I took an 8:30am train from Clermont to Paris on Feb. 16th...arrived in Paris at noon and then figured out how to take the RER to Charles de Gaulle airport...flight left from there at 5:00pm and I arrived in Madrid around 7:00pm...then, I had to figure out where the bus terminal was...Madrid is a HUGE airport...finally found that, and I start asking for a bus ticket to Salamanca...of course, I can't use my French here but even with my English, I caught myself having a bit of a French accent haha...the bus left at 8:30pm (the bus driver played Spanish music the entire ride...I think it was the same song throughout or at least the same melody...well, I was exhausted so I took a nap) and I got to Salamanca at 11:30pm where I FINALLY arrived at Nathan Cushnie's place 15 hrs later...but the thing with Salamanca is that people don't really start going out till 1am...their place is in a great location...overlooks a beautiful lake...
I got situated and we went out for a bit...definitely a town with a young vibrant crowd and lots of university students...nightlife is great...next day, Cushnie showed me around town...it was interesting to see the differences between French and Spanish architecture...we sat in the Plaza Mayor where there are several cafes and enjoyed the atmosphere...reminded sort of like Italy...so, between 2-4pm, the Spanish enjoy their siestas so the alot of the shops/cafes shut down...as you can see from the pics, there were tons of people enjoying the weather and then all of sudden, it was pretty much a ghost town within the plaza...
Second day, I walked around some more on my own and got to know the city a bit... explored sites such as, the Romansque Cathedral, University of Salamanca, and an Old Roman bridge...ok, so here's a bit of Salamanca culture...on the University facade, there is, The Rana de Suerte (Lucky Frog)...if you can spot this among all the other intrict architectural design, good luck will be brought upon you...I must say, it is really tough to find...Cushnie has to tell me where it was...but it was fun to watch several people going crazy trying to find out...
That night, we went to a bar which was full of American university students from Cali to VA...why you ask...International party and yes, Beer Pong in Salamanca! It was a good time...
Some Spanish nouriture that I tried were (not much veg food): tortilla de patatas which are basically their version of an omlette but in the form of a tortilla and potatoes...really good...the other thing was wine with a splash of coke...at first, I found that a bit strange...but not bad...
Some Spanish nouriture that I tried were (not much veg food): tortilla de patatas which are basically their version of an omlette but in the form of a tortilla and potatoes...really good...the other thing was wine with a splash of coke...at first, I found that a bit strange...but not bad...
Well, that was just a bit of the good times that took place in Salamanca!! More pics can be seen on my picassa album (click on link at top my blog page)...left on Wednesday by a 2 hr train ride back to Madrid...caught a flight to London Gatwick...then took the 40 min ride on the Gatwick Express to central London to my cousin's place in Kensington...had a really nice relaxing time with them...it was REAL nice to eat Indian food for four straight days!!!! Also, got to enjoy my Starbucks coffee everyday...ok, don't get me wrong...I love the cafe in France...how could you not...but I had a craving for Starbucks...left on Sunday at 10am...took a 30 min tube ride to Liverpool street where I was supposed to catch the Stansted Express...well, with no surprise to me...the train was down till afternoon so they loaded us onto a bus to the airport...another 45 min ride...caught my flight from there to Lyon...then took a 40 min bus ride from the airport to the train station where I hopped onto the train headed back to Clermont where I reached around 9pm...a 12 hr journey back!
As you can see, I spent ALOT of time on trains, planes, and buses...but it was definitely worth it...and it was a learning experience for me!
