I had never heard of the town of Fatima before this trip but it has major Catholic significance. On May 13 of 1917 and on every 13th of the months until October of that year the Blessed Virgin Mary (Mother of God) appeared to three children that lived there and gave them a message. This was considered to be a miracle in this town and people flocked there to hopefully get a glimpse themselves. It has since become a very holy and sacred place because of this. (This kind of story reminds me when people find images of Jesus on toast or a Dorito or something.)
When we arrived in Fatima, the grounds where all religious stuff is was huge. There was a chapel where the three children saw the Virgin Mary and where they are now buried. People who wanted to buy candles and light them for friends and family, healthy, ill or even deceased. If I was Catholic, I would have most def done this; but I'm not, so I didn't. I can see how the idea behind doing it here would be very significant and memorable. One thing that was so bizarre to me was that I saw people "walking" on their knees down about a quarter mile path towards the chapel. Some had knee pads on and some didn't. In the opposite direction people were crawling back up. Apparently people think that if you do this, it will heal you. This totally baffled me. In a time of modern medicine and technology that a person believes the healing power of this is just mind-boggling. If you have a debilitating and/or terminal disease and you do this, you will not be healed magically. The world doesn't work that way. I think there is something to say about people who have such deep faith like this (it's nice they have something to really believe in) but I simply don't get it. I just don't understand people, of any religion, (even Orthodox Jews) with such intense faith. Some things just aren't "meant to happen" by God and to believe that is just not my thing. I will never get it. Some people don't get how I can be so blasé about my religion and that's fine too. To me, my Judaism is more cultural right now and less religious and spiritual, but that's just me. To each their own.
This very religious site visit was something to see for a second to get an idea but beyond that, I was bored and kind of weirded out. There were a lot of people there because tomorrow is the 13th of the month which is significant because the Virgin Mary would visit the kids on the 13th. Since tomorrow is a work day, many people come today to pray since they can't tomorrow. If we had come tomorrow, we wouldn't even have been able to enter the town because of the intense crowds.
There were also tons of souvenir shops with the Virgin Mary and rosary beads and all kind of other paraphanelia in Fatima. If I was Catholic, I would have for sure bought rosary beads because it would be cool to have them from here, but once again, I'm not, so I didn't.
Finally it was time to leave Fatima and hit the road to Salamanca. We would once again lose the hour going back to Spain that we gained going to Portugal. Good thing I got some bus naps in! We made a lunch stop and another pit stop along the way before finally getting to Salamanca. Also along the way, there were a lot of fields and I was able to see a lot of bulls grazing. Bull fighting is big in the South of Spain so the bulls grow up on these farms before entering the ring. (I would love to be able to attend a bull fight while here but I don't know if I will have the opportunity. It would be a great cultural and fun thing to do while here.) I also saw pigs too whose destiny I am sure is to become ham.
We arrived in Salamanca at 5:20 and I got to my room to put my stuff down, got a map and then headed out. I had three hours to explore on my own and knew I wanted to see the cathedrals (old and new), the University, and Plaza Mayor. Our hotel had a prime location to all of that and I saw all of those things in like 20 minutes. I didn't go in the cathedrals because I just wasn't feeling it. There is only so many of them I can take and I have another one on the agenda tomorrow so I'll hold off on these two. From the outside though, they're both gorge. The University was very cool to see. The campus is beautiful with all the cobblestone streets and stone walls but it's completely empty now. In fact, most of the town was totally empty. I don't think Salamanca is much of a tourist town but there were so few people around. This is also probably because it's a Sunday and it seems like Europe just shuts down on Sunday's. I walked through the campus and was literally the only person there. Apparently the University of Salamanca had a great language program and students from all of the world come here to Spanish. Pretty cool.
Plaza Mayor was definitely awesome to see. This former bullfighting ring is now a huge square with restaurants and stuff but it's just beautiful. It kind of reminded me of St. Mark's Square in Venice but not nearly as lively or famous. I really enjoyed seeing it though and thought it was just so pretty.
After I saw the things on my list I just kind of wandered some more. Once again, all the streets were cobblestone and my feet were actually starting to hurt. I walked around for about another half hour or so and then came back to the hotel to rest before dinner.
For dinner tonight, I had a good grilled veggie salad and a delicious cod with potatoes. (For some reason typing that made me think of Napoleon Dynamite "I caught you a delicious bass" and made me giggle. But I digress.) After dinner, which was steps from Plaza Mayor, I walked right there again because I loved it the first time and wanted to see it all lit up at night. I had to walk around a bit until that happened and there was a band playing all dressed up. I had read online a classic Salamanca thing are these "??" groups that play in the square and compete with each other. It was such a fun cultural things to see while here and put a big smile on my face. About fifteen minutes being into the square the lights all turned on and I let out an audible "ooooooh." It was absolutely gorgeous to see. The plaza really livens up at night with families and tons of teens as well. It was the place to be and a fun thing to experience.
Around 10:30ish I headed back to the hotel because, you guessed it, tomorrow is an early morning heading to Toledo and then my last Spanish city, Madrid. I'm super psyched for both. Hasta mañana!!!
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