As for Salamanca - beautiful. The town itself is so clean, and in the old quarter at least, it was like walking through Spain centuries ago. Most of the area seems untouched by modernization, and walking through the old buildings made us wonder how they're so well preserved.
Even more, I think it's the first time we've experienced such a Spanish feel. Bilbao is beautiful, but it is a huge commerce town. Salamanca - not so much. Our first night there, we ate dinner at some really busy place in Plaza Mayor (one of the oldest plazas in Spain - that's what makes Salamanca so famous), drank wine with the locals at a bar not too far away from the plaza, and stood amazed at how beautiful the plaza looks at night with all the lights. Seriously, the plaza is absolutely beautiful during the day, but especially at night when every light is lit up and it seems the whole town is out for vino y tapas. We weren't the only ones taking pictures, which made me think that even in January this place draws tourists from all over the world. It makes me appreciate the fact that we could see it during a non-peak season, as opposed to sometime in summer when I'm sure it's packed with people on vacation.
Our little hotel straddled the old town and its outskirts, and it was maybe only a two-minute walk to Plaza Mayor. It was such a nice place, but extremely tiny. It seemed too nice for what we paid for it, but that may be just because it was in Salamanca. When we go to Paris in two weeks, we may not have such good luck. The only thing that was kind of irritating was the "double bed" which was really just two twins pushed together. But then again, maybe that's just a norm for Spanish or European hostels - I don't know. But despite that, it was a really nice and clean place with really nice staff.
The next day, we did some sightseeing around the old quarter, spending nearly half the day at the the two massive cathedrals - Catedral Vieja and Catedral Nueva - in the center of town. The cathedrals were indescribable. I don't think I've ever walked into anything so big. The gothic architecture was stunning, and it's hard to conceive how they could have constructed something with so much detail so long ago. There were lots of choir stalls and various religious statues inside, but it was the exterior architecture that really captivated me.
Salamanca is also a huge university town, with something like 1 in 3 residents of the town a student. The university, founded in 1218, has got to be one of the oldest universities still existing today. Also, the school is famous for its entrance facade, which Lonely Planet quite fittingly calls a "visual feast". In a massive and extremely detailed wall sculpture, there are all kinds of little figures chiseled into the facade - like skulls, angels, religious things and a bust of Fernando and Isabel - but there's also a tiny frog, which doesn't make any sense with the rest of the carvings. And there's just one. Apparently, they say that if you find the frog it'll bring you good luck, and students try to find the frog before a big exam so they'll do well. Cade and I tried and miserably failed, so we had to cheat and read where it was in our guidebook. A good thing, too - the frog is so eroded that it's hard to tell what it is anymore, but it's obviously still a frog. We zoomed in on said elusive frog and it's in the online album in the Salamanca folder.
To top everything off, as we were walking through the old quarter after sightseeing, there was some Spaniard who was just sitting on the side of the road playing soft Spanish music with his guitar. It was the most intense Spanish feel that I felt that weekend, and maybe since I've been here. I'd love to come back someday.
We took TONS of pictures, and they're all on our album.
We miss you all!!!
P.S. I just realized that since I still have my computer configured for Texas time, that it puts Texas time on all posts we make on Blogger. Therefore, it's not 5:45 here - it's almost 1 a.m., and I have class tomorrow morning at 9. Got to go!
No comments:
Post a Comment