Day 4: Toledo!

Today was a very busy and exciting day! After mass, we went to catch a train to Toledo (prounced Toe-Lay-Dough).

While we were waiting in the train station, I overheard a group of people speaking English.  This made me very excited as we hadn't met anyone who didn't speak Spanish as their first language yet, and it was a group full of young people so I concluded that they must be World Youth Day pilgrims! I grabbed my friend, Margaret, and went off to introduce myself. They were from South Africa, a fact which I find very very exciting. They had the most fabulous accents that I have ever heard, and I swear that this how people will be speaking in heaven. It was like a Jamaican accent had a baby with a British one. I was correct, and they were in fact in Spain for WYD. I talked to them for about 20 minutes about faith, WYD, and Lifeteen!!  Lifeteen is sort of like a universal youth group that many charismatic parish's throughout the world take part in, including mine. It turns out that they were all part of a Lifeteen group in South Africa. I never would have thought of Lifeteen being present in South Africa and it tickled me pink to have been able to have had such a random connection with this group. Once we got to Toledo we met even more groups here for WYD! We met groups from France, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico, Australia, and of course, (my personal favorite), South Africa.  Meeting people is such an important part of this trip for me. Having the knowledge that there are  people who share the same faith as me is so uplifting and it helps me to remember that I am not alone in my faith. It is inevitable that someday Christians will be truly persecuted again. However, it isn't something to fear because there are so many like-minded people in the world. A lot of Christians fear solitude and estrangement because of their faith, I have defiantly felt that many times. I realize now how silly that is because there are so many of us out their in the world and we won't be alone. It is like having a giant, loving family who populates every corner of the world and will always back you up.

Back to Toledo. Toledo was an ancient city, set high up inside fortress walls. Think castles, suits of armor, and cobblestone streets.

We began by touring a small museum which held ancient paintings from the 11th to 15th century and it had a whole room dedicated to El Greco artwork. We toured the military museum and we walked around on the winding, narrow streets. It was such a historical treasure, and I appreciated how perfectly preserved this ancient city was. The one downfall was how touristy it was. However, the tourists were mainly World Youth Day pilgrims and it is touristy for a good reason.

After having a full day in lovely Toledo, we re-boarded the train and went back to Madrid to visit with The Chivas, friends of many of the girls in our group because their girls lived in Chicago for a while as exchange students. They are family of ten, which is very rare in Madrid and even more amazing than that is they adopted a baby with down-syndrome. Spain does not have a high birthrate, and so this family is truly walking off the beaten path which is amazing and very honorable. They were so warm and hospitable and they fed all thirty of us a dinner of paella. We got home very late after an adventure on the subway where we had no clue where we got lost and had to walk a half an hour to get home.

COMING SOON!!! Paella Recipe, directly from Spain!