¡Salamanca!

This past weekend 3 of my friends and I took a trip to Salamanca and Segovia. We were intending to leave Friday afternoon, but had to leave later because the bus we were going to take was sold out. Lesson learned: next time go to the bus station before the day of to buy your ticket.

We arrived in Salamanca at 1:30 a.m., but unlike the United States, the bars in Spain do not close at 2 a.m., so we were able to meet my friend Nathan, who is studying in Salamanca.

Saturday was a beautiful day. I didn’t even wear my coat half of the time. First we checked out the Roman bridge.

 Then we met Nathan and went in the cathedral. In Salamanca there’s an old and new cathedral that are connected to each other. 

We elected to go into Ieronimus, which allowed us to climb up into the churches and see some exhibits, such as these musical instruments.

Instrumentos de viento - madera
Chirimia contralto.
Barrilete de bombarda torneado con respiraderos en roseta.
Constructor: Bassano

Instrumentos de viento - madera.
Orlo bajo, oboe barroco (sin pabellón) y chirimía contralto.
Constructores: Hans Rauch y Jeorg Wier?

Trompeta marina

Music by Antonio de Yanguas who was  the Maestro de Capilla
at the cathedral in Salamanca from 1718 to 1753.

Throughout the morning we also visited La Casa de Las Conchas, the grand entrance of the original University of Salamanca (it is said in order to pass your exams, you must find the frog hidden in the façade), and the Plaza Mayor. 

Casa de Las Conchas

Point to the frog!

Plaza Mayor

Eventually Nathan went home for lunch and the girls stopped somewhere to get food. We got the menú which lets you pick 1^st and 2^nd courses, dessert, and drink. My first course was paella, which was delicious, the second was pork stuffed with cheese and peppers, and dessert was natillas, which tasted kind of like pudding. 

Paella

Natillas

We then headed back to the hostel for a siesta and later made a picnic-type supper and met up with Nathan again.

Our hostel was in a very ideal location, it was very close to the Plaza Mayor. We got a 4 person private room, since there were four of us. What we got was 2 double sized beds and a bathroom to share. What would have been really awkward is if there were 3 of us and a random person.

The next day we were off to Segovia!