LIVE from the Camino Life as a hospitalero: Salamanca

[Camino Chrissy]

Photos: the river (taken from the Roman bridge, a nice tortilla, the Botanical Gardens (×2), the Urban Gardens, me pointing the way to the albergue).

That tortilla looks yummy. I am especially drawn to the colorful tablecloth with its display of the cheese/jamon. They look like cute flowers and sometimes presentation is everything.

David, I notice you look just like your avatar. Did you once say your wife had drawn it.

 

[David Tallan]

That tortilla looks yummy. I am especially drawn to the colorful tablecloth with its display of the cheese/jamon. They look like cute flowers and sometimes presentation is everything.

David, I notice you look just like your avatar. Did you once say your wife had drawn it.

I did indeed. She drew it for my personal sello, and I adopted it for my social media avatar. She drew it after my 2016 Camino, from which I returned with a beard (which I promptly shaved off). I think she was trying to ensure I never came back with a beard again. If do, she was successful. If I grow a beard on Camino, people won't recognize me from the stamp.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I did indeed. She drew it for my personal sello, and I adopted it for my social media avatar. She drew it after my 2016 Camino, from which I returned with a beard (which I promptly shaved off). I think she was trying to ensure I never came back with a beard again. If do, she was successful. If I grow a beard on Camino, people won't recognize me from the stamp.

Well, you haven't seemed to age a day since that drawing from eight years ago.

 

[David Tallan]

Monday 21 October 2024

It's about 5 pm, so time for my daily update. A pretty busy day (relatively speaking) for the albergue, with 7 pilgrim guests (everyone can still have a bottom bunk). We have a couple of Spanish gentlemen a little older than me, one of those multinational Camino families with two French men and Australian and Belgian women, and, rolling in just now, another Spanish bicigrino.

After the usual morning chores, I went to visit the University. Although it was established in the 13th century, it didn't move to the current location until the late 15th century and most of what they are showing off is 16th century, give or take. The usual formal patio, grand staircase, elaborate chapel, etc. There is also a very pretty old library, which one can see (and a more modern one that wasn't open), as well as several historic lecture halls. After visiting this campus of the University, I went over to the College of Archbishop Fonseco, but it was closed to touristic visits today. So I decided to see some street art.

One of the pilgrims who stayed here (a French pilgrim who stayed an extra day) had mentioned that he had gone to see some street art near the Plaza del Oeste. He had found it on a website streetartcities.com. I decided to check it out and ended up downloading the app. Wow! There was a ton of street art in that neighborhood. I probably saw about half of what was there, just seeing the art to the west of the Plaza, and I took well over a hundred photos of different street art pieces (not all of it). But then it was time to head over to lunch. I will have to return to see what is east of the Plaza on another day.

Lunch was at the usual place. For the first course, patatas meneas, a local Salamancan dish, was recommended. Since a recommendation is not usually forthcoming, I accepted it. For the second course, I went with albondigas (meatballs) in sauce. After lunch, I did some shopping and headed back to the albergue for a rest. There were a couple of pilgrims waiting outside, and I invited them to leave their backpacks in the albergue until opening time. My rest was a bit longer than usual and instead of opening up 15 minutes early, I ended up opening up a couple of minutes late. Of course, these two pilgrims were waiting outside when I opened up. One had a copy of Peregrino magazine for me that had clearly been left by Correos. While I was checking them in, the multinational pilgrim family arrived. It was busy for a while. But it has very much settled down now.

Photos: lecture hall at the university; ceiling of the upper walkway around the patio, old university library, street art (x3)

 

[filly]

I would be so grateful, David, if you could pop in to the Archive of the Civil War in calle Gibraltar round the corner from the Albergue and give an opinion. I have always wanted to venture in but been ‘en Camino’ before opening time or arriving too late. I was in Teruel and Valencia in the spring and visited bunkers, trenches and ammunition stores. There is much more openness about that painful period - indeed a museum is planned for Teruel..

