My World Tour... well kinda!
 Spain, Mon Amour! [Note: this story is being posted three weeks late, sorry!] I thought I loved France. However, I must confess something to you. This weekend I started an affair with Spain. It was a short fling, I promise. But it will stay in my heart forever! I flew out of Lyon airport on Friday afternoon to Madrid, Spain. From there I took a two and half hour bus ride to the city of Salamanca. It’s a beautiful university town where I met up with my friend Lee-Anne – girl from HU who I went to Paris with for spring break – and her friend who also came to Paris. Despite the fact that their program ended the next Saturday and exams were the very next week, they were both kind enough to spend some time with me. I stayed in the central part of town, two blocks away from the Plaza Mayor (main plaza). The city itself is so beautiful, clean, and …beautiful! That evening, Lee-Anne met me at my hostel that was really a beautiful cheap hotel and we had Italian for dinner. Later that night, we met up with the other girl, Laci, so they could give me a taste of the nightlife! First, let me start by explaining that in Spain everything is done a lot later than in France. For example, in France life comes to a halt around 12:30/1:00pm for lunch and lasts until 2:00/3:00. Then they go back to work and life completely stops around 7:30/8:00pm for dinner. Well I should reiterate, “life” doesn’t stop. This is the American in me. For the French, eating is extremely high on their list of the most important aspects of life (and not in the need-it-for-your-body sense). The daily routine is literally centered around meal times. So as far as restaurants and such are concerned, you cannot go into a restaurant to eat lunch before 12:30 or after 1:30 (obviously varying a little) unless you are lucky. For dinner, you will not be able to eat at most places before 7:30 and many won’t seat you after 9:00 (this is more flexible I believe). And as for the nightlife, well… there is none in Grenoble so I am not qualified to discuss that. BUT, in Spain lunch starts around 2:00pm and after a quick “siesta” or a quick nap, they go back to work around 4:00. Then they eat dinner around 9:00pm – sometimes even as late as 10:00. Restaurants here can apparently be open and seat people till 12am (the American way haha). As a result bars and clubs don’t really open until 1:00/2:00 am. And while you may all know I’m not interested in bars, I must explain. Bars in Spain aren’t really bars. They are what I would call clubs with a bar. They all seem to have dance floors, DJs, and – then and only then – a bar! Even the smokers were bearable. On top of that, it is free to get into the bar and you are by no means obligated to buy a drink. When the bars close around 5, everyone heads to the “discotheque” or club, which is ALSO free! How much better can it get. So needless to say, I danced the night away. I spent a total of about $5.00 on a drink (a pina colada which a friend and I shared because it was HUGE) and a late night bite to eat. I must say, this was one of the best nights out I have had during my entire stay in Europe. The next day I spent a lot of time walking around on my own while my friends did some studying and school work. I then met up with Lee-Anne because I was invited to eat lunch with her host family for the weekend. Her Senorita, Rosa, is the sweetest woman ever. She enjoys hosting students and at the time she had five girls living with her. She didn’t speak any English and they all spoke Spanish at the table but surprisingly I could understand the gist of the conversation since it’s similar to French. Since I was so stuffed from all the food that Rosa fed me for lunch, that night we decided to have tapas for dinner. Basically you go to this place that is set-up like a bar/restaurant. You order one drink and you get a free “tapas” which is basically your choice of assorted finger foods. My first tapas was potatoes and calamari and my second was an interesting twist on lasagna (because it had this creamy cheese on it). They were both good and so were my friends’ choices. If I hadn’t already mentioned that Spain is cheap, here I go… SPAIN IS CHEAP. My bill was less than $5.00 with the Baileys I ordered and the two tapas (each tapas after the first free one costs 1 euro or about $1.30). Since we had a big lunch earlier that day, we were satisfied and headed home to sleep. I would be remiss to mention one of the most important observations I made within my first 24 hours in Spain: I saw more chic and fashionable women than I have seen throughout my whole time in France. I mean, have you ever seen mothers pushing their babies in strollers while wearing stilettos? Well apparently Spanish mothers do! Lee-Anne told me that they are an even better sight to see in the winter with their fur coats. I can only imagine. Does anyone know when did Spain took away France’s title of the fashion capital of the world? Anyway, on Sunday I did some more walking around, enjoying the beautiful weather. I checked out my hotel and had lunch again with Rosa and the girls. Since my flight was early on Monday morning, I had to catch the night bus back from Salamanca to Madrid in order to make it to the airport before the metro stopped running. On the ride back, I almost regretted not picking up Spanish and deciding to study in Spain. However, all things happen for a reason and my heart still belongs to France. Who says you can`t have enough love more than one – country that is! Pictures ------------- http://picasaweb.google.com/nikitamitchell/Salamanca?authkey=LAcEBVwnqhk -------------
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Diary Photos
| 4th May 2007 | |
| Salamanca, Spain | |
| Plaza Mayor |
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