I was never really planning on visiting Salamanca until I found out a friend from my hometown in CT was studying there for the semester. Then it became a must. Salamanca is a small city basically built around the university (which I believe is the oldest in Spain) so it has a feeling of a young college town.
To get there we opted for the cheap transportation and took a 6 hour overnight bus to Madrid and then a 2 hour train from Madrid to Saly. Once we got there we met up with my friend Andrew and found the hostel (which was more like a hotel with our private room AND bathroom- such luxury!).
Me and Andy on the top of the Cathedral
That night for dinner Ray and I went to a super guay (cool), super crowded tapas bar across the street from the hostel. We stood at the bar and ordered whatever looked good (my new favorite thing to do). It makes it super easy to talk to people too because you initiate conversation based on what they're eating. Like hey whats up what are you eating what is that called oh it has pig brain thats cool lemme try it wow thats actually really good thanks where are you from oh nice were going there next weekend what sights should we definitely see there its been so great talking to you oh a discoteca tonight that sounds fun yeah we'll go thanks for the recommendation. And now you're night just went from possibly eating a random assortment of animal parts you would have never ordered had you known ahead of time, to not only having a really good authentic Spanish meal, to making friends AND finding something extra fun and Spanish to do at night. VALE.
This specific time we split dos tortillas rellenas de verduras y patatas medias con una copa de tinto para solo 6 euros en total. Patatas medias were the consistency of mashed potatoes but slightly spicy with chunks of crispy chorizo- had i had a bottle of tabasco on me they would've been absolutely perfect. We stuck to the routine and became friends with the Spaniards next to us because i couldn't stop questioning their tapas plates. They even let me try their mysterious looking fried tapa dish- which in the end was fried pork skin. Right after they explained what it was they joked how the one bite i had was equal to "una hora al gimnasio". Loved hearing that AFTER i consumed it.
That night we went out with Andrew and his hermano from his homestay. Basically we went on a chupito (shots) bar crawl but it was so much fun because it was all the hideaway local spots that we would've never found had we not been with a Spaniard. For example, at one point we found ourselves in a rock bar playing everything from Kiss to Dropkick Murphys, chupito-ing amongst a grungy, long hair, black attire, moshpit lovin motley crew of Spaniards. We were having trouble keeping pace with Mario, the clear leader of this crawl, when next thing we know it was 5am and Ray and I were more than ready for our beds. Much to Mario's disappointment too- to his standards this was completely unacceptable- we were being "boring zombies".
The next day I woke up with one thing on my mind. I wanted, no needed, Mexican food. Nachos and cheese and grease. And Andrew had just the fix- Chido's. Entonces teníamos nachos deliciosos y quesadillas con guacamole fresco. Then we sat in Plaza Mayor for a bit and soaked up the sun as we people watched.
Saturday night we went out with Andrew and his friends from Colby. Long story short we ended up getting Doner Kebabs late in the night paired with some delish patatas fritas con tzaziki. After all the kebabs i had in Dijon I never thought i'd say that sentence again.
Overall it was a great weekend trip done like true Spaniards :)
We ate well, drank better, hablamos mucho and all in the company of good friends
