La Donut Naranja

I suppose it´s about time to begin describing the rest of the town of Salamanca, so I will begin here with the most central of places, La Plaza Mayor (lit. The Biggest Plaza). The first night that we arrived, we were given the assignment of meeting the next morning in the Plaza Mayor for a short tour around here and there, so the guys in my house asked Pepe to show us how to get down there.

The first thing that is important for anyone to understand about the city of Salamanca is that the drivers are insane. Not just a little crazy and incorrigable, insane. They will speed up for the five meters they have until there is clearly a person crossing the street, they are unafraid of driving in walkways in the mornings, they will pass without a second thought or light, even if someone´s coming in the opposite direction. Insane.

So the first time walking down the Plaza Mayor reminded me very much of NYC but it seemed odd to me that all of the Spaniards waited on the sidewalk, even if noone was coming, for the little sign that says walk... as if they knew something I didn´t. A little scary, but no matter. All along the way, there were tons of ham/meat stores and lots of very random stores (clothing, electric things, kitchen supply, phone places...) and the streets are very small and narrow. On the way to the plaza mayor, I always come across this one church which is made of very old sandy stone and is completely round. It appears very much like a huge sandy round of cheese, with a cross and doors on it. This is the beginning of the centro peaton (lit. pedestrian center) which is supposedly all for pedestrians, but the stray truck or something to supply the stores therein passes by. All of this centro peaton is of stone, underfoot, many of the buildings, and also many old elaborate incredible buildings, but those will have to wait for another blog. So passing down through the centro peaton is very much like an outdoor mall. Stores of every type imaginable and useful are out there, as well as a million bars and cafes. There are delicious cafeterias con tapas, pastelerias (CON MUCHOS GALLETAS DELICIOUS that Katie drools over, of course), and so of course Katie makes me stop all the time and go in here and go in there and lo que sea. Good stuff. True enough I´d be completely bored walking around without someone to tell me to stop here and stop there... wait a minute. No. She doesn´t decide anything. I have decided to call her Sra. No Puedo Decidir Nada. Everytime I ask her ´Would you like to do this or this?¨I can´t manage to get a response other than ´I Don´t Care´or if I´m really lucky ´Me da igual´. Except with chocolate. Her one complete indulgence. And how can we blame her? Chocolate has been clinically tested to benefit the health of women, and so she´s only doing the best for her body. It all makes sense now, doesn´t it?

ANYways, finally we will arrive through a little arch into this very large illuminated (depending on the time) plaza with arches in every direction covereing beautiful stores and cafes and large facades reaching into the sky with a rustic light sandy brown color and beautiful detail and man-made stalagmites if you will. Then if you look all the way around, there is a giant bank-like front where there are several terraces on the way up, several Spanish flags and a giant clock. It´s impossible to see from right underneath, you have to go almost to the middle of the plaza to see the clock. But above the clock is a beautiful bell-tower that chimes every 15 minutes, with different sounds for the different parts of the hour.
When the sun is down in the mornings and at night, Salamanca becomes arctic and freezing with a chill to depress the heartiest Russian. But when the sun peeks over the top of the facades of the Plaza Mayor, springtime returns with a blinding strength and warmth for the body and the heart. It is an interesting cycle every day where one´s spirits it seems rise and fall with the sun itself. In the light in the late afternoon there are many people passing across the centro peaton with slow and steady old grandfathers with Irish caps and adorable old women all with their fur coats and decidedly patient meander. It is an interesting city with a peculiar cycle of life and light and also various shades of color within the city itself having to do with the lighting. In the dark all of the stone facades are dark and intimidating, as are the sketchy corners and shadows cast by various artificial lights. In the night very few people are about the streets, and so the emptyness adds extra glare to the streets and walls around the town. It becomes clear then the strange prevalence of graffiti all around, as if the young people here had nothing to do. When the sun comes up, however, it becomes a bountiful big place with lots of interesting people and light refracting off of every surface and beautiful sandy wall. With the various shades of brown it may seem at first a bit lacking flair or character, but to the contrary - it appears in more minute detail. On any facade is stone deatiling like you have never seen, with tiny characters and ornate decorations. There are various shades of buildings and writings on them in a beautiful fascinatingly new script.

Inside the beautiful Plaza Mayor, there is one particular sweets shop that I have visited several times before. But this is no ordinary sweets shop, it has hand-made pastries and chocolates and beautiful fried empanadas, all kinds of delicious foods. It has become somewhat of a mission to try as much of it as possible, at least to Katie and I. Today before a meeting to hunt down wine, I think perhaps we will visit it again to try something new. I had my eye on some gorgeous looking orange covered donuts or some such thing.

As I´m sitting here in the JMU office, Katie turns to me to say, ´I feel like going shopping, I found a bag I liked.´ Finally! She has a clear decision. My triumph of the day, next to that orange donut.