Salamanca.acnamalaS

El fin de Semana de 22-24 de enero:

So my first big trip of the semester took place this past weekend. Me and 8 other supah cool american folks montaron un autobus earlllly Friday morning and headed off to the beautiful, historical city of Salamanca, about 2 ½ hours N.W. of Madrid.
So once we got to Salamanca (about 11:30am), we headed on over to our Hostel (se llama Youth Hostel Salamanca). This was my first time to stay in a hostel, and I must say it was pretty nice… & only 13Euros a night… not bad! There were 10 people to one room, and since we had 9 people we just got the room all to ourselves, which was awesome... halllahh woopitywoooo! bonus: there were bunk beds. just like summer camp! haha
After we got settled into the hostel & ate our sack lunches (mmm gracias Primi!), we set off to explore the city.

We stumbled upon (well I mean how could ya miss it?) the magnificent Convento de San Esteban, and marveled at its beauty for probably 20 minutes. You can see why!

Our next destination was Los Catedrales de Salamanca:

(check out da background. oh wassup grande catedral?)

I took these pictures in "La Cueva", which was near the cathedrals

1 John 1:5 “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”

There are 2 Cathedrals of Salamanca, built at different times, but joined together. One is called Catedral Viejo (old) & the other Catedral Nueva (new) [the names are so original.. i know.].

This was one of the entrances to Catedral Viejo

One of the entrances to Catedral Nueva:


We got to walk around the towers of the Cathedrals (so many awesome spiral staircases... If I had to be a staircase for the rest of my life, I'd chose to be a spiral one. Or an escalator. But probably a spiral.), and see into the 2 Cathedrals from the surrounding balconies.

This was the best picture I could get of Caterdal Viejo.. there was no flash allowed and it was so big! Oh pooperscoop.

On the roof of one of the towers! Hello there beautiful Cathedral!

View of Salamanca from the roof. So beautiful.

Little bity doorways on the roof!

These are pictures of Catedral Nueva:

By the way, those columns are about 8 or 9 ft in diameter! HUGE!! And it's about 4 stories tall!

It was about 3:00 by this time, which is prime time for some good eatin in Spain. So after the tour we found this awesome lil bar/cafe place in La Plaza Mayor & ordered some wine and tapas (free appetizers) & chilled for a bit.. wooh!

Then more exploring of the city....

We found the famous Astronaut that had been added to one of the walls of the cathedral in the '90s when they were renovating it.. hahaha!

Psalm 90:17 "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us"

It's so pretty!

Cathedral at night!

Then we had a lil bit of fun shopping at H&M, & walked around a bit more. We somehow stumbled upon a grocery store & bought wine & microwaveable pizzas for dinner (there was a lil kitchen area in our hostel), then headed back to the hostel for quite a feast. Haha :)

To Janna Clare: Arrubba!

Wine... in juice boxes... only .95euros

Now Salamanca is not only famous for their beautiful history, but also for their exciting "night life". Night life is an understatement though... it seriously is a night world! When people in Spain go out dancing (woooh discotecas!) or to the bars, they don't leave their house until 1am, then they don't come back until 6am. It's crazy.

So after our dinner, we all took a lil nap, got ready, and then went out! When in Spain, do like the Spainards do, right? Right. There were probably more people on the streets and in the restaurantes/bars/cafes/discotecas at 2am than there were that whole afternoon. So we just hopped around all night, & I danced the night away.... danced so much.. that I briefly lost my glasses on the floor of one of the discotecas (who wears glasses out anyways? Oh yeah, ME. I'm an old lady.), and when I got to them they were supah doopah scratched up. Blast it. I'm an idiot. But it's okay. I have an extra pair of glasses... and contacts... still an idiot though.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and hit the town again for more exploration!

Plaza Mayor de Salamanca

They love frogs (ranas) in Salamanca! lil galletas ranitas

bridge. awesome.

un puente grande (big briiidge!)


american gal, light pole, bridge, cathedral

Then that night me, the other katie, sarah, and rachel went to Mass in La Iglesia de Purisma. It was absolutely beautiful. We would've gone to the Cathedrals for mass, but the only time offered was at 11am Sunday morning, and we would already be on our bus by that time (booo!). After mass, this man came up to us and asked if we knew the history of the church.. of course we said no (duh, we're just silly american gals now), & he continued to tell us the history of the church (in spanish of course.. and he kindly talked very slow for us, i liked this old man). The huge paintings behind the altar were all painted in Italy, and the church was built around them (they couldn't fit them in i'm guessing???). Also, the people who funded the building of the church (some sort of royalty, can remember though..) lived in the palace across the street from la iglesia. When they died they were buried under the church! crazyyyyyyy.

La Iglesia de La Purisisima, Salamanca

After mass, we met up with the rest of the group & went and got some delicious pizzaaaaaaaa (with pineapples! just like hideaway. mmm. except not at all actually haha). Then about 11:45pm we headed back to our hostel. We were tiiiiiiiiiiiiiired (probably due to the lack of sleep the night before!), and I was ready for some shleeeep!

The next morning Lauren, Richard, and I walked to the University of Salamanca and found the hidden frog. They say if you spot it you'll have good luck for a year!! 2010. You're gonna be a good one.

Can you find it.....???

Hint: It's on the right column.. on one of the skullzzz!

Ah yes there it is! on da skullz head! hello good luck.

Then we met the others at the bus station and headed back to good ole Alcala.

Twas a lovely weekend.

Hasta Luego,

Kah-tee

:)