10 years ago that a Dutch friend of mine, from the London International Hall gang, suggested I visit him for a short weekend in Spain. He was attending if I remember well, courses on Spanish language and I thought it would be a shame to miss such a great opportunity to visit central Spain.
I flew to Valladolid and he came to pick me up with his rented car.
We arrived in Salamanca and immediately we dived into the Spanish culture. We drove to a local swimming pool and we met some bubbly and friendly Dutch girls that were sunbathing under the Spanish sun. We got a beer, talked about the old times, met his friends and decided that we should fix dinner and drinks for the night. The whole thing went as smoothly as it could get and immediately we were discussing as if we knew each other from ages.
We left the swimming pool, went back to the student hall, relaxed for a while and later the day we all got together – around 8 of us, mainly Dutch, and hit the road. We enjoyed a great dinner of tapas. We enjoyed a walk in a quiet area around the student hall. Then, we decided it was time to get more…noisy and we walked to the main place where all bars were. It was a great night. We tried numerous places. We drank fancy drinks. We danced and chatted. We laughed and joked. It was only in the small hours we decided to go back home. It was a great day… and night!
The next day we had planned, actually my friends had planned, to get to know the area aroudn Salamanca. We drove, in a car with three Dutch citizens, one from USA and yours truly, to Segovia and Avila.
Both cities were beautiful.
In Segovia we visited the Segovia Cathedral and the Alcazar of Segovia and then had a coffee next to the Roman Aqueduct.
In Avila, we marvelled the great city walls, we walked the Plaza de Santa Teresa. We enjoyed the great views over the city walls and stopped for an iced coffee to relax from the sometimes blazing sun. On our way back we almost found ourselves stranded in the highway – we almost run out of petrol but were lucky enough to find an open petrol station and were relieved as another great night was waiting for us in Salamanca.
Back in the student hall, the girls cooked dinner, we did some fags and got ready for another great night. It was later in the night we went out and we visited a place we had checked out the previous night. Then and as one by one our friends were going back to the student hall, the company got lighter, more mobile and versatile and we proceeded in a bar hopping process. In the end there were just two of use that were wandering endlessly between places and it was mainly around 5:30 when we exited an underground bar and realised it was early morning. We made our way back to the student hall and slept until the time we got up for a good cup of coffee.
Later the day we drove to the beautiful Plaza Mayor, checked the local University and enjoyed a relaxed coffee. In the afternoon I said goodbye to all old and new friends. We decided to meet in the next six month in London for another great weekend and we actually did.
The trip to Salamanca was a great break from London. Late June and early July is a dead period – everybody is expecting mid July to arrive to start holidays – so i enjoyed a full, exquisite weekend in Spain.
