Friday morning we had our first weekend travel trip. At 8am we took a 3 hour bus ride to Salamanca. On the way we stopped at Avila. Avila is a small town known for the wall that was constructed by the Romans around the city in efforts to keep out other conquering kingdoms at the time. We had a chance to climb the wall and look out onto the city! It was a quick stop so after that we had 20 minutes to walk around and Jenny needed a sandwich for the bus ride. We still haven’t fully adjusted to the meal time changes. In the U.S., no matter where you are, you can find a restaurant to sell you food. But in Spain, it is much different. If you want a decent size sandwich at 12:30pm, it’s going to be hard to find somewhere that will accommodate that. Most places (especially in smaller towns) don’t expect people until 2 or 2:30. So that was an interesting experience finding a place for Jenny to get food for the bus. We got to Salamanca about an hour later. It was rainy and a bit cold outside but the town was still beautiful. This was the type of place that tries to maintain the history of their city and not reconstruct at all. Every one of the buildings looked older and there was nothing really modern about Salamanca. It was incredible. We got a tour guide who was extremely energetic (something we all needed at that time) and took us to the Plaza Mayor (same name as in Madrid) and told us the histories. The material of the buildings in Salamanca was very different from other places we had been to. Our tour guide was explaining in Spanish that it was a material that changes colors with age to this deep, rustic beige. We headed over to the cathedral – which was my favorite that we’ve seen. There was a “new” Spanish cathedral and the more Gothic, European “old” cathedral connected to it. The differences between the two were surprising. It was incredible to me the size and detail that went into these buildings – something we definitely do not do anymore. Over time our architecture has definitely simplified in comparison to these massive cathedrals with altars which had ornate, detailed altars. Even the columns had intricate sculptures etched into the sides. An interesting fact she shared was that when the Spanish were constructing the newer cathedral they put in an incredible amount of money into the area for the choir and then as the wars took place, they ran out of money so the altar was unusually plain with no decorations whatsoever. We also visited the University of Salamanca which is the oldest university in Spain. They had crazy traditions about seeing/finding the frog etched into one of the sides of a building the the students would pass their final exams and once they had passed their exams they would mark the outside walls with this specific marking with bull’s blood. When we got free time we got to walk around and we found a Tapas place that was super cheap. In Spain when they say tortilla, it is completely different from the tortilla we typically think of. It is this thick texture made with eggs that’s very soft. They put it in sandwiches for sometimes mix vegetables or meat in it. It reminds me of quiche without the crust. We walked through some stores to check out the sales. Spain has these massive sales (“Rebajas”) until about the beginning of February because of the holiday season. I haven’t really taken advantage of it because I figure I would rather buy spring things than stuff for the winter.
Anyway, we headed back to the hotel, which was very close to the Plaza Mayor. It was one of the girls’ birthday the following day so we all wanted to go out to celebrate! We met up at 11 to have a night on the town. As I’ve spent more and more time in a group, I’ve realized that any size larger than 5 people is either unproductive, annoying or dangerous. Being a blonde American, you already attract enough attention. But multiply that by 30 and then you’ve got a problem – especially when we’re all looking to go out and dance. We ended up crowding into this one place in which we were the majority - we were obnoxious to say the least. They were playing American music that most of the girls sang loudly to. Not to mention that the style of dance we pulled out is very different. There is no doubt that we emphasized our American-ness. At first it was funny and we were all having a good time, but then the Spanish ladies started getting upset. And the tension grew. We stayed there for about 30 minutes until one of the girls in our group was aggressively pushed, flicked off and spat on. We got stared down really bad and that’s when I felt uncomfortable being in such a large group. I grabbed a couple of my friends and told them that this wasn’t a smart idea at all and we broke off from everyone else and hit up some other places. I don’t know what it is about me but I always seem to be doing that because I get so frustrated and impatient with such a large group of girls. Ashley, Jenny, Lexi and I went to these other bars and met a bunch of Spanish/Brazilian people who all spoke incredibly great English. A couple of the guys we met lived in Madrid! We went to Cum Laude, The Gatsby, and Camalot – all such intriguing names. They were all close to one another so we would hop from one to the next and maybe back again. We had a blast. We got back to our rooms around 3 and had to be up in several hours to hit the road again.
I woke up to hearing people still out on the street partying! Once we had gotten ready and went to grab breakfast there were actually people still wandering around and just heading home (granted it was pretty early, but still!) I love the culture! After breakfast, we went to the market and all bought fruit, nuts and yogurts to split throughout the day. We are so sick to our stomachs with the carbs (PAN) and pastries we have consumed since we’ve been here! I’m so glad it’s finally kicking in.
We got on the bus and headed to Toro and toured the cathedral there. It was originally constructed by the Romans but finished with the Gothic style of architecture. It was interesting to compare the difference between the two. Other things that sparked my interest were a sculpture of the impregnated Mary, which is somewhat rare. And there was a painting of Christ that had an unknown artist. We quickly got on the bus and had to head to Tordesillas for our tour of the Santa Clara monastery. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures but the paintings and different rooms were so interesting. The architecture of this monastery was different than all the other buildings we had seen because of the Arab influence. Something that amazes me is the conditions that the colors of the paintings on the walls, frescoes and sculptures and how vibrant they are.
Cynthia was right: after a while, everything begins to look the same. The initial shock of the incredible ornate detail in each building and the massive columns and high ceilings of the cathedrals begins to wear after the fourth cathedral you’ve toured. Every time you walk in appreciative of such incredible achievements of these people from centuries ago – but that can only last for so long.
After our tour of the monastery, we had about an hour to grab food before the ride home. We had our fruit and just needed something to hold us over for a while. We found a small restaurant in the Plaza Mayor (of Tordesilla) to sit down at. Once again, it was an awkward time to be asking for food. The places weren’t quite ready for customers looking for meals. Once we sat down and looked at the menu, there was nothing that we actually wanted. We kept saying how all we wanted was a nice turkey sandwich from Tony’s or Club Sandwich and how much we missed being able to go anywhere we wanted, at any time of day to get food. We noticed that culture shock was beginning to kick in as we talked more and more about how it’s been a challenge to become accustomed to the culture. Not to mention we were all slightly sleep deprived from the night prior and all a little bit on edge. Ashley and I got Castellena (?) soup, which was quite an experience. It was soup with ham, eggs and bread in it. The flavor was good but I couldn’t finish mine because it was so strange. We went to the restaurant in a larger group and the waitress was getting frustrated with us and told the girls sitting at the table who weren’t ordering anything to leave. I get really nervous that our group gives off the obnoxious American vibe sometimes. As long as we are respectful, it’s normally not a problem and if the people see we are trying to communicate with them, they generally are patient and willing to help. Having worked in a store dealing with foreigner customers frequently, I normally would be impatient with them. But now that I am the foreigner and learning the language of the country I am living in I have been so grateful to the people who have been patient enough to deal with me, my questions, mispronunciations and bad grammar.
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