We spent the next hour sitting in the middle of La Plaza Mayor drinking sangria (obviously it was straight from the box, passed around and around the circle) and munching on pickles and olives and watching the Friday afternoon scene, particularly the cute Spanish kids running around blowing bubbles.
For dinner, which was about 9pm, we ate at the hotel, and were surprised when the University of Salamanca Mariachi Band serenaded us for the last hour and a half. I was quietly standing in the back of the room taking pictures when the lead singer came over and pulled me to the front of the room, made me stand on a chair, wear the traditional mariachi cape, and all 7 or 8 mariachi men sang to me, kneeling on the floor and playing their guitars. I could feel my checks turning bright pink. Then when they finished I had to do the traditional kiss-kiss on each of the singer's checks. By my count, that made my checks turn 7 or 8 times more pink. Meanwhile the entire group was sitting at the formal tables taking pictures of my backside/mortification. Someone pour me some more vino.
Blurry, but this is my serenade...
After dinner we spent a bit of time walking around the Plaza Mayor and learned a bit of traditional line dancing before retiring.
I thought I was still on US time, but I guess not because when my head the pillow I didn't budge until my alarm when off.
This morning I woke up before everyone else and we for a run to explore the city. I found a bike path by the river, and ran across every bridge that I came to. On the way back I wound through part of the old city. The hotel is right by the big cathedral, so I was using that as a landmark. However, I lost sight of the spire in the narrow streets, which wound around and around, and got pretty lost. I knew I was close, but the last two miles was like running on a track. I asked for directions, and every person I asked said to look for "Calle Jesus"- Jesus Street. As far as I can tell this is every street in this entire city. Calle Jesus, y otro Calle Jesus, uno más... Needless to say I found my way back to the hotel, but Calle Jesus and Calle Jesus turned my 4 mile run into 6 miles. Hardly a hardship, though. Then I grabbed some breakfast, showered, and went back out the door. Here is a picture of the hotel:
This morning's activity was a tour of the major landmarks in the city from an elderly gentleman and Salamanca native named Lorenzo. Our first stop, San Esteban del Orden Dominicana, is an old (big) church right across the street from the hotel that was built. Here we also learned a bit of history about the city: Salamanca was founded in the second century BC by Hildago, and is also home to the first Spanish University, la Universidad de Salamanca, founded by León in 1218.
Next we walked over to La Catedral Nueva, which is about 50 yards from our hotel. As we approached the entrance I realized that I ran right past this building about 10 times this morning... oh well. Anyways, the Catedral is from the 12th and 13th centuries, and is considered "nuevo" because the "viejo" part that is attached is from 100 years earlier. The entire tour was in Spanish, and I think I understood most of it. This was also the first time that I've really used all my art history knowledge. The inside of the cathedral is romanesque style with lots of paintings of the wall showing biblical scenes (by Nicolo Florentino using perspective- a big deal in 1500). The points on the ceiling, however, are gothic. And the inside of the cupola was inspired by the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. The entire thing is just confused. Its beautiful, but stylistically confused.
The final part of the tour was a walk around the old campus of la Universidad de Salamanca, and then I landed here. "Cafe y Té" has free wifi and plenty of food. So Morgan and Yanet and I are updating our cyber worlds, relaxing a bit, and plotting our evening out in la ciudad. Maybe we'll end up on Calle Jesus.
Hasta entonces!
PS. Today's soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYQBptoNvp0
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