Salamanca y León

Before we went on our trip this weekend we had a great week. On Monday after classes a few of us took the train up to the University of Alcalá. I wanted to go see what the campus looked like and we wanted to see if they had any University of Alcalá apparel. The campus was way big and pretty it was fun walking around. After asking about every person we ran into we finally found the tiny little building/trailer that had the school stuff in. It was one room, had about 4 different shirts and some for little kids, then some random school supplies. The last girl we talked to was right when she said the store is small and bad haha. So we didn’t end up getting anything but it was a funny experience and we were able to see the campus and talk to a lot of Spaniards and that’s always fun. On our way back to the train we came across this big cement structure that we wanted to get on top of but when we got closer we saw how huge it was. Nate found a tree that he could climb and get up on top of the cement structure, as he was up there walking around the security car came up and the two men got out and pulled their baton things out and asked us if that guy was with us…we debated for a second then admitted that he was indeed with us. Then one of the man proceeded to tell us how dangerous it would be if he fell down as the other officer guy was walking towards Nate. I didn’t know what they were going to do so then I was kind of laughingly told the officer that our friend is a little crazy haha he told the other guy walking towards Nate and he stopped and just told Nate he needed to get down. It was so funny, of course that would happen, thankfully telling the officers that he es un poco loco saved us! That night for FHE we played soccer in a park by the church. It was so fun we split up into two teams and just played. It was nice because we were all about the same level, no one too amazing and no one terrible so it made it a lot of fun.

The next day we went into Madrid to go check out the Thyssen Museum, but when we went to get our tickets we found it wasn’t free. Lame. That is the only museum that isn’t free! So we ended up not going in because no one was dying to go see it we just wanted to look around inside since those types of things are free for students. We walked back down the Paseo del Prado and found a few little souvenir shops and ended up talking to this crazy man. We talked to him for a while and we ended up talking to him about our religion and a bunch of different things. He was a little sketchy but it was fine. He kept asking us things and saying things about how our parents made us be a part of the church and all this stuff so we proceeded to tell him how it isn’t like that and just some other stuff like that. When he was talking I thought about how that was probably an example of how some missionaries get responded too. I have talked to tons of people about our Church but no one has really reacted like that so that was interesting, we left not too much longer after we got there. That night Taylor and I indulged ourselves and we watched the Bachelor finale! So good.

The next day after class we went and saw the Archaeological Museum in Alcalá. It had a lot of neat things in there I really enjoyed it! That afternoon a few of us went into Madrid to do some Karaoke with Eva again, which consisted of us looking up songs on youtube with lyrics and singing to them in her living room haha. It was so fun she was so cute she got us snacks and drinks and was just really cute about everything. She invited over one of her daughter’s friends so he requested some of his favorite American songs and showed us some good Spanish ones. It was a lot of fun and of course we ended up dancing in her living room again, with Eva you always end the night dancing it seems haha. It was a lot of fun though I am glad that we went and did that. 

On Thursday when we were driving to Avila, we drove through the mountains and they were covered in snow! I hadn’t seen that much snow in a long time, it was fun to see! Especially from within the warmth of the bus:] 

 Avila was a cute little city completely surrounded by a city wall. We were able to walk up along the city walls and through the city. Good thing the city wasn’t that big because it was way cold while we were there, almost Segovia cold.

For one of the stops the bus driver had to make, we stopped at this really cute medieval city. We had a little bit of time to walk around and explore. The buildings were all cute and made out of stone with pretty green and blue doors. The cobblestone streets also added to the effect. We found the cutest and softest dog there so we naturally took some nice family photos with him. 

 Thankfully when we got to Salamanca the sun was shining and it was a lot warmer. We met our tour guide in our hotel and we first went and saw the old cathedral. It looked like a typical cathedral and was under some renovation. After that we were able to go see the University of Salamanca, which is the oldest one in Spain. I really liked seeing that it was cool! Out front of the University on the façade there is a frog hidden on it, and story goes that on the first day of classes they would bring the freshmen there and if they could see the frog they would have good luck for the duration of their University experience. Lucky for me I saw the frog and am looking forward to the luck it will bring me. We then went and saw the new Cathedral. It was pretty big; a dove painted at the top of the dome in the middle had a wingspan of 10 feet! From where we were standing it looked tiny. After looking around inside our tour guide took us out to the side of the building and showed us how this Cathedral is the newer one and we know it because the architect put an astronaut in the decoration on one of the walls haha We ended in the main Plaza which was a nice plaza that reminded me of Plaza Mayor in Madrid. After the tour we wandered around the streets, which was so fun. There were a ton of jovens walking around the streets and out for a big party that was going on, so everyone was dressed up in costumes it was kind of fun to walk around on the town and see everyone.

 The next day on our way to León we stopped at a Chocolate Museum. It was fun to see the different machines and tools used to first make chocolate and see the progression of the process. Everyone’s favorite part was the samples at the end. I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate but I thought the orange chocolate was pretty good, it didn’t even taste like chocolate! 

After we got to our hotel in León we walked around the streets and met up with our tour guide. We first went into the Pantheon where there are almost as many tombs of Spanish kings as El Escorial has, and they have the most! After that we went to see the Cathedral. After Chartes Cathedral in France, the Cathedral in León has the second most stained glass in Europe. It was beautiful in there! After that we all went out and got some yummy pizza and explored the town. I love how so many people are out and about at night in the cities here. It is such a fun environment and I really enjoy just walking around and taking it all in.

On our way home back to Alcalá we stopped at a pretty big castle. It was fun to see minus the fact it was raining pretty hard and a little chilly. It was a lot of fun to see though I’m glad we went. The bus ride home was great I loved it, the rides never seem to be long enough.