Travel to Toledo

Before I came to Spain I did some research, obviously. About schools, people, food, places etc. One to-do definitely stuck: travel. Everybody on any website or forum was advising people coming to Spain to travel as much as possible. Of course, it’s not so easy. You have to know where and when to go, traveling with company is always better and also, you have to afford it. The good thing about Madrid is that it is located in the heart of Spain, so you can go anywhere. 

As I found myself with an unannounced week vacation (there are many public holidays in Spain and the days in between official free days are sometimes also free and even have a name: puente. But more on that later), I decided I should at least take a day-trip to one of the small towns near Madrid. My options were: Segovia, El Escorial and Toledo. I chose the latter because… Well, because an opportunity arose. I didn’t want to travel alone so, again, I turned my eyes towards Couchsurfing. And what do you know? Some people there also wanted to have a trip in their free day to a place nearby. By the time I contacted them, Toledo was already decided. Plus, there was a guy living in Toledo willing to meet us all and give us the city tour. What more could you want? Every travel aspect already organized, more people as company and a tour guide! I also grabbed one of my classmates and off we went to Toledo the next day. 

It was wonderful. It’s a small medieval city, it’s full of history (which I forgot) and you can see everything in a day. It was nice and sunny when we went and we walked its narrow streets the whole day, seeing the famous Cathedral, the famous Jewish Neighborhood with its synagogues and other famous things, of course. But the thing I liked most was its whole vibe – a small, very relaxed old town. On second thought, maybe the thing I liked most was the company. Neither of us had any idea what it was about, except for our guide, who was great and very patient. He walked the whole town with us, showing and sharing everything he knew. He also took us to one of the best beer places I have been in Spain, Enebro. Their tapas are to kill for! Yeah, I think the company was what I liked most. It’s always important to travel with good people.

Walk the walk in Madrid, Part 1

The best way to get to know a city when you have just moved there is to simply walk its streets. And walk, and walk and walk. That is what I did in Madrid in my first weeks. Actually, I'm still doing it now, as I hardly got to know the whole city. With Lonely Planet in my bag, I started exploring from the start. In between apartment hunting, I liked to take the spirit of the city in and get lost on its streets. But you know, the getting-lost-with-a-map type of thing, we have to be somewhat organized, right?

Right. There is a lot of advice considering where to walk and what to visit in Madrid, as it is indisputably a very large city, with so many things to do. No matter where you are, when you know you're going to spend a few months, a year or more in that city, there's no rush. You have time to do your walking any way you want to. But you should definitely do it. For the very least, just so you could go back home and be able to answer questions from people who were visiting it just for a week but now seem like they're tour guides or something. Yes, those annoying know-it-all, we've all met them. And most importantly, it's free. So go walk the walks!

My first walk in my first day was a short one in the Retiro Park, as I was living quite close. Then it all depended on what neighborhood I was in while searching for a place to live. I walked up and down on the streets of La Latina, a very special, colourful place, I sat in the very pretty Tirso de Molina Plaza, until I realised I was right next to a bunch of drunk homeless people (but they were peaceful so no worries) and I walked the streets of Las Huertas neighborhood, which might be my favourite part of Madrid, especially when it comes to getting lost in the city by foot. You can explore these three areas in one day and be sure to cross paths with many beauties you wouldn't have thought of, beauties that always have a madrilenian story to tell.

To be continued!