Stories from Spain: a day in Salamanca

English edition:

     My name is Emersen and here is my perspective on my adventure in Salamanca. I was particularly excited for this trip because this is where my Spanish teacher studied and she got so excited when I said I was going to visit Salamanca. She said it was so beautiful and she was definitely not wrong.

     The only thing I was not excited for was the long bus ride that we had to take in order to get to Salamanca, but I just brought my music and some fun activities to keep myself occupied while I was on the bus. Ryleigh and I spent the majority of the time talking so it wasn’t too boring.

     When we got there I was immediately overwhelmed by the astounding beauty. You could tell this town was old just by one glance. Our first stop was to one of the biggest cathedrals in all of Spain. It was so big, the door had to be at least three of me. We got to go to the tops of towers and onto balconies that had to be over several hundred feet in the air. Unfortunately because the building was so old so were the stairs. The stairs were so steep and kind of scary, but in the end it was totally worth it.

     Our second stop was to the University of Salamanca which is thought to be one of the oldest colleges in the world, and it was so interesting learning about the myths and stories that were behind this University. On the main entrance they have very detailed architecture surrounding the doors to get in, and there are little things carved into it that could make you laugh. This university's “mascot” is a frog, and they say if you can find the frog every student who sees it will pass all their exams. So you can imagine that several of us stood there for a while trying to find it, I unfortunately did not find it. But my friends claim that they did.

     After this Javier (our tour guide and some students' history teacher) took us to the plaza where we were free to go get lunch and explore the town, most of us including myself went and got ice cream and looked for souvenirs. I bought my teacher a little sign that said Salamanca and I bought myself a sweatshirt (because you can never have too many). Also a quick tip for those who don’t know make sure you contact your bank before you leave the country, because I made the mistake of not doing that and my bank almost canceled my debit card when I tried to use it. 

     We were given the choice to visit another cathedral or go to a sports bar and watch the 2018 World Cup. I decided I wanted to go watch the World Cup with a few of the other Fellows. We all sat together and enjoyed the game while drinking cokes together. I personally don’t know anything about soccer, but was interesting watching other Spaniards watch the game. They were all getting really into it and it was a great way to experience true culture here.

     Our final stop before we went home was a nice surprise actually. We all went on a walk to a park by this really pretty river, where we all sat and had a picnic together. This included several delicious foods, such as: Tortilla Española, Empenada, lots of bread, and several different types sodas and juices. 

     By the time we got on the bus the sun was setting and I was exhausted. I was ready to go home. I slept most of the way back to León, but not before Ryleigh and I talked about the day and how much we loved it here.  

     Finally when we all got home, I immediately crawled into bed and fell asleep. And this was my blog about Salamanca.