First weekend traveling just happened! First stop - Madrid
Madrid was a huge city, clearly very different from Bilbao. After the 5 hour bus ride Friday, we went to our hotel, relaxed for an hour, then ate lunch. After lunch, we started our tours. The first place we went to was the Palacial Real, or royal palace. This was a HUGE building with an incredible courtyard and
fabulous views. We hung out in the courtyard for a bit and took lots of pics, and then we got a tour of some of the most important rooms in the building (in total there are about 5,000!). The tour was alright, but honestly i had more fun with Brittany. We hung out towards the back of our group and with every new room we entered we made up what it was used for (since the real uses were things like the smoking room, tea room, etc.) haha. people probably thought we had problems, but we laughed a lot. Then we went to a cathedral and looked around, and finally wound up at Plaza Mayor, an awesome plaza with restaurants, shops, and all sorts of touristy things to buy. Then we headed back to the hotel, get ready, and went out. A bunch of us went to a bar in downtown madrid. It was fun, but I ended up getting home by around 2 because I knew we had a big day in front of us.Next stop - Toledo!
I absolutely LOVED Toledo! probably the most beautiful city I have ever seen. We started off stopping at a place where me got a panoramic view of the city - breathtaking. Then we walked a bunch, seeing a cathedral and some really cool architecture. The city just has so much history and culture in it that it made you have chills almost just walking around. We also went to a place where they made swords. The swords are inlaid with real gold, and we even saw a guy making the designs that will soon be put on the swords! they had all sorts of jewelry and such that you could buy there that were just like the designs they put on the swords, so i bought a pendant for my mom and bracelet for my grandma. I definitely preferred Toledo to Madrid, and so I was sad when we had to head back.
Then we came back to Madrid for the night, ate dinner, got ready, and then the fun began! We went to this huge club called Teatro Kapital - it had 7 floors! We all had a blast, and it definitely showed the next morning. We went to Museo del Prado, an art museum, and were all a tad hungover for it... And as painful as it was, we saw some really cool pieces of art by Goya and Velazquez. After the museum, we headed back to the hotel for lunch, and then we made our way home.
Overall it was an incredible weekend! We saw so many cool things, and the city of Toledo was just incredible. I will say though, that I was very happy to retun to Bilbao. Being in such a huge city like Madrid made me appreciate how lucky I am. I always feel completely comfortable and safe and Bilbao, and that is definitely a nice way to feel about your home town!
Booked my trip to Paris today, and that's my next trip! it isn't this coming weekend, but the next. Super excited!!!
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