Student Bloggers
Toledo - A Maze from Medieval Times
Date
February 28, 2019
Currently studying at: Fundacion Ortega-Maranon - toledo, Spain
Homeschool: The College of Wooster
Toledo is a city forgotten by time. The alleys are narrow and the streets are steep. If you asked most people, they couldn't point it out on a map (I guess I have a thing for studying in places like that). There's a kind of duality about this place that doesn't feel real; in the words of our tour guide in one stretch of hidden backstreets, "Remove only the cars and the streetlights from your mind and you have the city as it was in the 16th century." Madrid was made the de facto capital of Spain, in 1561, by obtaining the seat of the court from its predecessor to the south. Since then, Toledo has faced extremely little change in its skyline and cobblestone streets. The old city (el casco viejo) is a little more than one square mile, but it's so dense that it feels like three times that.
I've been here for about six weeks already, and I still can't help but gawk out the window every morning on my commute coming into the city. I still get lost trying to find ''that one bar/museum/chocletería we passed walking around one time'' - and still find a million other hidden treasures in trying to do so. What's even better, Toledo is one of the safest cities in all of Spain, which means that wandering and exploring can happen for as long as you'd like them to into the night.
Toledo is a maze that´s filled with new discoveries every time I step out the door, and I know that there will always be more to find no matter how long I stay here.