Spanish History Lessons in Salamanca

Yesterday was Sunday, and with a few friends, I went to a cafe, the civil war museum and then to El Huerto de Calixto y Malibea. The cafe we went to sort of resembles a knock-off Starbucks…they have their frappes down to a T. The ambiance is also very Starbucks—very comfortable, filled with chairs arranged circling coffee tables, free wifi, overpriced coffee beverages, mstaff dressed in dark green collared shirts with a logo that eerily resembles that of Starbucks. In fact, the only thing that was different was that their sizes were actually small medium and large, and not tall, grande, and venti.

Here is a photo of me with my friends:

After that, we went to the civil war museum. Here’s a quick history lesson for you, but basically a super short sparknote edition. If you are not the type interested in history, just skip the following paragraph altogether.

The Spanish civil war lasted for 3 years (1936-1939). Before the war, the Republicans (left wing party) was in control of Spain. The nationalists (very right wing party) then shortly took over, and began to undo everything that the republicans had done. The economy just simply wasn’t improving, so the republicans were voted in again. Naturally, this aggravated the nationalists, and they had a coup, which led to the civil war. At the end of the war, the nationalists were put back in charge and named Franco (an awful dictator) as their leader.

Seeing the museum was very interesting. I’ve never learned about the Spanish civil war before, so to see a whole museum on it was both fascinating and a bit overwhelming. The museum wasn’t big, but it was filled with so much information, I couldn’t even begin to absorb all of it. Afterwards, we went to the garden and just spent an hour or so sitting down and talking. It’s great here, and it’s hard to believe that my time in Salamanca is about half way over.