Empty Road Traveller

A Diary of an Erasmus Student: Salamanca, Spain

I feel quite lucky to have been on this trip. Not only was it a great opportunity to visit Spain for the first time, but it was also the best way to reach Salamanca. Getting there proves to be far easier from Coimbra, than it would have been if I were in Madrid or South of Spain, for example. The trip was organised by ESN and it promised to be a an experience of a lifetime… as always. We had to leave early in the morning on 12th November so there was no time to lose. Nevertheless, every great Portuguese organisational effort requires the element of lateness, which, naturally came as no surprise. Once we were going, however, it was all fine… except for the fact that it was simply a CRAZY journey! I felt quite silly to have decided to try and get some sleep on the bus. I should have brought a bottle of wine and joined the 24 h drinking group that was on board. Having barely sobered up from last night’s party, people bravely opened their bottles and shouted out “Saude” (Cheers)! It was the first time I realised how much Brazilians drink. It was the discovery of the day! It got quite worrying when people started walking up and down the bus and dancing. Well, a bit of spillage and no major breakage, but I must admit it certainly wasn’t a ride to forget (nor was the journey back!). 

And whilst the view on the bus remained the same, the view outside began changing as we approached the Spanish border. The green Portuguese hills gradually got replaced by a much rockier landscape (or should I say moonscape). The interesting thing was that it changed drastically as we entered Spain. Vast green and yellow planes- my eyes felt revived! It was a peculiar sensation as up to that point I hadn’t realised how much I actually missed flat surface. My gaze could run and nothing could stop it, no hills, mountains or trees. It was fabulous. Soon we reached Salamanca.

 The first thing one would notice is the Catedral Vieja which stands out in the distance. As we drove through the town it struck me that it did not look at all like a Portuguese town (no clues as to where I got that idea from, but I did expect some similarities). But there weren’t any. Salamanca looked pretty, organised as a town, clean and polished. Some of the buildings in the newer part reminded me of the ones they have in Britain. Salamanca was very much European. We did not go straight to the hostel where we were staying. Instead the driver dropped us at the city centre from where we went to Plaza Mayor where we were scheduled to meet our tour guide. Even though I am not a big fan of enclosed squares, I quite liked Plaza Mayor and, as the tour guide later mentioned, it is considered as one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. 

Plaza Mayor- obviously not the best photo taken of the square!

I really enjoyed the guided tour through the old part of Salamanca. Our guide was a very knowledgable man who demonstrated great love for his town. One of the interesting things about Salamanca is the colour of the buildings. They have a very particular, soft, amber-gold colour which is due to the nature of the rock they were built from as well as  the climate. No wonder the place is known as the city of gold. On the walls of the university one might notice writings in red. And those were in fact written in blood. Not human, of course, but bull’s blood. Our guide described an ancient tradition which PhD students were obliged to fulfill in order for them to receive their diploma. It had three parts to it and the last one involved organising a bull fight. The student had to kill the animal and then write their name on the wall. Judging by the amount of names written on the walls of the university, it must have been quite a common practice.

A Harry Potter deja vu- the writings in blood…

 This tradition, however, was not continued, but another one was. On their first day at university all first years are taken to the main gates which are richly decorated (ridiculously richly decorated, if I may say so!) . What they have to do is find a single frog which is sitting on a skull. Well, there were plenty of skulls there to be seen, but no rock. It was a funny moment as we were all standing there and looking for it. Naturally, everybody was looking at the highest point of the arch. Our guide, however, said that it was in the lower section. I was quite pleased to have been one of the first people that found it! It is indeed very small! But according to legend, if you find it quickly and without any help, you will pass all your exams. As part of the walk we visited Catedral Nueva and Catedral Vieja one of which was slightly damaged by the 1775 Lisbon earthquake. This was visible on the inside of the cathedral. On the outsidfe, one could see that the tower of the cathedral was slightly leaning to the left. In relation to that the Spanish in Salamanca have an interesting tradition. Every year on 31 October, people gather in front of the cathedral and a man climbs up to the very top where he starts singing. This is done in memory of the earthquake and in hope that the event will not repeat itself.

Try finding a tiny frog on a skull on that facade!

Our tour ended just as the sun was setting and so we hurried onto the bus and set off to the hostel. We were sorted into 10 bed bedrooms. We had plenty of time before dinner so some decided to rest. It was, after all, an exhausting journey and quite an eventful one. Even though we all had to be ready by 9 pm, it wasn’t the case. Our group leaders rushed us, but, hey, there’s always the odd one that will hold you behind. The bus drove us to the restaurant, which proved a very nice one despite having the elaborate ‘LOW COST’ sign on it. The atmosphere was great and despite it being a bit quiet at the beginning, this quickly changed as we were going through the usual drink-it-to-the-bottom songs. Dinner was lovely, nothing really Spanishy, but it was very nice. In a addition to a great dinner our leaders wanted to make sure we had a good taste of a Spanish night out which included bar crawling. However, my friends and I quickly separated from our group as we joined a friend of ours who lives and studies in Salamanca. It was great meeting her and she was was willing to show us around the best bars and clubs despite being ill. And so we were off for a really good night out. We gave it a kick start with a shot called diablo verde (green devil) which is basically absinth . I swear I stopped breathing for a bit. Serves me right for being so alchaholically-untrained. Shot after shot, bar after bar, and we were really having fun! I simply cannot remember to how many places we went, but they were all great. I quite liked Spanish night life to be honest. One good thing is the music they played, the other- the fact that you didn’t have entry fee or compulsory consumption. All a plus! We didn’t stay out too long. We were at the hostel just after four. After all we had to save some energy for tomorrow. But it was just such a good night! 

The next morning we had to get up early enough so that we could have some more time to explore Salamanca. It was all going quite well until we found that somebody had thrown up in our toilet. This turned out to be a problem as if we did not clean it we were going to lose our 4 euro deposit. Well, as you can probably guess, nobody admitted to it, even though I am pretty sure it wasn’t any of the people staying in the room. I remember hearing people coming in and out after we came back after 4pm, but who knows… well, we lost our money and the hostel gained 40 euros. Needless to say how awfully cross we were at the person (whoever he/she was)! Anyway, once we were at the city centre we were all ok. We had about two ours to enjoy Salamanca. We dotted around, took some more pictures, bought souvernires and got some delicious biscuits from a shop the name of which I cannot remember, but the smell of which I shall never forget… mmm! We met in Plaza Mayor for a group pucture, but as always we had to wait patiently for some ‘lost’ people.

And so we were off for a not so exciting journey back to Coimbra, but a rather annoying one should I say! You’d think the same if you had two drunk poles behind your back who were constanly shouting and every second word of theirs began with ‘k’, but I shall not mention it as even remembering this makes my ears fill with pain and agony. But overall, I certainly was not disappointed of this trip and had the most wonderful time! We shall meet again soon Spain, but in Madrid!