Salamanca

I had a wonderful time in Salamanca this weekend and I am so glad I went! It was a long trip for a short amount of time actually spent in the city, but it was completely worth it.

Salamanca is home of the oldest university in Spain, and it is definitely a college town. It is much smaller than Sevilla, and reminds me a little of Chapel Hill. The University of Salamanca was established in 1230. It's where Columbus came to get travel advice, and also where my señora, Inés, went to college! She gave us lots of tips on what to see and showed us a virtual tour before we went. Besides its rich history and historic sites, Salamanca is known for its cheap, delicious tapas and its nightlife (college town!)

Friday we left after class, around 2:00 in the afternoon. It was a long 7-hour bus ride, but I sat next to Alice for the first half and the second half next to a guy from a small town near Salamanca who sells cars. So I talked to him for awhile-- yay for speaking with natives and improving my language skills! Even though my Spanish was obviously very broken, he said he understood me just fine. It made me feel accomplished that now I can actually (somewhat) communicate with natives!

We finally got to Salamanca around 9:30 at night, and everyone was exhausted and hungry. We got to the hostel and checked in, then went to a pizza place.



We didn't do anything else that night because we were all so tired. We got back to the hostel around midnight and went to bed. This was my first experience in a hostel, and I can't say that I particularly liked it. There were 20 people crammed onto 10 bunkbeds in our room, and people came in, turned on the lights, tripped over things, had loud conversations, snored and kicked the beds all through the night. I hardly slept at all.

Regardless, I woke up at 8 a.m. the next morning to begin touring the city. This was about the same time that some people in our hostel were just getting back, but since we only had a weekend we knew we'd be rushing to get everything done. We were out by 9 and went to a charming little pub that had a breakfast special-- a croissant or piece of bread with butter and jelly, hot cocoa or coffee, and an orange juice for around 2 euros.

The charming breakfast spot looked like a library

Mmm... I love croissants and hot cocoa

After breakfast our group split off-- I went with Cherise and Audra and the SAS girls went off by themselves. We decided to follow Rick Steves all the way, and started with the second-most-obvious tourist destination of the city-- the cathedral. Salamanca's main cathedrals are called the "old" and "new" cathedrals, and you have to go through the new to get to the old.

The "New" Cathedral, built 1513- 1733

This is the Capilla de Santa Barbara, a the room off of the Old Cathedral. According to Rick Steves, "you can sit like students did for their tests" (so I did). "During these final exams, a stern circle of professors formed around the student at the tomb of the Salamanca bishop, who founded the University of Salamanca around 1230. The university originated with a group of teacher-priests who met in this room."

After visiting the old and new cathedrals, we paid again to climb the tower. We got a beautiful view over the city and of the upper floors and terraces of both cathedrals.

From the terrace, the New Cathedral reminded me of the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.!

The towers of the old and new cathedrals

View of the ciudad

After our visit to the cathedrals, we went to the main tourist attraction of Salamanca-- the University. Founded in 1230, the University was one of Europe's leading centers of learning for 400 years.

The oldest library in Spain-- wow!

You can't see it that well, but this is the Hall of Fray Luis de León. According to Rick: "The narrow wooden-beam tables and benches-- whittled down by centuries of studious doodling-- are originals. Professors spoke from the Church-threatening cátedra, or pulpit. It was here that free-thinking brother Luis de León returned, after the Inquisition jailed and tortured him for five years for challenging the Church's control of the word of God by translating part of the Bible into Castilian. He started his first post-imprisonment lecture with, "As we were saying..." Such courageous men of truth believed the forces of the Inquisition were not even worth acknowledging."

Courtyard of the university

The doors of the university are ornately decorated, and it's good luck for students to find a tiny frog on a skull buried within the facade. You should have heard our señora trying to explain this tradition to us at dinner the night before we left-- especially since we didn't know the words for frog or skull. So funny, we had no idea what she was talking about.

Big group of people searching for the frog on the skull.

We found it! Good luck for us!

I am going to go ahead and post this... but look for a second Salamanca post to come!

