The trip started like they always have, wake up early, meet a couple metro stops away, board the bus (quickly exchange "last night stories"), and then everyone besides me falls asleep. Sometimes people hold out for a bit, bobbing to a new Spanish song they discovered the day before, but usually within three or four songs everyone is out except Isidro, on of our professors, who ceaselessly chats with the bus driver until we arrive. While it sounds quiet, especially combined with the view pleasures of desolate fields of brown grass and strip malls, it came to a halt forty-five minutes later when we arrived in Toledo, the "Imperial City."According to Isidro, there are seven cities in the U.S. named "Toledo," however I don't recall any being as beautiful and accessible. Toledo used to be the capital of Spain and is regarded as a city of three cultures and religions. In one day we visited the beautiful and historic mosque, cathedral, and synagogue, each architecturally influenced by the others. We weaved through the narrow streets of the Jewish Quarter, ate lunch in a park overlooking the misty river, and shuffled through a crowd of foreigners to take a closet look at a painting by El Greco, the ultimate foreigner with the name "The Greek."
While Toledo was amazing, my favorite part was the stop on the way home and reminded me of what can be problematic with studying abroad in Europe. As the semester winds down, we have all compared and contrasted our trips around the continent. She liked Amsterdam, he loved Milan, she didn't enjoy Stockholm as much as expected, and they never wanted to leave Budapest. They are all fun and adventurous, but the trips are rarely surprising. We all know what the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum look like, but my favorite trips have been the ones that I didn't have any expectations for. I had no clue what to expect for Toledo and for Los Molinos, a collection of windmills outside of Toledo. However as everyone fell back asleep, I watched the sun disappear, the glimmer of bright city lights appear across the horizon, and the return to life at home in Madrid and the end of our final program excursion.
