Toledo (Oct. 30) and Consuegra (Nov.6)

I've come to realize that traveling by yourself can be rewarding, lonesome, and interesting at the same time.  I've also come to realize that I'm a bit picky about my accompaniment.

1. If I'm with my family or close friends, it really doesn't matter where we go because its fun just to travel with people you're close with.

2. If I want to see specific sites, aimlessly wander, take pictures, and explore, I prefer to travel by myself.

3. If I'm in a place I know nothing about and never thought of visiting, I can go with family, close friends, or even random people I meet along the way.  Thats when it gets fun!


Puente de Alcántara

Streets of Toledo

Last Saturday I went to Toledo by myself.  It was overcast and dreary, but I went anyway.  The estación de autobuses is nowhere near the main plaza or tourist information center, so I just got off the bus and started walking.  I could see the Alcázar at the top of the mountain but couldn't figure out how to get up there!  Toledo was the spiritual capital of Spain for centuries.  The Romans arrived in 192 B.C., later the Visigoths, later the Moors, and later the Jewish, Arab, and Catholic population.  Now its a serious tourist destination, but still beautiful.  I visited the Puente de Alcántara, the Alcázar, la Catedral, el Museo de Santa Cruz, and la Plaza de Zocodover.

Because I took the afternoon bus and didn't get to Toeldo until 3:45pm, a lot of the sites I went to were closed.  I was getting sulky and started to have a bit of 'lonesome traveler syndrome' as I headed back down the mountain to the bus station.  I passed a store that said ITALIANO in big letters and heladería in small font underneath.  I went in, ordered a chocolate con churro, and sat down at one of the four tables. I noticed the two young guys working there spoke castellano with an Italian accent, and an old Italian man was talking their ears off in Italian.  I struck up a conversation with one of them, and he told me he was from Girona, Italy and had been living in Spain for 5 years.  After the old man and his family left, I was the only one left in the shop, and Andrea (el chico italiano) talked to me the whole time I had my merienda.  He definitely brightened my day....nothing to do with the fact that he was gorgeous or anything....

This past Saturday, I took the 1:30pm bus to Consuegra.  Before I boarded, the driver asked me, "Do you know which stop it is?" Of course I lied and said "Yes" (I don't like asking for help), but as we started getting farther and farther away from the city, I realized the bus stops were essentially un-labeled benches in the middle of the towns we passed through.  I started to worry, until we turned a corner and I saw a mountain with 11 windmills on top....Consuegra.  (It also helped that there was a tourist couple from Milan that loudly asked the driver if we were at the last stop in Consuegra.) The town was amazing.  It was stuck in some kind of time-warp.  Unlike Barcelona and Madrid where the locals kind of resent tourists, it felt like the people of Consuegra were completely oblivious to us.  Granted, I only saw about 20 tourists the entire time I was there, so we didn't have much of a presence.  The entire time I was hiking from windmill to windmill all I could think was, "There's no way Don Quixote could have done this as an old man...He had to be in really good shape."

My video from the day in Consuegra!