Sunday

Sunday was a pretty exciting day. Alice, Sarah and I woke up early to go to some Sunday markets. We started at a small art market pretty close to our houses, and talked to an artist about the possibility of taking painting lessons. I've been looking for some kind of extracurricular activity to keep me busy in the afternoons, and I think it could be really fun to learn how to paint!

Then we went downtown, took a coffee break, and ended up back at the art market next to the Museo de Bellas Artes. It was even better this week, with more artists and paintings everywhere you looked. We had a wonderful time admiring all of the different styles of paintings! I especially liked all of the city landscapes.

Art market!

Then we went to the bus station to inquire about tickets to Lisbon and Salamanca. I was thinking of going to Lisbon for the weekend, but it looks like it'd be too much to fit into one weekend (7 hour bus ride) so I might head to Salamanca with Alice and Sarah. My señora is very excited because that is where she studied in college-- the University of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain and apparently it is beautiful!

On our way we happened across the old train station, Plaza de Armas. We walked through and looked at all the little shops. Most of them were closed, because it was Sunday, but it was very pretty inside with a big dome window with stained glass and lots of light.

A sign in the station with old pictures from the Plaza de Armas

The old Plaza de Armas

Then we went down to the river. It was a beautiful day, so there were people everywhere-- couples sitting on the wall with their feet dangling to the river, boys doing backflips off of trees, and people walking, biking and jogging along the river trails. Alice and I walked along the river until we got to the shortcut that led us through Santa Cruz and back to our apartments for almuerzo.

Lots of people in the parque

After almuerzo I used my Sevici bike pass to bike around the city. Sevici is awesome and I am enjoying it immensely. Basically, with a 25 euro pass I am able to pick up a bike from any rack (there are hundreds all over the city,) bike to my destination, and leave it at another rack. It cuts down so much on walking time! I'm trying to convince Cherise to get one too, though, so we can ride to school and back to our house together.

At the end of my ride I went down to the river and met Alice again. We decided to take full advantage of Spanish tradition and botellón by the river. Botellóning, or drinking in public places, is very popular in Spain because you can buy alcohol at the supermercados for extremely cheap! We bought a whole bottle of wine for 1.70 euros.

We sat at the edge of the river and watched it turn pink and the lights come on over the bridge. As the night grew darker, the park became even more crowded, but with a different group than before. There were many groups of students talking in circles and playing guitar, novios wrapped up in each other or college students slacklining (where you tie rock climbing rope in between trees and walk on it like it like a type rope, I do it sometimes in the quad at UNC).

All in all, great day! When I got home Cherise was back from Barcelona, and my señora had prepared a Spanish tortilla. Yum!

Alice as we watched the sun set over the river

Beautimus

Carmona!

I realized that I completely forgot to mention the archivo de Indias in my last blog post. On Thursday my America and Spain class (the painfully boring one) took a trip to the Archivo de Indias in Sevilla. The building was constructed after the founding of the New World, and it was where merchants would gather to discuss and plan voyages to the New World and do trade. Sevilla was the main (and only) port where ships sailed to and from America in Spain. Now the building hosts the archives of the New World. I think the rest of my class was bored by a bunch of old documents and letters in glass displays that we saw, but it fascinated me. The archivo hosts the Treaty of Tordesillas, although we couldn't see it for some reason... apparently they're putting it out in the spring. There were also rows and rows of boxes full of letters, journals, papers, maps and other archives from the founding of the new world. I thought about how incredibly awesome it would be to do research with documents like that. Those types of things have fascinated me ever since I took my Interpreting the South through Manuscripts class freshman year, where we basically read letters from Civil War soldiers, plantation journals and diaries from women at the turn of the century and wrote papers about them. So incredible, I love it! The museum would have been better if I knew some more Spanish, though, and was actually able to read the documents.

Archivo General de Indias

Saturday, Alice and I took a day trip to Carmona. It was just the two of us because half of our group (including my roommate) went to Barcelona, and the other half was in Ronda, where I have already been. Carmona ended up being a wonderful little day trip, and the whole day only cost us about 9 euros!

