spain – L'ensemble du jour

Sciences Po winter break: day 8.

My final destination on my whirlwind week-long backpacking tour of Europe was a country I’ve actually never been to before: Spain.

It’s not that I haven’t been interested in visiting Spain. But each time I’ve visited Europe for a significant period of time (that is, the summer after my sophomore year and my junior spring), most of my travels have taken me in an eastbound direction, towards Central and Eastern Europe. Spain has just not ended up being a convenient stop, and it’s been too far away for a weekend or a day trip.

And there actually wasn’t anything significantly different now from those previous trips about the direction of my travels; the meaningful difference ended up that I had a free place to stay in Spain. My friend, Emma, was studying abroad in Toledo and living with a host family, which meant I had free lodging that I could take advantage of.

But it wasn’t just me who was going to make the most of a study abroad living situation — Emma was also planning to come visit me in Paris and stay in my apartment. Long story short, it didn’t end up happening — but I’ll get to that later.

Toledo was one of the most unique European cities I’ve visited — which is saying something, considering I had just come from Venice, which was also one of the most unique European cities I’ve ever visited. For one, Toledo was geographically different — it was hilly, with twisty roads that wound their way back and forth up and down the landscape. It reminded me of some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings — maybe not the Shire, but perhaps Minas Tirith, with the way the towers and roads seemed to be a part of a mountain. It wasn’t the most fairytale-esque of anywhere I’ve ever been, but it was the most fantasy-esque.

And Toledo was warm! It was probably 65 degrees and sunny in February, and even though the winter in Paris was milder than what I was used to in South Bend, I was still shocked with how beautiful the weather was.

It was a perfect day for a hike, which is how I ended up seeing so much of the surrounding countryside. I would have loved to have been able to spend more time there exploring the hills and valleys and some of what looked like ancient ruins scattered along the path.

We even took a little picnic of wine and cheese and bread up to the overlook, which is where I got these beautiful pictures of Toledo looking like Minas Tirith. It also felt lovely to stretch my legs and get some actual physical exercise in. I wasn’t able to workout at all the whole week (not that I was necessarily keeping to a strict regimen while I was at Sciences Po), and it was great to get my heart rate up a little.

After our hike, we took the zipline across the river to get back to town. Then, we took a short break for some food and to rest up before the night’s festivities.

After having spent a day celebrating Carnevale in Venice, Italy it was time to celebrate El Carnaval in Toledo.

Once again, I dressed in my red dress, blue coat, and sparkly mask, exactly what I had worn while I was in Venice. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have another costume, and though I did have a leopard print shirt that I could’ve feasibly used as a cat costume, I thought my masquerade ensemble was more suited for the occasion.

I’m glad I got to go out for a night during Carnival since my friends and I were too tired to go out in the evening when we were in Venice. Toledo may not have been as famous for their Carnival festivities as Venice, but it was still a lot of fun! There was live music, a parade, drinks, and dancing — though I do wish I could’ve understood some of the Spanish to have at least a little bit of a clue what was going on.

I think my favorite part of the night was watching people in their costumes go by. It was a different kind of a costume than what I saw in Venice. In Venice, everyone was dressed in historical gowns and wigs and Phantom of the Opera-style masks, while in Toledo, people were wearing essentially Halloween costumes. I saw plenty of Elsas and Darth Vadars and Hulks. I also saw a few people in blackface, which I could’ve done without.

And thus ended my eight day tour of Europe. I was actually there until the following day, Sunday, and then flew back to Paris in the afternoon. This was the last photo I took before I headed for the bus station to take me back to Madrid to hop on the metro to take me all the way through the city and back to the Madrid airport to take a plane back to the Paris Beauvais airport to take a shuttle back to Paris to take the metro back to my apartment at the Porte d’Orléans. It was a suitably long day of traveling to conclude a long week of traveling.

