Salamanca, España (Day 1)

Part of my API program included a three day trip to Salamanca which is about 2 hours northwest of Madrid in the region of Castile and León (Castilla y León). Most famous for its ancient university [chartered in 1218), Salamanca is still known as an important university-city where a large portion of the population is attributed to students.

WINE TASTING:

Upon arriving in Salamanca, the API group of 50 divided into two groups. I was put in the group that first went to the wine tasting! We drove out of the city into the countryside where we entered a GORGEOUS vineyard which is also a hotel and a spa. What a marvelous hotel stay it would be. You can read more about it here and here. All I can say is that this would be such a "dream-wedding" location. I suppose that means I need to marry a Spanish fellow...sorry Kevin ;)

I could have easily spent a lot of time just looking around this beautiful vineyard, just because it was so picturesque that my photos do not do it justice. But obviously as I am not 21 years old, I have not previously participated in a wine-tasting so this was very fun and also a crash-course into the art of wine. 

Upon entering the building, we walked into the room where they keep the wine. There were so many barrels of wine I cannot even give an estimate on a quantity. The temperature was much colder in this room, which is why it was very cute of them to give us each blankets during the tasting. Each of us were also give three glasses of wine (two red and one white) and then an assortment of cheese and olive oil to taste. What I found really interesting was the lights that were built into the table so that you can better see your wine and food: so fancy!

As college students can rarely afford good wine, this was probably the first time I've ever drank a higher caliber wine. I will also admit that it was all REALLY good, so perhaps I will leave Spain as a wine-snob? Probably not, I'd still rather spend money on trips.

Some of the things that I learned had to do with the color of the wine when it was held in the light. Apparently white wine will appear green in the light if it is a young wine, for example. Also the darker the red wine, the stronger the wine it is in terms of alcohol content. Furthermore, the shape of the oval the wine makes when you swirl it around can tell you about how much sugar is in the wine. So many little things. The lady running the tasting also kept asking us to sip it again and see if we can taste little things like the tobacco taste from the wine being stored in old tobacco barrels or if we could taste lactose like milk or yogurt. I suppose that my taste buds are not yet so cultured and so I could merely taste wine, haha. 

I do not believe that I had ever tried white wine before this day, and I loved it! The white wine was definitely my favorite although I did like the one red wine a lot as well. The other red wine was much too sour for me. It appears that I like very sweet wine. Such a girl.

I figured beforehand that they would provide us with little snacks, but I didn't realize that they would give us cheese and olive oil that they made at the vineyard! Their cheese was absolutely amazing. I really wanted to know what kind of cheese it was, but apparently its only made there so does not have a specific name. I was disappointed in hearing this. They have us a soft cheese that we licked off of a spoon and also a harder cheese that literally melted away in your mouth. All three wines very much complimented this second cheese. The biggest surprise of all was the olive oil. I know that everything here is cooked in olive oil and I do love all of their food, but I also hate olives on their own. For this I was surprised when I took a swig of olive oil and discovered that it tasted like I had just drank a garden. It was a fresh garden. That was all I could taste and I cannot elaborate more other than it was amazing.

It was a lot of fun to go with my new friends from API. After the tasting was over, we were allowed to chat while we finished our wine. Although it was only three glasses of wine over a few hours, I had just gotten out of the hospital with low blood platelets and so I was probably feeling my wine-tasting wine more than I should have. This is probably also attributed to the fact that I never want to spend money on something like alcohol. At the very end, they allowed us to buy their products and I was very surprised at their prices. I just always assume that wine is incredibly expensive, but the white wine that I loved was only 6 euro a bottle, so under $10. 

 

                                                        Afterwards

EXPLORING:
After the wine tasting we had the rest of the day to do as we please and sight-see whatever we would like. We grabbed some ice cream and explored for a few hours. Knowing that we had a walking tour the next morning we just wandered around saving the big stuff for the next day. Even though I had been the one sick with mono, everyone got tired after a few hours, so I wandered around by myself, which was still fun. I didn't want to waste a few hours in the hotel doing nothing when it was still a beautiful day outside in the city of Salamanca. So I decided to take full advantage of my time there. This is basically my mindset for my entire stay here. I should just take full advantage of all of these blessings that have been bestowed upon me and experience as much as I can while learning as much as I possible can.

Plaza Mayor: Salamanca

There are many Plaza Mayores throughout Spain, and although the one of Madrid is a close rival, the plaza in Salamanca overwhelming in its great magnitude and intricate features. It begs you to bask in the sun and enjoy your afternoon without a worry in the world with old friends while making new. Surrounding each arch are carved heads of Spanish kings, famous Spanish novelists, famous Spanish heroes such as "El Cid", and even Franco. Its not hard to guess which head has been covered multiple times in graffiti.