A weekend in the sea shore

Hey guys! This is Claudia again with her travelling posts, yay! ♥ This time I'm gonna talk about my weekend in Tossa de Mar. Tossa is a 6000 inhabitant village located in l'Empordà, a region in the north of Catalonia. It's very beautiful and usually very crowded with tourists from France, the Netherlands and the UK, but since it's was the middle of March the place looked pretty quiet. 

We were celebrating my dad's 50th surprise birthday party, so we went there with some friends of the family for two days. First though, we stopped by Castelló d'Empúries to walk around the village. 

We had some patatas bravas, we had lunch and we went straight to Empuriabrava, where my dad's surprise was waiting. We bought him at ticket for the Windoor Wind Tunnel, a skydiving simulator! :) Take a look at the website here , you'll see what I'm talking about. It's usually used by skydivers to train, but it's opened to the public of course! People go there to feel how does it feel like...So if you're afraid of heights but you still want to try it, you know where to go! ;)

That's me, but I covered my face because... Oh Jesus, you don't want to see me with that wrinkled face because of the wind lol (Sorry guys, I have some dignity left I'd like to preserve lol)

Okay, this one works... lol

After this afternoon full of ups and downs we arrive to Tossa, we got to the hotel and we walked around the village before dinnertime. I'm happy to see the shots are night don't look as bas as expected ^_^ Yay!

Then we had dinner at a fancy restaurant to celebrate my dad's belated birthday of course! Serving sangria.... 

Spongecake with Nutella nomnom ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I had some green tea on this curious ceramic cup that looks like a plastic one XD 

The next day in the morning we did a gynkhama around the village. It was kind of stressing and tiring because it was "Boys vs. Girls" so we had to run all the time to beat em! lol~ I stopped more than once to take some shots, though :)

I think it's clear how much I like animals  ♥♥♥♥♥♥

The sky looked so blue that day that Tossa almost looked like Greece ^-^ 

Daddy didn't like that pirate moustache I painted him as a penalty D': Haha~

Then (and unfortunately) I gave my camera to a very messy person and he dropped the camera -_- If you notice from this picture on there's a weird frame on the top of the photo or in the side... *sigh* Sorry about that! 

The pics look fair but they could've looked better >_< 

Then we had out typical paella and this sangria made of cava (champagne) instead of wine. It tastes way better in my opinion, I hate the original Sangria XD

And that's pretty much it :) Dad had so much fun both days and we're glad, so! It was his special day after all. He got a very fancy watch as a present as well. The weather was great and the food was very tasty. What else can we ask for? Happy 50th Belated Birthday, dad!

Love,

CL

Toledo, Spain. What a quaint and beautiful place!

Three weeks ago I spent 4 days in Toledo, a beautiful city in the center of Spain. Toledo is the capital of the province of the same name, and it belongs to the autonomous community of Castilla La Mancha (where the famous Don Quixote is from!). Thw whole city it's been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage as one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire and place of coexistence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures (Yes guys, we had Muslims, Jewish and Christians living in the city back in the old days!). And there are still some proves of it ^_^

 (And btw as you can see, I'm talking about Toledo-Spain, not Toledo-Ohio, haha XD Many people confuses them actually (and I'll show you guys a fun fact about this later!).

Day 1

We didn't do much because we left Barcelona at 2pm, so we arrived to Toledo at dinnertime. It was by car, so we had to cross the country lol. 6 hours by car x_x It was worth it, though. We passed by the Greenwich Meiridian in Aragón :)

We also passed by Los Monegros, a desert in Aragón.

We also passed by "ahem" Madrid, since my dad couldn't find the right road XD Here it's Atocha Train Station!  And well, we didn't so much that day since we arrived late to Toledo. We just had something quick for dinner and we went straight to bed ^_^

Day 2

We decided to take our day-off and discover the city by themselves. 

한국어 연습하고 있었어요~ ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

 Those were the views of the city from my hotel. Isn't it beautiful? :)

 The sky looked so bright and blue that day...! <3 *sigh* I'm proud of the photos I took!

You can see the Muslim influence on architecture on that building on the right

"El Alcázar", a stone fortification restored in the 16th century

Plaza de Zocódover <3 I loved this place and its glassy windows!

And this is the fun fact I was talking about before XD Toledo (Spain) has a street called "Toledo from Ohio" lol! My guide told me the next day that those two cities became the first twin towns in the world in 1931.

We found a menorah on the floor. That means there's a synagogue around!

There it is c: 

<3 Hebrew

Another synagogue with Muslim archs

Isn't it clear I love those typical windows?! *sigh*

This is the only mosque left in the city: Mosque of Cristo de la Luz

Nomnomnom brazos de gitano... (That's how we call Swiss rolls lol~ Literally "Gypsy's arm"! Don't ask me why,...)

This cutie doggy decided to pose for me c: Hehe... Thanks!

We had some jamón and Manchego cheese for dinner and then three small pans with "migas" (center) , deer (left) and  a typical stew from the region (right)

I decided to end up that day with some taro bubble tea, yayyyyyyy! So Spanish lol XD

Day 3

That day we decided to join in a guided tour around the city to see the things we had missed on day two. The guide was super lovely and told us about so many things ^_^ I thought it would be rather boring but it wasn't at all! Technically it was our last day in the city (since we were going to spend day 4 on the road), so we wanted to make it worth it.

Marzipan is the typical sweet of Toledo. I don't really like it but this sword made of it looks very yummy ^w^

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, one of the best poets in Spain <3 

This white&blue door made of wood reminded me of Greece XD 

Cathedral of Toledo

I got this meal for lunch consisting in 4 small tapas! (From left to right, up to down):
Brandade, fried cheese in orange & honey sauce, stewed mushrooms, deer (aka venison) and sponge cake with wild berries sauce & ice cream <3

Finally we got into this kind of "Choo choo train" that went along the city XD Toledo is a small place and you can go walking everywhere, but going this far was too much. We got the chance to see the city from the outside, and it was totally worth it :) The views were totally breathtaking! <3

I have to say I really enjoyed my stay in this city. I wouldn't live there at all, but it was good to see and visit it. People were nice and it wasn't super crowded of tourists (even though I'm proud to say I practiced my Japanese with a group of tourists I bumped with in a museum haha). We were there for 4 days only, but it was more than enough I think. I totally reccomend it of course, it's a typical Spanish city and there's so much to see and learn from. And food is undoubtedly delicious :)

Hope you guys like the pictures! Feel free to comment or share the link ^_^

Love,
CL