing I thought after being dumped at my hotel after driving to the very top of this ´hill´ was that I was going to get lost, and badly. Toledo is a maze of cobbled, narrow streets running up and down the hill of the city, between stuccoed buildings, cheap and nasty looking restaurants and postcard shops that look the same (in the really touristy areas) and hidden depths if you go around the right corners. With my map reading skills, I spent the whole day lost and confused and in love with this place. And not nearly as many tourists as in Madrid, thank God!
But today, after getting a little too lost to make it to the many museums and places of worth I´d wanted to look at, I decided to catch the trusted hop-on-hop-off bus that has become a regular fixture on this trip. In fact, I have made it my goal that if I can ride the bus in every city I go to, I will indeed buy myself an extra pair of Manolo Blahniks. No shit!! Maybe the gorgeous blue fabric ones with the little flowers ... ok, I´m getting off track. The bus! I mainly wanted to see how the bus would navigate the tight narrow streets that little cars could barely negotiate. And how many people we would kill, as there´s never room enough for pedestrians on the footpaths and traffic. It was going to be an adventure!
It was a little disappointing, in truth.
After paying eight euros (not much, I suppose - it was three times that in Paris) and waiting AN HOUR for one to turn up, all the bus did was drive around the perimiter of Toledo (down the hill, around the hill, and back up the hill) and then the driver kicked us off. And that was it. You can now see why I DESERVE shoes if that´s the kind of tour bus experience I´m putting out for!
Anyway, saw the Alcazar - amazing. Saw the catherdral and a billion other churches. Begrudgingly admit they were amazing. And ate McDonalds cos the food in Toledo is really shit and overpriced. So shut up!! (And it was amazing! ha ha ha)
Tomorrow I am off to Seville. Hurrah! Barbers and oranges and flamenco dancing, here I come!!! And no more rubbish fast food, I promise! Adios!
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