A bit more of Salamanca, a side trip to Avila, then back to Madrid
The morning after, I woke up at 11. 'Twas quite late but I don't know why the others didn't wake me up. I must ave been really tired from my lack of sleep. I huriedly changed then out we went. We still had some ime before our 1:00 bus to Avila.
We stopped by at a small cafe for breakfast then headed to the university. Salamanca has a really good university (especially for Spanish language programs) and since the city is small, it's really populated with students. Anyway, we headed to the main buiding of the university. Here, you're supposed to find the frog. Supposedly, if you're a student at the university, you can't graduate without finding the frog. We tried to look for it, but then this woman selling postcards right outside the university pointed it out to us. Oh well.
the University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca is one of the oldest universities in the world. The whole time we were looking around, I kept imagining what it would be like to study there. After looking around, we headed back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and took a taxi back to the bus station. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare! We boarded the bus and were on our way to Avila.
The bus to Avila took about two hours. When we arrived we left our bags at a locker in the bus station then set out to explore. We had no map but jus headed out and followed signs o the tourism office. It took us about 20 minutes to find it. When we go there, a nice Spanish lady (I say nice because most Spanish people are masungit) gave us a map and pointed out spots of interest.
We visited the Cathedral first since it was nearby. It was prety but the guide only came in Spanish and the information was not very extensive. After the Cathedral we walked to the Convent of Sta. Teresa and looked around a bit.
Then we decided to walk along the muralla (the walls). Avila is one of the most famous walled cities in Spain. We climbed the muralla and just walked along the walls to the next exit (since we were quite hungry). It was beautiful up there and we had a great view of the city.
The walls
Since we were really hungry then, we decided to eat at Telepizza (a Spanish pizza chain), which we saw earlier. While waiting for our food, Javier and I visited the Basilica of St. Vincent. The exterior was really pretty and the interior had a lot of little details with really interesting information behind them.
We took our time eating our pizza then walked back to the bus station. We missed the 6pm bus back to Madrid so we got our bags and walked to the train station. We arrived 20 minutes before the 7:15 train so we bought tickets and waited for the train.
Back in Madrid we headed back to the apartment and met up with Bel. After freshening up and planning out the next few days, we headed out for dinner. We originally planned to go bar hopping but because we started too late (and it was a dead Tuesday night) we were only able to eat at one place. It was a really good place though -- Cien Montaditos, which deserves its own blog entry. So after walking around and not finding any good places to eat, we ended up in San Gines. Yummy, delicious churros to end the night.
Our huge tinto de verano and cerveza at Cien Montaditos
The montaditos
Ending the night in San Gines
We stopped by at a small cafe for breakfast then headed to the university. Salamanca has a really good university (especially for Spanish language programs) and since the city is small, it's really populated with students. Anyway, we headed to the main buiding of the university. Here, you're supposed to find the frog. Supposedly, if you're a student at the university, you can't graduate without finding the frog. We tried to look for it, but then this woman selling postcards right outside the university pointed it out to us. Oh well.
The University of Salamanca is one of the oldest universities in the world. The whole time we were looking around, I kept imagining what it would be like to study there. After looking around, we headed back to the hostel, picked up our bags, and took a taxi back to the bus station. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare! We boarded the bus and were on our way to Avila.
The bus to Avila took about two hours. When we arrived we left our bags at a locker in the bus station then set out to explore. We had no map but jus headed out and followed signs o the tourism office. It took us about 20 minutes to find it. When we go there, a nice Spanish lady (I say nice because most Spanish people are masungit) gave us a map and pointed out spots of interest.
We visited the Cathedral first since it was nearby. It was prety but the guide only came in Spanish and the information was not very extensive. After the Cathedral we walked to the Convent of Sta. Teresa and looked around a bit.
Then we decided to walk along the muralla (the walls). Avila is one of the most famous walled cities in Spain. We climbed the muralla and just walked along the walls to the next exit (since we were quite hungry). It was beautiful up there and we had a great view of the city.
Since we were really hungry then, we decided to eat at Telepizza (a Spanish pizza chain), which we saw earlier. While waiting for our food, Javier and I visited the Basilica of St. Vincent. The exterior was really pretty and the interior had a lot of little details with really interesting information behind them.
We took our time eating our pizza then walked back to the bus station. We missed the 6pm bus back to Madrid so we got our bags and walked to the train station. We arrived 20 minutes before the 7:15 train so we bought tickets and waited for the train.
Back in Madrid we headed back to the apartment and met up with Bel. After freshening up and planning out the next few days, we headed out for dinner. We originally planned to go bar hopping but because we started too late (and it was a dead Tuesday night) we were only able to eat at one place. It was a really good place though -- Cien Montaditos, which deserves its own blog entry. So after walking around and not finding any good places to eat, we ended up in San Gines. Yummy, delicious churros to end the night.
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