Salamanca

*November 7, 2009*

Day trip to Salamanca!

So I was planning on sleeping on the bus, but instead got into a great discussion with Aubrea about our recent stresses thinking about the future. Up until now, life after college has seemed so far away. Even in planning for Spain, I never really thought about life after Spain. Granted, I still have a year and a half of college once I get back, but that really isn't all that much time. This study abroad program has almost made it easy to forget about life at home... since I always feel distracted with traveling and just trying to get a hang on the Spanish language. In a way, I feel like when I get home I'll just want to finish my degree, as this trip has shown me how much more there is to life than just school (which is really all I have known up until now). Then again, I really do love school, and this is my chance to take classes on a huge variety of topics to figure out what I enjoy most, and what I might want to pursue as a career.

I think the only conclusion we came to was to enjoy Spain and our trip now, and I think about everything when we get home, but it is nice to know I am not the only one who is stressed about the impending date of graduation.

Anyway, so we get to Salamanca, and it is FREEZING! It looks like it is going to rain, it's windy, and definitely much much colder than it was back in Valladolid. We had time to go get coffee and such, so a few of us (meaning like 10) wandered into a nearby café.

We definitely tend to take over places when we go to any type of store, café, bar, or business. You would think that they appreciate our business, but we always get looks and stares, and our business doesn't seem to matter to them. The opinions of Americans in Spain is not a positive one, despite our efforts to always speak in Spanish.

After coffee, we met back up with everyone, and walked around the town listening to Alfredo talk about the significance of certain buildings and just touring the city. When we got to the Cathedral, we were given free time to get lunch and wander the city on our own.

It started pouring, so we tried to find a restaurant that would have enough space for all of us to sit and eat our packed lunches from our Madres. McDonald's turned out to be the only one that could fit us all, so some people bought food off of their "1 Euro" menu so we could stay.

We just spent the rest of our time shopping for souvenirs and wandering around town. It finally stopped raining, but it was still so cold that a bunch of us bought "University of Salamanca" sweatshirts for the hood and an extra layer against the wind.

The two things that Salamanca is known for are that it is a college town (hence the University t-shirts and sweatshirts), and frogs. On one of the façades on the Cathedral, there is a tiny tiny frog on top of a skull. It really is tiny in comparison to the huge and detailed façade, but for some reason, every single souvenir shop is filled with different items revolving around frogs.

(Can you find the frog?)

Since it had stopped raining though, our walk back to the Cathedral to meet up with everyone was beautiful... there was this glisten on the cobblestone!

(The Cathedral)

Then, after we toured the Cathedral and walked back outside, we saw this HUGE rainbow! It was so beautiful!

We still had more free time after touring the Cathedral, so a bunch of us found a café/bar that looked like a tavern inside, and just sat, relaxed and talked until it was time to leave.

Not everyone left though... since Salamanca is known for being a college town, a few people just stayed to check out the night life, and took a bus back in the morning. That would have been fun to stay under other circumstances... but it was just too darn cold.

It was a somewhat low key day, but it was perfect to just wander around and shop on our own because of the cold.