Salamanca, España (Day 2 and 3)

THE CATHEDRAL:
The first thing that strikes you when you enter Salamanca is the golden glow of the city because it was built almost exclusively in sandstone. Unlike southern Spanish towns in Andalucia that are vibrant with colors, the Castile region of Spain appears more as an antique.

The cathedral is composed of a new and an old part. The old part began construction in the 12th century while the "new" cathedral is significantly larger and was begun in the 16th century. Cathedrals expand any imagination one may have about castles and medieval architectures. I was fortunate enough to climb to the top of the cathedral and overlook the city and be blown away by the architecture that was achieved with such little technology of the day.

The exterior of the cathedral is ever changing. During my stay in Salamanca, the tallest tower was surrounded by scaffolding in effort to continually restore the building to its past magnificence. Weather and pollution can greatly damage such precious buildings over time. As it is traditional of cathedral restorers to include a contemporary symbol on the building, during the 1992 restoration, an astronaut was added to the building as well as a demon licking an ice cream cone. As is life, little features can go unnoticed if one doesn't fully embrace their surroundings and absorbs all that they can until their senses reach an overload. [I basically live in a constant state of overload]

Astronaut on the cathedral

The interior of the cathedral is an astounding as its accompanying exterior front, although I am afraid that pictures simply cannot do justice. As an engineer, however, I am baffled by how they are able to secure the structural integrity of the cathedral after almost 900 years. The Lisbon (note: Portugal) earthquake in 1755 took its toll on the cathedral in Salamanca leaving cracks and broken windows to their day, despite efforts to repair the building. I spent a good part of my day climbing small staircases to the top of these towers putting my trust in architects from hundreds of years ago. Yet, these great architectural achievements like the Coliseum or St. Peter's Basilica may possibly outlive some of our best buildings of this century despite all of our technical AutoCAD simulations.

THE UNIVERISTY:
The University of Salamanca was founded in 1134 and chartered in 1218. It is claimed to be of the same age as Oxford University in England and is the oldest university in Spain. As Salamanca is still a major university, it was great to see a majority of young people on the streets. As most college-towns, this city is aimed for the youth. Back in the 15th century, Colombus (Cristóbal Colón) came to the University of Salamanca to speak about his ideas of voyaging around the world to the Indies. Although this was blasphemous talk in the day, the University of Salamanca was known for being one of the most open-minded universities and they studied his ideas. Although his origin is unclear (originally believed to be from Italy, now it appears he is from Cataluna near Barcelona), it was the Spanish Queen Isabel I de Castilla who eventually granted his wish. 

Intricate facade of the university

One interesting feature of the university is the fading red markings that should not be confused with graffiti  The walls are marked with the legacies of past students, who, upon graduation, have written their initials in an ink made from bull’s blood, olive oil, and herbs. As it used to be incredibly difficult to graduate from the university (only around a 15% graduation rate), those who were fortunate enough to succeed were granted the privilege to write their name on the university as a form of advertising their achievement. This student then proceeded to pay for their own celebration afterwards where they would treat all of the faculty of the university. This tradition stopped over two hundred years ago.

 Previously I had never seen one in real life, but Salamanca, at least in mid-winter, is home to several STORK nests. Each year the same stork will come back and rebuild its giant nest in the same location. These are most commonly seen on bell towers and church steeples. I cannot believe how huge these birds truly are! And this leaves me to the question of who brings the baby storks...?

 Another oddity of Salamanca is the California Redwood Tree that is found in a courtyard. This was a gift of some sort from the United States. The tree is about 137 years ago, so still has a lot of growing ahead of itself.

Last of the oddities is the "House of the Conch-shells" (La casa de las conchas). It is just a huge building covered in sandstone conch-shells. The story is that a man married a wealthy woman who's family's symbol was this shell, so as to advertise (they didn't have internet then) his marriage he covered their home with them. Its little quirky places like that that provide such character to the city.

So maybe Mr. Cozart from sophomore year of high school instilled it in me (along with a love of the Mongols), but the Roman Empire was legit! Not only did they unite lands and cultures that had previously remained isolated, but they revolutionized government as we know it. Salamanca was including in a Roman road, known as the Vía de la Plata. Today there is a walking bridge that dates from the 1st century that was once a Roman bridge on this road.

I walked almost for an entire day straight around Salamanca and achieved great coverage of the city. I had to have walked over 30 miles. No wonder all my clothes are getting loose, I may actually be "working out" more than I did a year ago when I'd "work-out" with running five miles and then lifting weights for an hour. I need to slow down the pace. I can't afford any more food than I'm buying already! (College life)

One more note on Salamanca: the bars and clubs are CHEAP. Actually, just everything is cheaper than it is in Madrid. Whereas Madrid is a giant-metropolis of a city, Salamanca is a college town catered to college students. I enjoyed this. We found a small tapas bar to eat dinner one night where a glass of wine and two tapas was only 4 euro. And this was a satisfying Spanish dinner. For the first time I tried ham and cheese INSIDE my Spanish omelette. I recommend this. While in Spain I might as well embrace their obsession with all things ham and enjoy it. In terms of going out, in Madrid you almost always have to pay a cover just to get into a dance club, but in Salamanca they all seemed to be free. They were smaller, but still a lot of fun. Its a great opportunity to talk to some Spaniards (work on some of that Espanol) and in general, I just really like to dance. And unlike American college parties, people actually dance here. I LOVE it! And I'm starting to just all-around love Spanish club music. Side note: the night life is a little more manageable in Salamanca because unlike Madrid where the party lasts till 7am, things slow down a LITTLE more around 4am. Regardless, if you want to be out all night, Spain is the place to go.

On Sunday we checked our from the hotel and left. I just slept in and did not go around the city that morning, but we were back in Madrid around 3pm, so I decided to go Salsa Dancing in Madrid later that night.