Last weekend nine of us went on a little excursion to Salamanca. The city is much smaller than Madrid, and beautiful. It was a nice break to be walking city streets and not feeling so crowded all the time. However, it is so easy to see virtually all of Salamanca in one day that I’m glad I didn’t choose to do my semester there. I’ve been in Madrid for about a month now and there is still so much more to discover!
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| Northwest of Madrid (near Portugal). |
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| Cute city street. |
So how was Salamanca? It was really fun! We walked the tours suggested by travel books and saw many (if not all) of the historic sites. We saw the cathedrals, the university, the library, etc. Legend has it that if you spot the frog on the façade of the University of Salamanca you’ll have good luck (I’ve also heard you’ll have good luck in studies, and you’ll get married soon. Silly legends). Yes, I found the frog (with assistance from the tchotchke vendor who kept shining a light on it). My host mom later told me I was supposed to look for an astronaut too. Guess I’ll have to go back and find it...
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| Public library |
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| Cathedral |
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| The bell tower we hiked. |
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| View from the top |
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| Proof that I was there. |
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| A bad angle of the University facade. |
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| A close up of the frog (that just looks like a blog) on top of the skull. |
I generally hate guided walking tours because they’re slow and boring, but just looking at historic buildings and reading a line or two from a guide book didn’t do this city justice. Lesson learned – find the free city walking tours.
I was impressed by how clean Salamanca was, especially compared to Madrid. There was so much less litter (and therefore fewer workers always cleaning up after people). There was also less graffiti. And the graffiti that I did find was much more upbeat and inspiring than the rebellious, angry graffiti of Madrid.
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| Motivational graffiti. ("Have faith in yourself") |
Since this was our first weekend adventure on our own, it was also our first hostel experience in Europe. I packed my bed bug spray, and didn’t even have to use it! Our hostel was cute and clean, and the owner was really friendly. With nine of us we rented the two biggest rooms and had ourselves a slumber party!
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| The walls inside were neon green. Sweet. |
A quick note on the nightlife in Salamanca – there was one bar that strictly sold shots for 1 euro each (which would be unheard of in Madrid, since you’ll be lucky if you can get a pack of gum for a euro). In many bars you can play pool (as in billiards). But in Salamanca, if you want to play pool, you’ll be able to play in a pool. Sounds like an accident waiting to happen if you ask me, but it was pretty funny to see a pool in the bar.
The perfect end to the wonderful weekend was enjoying an ice cream cone from what I voted the Second Best Ice Cream in Spain while soaking up the sun and people watching in the Plaza Mayor (I had fresh cherry and vanilla!!). We had some time to kill before our bus left, so we just sat in the middle of the plaza and relaxed. There were at least half dozen weddings that morning, so it seemed like the whole town was in the plaza in their dressiest attire waiting to celebrate. There were also a few bachelor and bachelorette parties in the plaza and a Forest Gump scene reenactment.
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| Salamanca's Plaza Mayor is modeled after Madrid's plaza of the same name. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? |
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| But just look at that Plaza. I'd want one just like it too if I had the space... |
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| All lit up at night. |
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| One of the many weddings. |
So friends studying abroad next semester (and all of you other worldly readers), definitely consider putting Salamanca on your travel bucket list!
PS – sorry for the delay in updating here. It was a struggle to remember the details, so I’ll try to post sooner next time.
