Jewish New Year in a 600-year old synagogue

Toledo (the original one; not the one in Ohio) is about 40 mins from Madrid. It was also jewish new year and given Toledo’s jewish history, I figured it was an appropriate day to go visit with a free afternoon I had.

Prior to the Spanish inquisition, jews, muslims and Christians all lived here peacefully which was a pretty big deal in the 1300’s. As a result, the architecture in the city is a mix reflecting each culture’s styles. While the Islamic legacy lives on in the form of architectural style, everything else muslim has been wiped out from the city more or less, except for a few of the mosques which have been preserved and are now museums. However, the jewish quarter has remained intact which was of particular interest for me given I am jewish. Toledo really likes showing off its jewish heritage…The jewish quarter is plastered everywhere with stuff showcasing jewish culture, explaining the history of the jews there, etc. The main synagogue of the city (sinagoga del transito) is now a museum that does a very, very in-depth treatment on the history of the jews not just in Toledo but in Spain in general. If you like reading a lot in museum exhibits, this will be just the thing for you! Also, according to Lonely Planet it cost 2.50EUR to get into the museum. But with my IE student card I got in for free! SCORE!

The cathedral of Toledo is also pretty awesome. Mind you, I’ve seen a lot of churches with pretty fantastic architecture so this one wasn’t any more amazing than those of Italy or whatever, but still cool to see nonetheless.

Something else Toledo is famous for is its marzipan (or “mazapan” in spanish) so I obviously had to try some. SOOOOOOO good!! Super delicious dessert!! I was a fan.

The city walls of Toledo have been kept intact from the old days although the city has obviously expanded outside of the walls. Nonetheless, I can understand why Toledo is considered a UNESCO Heritage site. Inside the city walls it felt like I was in the 1600s. Everything there is so old (and well-preserved), from the tiny, winding streets to the architecture that remains intact. However, to take me out of the sense that I was in the 1600s were the throngs and throngs of tourists. Honestly it felt like no one lived in Toledo; that the town was only “populated” by tourists passing through. But whatever; for a short and cheap bus trip out of Madrid, this was definitely a worthwhile visit!!

The cheap and not so cheap in London

As you guys may know, London is a VERY expensive city to live in. And given I am on an intern’s salary, I find myself pretty much constantly evaluating the prices of things here vs. what they would be in Canada to ensure I am not overspending. Here are some observations:

Grocery stores

·         Buying non-junk food (i.e. tomato sauce, pasta, veggies, etc) costs about the same as it does in Canada after factoring in the exchange rate. i.e. 10GBP worth of groceries at a grocery store here works out to be about the same $16.40 worth of groceries at Loblaws

·         Produce (chicken, beef, eggs) is oddly way cheaper here. i.e. 500g of chicken costs like $10 in Canada and would be like $7.50 here.

·         Given the demographics here, obviously there is A TON more Indian food than Chinese, or tex-mex. But it’s cool; I’ve had the opportunity to make some awesome (and fast) dishes I never would have been able to make in Canada!

·         There are so many candy bars here that don’t exist in North America and look sooooooooo gooooooood and cost about the same as in Canada. I wish I could eat them all.

·         Given the size of the UK’s population, there are several main grocery store chains. But I live closest to 2 of them- Tesco and Sainsbury. The prices at both seem to be about the same. (although apparently Tesco is supposed to be cheaper)

Eating out

·         I checked out the Lonely Planet’s guide for food and what restaurants they recommended at the lowest price range possible. One of such restaurants was this Mexican place called Taqueria.  The dish I ordered (which was average priced on the menu) was 6.50GBP or about $10.50!! I don’t know about you guys but to me, a cheap meal is <=$5, not <=$10! These London pricing standards…

·         So restaurants are by definition then, really expensive. Having explored lots of London (the reasonably safe areas of London, anyways!) it seems the best option for really cheap eating out is random hole-in-the-wall restaurants serving Lebanese, thai, etc. You can get a good amount of food for about 3.50-4GBP (which is about $5.50 tops). That is about as cheap as it is going to get for eating out.

Beer

·         Prices for beer in the grocery store are what you’d expect by deregulated liquor standards. You can get 4 bottles of anything for like $5 tops.

·         In pubs, I’ve found beer actually is not that cheap. A pint in an average pub for an average beer comes to about $5.50 which is maybe only $0.50 cheaper than what it would be in Canada. The cost savings come into play in the fact that you don’t need to tip. So when you pay $5.50, it actually is $5.50 and not $6.50 after tipping ;-)

·         In night clubs, the price of alcohol is the exact same as what it is in Canada. You are getting ripped off per bottle to the max and end up paying about $7-8 per bottle. But again, no tips here, so that helps soften the blow, at least a little.

So yeah, when you are living in London, when someone says something is “cheap” be aware that the standard for cheapness is much different here than in North America or even mainland Europe!