On the bus on the way there we befriended another group of Americans who were studying abroad with IES, which brings together students from colleges all over the country. One of the guys from Texas had a host family of Mormons (Spanish Mormons? who knew such a thing existed?), which he said was horrible because they were trying to convert he and his roommate. He was catholic, and he said they blamed catholics for everything and would talk bad about them. He was in the process of getting his housing situation changed! We didn't stick with the group, but we ended up running into them nearly everywhere we went, and took the bus back with them too!

Our self-guided tour began at the Alcazar de la Puerta de Sevilla, which was the wall and gate of the old city. We were able to climb up onto the roof of the castle to see beautiful views. Carmona is a pueblo- blanco like Ronda. It has white houses with brown roofs (que hermosa!)

On the roof of the alcazar

Looking over the alcazar and the city

After the alcazar, we left our American friends and tried to find a convent. But we didn't have success-- it must have closed early for siesta. However, we did get stopped by this crazy old man in a wheelchair, who told Alice that she was beautiful because she was moreno (dark-headed) and that I was ugly because I didn't have dark hair. Yes, he was crazy, but not exactly a confidence-booster.

So instead we went to the Priorial de Santa Maria, the finest of Carmona's churches. Like every cathedral in Sevilla, it was built after the Christian reconquest in the 15th century on the site of the city's main mosque. It was also built in the style of Sevilla's cathedral, and it looked very similar.

My favorite part of the cathedral was the red and blue stained glass, that reflected on the walls and ceilings of the church, making it seem purple. So pretty!

After the cathedral and a lunch break to eat the bocadillos our señoras had packed for us, we headed to the outskirts of the city. We came to an overlook where you could see out into the landscape for miles. To make it even more perfect, horses grazed in the pastures below.



Then we went to the Alcazar del Rey Don Pedro, which was a 14th-century palace overlooking the plains, and is now a historic hotel. We ran into our American friends as we stood out on the balcony taking in the gorgeous views. I liked it because it was how I picture the alcazars looking back in the day. Since this one is one of the few still in use, it looked less like a ruin and more like a palace.

View from the balcony of the alcazar-hotel

The courtyard of the alcazar-hotel

We walked back through town and took a much needed stop at a little bakery for sweets/ coffee/ soda and a bathroom.


We headed to the old Roman ruins, but weren't able to visit because we didn't realized it had closed at 2. Although we did see a random amphitheater in the middle of a field.

Random remains of a Roman amphitheater in the middle of a field

All in all, a very successful little day trip. I had a lot of fun!

Cuban food, coffee and flamenco museum

It's been a pretty good week. Wednesday night instead of going to Cien Montaditos like we normally do Alice, her roommate Sarah and I went to a Cuban restaurant downtown. Alice's parents are Cuban and regularly cook Cuban food, so she was very excited to try it out. It was a little on the pricey side (well, compared to Cien Montaditos where everything is a dollar on Wednesdays,) but it was completely worth it. Everything was so delicious. I was happy to be there with Alice who could explain the menu to me. I had tostones (fried sliced plantains.)

The restaurant was so snazzy, with white tables, white chairs and white walls. There was hardly anyone there when we went, but apparently they have salsa dancing on Thursday and Sunday nights and lots of students come to dance. We will have to go back!

Our incredible delicious dessert (I will need to ask Alice for the names)

Alice in heaven

Cuban mohitos! Yum... I am a fan.

We had a test this morning (Friday,) so Thursday Alice and I went to a café to study. It was a quaint little place next to the Universidad de Sevilla, that reminded me of the Caribou on Franklin Street. It was great to be surrounded by other college students, and it kind of made me wish I was in the SAS program, so I could take classes at the university! As I sat with my Spain and Islam notes spread out on the little wooden table, drinking my Cola Cao, I felt like a Spanish college student. It was the first time that I've felt more like a student than a tourist.

The exam this morning went pretty well. Fernando gave us five broad essay topics (ex: Mohammad) and we basically had to spout off everything that we knew about two of the topics. I think I probably over-studied for it.

