Toledo and the Ballet

Yesterday we went on our second excursion of the year, this time to Toledo, the capital of the autonomous community of Castilla La Mancha. The day started off beautifully, with the sun shining directly into the bus. I closed my eyes to try and rest a bit, and suddenly, it was as if we’d driven to a completely different world. The sun disappeared and dense fog replaced it.The fog was so thick that I don’t even know how the driver could see where he was going.

The fog didn’t disappear once we reached Toledo, and despite the fact that the town is south of Madrid, it was freezing. We had two tour guides, one of whom is my grammar teacher Paz, who is originally from Toledo. So, naturally, I joined her group for the tour. Though Toledo is quite a diverse city, with Christians, Muslims and Jews, each group has their own section of the city. We started off at the Puerta de Bisagra, constructed in the ninth century. It turns out that Toledo is the only place in the world with Mosarabes, or people who practice the most antiquated form of Christianity. We then went into a church that was actually built by Arabs and incorporated an Arab architectural style of arched doorways called “herradura,” or horseshoe in Spanish. Apparently, the Arabs were superb builders and the Christians recruited them many times to construct their churches. Imagine that – Muslim Arabs building churches for the Christians.

Anyways, we walked through the cold and fog further up the winding cobblestone streets to our next sight, la Mezquita Cristo de la Luz, Yes, that translates to the Mosque of Christ of the Light. This tiny building was a mosque that eventually became a church. Supposedly, King Alfonso VI’s horse knelt in front of the then-mosque and would move. The king then discovered a crucifix hidden behind one of the walls, with the candles still lit from when it had been hidden four hundred years ago. So then, in 1186 it became a church.

We continued on through the hilly streets, stopping in the Plaza de Zocodover for breakfast. Though it doesn’t seem like it at first, cars still use all these roads, and more than once we had to smoosh ourselves against the walls of the buildings lining the streets to allow the cars to pass.

After breakfast it was off to the city’s cathedral, whose bishop is the main bishop for the entire country’s Catholic church. A section inside the cathedral actually used to be a mosque and the Catholics simply built their cathedral around it. Once again it was amazing to see the amount of detail and opulence that went into these massive structures. After passing quite a bit of time in the cathedral, we continued on to see El Greco’s famed painting ¨The Burial of Count Orgaz¨

We of course had to round out our visit to a synagogue, more specifically to the Sinagoga de Transita. Then, finally, it was time for lunch. A group of us decided to get the menú del día at a restaurant along Toledo’s main street. My first course consisted of pasta with sausage, or maccarones con chorizo, which was amazing. The tomato sauce was slightly sweet, with a flavor similar to vodka sauce without the cream. My entrée was cochefrito, or cochinello, the roast suckling pig that seems to be an area specialty. And though I was excited to try such typical Spanish fare, I must say that when the waiter set the plate in front of me, I was slightly underwhelmed. This famed dish consisted of very strangely-shaped lumps of meat, bone and fat, and fries. The fries, I will say, were very good, a sentiment that unfortunately didn’t extend to the meat itself. Now I know we in the U.S. are spoiled with our boneless, skinless, uniformly-sized pieces of meat, but this was just plain difficult to figure out. I feel like every single piece I tried to cut was about 96 percent fat and 4 percent meat. And since I don’t even remember what the meat tasted like, it can’t have been anything special. Needless to say, after Crissie picked up a piece that looked uncomfortably like a cooked hoof, we decided to satisfy ourselves with the fries and wait for dessert.

Dessert consisted of lemon mousse topped with some sort of a bitter, caramel-like sauce. The mousse was divine, especially after our cochefrito adventure. Oh if only we could survive on a diet consisting solely of desserts. Wendy ordered profiteroles that also looked quite amazing.

After indulging in our postres, we did some shopping. I bought earrings handmade in typical Tolodean style and also some stuff for the family. I figured, I didn’t really buy much in Segovia, so I made up for it here :-P

There was one last thing left to see before we left; another synagogue/museum called the Sinagoga de Santa Maria la Blanca, which housed things from the Sefardines, or Spanish Jews. Afterwards, we crossed the Puente de San Martin and admired the views of the river below before heading back to Madrid. Once we got back, Anastasia and I wandered through the city, exploring. In Sol, Anastasia tried one of the famed napoletanos at La Mallorquin. I wasn’t hungry at all, so I didn’t partake in the sweet goodness, but after seeing the chocolate truffles in the window, I know I’ll be returning there at some point this semester.

We ended up walking around for about two hours or so, and by the time I got back to the apartment, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I quickly ate dinner and collapsed into bed, unable to stay awake any longer.

Today I was finally able to sleep in, though I ended up waking up around 10 a.m., which at home is totally not sleeping in. For lunch I had a spinach empanada from the pastelería across the street, and it was delicioso. At first it tasted exactly like a Pilsbury crescent roll, which made me think of all the times Sarah cooked dinner for us last semester and made those rolls. The spinach part reminded me slightly of the saag that Mom makes, though there were a couple of bites that were kind of sweet, as if the spinach had honey mixed in. Definitely something anyone who comes to visit will have to try.

Then this afternoon I went with Crissie and a friend of hers to the Teatro de Madrid to see the Companía Colombiana de Ballet. I saw three varied performances, ranging from more modern and interpretative to the more traditional, complete with tutus lol. And of course, the company did a rendition of Carmen. Even if I didn’t completely understand what they were doing, I could appreciate it just from seeing how defined and taut the muscles of the dancers, both male and female, are. It’s funny how we always think of ballet as something fragile and delicate, but after seeing it tonight, I can tell you there’s a lot more to it than tulle and tutus.