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Published: November 28th 2006
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My train to Salamanca was due to leave at 11, so I was out of the hostel by 10:15 and on the metro a short time later. I got to the station with plenty of time to spare, but the train was already waiting, so I hopped on. Neither of the two cars was marked with a number, and so I picked one and guessed. As I sat down in what I thought was my seat, the scrolling display above the door said the car number, and I was in the wrong one, so I grabbed my bag and moved over to the other. When I got there, I found someone asleep in my seat, so I woke her up and pointed out in my best spanish that I thought she was in the wrong car. The woman sitting across from her helped me out, and in a couple minutes I was in the right seat and the train was on it's way.
The ride to Salamanca went through some amazing scenery. For at least an hour it was like we were riding through northern New Mexico with the vegetation and the mountains we passed through. Absolutely stunning. Plus, the
weather was fantastic once again, and we had gorgeous views to the distant horizon. After a while we went through a series of tunnels and emerged onto open farmland which we traversed until we reached Salamanca.
The weather in Salamanca was similar to Madrid, and so it was a pleasant 25 minute walk to the hostel. The hostel itself was located up a small alley away from the main road, which was nice. The inside of the hostel, on the other hand, was not so nice. I got put into a 20(!) bed dorm, which is the largest I've been in to date. The room did have windows, but they had metal shutters over them, which were closed. It felt more like a prison than anything else, so I quickly set off to explore the town.
The city is a tangled mess of alleys and winding streets, where every other corner seems to have a gorgeous church sitting on it. As I walked around I kept passing people speaking english, which I thought was a bit weird, but I later discovered that there are tons of people in Salamanca (Americans especially) studying spanish at the university.
I
started getting hungry and so I tracked down a kebab place and picked up a chicken shwarma. I took the food to a nice place in the sun and sat eating and enjoying the perfect day. After lunch, I walked over the "Roman" bridge (it's called puente romano...) to get a nice view of the city. The view was pretty spectacular with the several churches creating a dramatic skyline.
It was getting late, and so I got some food and took it back to the hostel to eat. After dinner I walked around looking for a place to use the internet, but I didn't find shit, which was rather annoying. I got back to a packed dorm and called it a night.
The next morning I woke up feeling like crap. I was dizzy, and didn't feel quite right. The room was almost completely dark because of the metal shutters and I thought it was 9 or so. It turned out to be after 11 so I got myself out of bed and went down into the basement to use the (bad) showers. I was starting to feel somewhat better, although still a little off, so I went
Puente Roma
Kind of tough to see in the trees... outside and walked into town. It didn't take long at all walking in the fresh air to feel better. I suspect that the air in the dorm room got really bad during the night with so many people in there and the windows closed.
I was in the mood for some comfort food so I tracked down the (what else?) Micky D's and got a quarter pounder. After lunch I finally found an internet place, where I ended up spending most of the day taking care of various things. I finally bought my ticket to Asia. I'm flying LTU Airlines (yeah I haven't heard of them either), which is based in Dusseldorf, to Bangkok in early January. So, I finally have a definite end to the european portion of this trip, and it's really not that far off now.
I went back to the kebab place for dinner and got a falafel this time before going back to the hostel. I was happy to find that the room was only half full, and I pulled up one of the metal shades and cracked a window before going to bed. I slept well that night, and in the morning I headed to the bus station to grab a ticket to my next destination...
Salamanca was the last stop on the way to Portugal, although I plan to come back to Spain afterwards, so that's where this journal is going next.
Stay tuned for Portugal...
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