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

I love that street art David, thanks for sharing. Feel free to post more!
It was one of the things that I loved about Berlin when I first visited 25 or so years ago, the street art. Some pieces are three or four stories high, just beautiful

 

[filly]

I love that street art David, thanks for sharing. Feel free to post more!
It was one of the things that I loved about Berlin when I first visited 25 or so years ago, the street art. Some pieces are three or four stories high, just beautiful

Yes! On my list for my next visit!!

I agree about Berlin.. but wait till you get to Valparaiso (Chile)

 

[David Tallan]

I love that street art David, thanks for sharing. Feel free to post more!
It was one of the things that I loved about Berlin when I first visited 25 or so years ago, the street art. Some pieces are three or four stories high, just beautiful

Here's a link to a shared Google album of Salamanca Street Art: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZK3u11z2itMT7gZ2A. It took a while because one of the photos wouldn't back up and had to be deleted before I could share the album.

Edited to add: and it doesn't seem to work when I click it here, but if I copy the link and paste it in Chrome, it works fine.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Street Art is a big thing in recent years and it seems to be nearly everywhere. In my town, nearby city and surrounding areas it has really "taken off" so to speak.
I see many new artistic paintings on my Caminos, too, on the sides of buildings and it is a refreshing change from that awful gold color, dried out foam that was so prevalent a number of years ago.

 

[filly]

Here's a link to a shared Google album of Salamanca Street Art: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZK3u11z2itMT7gZ2A. It took a while because one of the photos wouldn't back up and had to be deleted before I could share the album.

Edited to add: and it doesn't seem to work when I click it here, but if I copy the link and paste it in Chrome, it works fine.

Works fine on safari! Much appreciated!!

 

[peregrina2000]

Here's a link to a shared Google album of Salamanca Street Art: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZK3u11z2itMT7gZ2A. It took a while because one of the photos wouldn't back up and had to be deleted before I could share the album.

Edited to add: and it doesn't seem to work when I click it here, but if I copy the link and paste it in Chrome, it works fine.

So interesting — it looks to me like very little of this has a political message. My only comparison is Oaxaca, Mexico. There’s a lot of similar street art, but I would say that at least 75% of it expresses a political opinion. I wonder if I’m right and if so, why that would be the case in Salamanca.

 

[David Tallan]

So interesting — it looks to me like very little of this has a political message. My only comparison is Oaxaca, Mexico. There’s a lot of similar street art, but I would say that at least 75% of it expresses a political opinion. I wonder if I’m right and if so, why that would be the case in Salamanca.

There is a laminated map of Salamanca at the desk in this albergue and I noticed yesterday that this area is labeled "Gallería Urbana" on the map. Perhaps in Mexico, it is done by activists as a form of protest, while in Salamanca it was invited of a broader range of artists.

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

So interesting — it looks to me like very little of this has a political message. My only comparison is Oaxaca, Mexico. There’s a lot of similar street art, but I would say that at least 75% of it expresses a political opinion. I wonder if I’m right and if so, why that would be the case in Salamanca.

I hesitate to get too far into this in case I veer into the political, but perhaps in Mexico, where it can be very very dangerous to make a political statement overtly, street art is the way people can comment on what's going on.

My impression is that Spain, like Portugal, takes free speech pretty seriously and there is a lot of open protest about many issues. So perhaps street art can step back from that and just display artists' talent and vision on many subjects?

I know that in Portugal, there was a lot of revolutionary street art created just after the revolution in 1974. Much of it has been preserved or documented. But there's lots of new street art--often bigger, more sophisticated murals--that's been created recently. I know our little municipality has a variety across its various concelhos.

(I was going to say none of them have political comment, but that's not entirely true.)

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@David Tallan, the link works for me, many thanks for sharing.
Some beautiful artwork!

