Salamanca

This weekend I went to Salamanca with several friends from IES and Jared Grigg (for those of you at home who know him) and we had a blast! We left on Friday morning and took the train from Madrid. It was a 2 1/2 hour ride and we all were sitting togther so it was fun! Jared and I played about 10 games of gin rummy and watched the beautiful scenery. We should have trains in the States because you miss so much when you fly everywhere!

Anyway, we got to Salamanca and headed out to find a hostal to stay in. We ended up staying in the Hostal de Los Angeles which was on the Plaza Mayor and we even had a view of the Plaza Mayor from the room! It was amazing and suprisingly cheap! But we also had to climb three large flights of stairs that, even without my bag, made me out of breath. Then we went down and had lunch in the Plaza Mayor at one of the many cafés there. After a yummy lunch we went out and just started walking around. We walked down a main road with lots of tourist shops, many of which we entered! Then I bought a European type scarf that is hot pink and that I love! We also saw La Casa de las Conchas which is a house covered with large shells on the outside. It is now a public library so we could enter for free and hung out in the small courtyard in the center of the house.

We also went and saw La Catedral Nueva and La Catedral Vieja. The funny thing is that the New Cathedral is actually about 500 years old. The Old Cathedral is almost 1000 years old. They are amazing and absolutely beautiful! There was an amazing organ in the New Cathedral so I took a picture for Ron.

We also took a little trolley that gave us a 20 tour of Salamanca but I didn´t get alot out of it because the woman speaking was so monotone it was painful to listen. After the tour we walked down to El Puente Romano which is this long bridge that goes over the Río Tormes and we watched the sun set from there. We tried to find somewhere to eat on the other side of the river but there wasn´t anything so we went back and were headed to a place in my guidebook when this man gave us flyers for the Don Quixote Restaurant with a cheap deal that gave you lots of food. So we did that and it was really good and we had fun! I forgot my video camera there though so I had to run back a few minutes after we left to get it. It was still exactly where I left it(gulp!) Then we went back to the Plaza Mayor and had a coffee while watching the people there.

The next morning we woke up and found breakfast in this cute little restaurant and then went back to get out bags out of our room. After we checked out of the hostal we went over and saw the Casa Museo de Miguel de Unamuno which is the house of Unamuno who is a famous Spanish writer from the Generation 1898 which was a big literary year. I will be reading some of his stuff this semester in my Generation 1898 class so it was interesting to see where he lived. We also went to the Ieronimus which is the bell tower connected to the Cathedrals and you can climb up it and also walk around the balcony of the Cathedral which is really high and a little frightening but incredible at the same time. It is so high that it amazes me that people could build something so tall without the kind of technology we have today! After that we headed for the train station, bought tickets, had lunch and waited for the train. While waiting, Jared and I played Taco Ball in the arcade which is the most fun game I have ever played to date. It is indescribable but kind of like air hockey but not...that´s not very helpful is it? Oh well... we are currently searching for a Taco Ball game in Madrid but as of yet have been unsuccessful. I´ll let you know how that goes.

We got back to Madrid on Saturday afternoon in time for La Noche en Blanco which will have to wait until my next entry!