young dreams

"Cherry-Coloured Funk" (Cocteau Twins, 1990)

Salamanca is the ultimate college town. Nobody goes for the cheap food, but it is a pleasant bonus. There are also loads of college students around, which leads a lively and cheap nightlife. The town/city is small enough to be a perfect two-day excursion from Madrid, which isn't to say that there aren't a million zapaterias, souvenir shops, churches/convents, and sweets shops.

Wow that was really boring. I'm tired. But let me tell you more more more about my weekend in Salamanca.

The bus dropped us off in the boonies of Salamanca. And then we crossed a road and suddenly we were in a medieval stone city and learned quickly to be vigilant of the Salamancan Owls, which are your basic European / American pigeons but here in Salamanca, oh no, they have a horrible ability to perform a loud, collective hoot-growl that drowns out every other noise in the city. Additional notes on Salamancan wildlife: there are boxers everywhere, and get pushy in a bar if you want to sit down.

New Cathedral of Salamanca

To be honest it was hard to keep track of what we were visiting in town. There is actually too much to see here. It was like tourism on crack for lazy people. I was joking about the million zapaterias before, but I really think there may be a million ATMs. I was glad most of the time to have Google Maps on my phone, but Salamanca is a type of town that becomes self-explanatory after about 2 hours walking around.

Lazarillo de Tormes

I forgot to mention the skaters. Actually, skaters are a phenomenon all throughout Spain, but here they achieve maximum street cred practicing on churches. I believe the stone plaque above announcing Salamanca as the birthplace of Lazarillo de Tormes is blocking about fifteen teenagers doing...wheelies or something. I don't know.

View of Salamanca from the Cueva de Salamanca

We also went to the Cueva de Salamanca, where Satan is believed to have taught dark arts. We climbed up the tower with a metal staircase, which was see-through the whole way up (no no no no no). I got a bit vertigo-y and it didn't help to keep thinking about the movie Vertigo in the part where James Stewart is basically dying in the chase scene up the bell tower of the Spanish mission. Maybe Satan in fact designed this tourist site.

Detail from the Plaza Mayor

Salamanca's nightlife is located at a fifteen minutes' walk away from the Plaza Mayor, which surprised me lots. For most of the day even, actually, the Plaza is dead. It is a shame, because it is a better Plaza than the one in Madrid because it has these awesome reliefs of famous thinkers the whole way round.

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Ciudad Rodrigo, an hour away by bus. Unfortunately we were there just in time for siesta...so it was an experience walking in circles in an alien ghost town. It was funny. My friend Bonnie and I really got to know this town, because we walked past everything at least twice. The views from the city down to the Rio Agueda were really beautiful though.

Piece of the muralla of Ciudad Rodrigo

View from Ciudad Rodrigo

Ciudad Rodrigo was a major fortress city, which explains its stone wall around the entire perimeter of the place. Now, if only the giant wall could have blocked the demonic wind. This is a horrible wind leagues above any Berkshire / Madrid wind that could probably blow a small child away.


And I can't wait for the spring to arrive.