Hello and welcome to Day 4 (the last) of Maya’s and my western adventure.
At the end of Day 3, we arrived in Salamanca, Spain. Salamanca is an old city, but is know for its youth culture. The famous university resides here, but so do thousands of young Spaniards looking for a good party. I can best compare it to the city of Syracuse, where the school is the city’s main source of fun/money and young adults are scattered all around. For dinner that night, I tried my first plate of Spanish Chinese food. It was cheap and very delicious!
The next morning, we began our tour of the beautiful city of Salamanca. We walked through the city’s Plaza Mayor (which looks a lot like Madrid’s) before arriving at the original university, built in 1248–making it the third oldest university in the world, the first in Spain. It was originally a cathedral, but the school was built into it, making it very religion-centric in terms of studies, etc. Many of the rooms are still in tact, including the “auditorium” and “university chapel,” where students got married, pictured below.
After touring the school, we got to explore the inside of the actual Catedral de Salamanca. It’s massive, gorgeous, intricate and breathtaking. After getting a one-of-a-kind view looking over the inside of the cathedral, our group was lucky enough to scale the roof of it, too, allowing for some pretty amazing sights. I sort of felt like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, climbing all over the top of it. It was amazing!
After taking in pretty much all of Salamanca from the top of the cathedral, we came back down to earth for lunch. Salamanca is quite the little city, and we really enjoyed walking around the small, cobblestone streets and enjoying the interesting (and cheap!) souvenirs. Turns out the University of Salamanca’s mascot is the frog (la rana). Before students went inside to take their exams, they would search for the frog sculpted into the school’s architecture over the entrance. If they found it, it meant good luck. Cute, right?
P.S. The tower you see in the background of the above photo–we got to climb all the way to the top! Maya and a few of our friends are already planning to come back. I think we all just appreciated the small-town-cheap-price feel, especially after living in Madrid for so long.
In the late afternoon, we left Salamanca and returned to Madrid, where our school/social schedules returned to normal. I love Salamanca, but I was glad to be back in the big city. I’ve always been an urban girl.
Buenas noches,
Maddy
Two Syracuse Broads Abroad 
Reallyyyyy good bars and clubs in Salamanca! Not sure of the names because I went with friends who actually live there, so i just followed them around. If you go back and need suggestions I can maybe ask them. I know two guys who live and study there but are from Valladolid.