Off to Ávila and Salamanca

After an already busy and culturally rich week, I had the privilege to travel and fill my endless hunger for new sights and new knowledge yet again! Study abroad puts opportunities like that in the palm of your hand, it never ceases to amaze me.  However, this week we also applied the "study" portion of study abroad, which may come as a shock to anybody who has been looking at my pictures documenting my time here in Spain, because it appears that I have been doing anything but studying.  Most of my documentation consists of the fruits of our learning and traveling, which is the particularly magical combination that occurs during just about all study abroad programs.  We took our midterm for our civilization class on Thursday, so whenever we weren't frolicking around the Medieval Festival or watching life changing Broadway productions, we were studying our butts off for this upcoming exam.  So as we listened to our tour guide explain the historical significance of the Wall of Ávila and she asked us if we knew anything about Romanization, it was all I could do not to blurt out some sort of sarcastic retort along the lines of "Oh, do we ever!"  This guide was also particularly stubborn and liked to ask a lot of questions throughout the tour, and due to our accumulated knowledge in our civilization class we were actually able to answer most of her extensive questions regarding architecture and significant historical figures when we weren't shivering from the sudden wintery winds and overcast skies that hung over Ávila that morning.  Although her attempts were rather forced, I did appreciate her intentions.

The Wall of Ávila, which was constructed centuries ago by the Romans and is over one and a half miles long in length, making Ávila the most well fortressed city in existence in the country of Spain.  We walked along the border of this wall with our guide en route to the church of Saint Teresa, one of the most well known and admired saints of the Catholic church.  Not only was she a saint, but she was a woman of sound mind and intellect.  Although it was prohibited in her day and age, she insisted upon obtaining an education for herself although it was not seen as practical or necessary for women in the church, or women in general for that matter.  She was a determined woman who set her sights on what she wanted and didn't let anything deter her until she obtained her goals, ideals that to be admired and celebrated in any time period.   I thoroughly enjoyed learning more extensively about this particular saint as we walked through the church dedicated to her and her successful life and deeds.

From there, we went to the Cathedral of Ávila, one of the most ancient cathedrals in all of Spain.  This cathedral is not particularly gaudy or ornately decorated as some of the other cathedrals we have visited, but the unique combination of sandstone and granite used to construct the majority of the interior gave the cathedral a rather unique and distinguishing touch.  Immediately following this visit, we went to the nearest Churrería we could find to take shelter from the cold and share a few cups of Spanish hot cocoa, which is extremely thick and very rich in comparison to the typical Swiss Miss mixtures we Americans so often use.  With our remaining forty five minutes in the city of Ávila, we went and walked on the Wall of Ávila itself and took a few dozen entertaining and eye popping pictures.

We arrived in Salamanca in the later hours of the afternoon, which gave us all a bit of time to get settled, work out or lounge about depending on personal preference, and then freshen up for a late dinner.  My particular dining choice last night was a Doner Kebab, which I can best describe as a lot of meat stuffed into a thicker version of pita bread.  On the way home we also ran into a pastelería, and I followed the example of my wise father when faced with an array of delicious and unknown menu items; I asked the employee what her favorite pastry was, and simply bought that.  I have used this technique several times in various restaurants and markets in Spain and I have never been disappointed.

Following our continental breakfast, we proceeded to walk through the city of Salamanca, passing through the Plaza Mayor, admiring the famous Casa de Conchas, and finally arriving to the main attraction: the University of Salamanca! This university was established in the 1200's, making it the third oldest university in Europe and one of the most prestigious and well respected universities in existence to this day.  We learned a multitude of interesting facts and ancient customs of the university, including the hidden frog on the outside of the oldest university building and the different treatments of the varying social classes that studied within the university walls.  The most horrifying historical fact was the explanation of how the various students would keep warm during the frigidly cold winter months.  The seating arrangements in ancient classrooms were as follows; children of nobility in the front, poorest of the poor in the back.  The poorest students were always the first people to arrive in class during the winter because they were charged with the duty of sitting in the first few rows to warm the seats for the higher class students.  Once everyone was present in class, the poor students were given five minutes to stomp their feet as they sat in their seats in order to generate some internal heat before the lecture began.  How absolutely horrific is that!?  It may have been the normality for the time period, but I will be eternally grateful for the abolition of these extreme social differences and the invention of heating systems.

My favorite part of our tour of the University of Salamanca by far was the library.  The library is no longer used for its intended purpose and is now a tourist attraction only visible through high security glass windows, but over 40,000 books are still held and preserved within.  I long ago refused to be ashamed of my inner nerd, and the moment we viewed this library was definitely one of those in which this particular part of me was visible in my constantly widening eyes.

As our tour of the University came to an end, we made a quick pass through the Cathedral of Salamanca, the "newer" cathedral to be specific.  Once we were unleashed to do as we pleased, we decided to do what American college girls in Europe do best: shop at European clothing stores.  There was a slight technological malfunction with our previous bus, so we returned home to Alcalá a few hours later than anticipated, but with no harm damage or harm done to any of our group other than the pure exhaustion that always follows our weekend excursions.  I can't believe it's almost halfway through October, I definitely want to make these last few weeks count.  Until next week, my devoted readers!