The one with silly Salamanca

This weekend Marissa and I headed back to the north to Salamanca in the region of Castilla y Leon.  Many of our teachers are from or went to university in this area, so they were very excited for us to go see it.  Our landlord and Marissa’s mentor told her she was going to love it so much that she would never want to leave it.  Unfortunately, the weather was so terrible that it made it extremely difficult to get excited and motivated to sightsee.  Despite that, the city was really beautiful; I only wish the weather had cooperated with our plans.

We left on Thursday after school, taking a bus as usual.  It was five and a half hours on the bus from Zafra to Salamanca, including a thirty minute stopover in Caceres.  It wasn’t too bad thanks to the beautiful countryside, a new Criminal Minds episode to watch, and a good book to read.  It is still amazing/crazy to me that it is light so late in Spain.  It still wasn’t completely dark when we made our way to our hostel just before 10 o’clock at night!  By the time we arrived, all we could do was grab dinner and head back to the hostel to rest.  We were both craving kebabs so we found a place nearby and ate up. 

Friday was supposed to be when we did the majority of our sightseeing, but it was a rainy, cold, miserable mess. Because of the weather, we had a late start in the morning.  We met an interesting, young woman from Mexico who is studying medicine in Spain for the semester and ended up talking with her for nearly an hour.  When we did leave, my umbrella broke thanks to the wind, but I could not bring myself to buy another with less than two weeks left in Spain.  We weren’t prepared for the cold, so we decided that a café con leche and pastry was in order.  We settled into a café in the Plaza Mayor for warmth. 

See the red roofs!

Afterwards, we walked over to see la Iglesia de la Clerecia.  Based on previous experiences, we decided to pay to see go up into the towers of the church, rather than pay to see the inside of the church itself.  We always enjoy getting a view of the city from above, and to be honest, the churches start to look the same after you see so many of them.  I believe we chose well, seeing how pretty the city looked, despite the bone-chilling wind.  I love the way the red roofs look from above, so classically Spain to me.  Next to the church is the Casa de Las Conchas (House of Shells) which is covered in stone shells.  It was built at the end of the 15^th century and has the shells because the owner was a member of the Order of Santiago (St. James), whose symbol is the shell. 

Then we saw the Catedral Nueva and Catedral Vieja.  They are basically combined, with the older cathedral being built sometime during the 12^th century and the newer cathedral being built during the 15^th century, I do believe.  The old cathedral had tombs and art that were old and neat, but it was much smaller and plainer than the new cathedral.  The new cathedral was more of the baroque and renaissance style, with sweeping arches, domes, and columns.  All of these churches, cathedrals, basilicas, etc. are just so breath-taking, though Sagrada Familia is still my favorite (love me some Gaudi!).

We stopped for a delicious Spanish lunch.  I started with a plate of paella mixta, that I am pretty sure included rabbit, seeing as that is the typical way to eat it in this part of Spain.  It was good as always, though impossible to eat the tiny shrimp with their shells and heads still on.  My second dish was a pork chop with french fries.  We both finished with some flan, that wasn’t quite as good as I have had in Spain but still better than most.  I am going to miss being able to get a meal like that, including drink, bread, and tip (no tip) all for 10 Euros. 

On Saturday, we got ready a little earlier and headed out to walk around the city a bit more. As you can tell from the picture, it was pretty cold, so we bundled up in our scarfs and sweatshirts.   Honestly I am not exactly sure what we saw specifically.  I know we saw some old churches and part of the Ponticifia University, which is extremely old with construction beginning in the 13^th century.  We also walked along the river, which was quite nice.  We even witnessed the start of a protest rally, though I’m not sure what they were protesting, probably budget cuts.  The last thing we saw was the Roman bridge, dating back obviously to Roman times.  Salamanca was on the same ’Via de la Plata’ (Silver route) as Zafra, which is pretty nifty. We finished the morning with another cafe con leche and pastry in the Plaza Mayor before going to get our bags from the hostel.  After it was time to get back on the bus and head home. 

With only one weekend left in Spain, we wanted to be able to go to our café on Sunday and relax.  Can you believe it? I only have one more weekend in Spain.  We are going to the beach in Cadiz and will enjoy swimming and reading a lot, I am sure.  This week I am seeing all my kids for the second to last time, which is definitely bittersweet.  I had a really good lesson with my second years today about baseball.  I loved telling them about something I enjoy and that makes up a part of American culture, and they seemed to be really into it, asking questions and listening for the most part.  I am definitely going to miss them!