From Here to There: Salamanca

December 5 - 7, 2010-

1) Get up at 7AM to catch the bus at 8:30 – CHECK

2) Umbrella packed - CHECK

3) Walk to the bus station without forgetting the tickets – CHECK

4) Settle in for a 4 hour bus ride to Madrid, then another 2 hours to Salamanca – CHECK

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca

As my trip to Salamanca was decided only a day before I left, it was kind of a last minute decision but one well worth it! So my morning was busy the day of my trip to Salamanca, but I didn’t mind seeing as I had packed the night before and just needed to prep some food and get myself rain-proofed… the rain nor the lengthy trip would keep me down! I arrived in Salamanca around 4:00PM and had remembered to write down the directions of how to get to the hostel there, so I had found the Revolutum Hostel around 4:30PM, which was located about 40 metres away from the famous Plaza Mayor and right in the midst of the tourist area. I was booked into a shared-room with 4 other girls, none of which were in the room when I arrived, but I was so impressed by the cleanliness of the room, and the fact that we had our own bathroom with a shower AND bathtub, bathmat included!
And the hostel has only one designated smoking area, down in the café, truly revolutionary compared to some of the hostel horror stories I’ve heard with regards to smells... After dropping off my bag in the room, I walked around the historic part of Salamanca until nightfall, taking pictures and just getting a feel for where I was and how to make my way back to the hostel – turns out I have a good sense of direction, but it also helped that the gothic cathedral can be seen from almost any point of the city so it was easy to find my way back.

Gothic spires of the Catedral

The following morning, Monday, I woke up early to go downstairs and have breakfast with two girls in my room – one from London and another from Cyprus who are both teaching English in Madrid – and then I started my true sight-seeing tour. Rain was predicted, but I was happy to see that it wasn’t raining but we had blue skies all day, though with some pretty strong winds messing up my hair- ugh! First stop was the Plaza Mayor in the morning, with the light reflecting off the characterstic ‘golden’ stones used in the construction of many buildings in Salamanca, hence why it’s known as the “Ciudad Dorada” (Golden City). I was soon bombarded by a tour guide who convinced me to join a tour starting at 11AM around the main attractions, such as the Old and New Cathedral, La Casa de las Conchas, La Universidad Salamanca, Pontifica etc.. all for 9 euros! After paying I waited in the plaza and soon our elaborately dressed and outspoken tour guide, dressed in a Russian fur hat and cape (don’t ask) began with an introduction to the plaza and toured us around the old quarter of Salamanca.

Casa del las Conchas (House of the Shells)

Admiring the view down a sidestreet

The Cathedral lit up at night, truly overwhelming!

Looking up in the Cathedral Nuevo

The altar in the Catedral Viejo

Today, one can hardly notice that there are in fact two cathedrals which share one wall. It’s a mixture of gothic, roman, and rococo styles all due to the time it took to build the Cathedral. The Catedral Vieja (old cathedral) was seen as too small to be a cathedral, and was added onto by Napoleon which is the main structure which is seen today. Framing the door the Catedral Nueva, there are a number of elaborate carvings, including one of a lynx and an astronaut, carved more recently which were seen as symbols of the support of new sciences and studies in Salamanca. Inside the Cathedral is one of the oldest organs in Europe, built in the XV Century.

Universidad de Salamanca-

The university was founded in the XV Century, where studies were originally conducted only be those in the holy order, who studied in the cathedral, sat on the cold stone floors, and without desks or chairs, would write on parchment on the backs of their fellow students. The actual free-standing university wasn’t constructed until the XVI Century where different rooms were dedicated to different studies such as law, medicine, linguistics and politics. A quote inscribed on an inner wall has stuck with me since and seems to encapsulate the spirit of university studies: “Edificar la razon, el historico y la tolerancia como instrumentos”, or in English: Use reason, history, and tolerance as tools. Something to live by, no?

After about 4.5 hours of the tour, we ended up back in the Plaza Mayor where I decided to take a break and while walking back to the hostel, bumped into my two hostel roommates and so after chatting until they had to leave to catch their bus, I returned back to Revolutum where I met Bernie. From Kilkenny, Ireland, with an incredible accent and an even more incredible capability to drink beer as if it were water.

She and I spent our last evening tapa-hopping around Salamanca, having a drink at each place before finally giving in to splurging on sushi – neither of us have had sushi since being in Spain, and the 6 pieces of sushi were well worth the 14 euros! (YIKES). The next morning, Bernie and I said goodbye with a promise to meet again in Northern Spain and while she headed off to catch her bus, I meandered slowly to the bus station a few hours early, but took a detour and found the current Salamanca University – a HUGE campus with over 40,000 students attending! Of course, I had to take a peek inside the Social Sciences building… maybe I’ll be back one day, but maybe as a student?

Adio Salamanca!