toledo and salamanca

these two are likely going to go down as my two favorite cities in spain. toledo will always be number one for sentimental reasons, but salamanca just blew my socks off last week. the city has a very unique feel to it. vibrant antiquity is all i can come up with to describe it right now. but it's definitely unique and i loved loved loved my time there. it also helped that i was hanging out with my long lost friend olivia. it was good to see her again, and to meet all her cool friends.



this is the view from my hostal terrace. pretty nice. the next one on here is the plaza mayor, which i would say is the best plaza mayor i've seen in spain. much better than madrid's. note the golden sandstone that everything is built with.












this is a cool guy from peru that i hung out with a lot. his name is alejandro, but they all call him "jano". next is the front of the monasterio san esteban. pretty exhaustively decorated. next is the staircase of the universidad pontificia of the to-be-clergymen. the writings on the wall are what they get to do when they graduate. the buildings of this city are covered with them, from all the centuries.



















olivia took a picture of me doing nothing. then we went to this really dark church that was very cool (temperature and just coolness).



the decoration in the convento las dueñas was amazing. very neo-gothic with its grotesque figures and designs. i loved the diversity. grotesque carvings are the kind that began to unite human forms with all that is non-human (i.e. vegetation, mythology, and animals).

















the salamanca cathedral is a stunner. a magnificent tribute to the gothic form, and as far as i have found, the only one you can climb up. the views from the catwalk were fantastic.



cathedrals really don't get old for me. they make me feel so small. it's a fun feeling.








the last night we went to this small old bar that had chains hanging from the ceiling and a jazz trio playing. they played some surprise beatles covers such as "lady madonna" (sorry jeremy) and "something" (my favorite abbey road song). the atmosphere was fantastic. i talked to a friend of olivia's about tennis for probably an hour.





salamanca was so great. i could have easily spent a semester there if i wanted to. the nightlife was so different from sevilla's. everything is in such a smaller area that we went to 5 bars in about two hours one night. and everything is built out of beautiful sandstone blocks. history rings loud in salamanca. number two in spain.