Outfit 1:

Turtleneck: Vintage (thrifted, Street Scene Vintage)

Trousers: Express

Outfit 2:

Dress: Express

Turtleneck: See above

Coat: A vintage shop in Budapest (thrifted)

Sciences Po winter break: day 7

On my final day with my Sciences Po travel crew, we woke up in an AirBnB apartment in Venice, Italy during Carnevale season.

Of all the places I visited on our week-long whirlwind tour of Central Europe, Venice was easily the most visually unique. I mean, it’s arguably one of the most visually unique cities in the world — there’s a reason it’s a popular tourist destination. Each city we visited had its own style in some way — for example, Frankfurt had the charm of both old town Germany and a modern city of skyscrapers and Ljubljana had the most beautiful scenery with mountains in the distance. But at the same time, to some extent, they all ran together in my mind.

Venice, on the other hand, was completely different. You could never confuse Venice for Budapest or Prague or Vienna.

I think being there during Carnevale season also helped its case. Not that I’ve ever been to Venice at any other time of the year, but if I had to suggest a time to visit, I would definitely suggest Carnevale. The weather is perfect, for one: Italy during the wintertime is still fairly mild, and there are fewer tourists than there are in the summer. Apparently the canals can get somewhat smelly in the summer as well, which was not an issue I noticed at all when I was there in February.

Carnevale season is meant for partying — and even if you’re not a party person (or, if you were like my friends and me, you were too tired for partying after six days of night buses and walking tours), you can enjoy watching the partygoers in their elaborate costumes and masks.

I did my best to replicate the Carnevale style of fashion with my purchased masquerade mask and my vintage velvet coat, but what I was wearing was nothing in comparison to the elaborate ball gowns and hats and coats that I saw people wearing. If our only destination was Venice, and if I’d been planning this trip for more than a few weeks, I would’ve bought myself a costume.

I suppose the elephant in the room is that while we were there, Carnevale weekend, was when the first COVID-19 outbreak in Europe occurred. We left on Saturday, just a few days before the first cases began being reported, so we had no clue what was ahead of us in the coming weeks and months. At that time, COVID-19 was still a news story for Asia, not Europe. That was probably one of the last times I was in a large crowd with strangers, and one of the last times I existed in a world where COVID-19 wasn’t on my mind.

I had one more destination ahead of me than my friends, so I bid them all farewell in the afternoon to catch a plain off to Madrid, Spain. Madrid, however, wasn’t actually my actual destination: Toledo, a smaller town about an hour bus ride away from Madrid, was. Toledo was where my friend, Emma, was studying abroad and living with a host family.

I left Venice shortly after lunch, and I ended up getting into Madrid past sundown. From there, I had to take the metro for an hour, from essentially one end of the city to another. Then, it was another hour to find my bus and wait for it to arrive, and then yet another hour to actually get into Toledo.

Emma and one of her friends met me there, and we walked back to her host family’s house. It was dark, about 10 pm, so I couldn’t see clearly, but even in the dark I got the sense that Toledo was yet another visually distinct town. For one, there were more hills than I had seen in any of the other cities I’d visited in the past week. It was quite a hike.

At that point, I wouldn’t have minded to have just taken a shower and gone to bed, but Emma had made plans with some of her Notre Dame friends to go bar hopping, and I couldn’t resist the invitation to go out in a new country.

I thought 11pm-ish was somewhat late to be heading out for the night, but according to Emma, for Spanish people, it was early. She and some of her friends remarked that one of the clubs we went to wasn’t as energetic as it usually was, which they figured was due to it being too early.

For me though, by around 1am, I was feeling dead on my feet, and I suppose Emma was starting to notice, so we said our goodbyes to her friends and headed home. At that point, I’d been backpacking for a whole week, sleeping on buses and walking all day, and within 24 hours I’d celebrated Carnevale in Italy, flown to Spain, rode a train from one end of Madrid to another, and taken a bus to Toledo. With one mixed drink and a shot of vodka in my system, my body was ready to sleep.

Dress: Express

Turtleneck: FreePeople

Coat: A vintage shop in Budapest (thrifted)