Salamanca y Avila

Another effing long absence indeed. One computer broke down, lots of activities, korean dramas, spanish reality shows, The O.C ... just some of the reasons for my lack of blogging. I know you all wanna know more on spain but three people sharing one comp. here just ain't an easy feat so enjoy this one.

As I said in my last post, we made an out of madrid trip to salamanca and eventually avila two wednesdays ago. There were public holidays here in spain on that wednesday and friday. Lots of madrileños took thursday off to travel out while schools closed till monday. Madrid was rather quiet those few days.

We also had a similar trip last year to navacerrada and segovia. We were again guided by my step-dad's friend, martin. He is a filipino who has lived in spain for quite some time and trust me who knows LOTS about spain .. every aspect of it. Not just about spain but almost anything knowledgeable to the extent that he talks too much without knowing it. He'll be fun to listen to at first but you'll get bored after some time. I just wonder how awfully pain my step-dad's ears would be at the end of the day. Being the evil ones we are, we just 'bitched' about martin in canto behind his back ..

Enough of martin now and more of salamanca shall we. Salamanca is about 200 km out of madrid which is almost a 5 hour drive. Salamanca is Spain's great education city. The earliest and best universities in Spain were set up here. Quoting what martin said to me, "Salamanca is the place to head to if you plan to study in spain particularly the spanish language. It's the best".

The first place that most people come to is usually the Plaza Mayor. No, it's not the same the one in Madrid. It's just similar in the sense that it functions as a town square. Huge squarish space sorrounded by tall buildings with exits at certain sides not forgetting a clock tower. They even had a gigantic decorated christmas tree right in the middle.

There are numerous universities in Salamanca. You'll never finish seeing each and everyone but there's just two or three main ones which are like the most important. Somehow, I never noticed they were universities till they were pointed out by martin. Every building just looked almost similar. All old looking but architecturally HOT.

We entered various gift shops in Salamanca and most of their souvenirs were of frogs. Frog magnets, frog keychains, froggy postcards .. We were curious and asked martin. There was a true meaning behind all the frogs. There is this tall facade of one university with lots of like small sculptures on it. Among all the sculptures there is one of a skull with a frog sitting on its head. It is a local belief that if you succesfully locate this frog, you'll succesfully pass in your course/degree or as some say get married soon.

As for me, finding the lil frog would just benefit me for my SPM next year. I'm neither doing my degree nor planning to get hitched anytime soon. We ended up at that facade place eagerly looking for that frog. We gave up after almost 10 minutes and spent another 5 looking for it guided by martin. I must have look bloody foolish at that time. There were some 'not so blind' germans and americans who succesfully found it.

More walking around salamanca, looking at various beautiful sights including some building with lots of shells on its walls. There was one particular huge building which I found to be all majestic and nice. Apparently you can pay 8 euros to go on top of its tower but we didn't have so much cash to waste. Had pictures taken though.

We then decided to drop by Avila which was another place located on the way back to Madrid. Avila is one place i've longed to visit since last year and finally i get to. Avila's actually one of the few remaining walled cities aka. 'negara kota' in spain and the world. The walls here are just really high and long. Not forgetting its unique shape which makes it even more beautiful particularly in winter.

I feel asleep in the car on the way there. By the time, we reached there it was almost 3 hours later. It was getting dark rather soon so we quickly took pictures. The moment we stepped out of the car, it was freaking cold added with the blowing winds. Avila is without doubt one of the highest points in spain thus explaining the cold and strong winds.

We didn't do much inside avila as it was already dark so we focused on the walls outside. They switched on the lights when it gets dark so the walls just looked magnifico then.

A little further down from Avila, we sort of stumbled across this huge stone cross on top of some not very high hill. There were people taking photos there so we decided to do the same. We walked further into that area and found out that we were right across Avila overlooking most of the walls. What a sight to behold added with its lights in the night. Took some pics of and with the cross. Next thing, we were back in the car.

It was yet another long journey back to madrid. Reached home at about 7 pm if i'm not mistaken. You don't wanna know how much my ass was aching throughout the day. Martin had dinner at our place so I was forced to eat even though I was already kinda filled with a sandwich.

That was kinda all that happened that day. Hope you all didn't get bored and sorry if any of your systems crashed as a result of the incredulous amounts of photos.

I feel glad having already visited all the 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites located near Madrid. Avila this year while last year I visited Toledo and Segovia. Plus Salamanca, that would make it four. Anyone visiting Madrid should include these three cities in their itineraries. They're seriously worth seeing.

Contrary to many people's believe, I do not always have such outings like the one I've blogged about it neither do I do stuff tourists do like tour all sorts of places. One reason to explain this - i've done it all last year. There's not much of madrid that I haven't seen or visited. I kind of live a normal daily life here even though i'm in spain. There's just times where I go no where else besides the supermarket or the oficina laboral.

I think that would be enough excuses for now. haha

-adios y hasta luego-