One of the objects I brought in to
show the class was a gold watch necklace.
I got the necklace in Toledo, Spain this past summer. I went there with Ms. Hoover and Mrs. Wyrick on
the school trip to Spain and Italy. It
was an amazing and unforgettable trip. I
fell in love with Europe by the end of the first day. It was everything I had ever dreamt about and
so much more. When you watch movies and
the main character goes to or lives in Europe and you see all the little
outdoor cafes on the streets and the tiny cars honking with fast drivers behind
the wheel you think to yourself “that looks like paradise”; well you have not
even seen the half of it. Every time I
look at my necklace or open the locket to reveal the watch inside, I have
instant flashbacks of my time in Spain and Italy.
We had been in Madrid, Spain for
two days and on the third day we traveled on a tour bus for about two hours to
Toledo, Spain. When you see Toledo you
instantly think Spain. To me Toledo was
the heart of Spain. The houses were so
close together on this one mountain side.
The houses were all a light brown color with lots of windows and there
were two buildings standing taller than anything else in the entire city. One of the buildings was of course a bull
fighting rink and the other was a church.
Our tour guide for Toledo took us up a very steep mountain on a very
large tour bus to show us the best view of the city.
When we had come back down the mountain the tour guide took our group on a journey through the streets of Toledo. He showed us one of the many very large Catholic Churches in the area. We then went back on the bus and later arrived at a blacksmiths shop. (This reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean, the tiny streets that looked like alleys but were also sidewalks with the tiny windows on the side of the buildings. I loved the cobblestoned streets and tiny cars with crazy drivers.) When inside the blacksmith shop I sort of lost track of which door lead to what and where we had gone or were going but we had somehow ended up inside a room with four men sitting on wooden stools crouched over a long narrow table with what looked like needles in their fingers examining with a magnifying glass tiny black plates. They had next to them a collection of gold threads that they would pick up and proceed to press into this already engraved design on the black plates. They would mold them perfectly to the plate and no matter how close you got to them or how loud you spoke they would never take their head away from the magnifying glass. It was amazing how they could hold such focus. After we saw that we walked into yet another room and found ourselves surrounded by gold and silver metal jewelry, swords and shields of all shapes and sizes. After looking around for a while I finally found a gorgeous gold watch necklace with a gold engraving in a small black plate in the middle of the front of it. I bought it from them and wear it often now that I’m back home. I never changed the watch back to regular time so it’s still set in Spain time and I love because every time I look at it and see what time it is, I just think to myself, “right now, I would be getting back to the hotel and washing up for yet another dinner at another restaurant I may never see again, eating food I had never ate before” or “I would just now be waking up and getting dressed and ready for yet another morning of weird yet delicious hotel breakfast watching the sun rise higher in the sky over the mountains and hills surrounding us. I will never forget this trip and I hope to go back someday soon.
When we had come back down the mountain the tour guide took our group on a journey through the streets of Toledo. He showed us one of the many very large Catholic Churches in the area. We then went back on the bus and later arrived at a blacksmiths shop. (This reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean, the tiny streets that looked like alleys but were also sidewalks with the tiny windows on the side of the buildings. I loved the cobblestoned streets and tiny cars with crazy drivers.) When inside the blacksmith shop I sort of lost track of which door lead to what and where we had gone or were going but we had somehow ended up inside a room with four men sitting on wooden stools crouched over a long narrow table with what looked like needles in their fingers examining with a magnifying glass tiny black plates. They had next to them a collection of gold threads that they would pick up and proceed to press into this already engraved design on the black plates. They would mold them perfectly to the plate and no matter how close you got to them or how loud you spoke they would never take their head away from the magnifying glass. It was amazing how they could hold such focus. After we saw that we walked into yet another room and found ourselves surrounded by gold and silver metal jewelry, swords and shields of all shapes and sizes. After looking around for a while I finally found a gorgeous gold watch necklace with a gold engraving in a small black plate in the middle of the front of it. I bought it from them and wear it often now that I’m back home. I never changed the watch back to regular time so it’s still set in Spain time and I love because every time I look at it and see what time it is, I just think to myself, “right now, I would be getting back to the hotel and washing up for yet another dinner at another restaurant I may never see again, eating food I had never ate before” or “I would just now be waking up and getting dressed and ready for yet another morning of weird yet delicious hotel breakfast watching the sun rise higher in the sky over the mountains and hills surrounding us. I will never forget this trip and I hope to go back someday soon.
What a wonderful opportunity for you. I visited France and England with some of my friends and, like you, fell in love with Europe myself. I love that you've kept the watch set to Spain time and that you can still imagine just what you'd be doing as the hands make their way around the dial. Hope you get to travel to all the places you dream of, near and far. Thanks, Tori!
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