Cayda y Chuck Norris en Salamanca

This is my summary of the 4 day vacation I spent visiting my friend Sarrah in Salamanca, Spain. Sarrah is my friend from high school who is also studying abroad this year. Benefitting from this rare occasion of knowing someone who lives in Spain, I crashed at her place. 


Saturday January 12th: I took the train to the Lyon airport, which was oddly empty for a Saturday night. It was quite creepy. While running for a shuttle bus, I dropped my apartment keys, student card and Grenoble transit pass. Smart move Cayda! Luckily, the bus driver was super nice and drove me back to Terminal 1 where I found them 30 minutes later. Sigh of relief. Later that night, I watched that show "Once Upon a Time" in french. I also watched this really stupid '90s french show called "Les femmes à côté".

Sunday January 13th: Early morning rising to catch my plane. Surprise surprise, I get patted down at the security check! C'mon security guards, shake it up! The flight was a short one, only about an hour and a half. I arrive in no time to the Madrid Barajas Airport. My bus to Salamanca departs 4 hours, time to play the waiting game. While sitting and reading my book, I kept getting people coming up to me asking me questions in Spanish. One note on the Spain spanish accent: the soft "c" sound is pronounced like a "th" sound. Besides the fact that I do not speak Spanish, it sounded like everyone was lisping! After staring blankly and saying "no habla espanole" (which is incorrect spanish in and of itself), I would be left alone. I finally get on the bus and in 3 hours am seeing Sarrah. The most beloved sight in the world as this point. We go back to her place. Sarrah and her roommate Viola, show me around Salamanca, we have dinner and watch Walker Texas Ranger and Harry Potter in Spanish. Long day.

Monday January 14th: I woke up and decided to go on a little stroll of Salamanca by myself. Being a little town, I saw the majority of it in about an hour or so. Salamanca is a very pretty town. It was honestly what I had envisioned when I think of Spain. Old buildings with red terracotta rooves. I loved the old architecture in contrast to the relatively new infrastructures in Grenoble. I also loved the sun! Oh god, Grenoble is very grey in the winter. Everyday is overcast. How I loved the sun shining in Spain. We then hang out a bit in Sarrah's apartment and go grocery shopping. After a delicious homemade pasta dinner, Viola makes some Aqua de Valencia (a regional drink) and we play King's Cup while watching Troy in Spanish. I think the alcohol greatly influenced the positif view of the movie.

Tuesday January 15th: Sarrah and I walk around Salamanca again, this time taking pictures! I needed proof I went there, you know? Oh and in a very European fashion, there was a strike going on! For lunch, we decide to do some sort of tapas thing.We order 2 types of Tortilla dishes (Spanish Tortilla is a potato and cheese dish, contrary to a flour tortilla), and churros and chocolate (a thicker than hot chocolate drink). Back at Sarrah's we watch A LOT of "Los Simpsons", which wasn't actually that hard to understand. More Walker Texas Ranger! AW YEAH! After making dinner, Viola introduces me to an Irish tv show called "Moone Boy". We take a shot of gin and go out so they can show me some Salamanca night life. We go to a bar called "Chiqueria" (which means shots), then to another called "Pan y Agua" (bread and water). Alcohol, nay, everything in Spain is a lot cheaper than France. I picked the wrong country.

Wednesday January 16th: Sleep in! After I finally get up, I make some scrambled eggs and watch "What not to wear" and "Love it or list it". I am completely baffled by how "Love it or List it" and "Walker Texas Ranger" are so popular in Spain. I say thanks and goodbye to Sarrah and Viola and take the bus back to the Madrid airport.  At the airport hotel later that night, guess what I watched? Walker Texas Ranger IN ENGLISH! His voice in Spanish is much more manly.

Thursday January 17th: Taking a free shuttle bus from my hotel to the airport was never more difficult. Apparently, I wasn't on the list and since I didn't speak Spanish, nor did they speak any English, we had a really hard time communicating. Basically, I ended up sitting in a bus locked from the outside by myself for 30 minutes. It was sketchy and weird. I finally got to the airport! Oddly, my flight was slightly delayed as there was an unidentified backpack on my plane. Great, I think, are we honestly playing with the notion that someone intended ill-actions on the cheapo Easy Jet flight from Spain to Lyon? Good on you! You messed with a plane full with 50 people too cheap to fly through a nicer company! Anyway, eventually they flight attendants figured out who the bag belonged to.

That pretty much sums up my trip. I arrived back in France, to snow! Quelle surprise! Sadly it metled within the week. Not that I'm complaining about the warm weather, but snow is always pretty.

Fun Facts:
-Salamanca's animal is the frog
-Jesus do they like to eat pork in central Spain!
-Salamanca has one of the oldest universities in all of Europe (which Sarrah attends)
-Chuck Norris is a bamf
-Agua de Valencia (cava, gin, vodka and orange juice) is delicious and dangerous