 

[David Tallan]

Tuesday 22 October 2024

Definitely faced some challenges today, but not as hospitalero. More on them later. It's about 5:30 right now and we have 4 pilgrims so far. Yesterday we had one late arrival, after I wrote my daily entry. Jim, from the States, is walking the Plata in reverse from Leon through Astorga. When he arrived, he greeted me with "Are you David?". Apparently, he'd been hearing about me from pilgrims who had stayed here. Good things, he says. That's always nice to hear. He asked if he could stay an extra day. Since my philosophy as hospitalero is to treat people as I would like to be treated, I said okay as long as it didn't mean turning away other pilgrims, which I thought would be very unlikely given the number of pilgrims I'd been seeing and the number of beds we have.

This morning, when I got up at 6, the Spanish pair were already up and the first out the door. I managed to clear the rest out by about 8:30. Jim left his backpack here for the day, as did the Belgian peregrina who was catching a train to Madrid after 4 pm.

I decided today was cathedral day and was there at 10 am when they opened. I got the audio guide and followed it diligently while touring the new cathedral and attached old cathedral. As I suspected would be the case, the old cathedral was a bit more to my taste. While walking around admiring the cathedral and taking photographs, I put my hat down on one of the benches for the congregation. You aren't supposed to wear hats in churches, so normally I take it off and carry it with me, but if I am taking lots of pictures, sometimes I like to set it down. Well, I set it down today and when I went back for it, it had disappeared. There had been a tour group coming through and I guess someone must have picked it up. I checked lost and found but it hadn't been turned in. I will try again tomorrow morning and if it isn't there, I guess I am looking for another hat. That was somewhat of a downer. In fact, it was enough of a downer that, as I was walking through the streets back towards the cathedral entrance to ask about a lost and found, and passing the entrance to the climb of the cathedral's towers, I decided I just didn't have the energy to force myself to face my fears and climb, as I otherwise might have done. And after checking the lost and found unsuccessfully, I completely forgot to check out the episcopal palace, also included in my cathedral ticket.

After the cathedral, I followed up on @filly's request and popped in to the Civil War Archives. There was no charge and they had a number of displays on the first floor, including a special exhibition on the Franco regimes persecution of freemasons, which culminated in a recreation if a freemason environment. From there I went back to the albergue and then off to lunch.

After lunch, I decided it was time to visit a bank machine and top up my euros, which I had not done since arrival in Spain. Unfortunately, when I did so, the transaction was not authorized. I thought "maybe I was asking for too much", so I tried again, only asking for €100. Still not authorized. I keep hearing from my bank that they don't want to hear when I am traveling. They no longer can use that information. The algorithms have it well in hand. And every year I keep having problems like this. Tomorrow, I will try again at a different bank here, with a debit card from a different bank at home. I dejectedly headed back to the albergue to be there to open it up for today's pilgrims.

The first pilgrims to arrive were the two from yesterday. Jim had brought a little spread and was offering us wine and chorizo and olives. A little later we got a visit from @Sitkapilgrim, who is staying in a hotel tonight to catch up on sleep but will be checking in tomorrow and setting out on the Camino Torres on Thursday. Since I will be following her just over a week later, I'll be watching for her updates! She has also taken the hosvol training, so we chatted about being a hospitalero as well as about Salamanca, our Camino histories, and the usual things pilgrims talk about when they meet.

At 6:00, I paused working on this to join the Forum Zoom call, and with one thing and another it is now close to 8:00. One of those things was the arrival of a bicigrino from Mexico, bringing our pilgrim numbers up to 5 tonight. It turns out that he had met with Jim in Zamora (a name that he shares) and he had met another of our pilgrims (who also identifies as Mexican) on the Norte. Small world!

I think this is where I will leave off. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Photos: New cathedral (x2), Old cathedral (x2), Civil War archives (x2)

 

[J Willhaus]

Sorry about the bank thing. Very annoying...even more so when traveling.

 

[Dani7]

Thank you David for your daily posts. I look forward to reading them. Now I feel the calling to go to Salamanca. Thanks…I guess (one more camino on my list)

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

Good luck on the hat...it's always a drag to lose something like that!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Good luck on the hat...it's always a drag to lose something like that!

