Salamanca

Welp, this blog post is a little late.

My day-trip to Salamanca, my last trip with my dear friends Crystal (New York), Jenna (New York), Leander (Belgium), Geminis (Mexico), Karen (Mexico), Ivo (Mexico), Alejandra (Costa Rica), and Angela (Honduras), was on Saturday, June 9. Here is a photo-blog story of our trip. 

(Captions listed under the photos, this time!)
(Some photos still not rotated, unfortunately. I don't know why that is...)

We left around 8:00am, to catch a bus from Madrid to Salamanca first thing in the morning. The bus ride lasted for about three hours.

Karen, Geminis, Jenna, and Crystal: bright, shinning faces early in the morning!

Geminis, Angela, Jenna: something REALLY exciting!

Karen, Jenna: there were catedrales and colegios EVERYWHERE. The town is full of huge, ancient buildings. The University of Salamanca was the first in Spain.

Ivo, Leander, Geminis: So much love

The front of the Universidad

La Clerecía (The Clergy) y La Casa de Conchas (House of shells)

Ivo, mimicking Maestro Salinas

The Plaza Mayor in Spain was also the original plaza, on which all other Plaza Mayores (including Madrid) were based.

The girls: Crystal, Karen, Jenna, Geminis, Alejandra, me, Angela

...and the boys: Ivo, Leander.

Alejandra, Ivo, Angela, Geminis: pretending to be Christopher Columbus. And Leander: pretending to be the New World.

Karen, Leander, me: in front of the Convent of San Esteban

Me and Crystal: what a pretty building

Jenna: such a doll

We were looking for the Caves of Salamanca…

And we stumbled upon this little cove. Something tells me it’s not EXACTLY what we were looking for… but oh well!
Ivo, Leander, Alejandra, Angela, Geminis

Don’t even know what this is a picture of. But my hair looks great!

After a failed attempt to climb the wall, I was instructed to “just stand there and look pretty” long enough for the photographic proof. Done!

View of the Old and New Cathedral, from inside the “cuevas”

Such architectural expertise!

Inside La Catedral Nueva

The organ. Wow!

Impresionante.

We walked all the way across town to get to the Puente Romano, another ancient staple of the city

By the end of the day, we were exhausted. Time to eat!
Waiting for food: Ivo and Angela, with the beautiful Catedral Nueva in the background

It was quite the adventurous, fun day. We arrived back in Madrid sometime after 10:00pm.

Throughout the day, the most impressive and beautiful things were saw were a bride, some churches, and some roman ruins. (The bride was beautiful; she was getting married in a cathedral!) The only things we didn’t get to see in Salamanca were the Frog and the Astronaut. The reason being: we didn’t know to look for them. Bummer! I realized the Frog was significant only when I noticed the symbol in the souvenir shops, and finally asked what it means. Apparently, there is a small frog on the door from of the university. The students who find it are destined to have good luck, and pass all of their exams. I was told about the Astronaut later on: the architect of the New Cathedral was instructed to leave his “signature” on his work, so what he elected was a small astronaut structure stuck in the midst of all the intricate decorations. Clever!

I wish I had a step-counter. I bet I've walked more (taken more steps) simply during this semester of traveling that in my entire life, previously.

Love, ~Taylor