I survived my first week of Spanish class and Drugs and Behavior! During the week it's harder to explore Salamanca because of how the day is set up, and trying to get homework and studying done first. However, my dorm is far away enough from my classes that I get to see a lot of the city by just walking to and from class.
Even though Salamanca is beautiful, I still want to see more of Spain. Over the weekend my friends and I went to Seville for two days. It was beautiful.
We left early Friday morning and arrived in Seville at around 3 pm. It was a long bus ride, and we were definitely all tired, but we managed to muster up enough energy after checking into our Airbnb and ventured out into the city.
We knew we wanted to go to Plaza de Espana, which was on the far side of the city, but we also wanted to take in everything the city had to offer so we went down random roads, went into little shops, and walked around in beautiful gardens and parks.
When we finally made it to Plaza de Espana, we were just in awe. It was fantastical. The building itself looked like a palace. It even had its own little river in front of it where people were rowing boats. It was decorated with colorful tiles and intricate carvings, it was breathtaking. Along the wall of the Plaza, all of the major cities of Spain are honored with a tile mural depicting a scene within that city.
Next to the plaza is a huge park with beautiful streams, flowers, and birds. It was a lot of fun to walk through there and see all of the different plants and flowers that grow there.
We walked along the main river, Rio Guadalquivir, heading our way back towards where we are staying. On the way there we stopped to get some delicious food for dinner at Taberna El Papelon. I got the Focaccia Vegetal, and it was so filling and refreshing. It was absolutely delicious.
The next day, we took a tour of the Maestranza, the bullfighting arena. It was really cool. We learned about the history of the place, some of the famous Matadors, as well as some of the famous bulls, and the preparation the Matadors go through before going out into the arena. Although I do not agree with the tradition of bullfighting, I still wanted to at least see what the arena looks like and learn about it, because it is a part of this culture.
Then we made our way to the Cathedral, which was also breathtaking. It was massive, and the inside was so ornate and spectacular. The altar itself was behind this gate because it was just all gold and silver, and the wall behind it looked like it was made entirely out of gold. I was speechless but I just prayed a bit, looking at this beautiful sight in front of me.
Then we made our way up the tower, climbing up 35 floors of ramps and one flight of stairs to look over the city. It was so cool to see the city from that high and see where we have been and places that we would go to.
After all of that climbing, we had definitely worked up an appetite so we stopped to get some food at this place called Bodeguita Puerta Jerez. There I got some delicious seafood paella. In the paella were entire shrimp bodies, and it was very strange trying to eat it, but I was successful in removing the shells and enjoying the flavors that it had to offer.
Once our bellies were full we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. We must have gone into like 20 stores. It was crazy how many stores we went into. It was definitely tiring but we all found some amazing things.
One of the last major things that we did was we went to the Metropol Parasol to watch the sunset. It is this big wooden structure that looks like mushrooms that you take an elevator to the top and just look over the city. There's a few restaurants and bars at the top as well. We enjoyed some milkshakes as we watched the sun go down over the city. It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend.
I'm excited to see what this second week has to offer. I hope I am able to explore Salamanca a bit more. Next weekend I will be going to Barcelona, so I can't wait to see what that city has in store.