salamanca
the city of bars and young good-looking students: many of which are on exchange. if you are reading this aj then start taking some spanish lessons and get over here. i'll say it only once: girls in g-strings dancing on podiums and we weren't in a strip club. we arrived last night at 1am from bilbao and, courtesy of a local american exchange student we walked through the hearrt of the town which was only just starting to get lively as the spanish tend to start eating dinner in the form of tapas at 10pm at the earliest. one thing that i will say is that the lonely planet maps are an absolute waste of time... kind of. the least they could do is put the hostels that they recommend on them, but the best our 2002 'western europe' could do was point us in the right direction. incidentally it was actually the right direction and we found the hostel but a good half an hour of walking with our packs searching out the hostel could have been avoided with some more accuracy on behalf of the l.p authors/editors. oh well they're better than nothing so i'll stop bagging but i may make the shift and purchase a 'lets go' for spain and portugal before i go bonkers.
aside from the noche attractions salamanca is an absolutely beautiful town that sports not one but two gigantic and elaborately designed cathedrals. the cathedral ieronimus (jeronimo), also known as the new cathedral has a tourist route that allows you to climb up to the upper balconies on the inside via an outdoor balcony that overlooks the outer limits of the city; quite a nice little view. today was a day of walking: which was necessary after an enormous 2-course lunch which will most definitely tide us through until tapas calls later on in the evening. we are lucky enough to have some insider tips so we will head away from the central and quite gorgeous plaza major - a grandiose quadrangle in which bull fights used to be held but now is the home of students sitting in the sun drinking and listening to music - and search out the local favourie 'calle de van dyke'. a street loaded (we hope) with good venues and cheap tapas. i will confirm weather this tip-off was accurate when from our next destination: coimbra, in portugal, but i have an inkling that it will be the goods.
aside from the noche attractions salamanca is an absolutely beautiful town that sports not one but two gigantic and elaborately designed cathedrals. the cathedral ieronimus (jeronimo), also known as the new cathedral has a tourist route that allows you to climb up to the upper balconies on the inside via an outdoor balcony that overlooks the outer limits of the city; quite a nice little view. today was a day of walking: which was necessary after an enormous 2-course lunch which will most definitely tide us through until tapas calls later on in the evening. we are lucky enough to have some insider tips so we will head away from the central and quite gorgeous plaza major - a grandiose quadrangle in which bull fights used to be held but now is the home of students sitting in the sun drinking and listening to music - and search out the local favourie 'calle de van dyke'. a street loaded (we hope) with good venues and cheap tapas. i will confirm weather this tip-off was accurate when from our next destination: coimbra, in portugal, but i have an inkling that it will be the goods.
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