Salamanca, Avila, and a little extra.

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. This past weekend of traveling has been absolutely amazing. I don't want my blogposts to be pages upon pages long...on the other hand, I don't want to forget anything. Thus...long it is. Very, very long.

Also, thank goodness for picnik. And the fact that it allows me to make collages of photos. I think I'm going to let the pictures (and there's lots of them) do most of the talking...and I'll make little caption notes. :)

Sorry that the pictures are so small...if you can't see them very well, you can click on them, and they'll get bigger.

Welcome first of all to Avila. 

I thought this place was amazing. I mean, LOOK at how pretty it is!

Avila is famous for its 11th century walls that surround the city. They are seriously legit.
At the end of our visit, we got to climb them.
The girl with me in the second picture is Laura--my roommate. 

La Catedral del Salvador. It started out as a Roman cathedral, but was finished as a Gothic cathedral--
it is actually the first Gothic cathedral built in Spain.
I think the mixture of styles is really fascinating.

La Basilica de San Vicente. It's beautiful. Parts of it are quite simple--others so very ornate.
I also spent some time in a confessional...
just taking a picture, of course.

And this is why I love Espana.

Random parades, music, and men on stilts.

Yay.

Then we had to leave. :(
But don't worry, Salamanca is equally preciosa.
I loved it con todo mi corazon.

Our hotel room had a balcony. A balcony. I feel like this was a pretty significant
moment. Only, if I was truly European, I would be leaning over the street.
And I would be smoking a cigarette.
Good thing I'm not really European.

The university of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain (fourth in Europe).
This facade in the university is famous.
They say if you can find la ranita (little frog), you''ll have lots of luck.
I found it.
:)

La Catedral de Salamanca. It received some restoration work pretty recently, and
the sculptors put an astronaut in the stonework. Pretty funny, huh.

We all ate at Telepizza (barbacoa pizza...HUGE fan aqui) for dinner. We also went shopping...
ate ice cream in the Plaza Mayor (they say the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca might be
 the most beautiful in Spain), and danced for little bit. We also accidentally walked
 through a political protest...whoops.

End Friday. 
Commence Saturday.

We ate breakfast in la plaza mayor--I had a delicious pastry with orange juice. After breakfast, some of us decided we wanted to try going to mass. So we went to the cathedral...I ended up not actually going to mass. But after it was done, we followed the priest and ended up talking with him. It was one of the coolest experiences of this trip. He told us so many stories, about the cathedral, about his life, about catholicism, about everything. He also showed us the chair that Pope John Paul II had sat in on his visit to Salamanca and allowed us to sit in it. I have a very blurry picture. But here's the proof.

I'm sitting in the Pope's chair! 

After that, we had to leave the dear town of Salamanca.
But then we visited the small towns of Toro and Torseilles.

First off, here's Toro. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!

I love the countryside here. We saw yet another cathedral. And lots and lots of roses.

Tordesillas is tiny. Plus, we went during siesta time, which meant that everything was closed, and there wasn't a lot of people out...but here, welcome to Tordesillas. okay. so I didn't take very much pictures...and the ones that I did take...aren't that great...okay, so they're awful.

For lunch, I had a bocadillo de tortilla espanola in a little bar. I also ate ice cream later (of course). And we visited this convent. We were forbidden to take pictures, so this sign is all I have. There are nine nuns who still live here and they make sweets to sell. However, they can't be seen, so they have the equivalent of a mini, wooden revolving door to take the money and give us the sweets. The sweets were delish.

As far as that weekend goes...el fin.

And the rest of the post is in Spanish...it's long. Basically, it's what I just said above in English. Only...in Spanish. Like I explained earlier, it's an assignment for my Spanish convo class.

La fin de semana pasada, fuimos a Ávila, Salamanca, Toro, y Tordesillas.  Estas ciudades son tan hermosas—probablemente unas de mis ciudades favoritas. Salimos de Alcalá a las 8:30 el viernes. Primero, fuimos a Ávila. Ávila es una ciudad rodeada por murallas grandes—casi como las murallas de los castillos. Es muy bonito. Primero, fuimos al catedral, a dónde pudimos explorar. Vimos muchos tesoros, las tumbas de Ferdinand e Isabel, y una mezcla de arquitectura romana y gótica. Después, fuimos a un basílica romana. Me gusta la arquitectura romana mucho—es más simple, pero todavía muy noble. Y finalmente, fuimos al convento y aprendimos sobre Santa Teresa. Ella era una mujer muy interesante. Era una monja quien tenía muchas experiencias con Dios y querría hacer muchas reformas en la iglesia católica. Sus escritos son muy famosos. Leí algunas versiones modernizadas y son muy fuertes. Finalmente, subimos las murallas, las cuales fueron construidas en siglo 11. Saqué muchas fotos…fue una vista increíble. Hacía un día tan bonito, con cielos azules, flores brillantes, montañas en el fondo…tanto para ver.

Salimos para Salamanca. Teníamos una gira de la plaza, la catedral, la universidad—encontré la ranita en la fachada de la universidad. Dicen que eso va a traerme suerte—espero que este dicho sea verdadera jaja. La gira duró por dos horas. Fuimos de compras después—compré una sudadera de la universidad, una bufanda, una ventilador, un llavero,  y algunas dulces. Nos reunimos en el hotel para ir a comer telepizza. Me encanta telepizza—la barbacoa es lo mejor...mhmm. Caminamos por la noche, explorando un poco más. Fuimos a plaza otra vez cuando estaba oscuro—había muchas luces y era hermosa. Compramos helado y nos sentamos en el medio de la plaza para disfrutar todo. Decidimos que quisimos bailar y fuimos para buscar un lugar. Bailamos por como 15 minutes en un lugar pero hacía muchísimo calor y el lugar era muy pequeño…por eso, salimos. Íbamos a ir a otro lugar, pero caminábamos por algunas protestas políticas y decidimos que sería mejor a regresar al hotel.

La próxima mañana, algunos de nosotros decidimos a ir a la misa. Fuimos al catedral, y después de la misa, hablamos con el sacerdote. Él era muy amable y nos dijo tantas historias, nos mostró algunas partes de la catedral, y nos permitió sentarnos en la silla que el Papa Juan Pablo II usó cuando él fue a visitar Salamanca. Hablar con él era una experiencia muy especial e interesante—me cayó muy bien. Salimos de Salamanca para Toro, a dónde visitamos otra catedral y tuvimos una vista tan hermoso del campo. También visitamos Tordesillas, a dóndo comimos almuerzo en un barre y visitamos un convento. Las monjas nos vendieron dulces muy buenas. Usaron una rotunda para que pudieron hacerlo sin contacto de cara a cara. Muy interesante.

Después de todas estas aventuras…regresamos para Alcalá. El fin.