We Found the Rana and the Astronauta!

This past weekend my friends and I went to Salamanca.  We hopped on the bus at 1:30am on Thursday morning and rode from Granada to Madrid.  We got to Madrid at 6:30am, hung out in the bus station. We got coffee and breakfast, and got on another, nicer bus at 8am to go to Salamanca.  We arrived in Salamanca at 10:30am.  We decided on the bus that we were going to take Thursday easy since we were all tired from the bus ride.  We got off the bus, hung out in the bus station for a little bit, then found a little cafetería to have more coffee.  This was our first view of Salamanca from the cafetería.

We checked into our first hostel.  I'm sad I forgot to take a picture of it, because it was a hilarious little room that we stayed in.  It was a super small room with 4 beds crammed into it.  We walked around for a while and found tons of shops and Plaza Mayor!  Plaza Mayor is SO cool!  If I had gone to school in Salamanca, this would be my regular hang out spot, without a doubt.

We kept walking and found the Cathedral.  It was beautiful at night!

This is Plaza Mayor lit up at night.  It's so beautiful!!!  One of the nights we took a picnic dinner to the plaza and were sitting out in the middle and were able to see the lights turn on.  It was like watching the Plaza lighting in Kansas City!  Everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed.  It was a really cool experience.

Friday, we got up and packed all our belongings and headed for another hostel.  When we walked into our new hostel, it was so modern and cool looking!  We actually had a room that was meant for 4 or more people!  We had our own bathroom and everything!  And there was paint on the walls!!! This hostel actually had personality to it!

The view from our window.  It's not everyday that you see a 17th century Cathedral standing outside your window!

The downstairs area was a bar.  There was an inside area and a smoking, outdoor area.  This, surprisingly enough, was the outdoor/smoking area.  The inside was really cool too!

Friday we spent allllllllll day shopping!!!  I bought a pair of white shorts, white shoes, and a toe ring.. big spender!!!  But of course we had to go through Plaza Mayor first.  Our hostel was right next to the plaza.. very cool!

In the Plaza, there was a group of protestors.  The sign says "They are robbing us.  Defend your rights."

Outside the beautiful Cathedral.  I love this picture!  Here's some history for you about the Cathedrals (can't go without it!).  

Work on the Old Cathedral began during the 12th century, in the year 1152.  25 workers were employed in its construction and were exempt from paying tributes.  The ground plans were to have Romanesque stile, but the inside had arches and vaults making it Gothic style.  Work on the altarpiece was finished in 1445.

Construction on the new Cathedral began on May 12, 1513, the Gothic style was starting to die out.  A historian called it "the last breath of the Gothic style".  It was completed in 1560.  The choir was designed by Joaquin Churriguera in 1724, made of high choir stalls, including the Christ, apostles and other saints.  This was completed between 1725 and 1730.  The ornamentation in the choir is made up of angels with different musical instruments.

We forgot how useful self-timer is.  So we had photo shoots all around Salamanca using self-timer on Sierra's camera.  This made for a LOT of fun!

Sierra, Rachel, Hannah, Me

We went into the cathedral.  There are two cathedrals in Salamanca, a new one and an old one.  The old one was free.  We saw many of these box-like things.  They are used for the Semana Santa processions.

As you can see with this one, there are people that stand in it and march with it resting on their shoulders.

After looking through the Old Cathedral, we decided we wanted to find the New Cathedral.  We didn't realize that they are connected.  So we walked around outside for a while, found some plazas and took some pictures!

graffiti

 We thought this was the New Cathedral, but once we got inside, we realized it was the Convent.. no thanks!

We finally found the New Cathedral.  It's sad that you have to pay 4 euros to get inside, but we did it anyways.

And we took some group photos!

Outside on the column of the New Cathedral, there is an astronaut.  It's amazing that this building was made in the 17th century when people didn't know about astronauts, yet there is one on this building!

The night we went and had a picnic in Plaza Mayor there were performers of all sorts.  This man was AMAZING!  He was juggling fire and doing tons of tricks!  It was very entertaining!

Sunday we went and explored the University!  On the face of the University, there is a hidden frog.. Can you find it?!  It's impossible from this far away haha.

Found it!!!  If you find it that means you'll do well on your final exams.  That means I don't have to study right?!

More group photos inside of the University!!  It's not a lie when I said we went crazy with the self timer!

This is the old library, it was established in 1509.  There are 800,000 monographic works and 16,000 periodicals.  Each book that's in it is one of a kind, so the only other place you can find these books is the internet. The globes of the earth were brought back by Torres Villaroel from his journey through Europe in 1758, were known as "round books".

Outside of the University.  

We had to take one last photo before we packed up and headed for the bus station!

We definitely had the ultimate girl's weekend.  We ate at the same Mexican restaurant everyday.  It was so delicious.  We had many great days of shopping, and had quality hang out, girl time!  This weekend was a great get away!