Cherise left this afternoon for Barcelona, along with a bunch of my other friends. I opted out of going to Barcelona since I've already been and would rather use my money traveling to places I haven't been. I'm hoping I'm not too bored or lonely without her this weekend, though. I've been planning things for every day. Tomorrow: Carmona with Alice. It's an easy trip from Sevilla, and bus tickets are only about 4 euros. Sunday possibilities: Art market and other markets, maybe church, salsa dancing or Arab baths.

This afternoon, Alice, Alex and I went to the Museo de Flamenco. It was so incredible. The displays were very high tech and interactive. In one of the rooms we watched dancers on a big screen TV perform the types of flamenco dances-- dances that express happiness, seduction, death and pain. It was almost as good as seeing it in person. There were also displays that showed flamenco technique.



In the next room we learned about the voyage of flamenco and famous flamenco dancers. Then the third room was my favorite-- the flamenco costumes. This room contained some dresses (or actually, I think they were replicas of the dresses) from the 1930s, as well as dresses that dancers had worn in the Olympics (did you know flamenco was an olympic sport? I didn't...)

This is the dress from the 1930s. The picture was taken by one of the museum directors, who kept following us around and trying to get us to go to the flamenco show they were having that night.

(there are many better pictures to come, like pictures of us pretending to dance, on Alex's camera. You will have to check back and see them when she uploads them to the computer!)

Overall, this museum was definitely a success. It made me want to see a more traditional flamenco show than the one at the Carbonería, which didn't include any of the special dresses or props. We also want to see a Sevillana dance, which is apparently an old folk dance that is a very vivid and happy version of flamenco.

After flamenco, Alice and I walked around the city for awhile and discovered parts that we never knew existed! We stepped into another beautiful church just off the street. And we found an entire street dedicated to wedding dress and flamenco dress shops. So pretty! Then we went to a café and had coffee/ helado.

Alice found her dream dress... watch out Jason! (the one in the back). How amazing would it be to have a Spanish wedding dress? They are all so incredible!

I still can't believe that as of today, I have been here one whole month. Time feels like it has passed so fast. I am beginning to worry that it will slip through my fingertips and I won't see half of what I want to see!

churros and exploring triana

I can't believe that I've almost been here four weeks! Time has passed so fast!

Just got back from a walk with Alice around the city and Triana. Triana is a neighborhood in Sevilla that is across the river. It is charming, with narrow streets (though not nearly as narrow or as pretty as Santa Cruz, but it's also much easier to find your way around.) I hadn't explored Triana yet because it is about a 30 minute walk from my house in Nervión. We didn't get to see very much because by the time we got there it was almost getting dark, but we did duck into a tiny church that looked like a storefront off the street to see a beautiful gold display of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. It's incredible what treasures you can find tucked away on the streets of Sevilla!

On our way we walked by the river and stopped for churros at a stand by the bridge to Triana. Churros, which are very popular and a traditional food in Spain, are served with thick hot chocolate used for dipping.

Churros and thick hot chocolate. I quickly found out that this chocolate is much better for dipping churros than it is to drink-- it's about the consistency of pudding and very rich!

Mmm... churros

Alice excited about some churros and coffee

On our way over the bridge to Triana we stopped and looked at the locks. It's a tradition in Sevilla to buy a lock and write you and your lover's name on it, and lock it to the bridge. It's called a "love padlock." So cute!

Night view over the river from the Triana bridge

Yesterday was a boring day... after class I stayed at home and did housekeeping stuff. I applied for scholarships from the j-school (apparently they have hundreds of scholarships they give away every year, and I just had to submit an easy online application-- why not?), talked to my roommates about our housing for next year (check out our new house! It's behind the McDonalds on Franklin street and they're signing the lease this week! http://www.chapelhillrent.com/nc/chapel-hill/190230-5-or-6-br-on-franklin-street, http://www.uncrents.com/417-yates-motor-company-alley.php)) and skyped with Kevin, who was having a hard day with work.

This is a pretty busy week... we have our first exam in my Spain and Islam class on Friday! Also still trying to book trips to Morocco, Portugal and France. France is proving especially difficult because we are traveling during Semana Santa, when prices skyrocket! It's especially frustrating because the day we are leaving, Friday April 15, flights are 55 euros in the morning but 150 or more in the afternoon... and we have an exam in the morning or we would be able to leave then!