Too many goodbyes, Toledo, and Madrid

Goodbye Salamanca 
The end of our time in Salamanca was very bittersweet. It's nice being done with school, but it was hard to say goodbye to Nicol(my host mom) and the city where we lived for 6 weeks. We were pretty familiar with it by the end. Friday night we were taken to a very nice restaurant for a 5 (small)course meal which included wine, salad, octopus, fried veggies, rice, and duck. On Saturday, Bridget, Alyssa and I gave the final presentations on Toledo while everyone ate ice cream, we said our goodbyes to Zach and Caleb who were leaving early, we packed, and Karen and I took a walking tour of the city getting pictures of all our favorite spots which ended with our last mass at the round church, St. Marcos' which was built in the 12-13th century. I also said my goodbyes that night to Nicol's friend Heli and her son Carlos(Caqui). Sunday morning Nicol sent us of with our last sack lunch and told us to come see her again before we went to meet the bus at 8am.


Toledo
Like most of our other day trips with Mester, Toledo was a very quick trip but we saw some cool stuff. For one, Toledo is known for its metallurgy(metalwork for swords, sheilds, jewelry, etc.) and there were storewindows everywhere filled with swords and other awesome stuff. Another cool sight was the painting by 16th century artist El Greco called The Burial of Count Orgaz which we had studied for our culture classes. Third, we saw the cathedral of Toledo. Things to remember from inside were the beautfiul white pillars with black and white tiled floor and El Transparente, a baroque work that covers a whole wall with sculpture and painting, and is lit by a window cut in the ceiling for that specific purpose. They also had museums with lots of old church books

After the cathedral we made our way slowly down to the bridge over the river and to meet our bus. Toledo has the windingest roads of all of Spain, I'm pretty sure. None of the cities align to a grid like in the US, but Toledo has especially small and twisty roads that cars barely fit through(but still do!). The bridge was beautiful, I got some pictures. The bus took us to Madrid where we checked into our last hotel as a group and ate our last dinner together. It was really hard seeing everyone for the last time in Spain, especially with my stomach ache still continuing and my future so uncertain.


Madrid
The next several days have all been focused on a combination of relaxing and experiencing a little of Madrid. On Sunday night I was advised to take it easy and to treat it as a stress ulcer with antacids, a bland diet, and no worrying so that's what I've been trying to do. On Monday all we did was check into our Hostel and stay in the rest of the day. Karen and Catherine each took a four hour nap and I went for an hour walk around the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol(mile marker reference point for Spain's highways)We paid an extra 5 euro a night each to have air conditioning, TV, and a private bathroom and it's been really worth it so far. The room also has wifi included so that's where I'm updating the blog from. 


Tuesday was an eventful day. We went to el parque del buen retiro(the park of good rest) and explored several gardens and sat on lots of shady benches for abut 5 hours in all. You can also rent boats for 5 euro, but I haven't been feeling up to it, unfortunately. After our time in the park we went to El Museo del Prado, a very famous museum for its collection of greatest works of the last five centuries. It's free from 6-8pm so we went in for about an hour before going back to the hostel for dinner. Karen has been leading the charge in shopping at the nearby grocery store and fixing us nice meals in the kitchen provided at the hostel, so we're really living fairly normal lives but in a hotel atmosphere on a semi-spanish schedule, and I'm trying to rest extra for my stomach.


Yesterday we stayed in the hotel room all day until going to el Prado again. Karen and Catherine went out to buy some food but I stayed inside trying to be stress free. We went to el Prado from about 6-8 so we got the whole free time experience. Catherine gave us a special presentation on a work by the 16th-17th century artist Velázquez called Las Meninas on the way because she had written her research paper on it and wanted to help us appreciate it more, which we did. Although we went to el Prado when we first arrived in Spain, it's so much better now that we've studied a number of the artists in class and can recognizes their works and styles. Karen and I also spent the last half hour in the pre-15th century section which had some really cool religious works. After el Prado, we ordered tickets to see the Harry Potter premiere tonight (preceded by year 7 pt.1) and then found the Half-Blood Prince online to watch since I hadn't seen it before. We watched about half of it(which we finished today) and finished the night by Skyping our friends in Costa Rica followed by Karen and Catherine's mothers.


Today has been much like yesterday with a lot of relaxing in the hotel room(and finishing Half-Blood Prince). We won't be visiting el Prado today because we have to leave early on the bus if we're going to make it to watch both Harry Potter movies tonight. Tomorrow we're hoping to make one last visit to the Park and el Prado before we go our separate ways on Saturday. I may update tomorrow with my impressions of the end of Harry Potter, but I don't expect to have much internet access next week so I may not be able to update my blog until the end of next week.


Lastly, an update on my stomach. It continues to bother me, but I upped my Tums dose today because I realized I was taking it more on the "calcium supplement" level according the instructions. Later I am going to the pharmacy to check for a better antacid like pepcid. As of now, I haven't changed my flight to go home early, so I'm still set to be here another week. Keep me in your prayers! My flight to Rome leaves at 6:30am, saturday morning(11:30pm Friday on Missouri time).