The city project #2

Dear London,

You look so beautiful in this sunny light; I wish you could stay like this forever, but nothing gold can stay.

Love you always,

Celia.

I wrote this letter to London after having a picnic in Notting Hill in April.

Day trip to Toledo

If you are ever in Madrid for several days and you have the time, I highly recommend you take a day trip to Toledo. There are buses from Madrid to Toledo and back every 30 minutes and it's a 50 minutes ride. Or you can also take the high speed train that connects these two Spanish cities in only 35 minutes.

Toledo is a beautiful medieval city in the center of the Iberian peninsula, and you can see most of the things that it has to offer in just one day, and without spending too much money!

If you make the trip during the summer like I did, I have several recommendations for you.

1) Clothes: Toledo in the summer is HOT so you are going to need light clothing. I recommend a summer dress and a hat and sunglasses to protect yourself from the sun. Also very important, wear comfy sandals! Let's not forget Toledo is a medieval city and so are a lot of its street! Definitely ditch the heels.

  

2) I would recommend the first thing you do when you get there in the morning is walk around the city. Start from the Zocodover square and just lose yourself in the streets of Toledo. Try to imagine what the city was like in the old times... believe me, it won't be hard.

3) Make a stop to eat. The cheapest thing would have been to take a sandwich with you, or you can eat at a Döner Kebab , which is also cheap and delicious! (not very typical Spanish I know, but very popular among the Spanish youth.) If you don't mind spending just a little more, there are plenty of restaurants in the Zocodover square and around, most of them not expensive at all.

4) The fastest way to see the city is if you take the tourist train. I know these things seem too touristy and even tacky but it's really worth it. The best part of the train is that you can see the city from outside and admire its cathedral, monastery, bridges and roman ruins from afar in only 45 minutes and around 4 euros. If you were to try to do the same thing by walking it would take forever and it'd tire you out because Toledo is built on a hill and going up and down is exhausting, especially during the summertime where the temperature in the city goes up to 40º C easily. I recommend you take the train ride after lunch because that's when the heat strikes harder and at least you'd be sitting under a roof.

5) I would leave the indoors visits for the afternoon too to avoid the heat. The Cathedral is very impressive and it's only 7 euros to visit. There is also a Synagoge and a Jewish museum, both very interesting.

The city project #1

This is a project where I write letters to cities, because I'm crazy.

Dear Murcia,

I just realized that you are actually a pretty city. And your weather is awesome and always makes me smile. Oh and the palms trees? Gaah I love them. But you’re a fucked up city and you bore me to death. So let’s get along while we are together but, just so you know, I can’t wait to get the fuck out of you.

Sincerely,

Celia.

Murcia is my hometown and I can't help but have a love-hate relationship with the city that I grew up in, the city that I still live in today, and that I'm always trying to escape. 

Trains + Bikes = Italy

I'm going to be honest here and confess an unpopular opinion I have: I don't like Italy that much.

I have been to Italy twice in my life, but I visited quite a lot of places in those two times. My main problem with Italy, and I'll say it right at the beginning so I can go on with showing you guys the good things about my travels in that country, is that it reminds me too much of Spain. Only worse. (If you are Spanish and have been to Italy, I think you get what I mean.) The cities are dirty, everything looks too old (even the things that shouldn't look old), you can't do anything for free (I've had to pay even to go to a park. Can you imagine having to pay to see Central Park?) and I am not a fan of Italian guys, I find them creepy and I think if you've been to Italy and been hit on by one of these Italian boys, most of you girls do too. 

Of course, Italy being Italy, all of this doesn't really matter and the beauty and history of the country speak for themselves. Everybody should visit Italy at least once in their lifetime, but I've already done so twice and it's not on my top destinations anymore.

The first time that I went to Italy, it was on a high school trip. We were visiting Italy for only 7 days, but in that time we travelled to Pisa, Florence, Rome, Napoli and Pompei. Pompei is a really interesting place to visit and Florence was my favorite city out of everything we visited, and it is still my favorite Italian city. Sadly, I can't say much about Rome. We were there for two days of which I only clearly remember visiting the Coliseum and walking aimlessly around in the city without knowing what I was seeing.

The second time that I went to Italy, it was the summer of my sophomore year in college and I went with my parents. If you are from Europe, you are most probably familiar with Ryanair. So yes, you guessed right, we wanted to go for a family vacation somewhere, and we basically just chose the cheapest destination that we could find: Alicante-Bologna, round-way tickets for only 13 euros.

Bologna is not a very well-known city, it is mainly a student city and it is only now starting to get more tourists because of Ryanair. But to be fair, it's a great city. It's small in size so it's very easy to walk from one place to the other, and it hides something interesting in every corner, wether it be a nice little bookstore, a food market, or a stunning gothic cathedral. 

From Bologna we took trains to different cities close by like Ravenna, Rimini, or Florence. You can find beauty everywhere you look in Florence. They also have the best ice creams I have ever had in my entire life.

In summary, even if there are things that I don't like about Italy, these were my top 3 favorite things about Italy: 

1. I oculd eat pasta all day, every day, it is my all-time favorite food so Italy is for me like a food paradise.

2. Bikes everywhere! I don't know if this happens in every city in Italy, but in Bologna the only thing you see is bikes every where. Proof:

Also in Ravenna they have free bikes for the tourists and they give you maps with tours to do by bike. It's a really fun way to discover the city.

3. Cheap trains. You don't need a car at all if you travel to Italy. At least if you are in the northern part of the country, trains are many and cheap and it's the best way to get to know the country. You can also enjoy a good book while you're on the train or waiting for it: