Okay, so I guess if I get myself to post once a week, that’s fairly legitimate, no? This past weekend I took the 2 and 1/2 hour train adventure to Salamanca, I think one of the prettiest cities I’ve been to in Spain. Salamanca has the oldest university in Spain (I believe), which is also one of the oldest universities in all of Europe, but more than that, it’s well known for its loads of studying-abroad-foreigners and its university party atmosphere, so it’s always a good time.
I met Jennis and Lucy on the train on Thursday night. They had gotten on in Logrono, and the train coincidentally went through Burgos on its way to Salamanca. We arrived late on Thursday evening, getting to our hostel (which was incredible! If you need hostel recommendations in Salamanca EVER, let me know!) around midnight and then going out for a quick drink. Remember what I just said about Salamanca being a crazy university town? Yeah, well, we probably found THE oldest bar in the city. Let’s just say we brought down the average age considerably by being there. But it was cute, with Velasquez’s Las Meninas painted all over the wall and good music, so we were happy.
Friday we got up and played the tourist for most of the daytime hours. Some of Lucy’s friends living in Cadiz this year, as well as Chris, Annalise and the crew from Madrid, were all in Salamanca for the weekend, so we had a good group of people to go out with the whole weekend. We went shopping on Friday morning, and then found a really good menu del dia for lunch before wandering into the cathedral and through the university buildings in the afternoon. The cathedral is really pretty, fairly similar to cathedrals throughout Spain, but the university buildings are just gorgeous! They are made of this light sandstone-looking stone which just makes them glow in the afternoon sunlight. Which they did alllll weekend because it was just sunny and gorgeous (and not too cold!!) the entire time. We really lucked out on the weather, for sure!
Catedral de Salamanca
Plaza Mayor
Friday evening found us enjoying the nightlife that Salamanca had to offer, going from bar to bar and just generally soaking up the atmosphere. There really were a lot of people out, partially due I’m sure to the relative warm weather and also because university students are always up for a party, no matter what.
Saturday started our fairly foggy, but by mid-afternoon, the day was gorgeous and even quite warm in the sun. Lucy, her two friends from Cadiz and I went out to lunch together in an old convent/school/I’m not entirely sure what it was but it was pretty, and we had a great, and very typical, Spanish lunch. Not only was it a menu, which meant that it was a lot of food, but we lingered over lunch for a good couple of hours, enjoying our bottle of wine and chatting about everything that came to mind. Little side note: I love this so much about being here, that we’re constantly meeting new people and having fun experiences with them in a very random way. I feel like back at home I just don’t have the opportunity to meet so many new people, or perhaps I don’t make the effort to meet so many new people because I already have an established group of friends, but here, even the most random and convoluted connection between people makes them your new best friend to go travelling to visit. And that’s definitely how I felt about Jane and Rosie – super fun and easy to be with, which made for a great weekend, and an especially fun lunch.
It turns out that you can climb to the roof of the cathedral, something that really got Lucy excited, so we all climbed up to the roof. What a gorgeous idea! Not only was the light perfect, being late afternoon with long shadows being cast everywhere, but it was sunny and gave some spectacular views of the city. We were able to walk along the edge of the roof as well as along a balcony inside the cathedral with great views of the entire inner cathedral.
Gorgeous Light on the Cathedral Roof
Me and Jennis on the Roof
Saturday night, Jennis, Lucy and I went out to Calle Van Dyck, recommended to me by one of my teachers in Burgos for its great tapas. We had some really juicy pinchos morunos, a kebab of pork with yummy seasoning, and other various pork and potato products as we went tapeando. Then it was back to the center to the Plaza Mayor to meet up with our friends for another night of dancing and exploring Salamanca. We got back fairly late, and I was up early to catch a 10:30am train back to Burgos to end the weekend. It’s lovely in Burgos today, though, sunny and windy but not cold, something I am coming to increasingly appreciate these days! So, a lovely weekend all around, and now I have Madrid and a Real Madrid soccer game to look forward this coming weekend with friends from Logrono and The Boy!
Woohoo! Life is pretty good.
