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| Laurie, Me, and Marta on the Plaza Mayor |
Well here we are at the end of ‘la semana de la puente’! – basically as I explained in a previous blog, ’puente’ means bridge, and this week we’ve had 2 days of official bank holiday which were Tuesday and Thursday... so in order to have an extra long holiday, the Spanish took Monday, Wednesday and Friday off as well to give themselves a week’s holiday!- That’s the Spaniards, anything for a holiday period! Anyway, there were no complaints from me as I’ve basically had all week off Uni! A definite plus of going to University in Spain!
Last Saturday was a great evening as Laurie and I met up with Marta our Spanish friend to go for drinks and tapas at Marta’s Dad’s restaurant! It’s called ‘El Asador’ and is situated right in the centre of Salamanca on the Plaza Mayor! We each had a ‘tostada’ (toast) tapas dish and theirs was of duck pate whereas I had a goats cheese and caramelised onions one! They were so yummy! Delicioso! Then the three of us had a wander around the centre and went for some more drinks in another bar until the early hours of the morning! It was a really great relaxing evening, and perfect for Spanish speaking practice! Marta taught us quite a bit of common Spanish slang which might just come in useful! For example if you say that something is ‘de puta madre’ then this literally means (of the prostitute mother) and although it may sound contradictory, this is an expression to praise something meaning "very good" or "excellent"! For example you could say ‘Tiene un coche de puta madre' (He has a car of the prostitute mother) but it really means ‘He has a fantastic car’! Great eh!? Man I love this language! Marta also taught Laurie and I the colloquial short-hand equivalents of some words- for example the word ‘Una película’ means ‘a film’, and the colloquial to use among friends is ‘una pelí’. In addition instead of saying ‘por favor’ (please), you can say ‘por fa’ among family and friends..... but be careful not to use it with University Lecturers or elderly people! 'pasame el libro por fa’ (pass me the book please) would not go down very well!
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| The Plaza Mayor's main façade at night! It's so pretty all lit up! |
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| Laure and Me in 'El Asador' |
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| Our yummy tapas dishes! |
This week as I said has been really relaxing due to not having Uni, so I’ve just been getting on with Uni work and completing grammar exercises in my Italian and French books! Then on Sunday Florian and I went to the cinema to see ‘Gato con botas’ – AKA puss in boots! It was perfect for a lazy Sunday evening, and somehow it made it seem much more like Christmas after seeing an animated film! I love going to the cinema in Spain firstly as the listening practice is incredible, and secondly because it’s so much cheaper than in the UK! Here I go at least once a week! I think next on the agenda is to see ‘Happy Feet’ in Spanish! I will drag Laurie tomorrow perhaps! – Yay I can’t wait, more animation films before Christmas!
Today I woke up incredibly late at around 11.30am when I was supposed to meet Vicky at the train station at 11.20! She came over from Valladolid for the day to see Salamanca, and despite the weather being a bit dismal, we still had a great day catching up! Firstly we went to my favourite tapas bar called ‘Mandala’ in the centre for some lunch as we were both starving! We both had their speciality- a spinach and cheese topped tortilla portion! Afterwards we wandered over to a secret garden in the centre with wonderful Mediterranean vines and took some great photos. We were then getting a bit cold so made a trip to a specialist chocolate cafe called ‘Chocolatería Valor’. It is known for the best chocolate and churros in Salamanca, and it definitely didn’t disappoint! Vicky had a half/half dark and white hot chocolate drink, and I had a dark chocolate one, and then we shared a ración of their wonderful hot churros! After our indulgence splurge and god knows how many calories later, we decided to ‘dar una vuelta’ AKA go for a walk around the centre, and even though it was a bit overcast and rainy, it somehow wasn’t as gloomy as in England when it rains! Perhaps because here you are still surrounded by magnificent buildings, cobbled streets and plazas! Check out some of the photos below and see if you agree with me! Spain in the rain is still incredible!
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| The Plaza Mayor |
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| The Cathedral- South side |
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| The Cathedral North side |
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| My faculty building! The Palacio de Anaya |
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| Vicky and I in the gardens |
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| Our chocolate & churros splurge! |
To finish off a fantastic day we went for a bit of shopping time in the centre, and as it became darker, the streets had a different feel to them because of all of the Christmas lighting! We walked past a ‘Vendedor de castañas’ – a Chestnut vender where the smell was incredible- a very distinct fragrance! In Spain around Christmas time in the centre of cities there are these little stalls everywhere, and they roast the chestnuts on an open fire and then for the bargain price of 1€ you get 12 of them! We decided to share a little bag, and I’m not going to lie- they were delicious! The perfect thing to warm us up when our hands were freezing cold!! Then on the way home we passed a small market of all different things- mainly clothing, and decided to have a look! Vicky and I both fell in love with these giant coloured patterned 3D stars.... but refrained from buying them much to the annoyance of the vendor!
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| Salamanca 'Toro' street at night! |
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| Me and the portion of castanas! |
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| A close up of them! |
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| The stall selling castanas! |
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| The street market |
Well that’s all for now! It's been a great week once again living MI VIDA ERASMUS, and now there's only one full week left before the Christmas holidays! There is lots planned once again such as the University New Year night (Nochevieja Universitaria) on Wednesday 15th which will be an incredible night out especially as students travel from all over Spain to come to Salamanca for this night! There is also the chiming of the bells on the Plaza Mayor and all of the students go there for midnight! There will be an amazing atmosphere I'm sure! Then I have a Christmas dinner at Elizabeth and Irene's flat with lots of Erasmus students next Friday to look forward to! Right, time for me now to go for a nice long soak in the bath and read my latest Cosmopolitan magazine in Spanish! Hasta Luego! Besos xxx
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