Life in Spain

Our final day in Salamanca starts with a piso tour of rooms not covered in Life in Spain 6 and continues on through the next morning to show what Salamanca is like on the weekends.



--Joey

100th Post

My lil ol' travel blog has finally reached 100 posts. I feel it is particularly apropo that the milestone be reached in the city where I wrote my first post from the road: Barthelona! Thanks to everyone who has read the 99 ramblas in the interrim. Hopefully I have another 100 in me before my backpacking life ends.

Em and I celebrated our last night in Salamanca with a few of our new roommates. We had a pretty delicious Fettucini Alfredo with some veggies. Not knowing exactly how many people would show up, we prepared for a worst case scenario of everyone we invited coming and we low balled the serving size. Consequently our 12 big appetite servings, 18 for normal people, were shared among the 7 of us. Combined with deviled eggs and finished off with my ersatz bananas foster.

So with that we all sat around and chatted before leaving for a few Salamanca bars like La Chupiteria (literally, the shot place), Cubic, and a few others. Around 3am we had to decide whether to stay up, or head back. The train was at 8a, so we had to leave by 7a meaning to pack up required us back at 6a so sleep was either not going to happen or it had to happen right then. Nahhh....

Exhausted, we headed to the train station and bought our ticket to Barcelona. It was about 9 euros per person more than it said on the website for Saturday. The 12 hour train ride ended with an arrival in Estacio Sants the unofficial parliament for the pickpocketing capital of Western Europe. Ironically, it didn't feel like it. It was mostly empty (contrary to the other three times I have seen it) and but among the very few people there were Vb and Sophie who welcomed two weary travelers to the metropolis. Turned out they lived two stops from our hostel off a back alley of Plaça Reál. On day one we headed out to a greek place that offered up some of the best kebabs ever, and afterwards called it an early night.

Adieu,

--Joey

Via Libre

I found this place downstairs (literally) from my apartment (47 Gran Via). I have stopped heading to the Plaza Mayor to do my internet-ing. There you pay 1 Euro per hour for a connection on slightly older computers (still a deal, especially given the location). In the past I would spend about two hours there, get a drink and blow between 3-4 euros. In Via Libre, I get a Ca~a of beer for 1,50 then it comes with a tapa (I usually choose Bacalao--the fried and salty fish goes great with a creamy Estrella Galicia), and for an extra 50 cents I get a potato salad. So for 2 euros I can stay all day long and get some food. Most days I spend around 5 euros and get another beer and tapa or two.

Only downside is I wreak of smoke especially after "rush hour" since Gran Via is on a lot of people's way home.

--Joey

Life in Spain 6



On this life in Spain Salamanca celebrates Lunes de Aguas and the return of prostitutes from the banishment during Lent.

Enjoy!

--Joey

GAMBA-tte: Selfmade Sugoi Sushi in Salamanca

Life in Salamanca has been pretty good since Semana Santa. We started the week with Sushi night (the month of cooking has made us a bit cocky) and it turned out really well. About 10 of us took turns maki-ng our own rolls which ranged from Philly/California/Shrimp-with-stuff rolls (likely to the very polite chagrin of our resident Nihonjin, Ayako), Avocado and Tamago Nigiri. For dessert we finished with an ersatz Bananas Foster made from Apple Schnapps and Coca Cola. You had to have tried it it isn't as bad as it sounds ;)

School started to wear on me last week so I decided to take a hiatus for a week/possibly two and visit some of the daytrips the region offers. Also, I think reading the newspaper and watching an few hours of Spanish TV daily is equally beneficial at this point in my learning. I may go back for the last week of April.

Lagos reunion tour

Our crew from the Rising Cock came to visit us this past Friday and we spent a couple of days touring around. It has been under 3 weeks since we saw them last but felt like the better part of several months. Saturday we lounged around the Plaza Mayor with bags of McDs and BK. We are really taking advantage of the local atmosphere if not always the cuisine. Sunday, we sent Texas Joe off to Madrid where he is flying to Paris, Today we are sending off Luke and Ben who are headed to Logroño, Wiebke to Lagos via Lisbon. Good times guys!

Cuídate: Techo Mojado

Apparently we developed a bit of a leak in the gym/garage below our flat. This was first noticed when we filled up our tub to do the laundry (yeah we are classy like that--the washer doesn't drain quickly enough) but apparently even quick showers are doing it. We told him we would use the spare bathroom in the interim. Yesterday he buzzed our apartment exasperatedly and told us that "I thought you weren't going to shower!". We had been using the other one so the problem is bigger than just one bathroom. Truthfully, I am not even sure we can help it. The pipes may be shared for every "D" apartment in the complex. So that is on the to-fix list for our dueña Carmen. In the interim we have been showering with the tub plugged and bailing the water out manually.

Loonies de Agua

Salamanca (and the rest of Castilla Leon) celebrated Lunes de Agua, the historical end of Easter and thus the return of prostitues to the region from their banishment during Semana Santa, by sitting outside and relaxing at Parque Aldehuela. You got to love Spanish holidays.

Fonzie had an easier time with the word wrong than I do with the word Itinerary

In unrelated news, I am thinking of canning my return to the states on June 10th in favor of the world's longest train ride to China from Warsaw via Moscow and Ulaanbataar. This may end up as a bonafide RTW after all. The reason is that I am starting to doubt whether the Japanese stay is going to happen. I am not tired of traveling but I am starting to get the 2 month homesick pang a bit. Much less than last time around, but still there which means after another month in Salamanca and 6 weeks on the road I think will have another month or two in me before I find traveling to be more of a burden than the enjoyable experience it should be. All that said I have to do some more research because Transsiberian railroaders require visas, embassy invitations and a bunch of other bureaucratic hassles. At the same time the demand for the direct tickets is substantial so I may head to Eastern Russia and then to Ulaanbataar and then to Beijing. Or maybe I do the sane thing and just come home and fly roundtrip to Hong Kong...nahhh ;)

The travel whatifs

Today Em and I were saying that every photo on this blog is due to Andalucia day. Sounds funny right? Had Andalucia day never happened, we would have stayed in Sevilla in our own apartment or with the school. That being the case, we would not have hung out at Samay (and the Rising Cock) and met Ben, Luke and Joe. We would not be in Salamanca now, if at all.

--Joey