Such a bummer on the hat disappearing. Was it the exact one in your avatar? If so, you had it a long time. I hope you can replace it with a similar one or forum members will no longer recognize you out on the trail.

 

[donalomahony]

Thanks for taking the time to keep us updated. Life!!

 

[J Willhaus]

Phil found a great hat (wool, Italian made) one year in Santiago so maybe you'll find an equally good one in Salamanca on your daily trips to see the city sights.

 

[MARSKA]

Thanks for the updates David! It's wonderful to follow along with you (hope your hat finds you).

 

[feenzo]

Saturday 19 October 2024

It's about 5 pm and so far we have three pilgrims today: from Spain, France, and Montenegro. It's been a quiet day, so this will be a shorter report.

Yesterday, folks were mostly back by 10 pm ... ish. The Chinese peregrina who had been the first to arrive just before 3:00 was actually the last to return, about ten minutes late. I was still up, in the midst of a long and deep conversation with the British pilgrim. He was traveling without a phone and without much Spanish, which brings with it some challenges. He wasn't sure if he wanted to press on tomorrow (Saturday) or take a rest day and eventually asked if I could help him call a place in Salamanca and reserve for tomorrow. Since we have been so far from being full, I told him it was okay for him to take his rest day here. He was very grateful. (Of course, as so often happens on the Camino, a night's rest proves very restorative, and in the morning he didn't think he'd need a rest day and preferred to keep his walking rhythm.)

When I went to bed last night, the British pilgrim was still up and asked if it was okay if he sat quietly at the table for a few minutes more before going to bed. I said "Okay, just make sure to turn out these lights before you head to bed." Of course, when I got up at 2:30 am to use the rest rooms, I noticed he had forgotten to turn out the lights. But I noticed that I also had forgotten to lay out the breakfast. So I did.

I was woken up again at 6:00 by my alarm and finished with the breakfast, putting the coffee on and laying out the refrigerated items. The Chinese pilgrim was the first up and out, leaving with a hug at about 7:30. The other two took a but longer, finally departing at about 8:30. Then the day was my own.

But I had cleaning to do (no cleaner on the weekend) and rest to catch up on so there was no sightseeing this morning, just chores. After chores, I took a bit of a rest, interrupted a couple of times by pilgrims ringing the doorbell to ask if they could leave their bags here while visiting the town (something I hadn't experienced other days, probably because I hadn't been here to hear it).

I couldn't leave you without anything, though, so I did stop in one place on the way to comida. Salamanca being a university town, I stopped by a classroom, specifically the reputed site of Salamanca's School of Necromancy, allegedly taught by the Devil himself. Just around the corner from the albergue is the Cave of Salamanca, the crypt of the former Church of San Cebrian (demolished in the 14th century). Legend has it that Satan would teach classes of seven students for seven years, after which he would take one of the students to serve him for life. One of the students taken was Enrique of Aragon (1384-1434), the Marquis of Villena, who managed to escape, losing his shadow in the process. The cave has appeared in tales written by Cervantes, Calderón de la Barca, Walter Scott, and many others.

After lunch, I did a bit of shopping restocking some breakfast items before heading back to the albergue. One of the many complaints from the Spanish pilgrim yesterday morning (the one who could not conceive of a 10pm curfew in civilized society) was that Cola Cao had not been put out with the coffee and teas in the morning. How could it possibly not be there? Actually, I think Cola Cao is a decent option to include, so I picked some up while I was restocking the magdalenas and croissants.

Then I opened us up for business, 15 minutes early after another little rest and checked in our three pilgrims. After which I just sat around. Which brings us to now.

Edited to add: we got a fourth peregrina from Argentina arriving at about 6:00 pm.

Photos. I don't have much, just a couple of photos of the "cave" (crypt), so I will add in a few I took last night from the garden.
View attachment 179354 View attachment 179355 View attachment 179356 View attachment 179357 View attachment 179358

Best of luck