With Max’s advice we spent the day yesterday roaming through the streets of Toledo. Only the pictures can describe how beautiful this place was. Although I got way more sun than I had bargained for, the weather was breezy and Aaron and I enjoyed a nice picnic lunch we bought at the local grocery store in the plaza by the Cathedral. Later that afternoon, we made our way back to Pinto where we hung our laundry to dry and went with Max and his daughter to a great new park in the city. As we ate our tapas dinner at a restaurant overlooking the pond as people paddled small boats past, I realized that memories like these are what make a journey. However nervous we may have been initially, Aaron and I both know now that couchsurfing was the perfect way to meet local people and experience travel in a completely non-commercial, genuine way. After dinner we climbed high-ropes in the park, 20 or 30 feet up, looking at the lights of Madrid in the distance.

Today we hung out in Pinto with Sammy (Max’s daughter), went to the supermarket to stock up for the next bit of our journey, and watched a bilingual Harry Potter! We made friends with some locals at an internet cafe and made our way to Chamartin to catch the night train to Barcelona. I find myself now in a couchette (sleeping bed on night trains) writing peacefully the brief details of our travels.