LONG WEEKEND- AVILA & HALLOWEEN

This one is from a few weeks ago- but its a nice group pic on the Plaza!!

Holaaaaa! Well here I am halfway through week 8 in Salamanca! Rachel told me today that there are now only 53 days until CHRISTMAS!!!! That's scary! And it is exactly 7 weeks until I fly home for Christmas! Wow time is passing so quickly! Today was the first day back to Uni (I've had 5 days off!) as we've had a ''puente'' weekend here in Sala! basically ''puente'' in English means bridge..... and Tuesday 1st (Yesterday) was an official bank holiday in Spain, so in order to give themselves a long weekend, the Spanish un-officially took the day off on Monday 31st! I have Fridays free aswell, so for me I had a 5 day weekend! Great eh! If this were England we'd probably move the bank holiday to the Monday to avoid losing a day of work, but alas this is Spain..... and the Spanish can't get enough of holiday days! they are such a relaxed happy nation!

Avila main gate

Me by a fountain in Avila

One of the plazas

Florian and me

Me =]

The Basilica in Avila

Plaza Mayor covered with a flower show!

Plaza Mayor

The cathedral

Saturday was a fun day as Florian and I went to The near city of Avila for the day! It was about an hour south of Salamanca by coach, and was really cheap too! As we approached the city, all you could see were the walls surrounding it! It was such a pretty place, and much bigger than I had imagined! First of all we decided to go for a walk around the walls where there were some excellent views of the city and of the surrounding countryside! It felt so medieval that you could actually imagine yourself back hundreds of years ago when they would have used the walls for protection from enemies, and the turrets as look out points for approaching danger! After the walk around the walls we decided to find the Plaza Mayor and grab a spot of lunch! the main plaza appeared to be in use for a flower festival, and it looked so pretty in the sunlight! We only ended up having a drink there though in the end as there was nothing vegetarian on the menu for me to have! Oh sometimes being a vegetarian is such a pain! We then went and had another wander around, and finally found a nice little cafe on another plaza for some late-lunch! Florian had a burger, and I had a baguette-pizza! All in all it was a lovely day out, and great to see another city in the Castilla y Leon region! So now I think all that's left to visit is Burgos in the north- a city well known for its amazing cathedral, and the town of Zamora which is known for its vineyards and excellent wine. There's a wine-tasting trip to Zamora this month somewhen- I shall have to find out when it is and go along!

Saturday evening after returning from Avila I met up with Kayleigh and some of her friends who were visiting from the UK. We all went for a meal to a restaurant/bar called 'Cafe Erasmus' and had a lovely time. I had a Greek salad which was so tasty! Then on Sunday I met up with them all once again to go on a tour of the cathedral and climb to the highest parts where there were some amazing views of Salamanca and the surrounding plains. Sunday evening I met up with Marta my new spanish friend for a drink and some much needed Spanish practice! And then we went to a Mexican restaurant with Kayleigh, her friends from home, and Sam.

View from the top of the cathedral

The inside of the cathedral from high up!

View of Salamanca from the top of the cathedral

A pic of us lot on the terrace at the top!

Monday was Halloween, and Salamanca was no exception for a festive atmosphere! I had no idea what to go dressed as, because in Spain the dressing up code is very different from in England! In England we tend to opt for a more slutty image- wearing cats ears, witch hats, short skirts and dresses and fish-net tights! Whereas in Spain they actually go dressed scarily! As in they like the whole fake blood, ragged clothes look! So I had no idea what to wear! But then after a shopping trip with Marta we decided on a devil-fairy look with red horns and wings! For per-drinks a few of us went around to Elizabeth and Irene's flat to get ready, and I took on the role of make-up artist, and drew cob-webs and scars on everyone's faces! We all looked great I think! The night was good fun too, and we went to Medievo club where there was an open bar! You just had to pay €4 and you could drink as much Sangria/Agua de Valencia/ Calimocho as you liked! Luckily I just got tipsy and ended up without a hangover today! Fantastic!

Me painting cob-webs on Irene's face!

Irene, Me, Alexia and Marta as devils!!

Irene and Marta!!

Elizabeth, Me and Martha

DEVILS!!!!

Me, Alexia and the pumpkin =]

Irene, Me, Alexia and Marta!

Elizabeth, Me, Marion and Martha

Marion and Me

Laurieeeee and me!

Today's been pretty busy too, I had my Historia y Cultura Italiana class this morning at 10 for an hour, and then this afternoon I finally did my food shopping! My section of the fridge has been bare for a long time, but now it's great as I have choice for my dinner when I get in!! I just had my Italian language class from 5-7pm and instead of doing book work like we normally do, she let us watch an Italian film..... It wasn't too bad really, although it was quite difficult to understand as the language was of course Italian, and she put the subtitles in Spanish..... So my poor brain couldn't hack it listening to Italian and then reading the translation in Spanish if I didn't understand what was being said, for me to then have to translate back to English all the while as well! I now have a mini headache!

Right, I don't know what else to add about this long weekend- but for sure the next 3 weekends are going to be great! Kat is coming on Friday to stay for 6days! I'm so excited to see her and show her Sala! Then next week I'm off to Lyon in France to see Lizi and Sarah..... And then the weekend after that I'm going to Zaragoza to see Lidia for a few days! It'll be lovely to see her and her family again, and of course see Zaragoza again! I've been countless times since I met Lidia, but it's still one of my favourite Spanish cities and has a great atmosphere!

Xxx