Latex Gloves and Strippers

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Geo: 40.965, -5.66305

Up at 9:00 AM and shortly after, it was off to Springfield to see the extremely rude manager about those missing 40 Euros. I walked up to her at the sales counter, with her barely making eye contact and acknowledging me. I asked if she had counted the money and she only said "Yes." "And? ..." I questioned.

Her only reply was "Receipt?", which I handed over. She started digging around in some drawers, scribbled some stuff down on paper and stamped my receipt, before handing over 40 Euros. No apology for making the mistake. No apology for the inconvenience. No apology for being rude. No apology for acting like I was a thief trying to rip her off.

I put the money into my wallet and was ready to walk out without saying a word; my original plan was to ask for the complaint book that I think most Spanish businesses keep. I know it wouldn't amount to anything, other than make myself feel better. About to turn away, I paused and said "In the future, you need to treat your clients better." I can't remember exactly what, but she muttered something that sheepishly acknowledged a mistake. As I was halfway out the door, she said something else which I didn't catch at all, and honestly, I didn't care what she had to say to me anyway.

We had a quick breakfast as we wanted to see the university before noon, since it is free on Monday mornings. I told Mary that we should try and find the English Theology department, as it was where a certain beautiful Spanish girl once studied, but most of the university is off limits, with the exception of one building. Interesting note - during their annual migration, storks build nests and shack up in the University's bell tower. Smart birds, recognizing that Spain is a great place to stop for a vacation!

Next up was the convent, which one of my guidebooks mistakenly said was also free Monday mornings - we didn't bother paying the 3 Euros to enter. We walked back to the aparthotel to finish packing up and checkout before noon - a great thing about Spain is that there is never a rush to wake up early and vacate the building before 10 AM. Given that we had a lot of time to kill before our 1 AM night bus and that it was very cold and rainy, we sat around the room right up until noon to maximize our relaxation time.

A bit of shopping was in order not only to pass the time, but also because I needed another pair of undies, hopefully some that don't end up costing another 45 Euros! Over to Pull and Bear, a fairly inexpensive clothing chain where during the past few visits to Spain, I have purchased some really cheap t-shirts. I like the chain simply for that reason, but I now love the chain for the clientele that it attracts. A Spanish senorita fitting my vision of the ideal woman happened to be shopping there. I wondered if she might have been visiting from Cordoba ... sigh ...

We wandered over to the train station, hoping to get out of the cold and check out its attached shopping centre, but that didn't last long as the number of shops was greatly less than what I remembered from my first time here. We checked out some show times at the movie theatre, in case we decided to spend a few hours watching a movie. However, it was likely that none of the movies would be in English, as Spain usually dubs North American films.

Back to the old town for a bit more shopping before the rain started coming down really hard, which is when we decided to take shelter and have lunch at El Zaguan. We sat next to the bathroom, so every time the door opened, we received a waft of that great bathroom freshener smell, further enhancing our meal. As we ate, we saw the receptionist from our aparthotel walk in for lunch and realized that he looked like a Spanish Josh Groban, complete with frizzy and curly hair.

After lunch it was off to see both the old and new cathedrals, where we took shelter from the rain inside the new one. Some really melancholy music was playing as we sat for a while, killing some more time. The day was starting to drag on, as since checking out, we had only killed about four of the 13 hours we needed to pass before our bus departed. Walking around, coffee drinking, and some shopping brought us up to dinner time.

We made our way over to Reloj de la Plaza for another evening of tapas, and noticed that one of the bartenders looked a lot like a Spanish version of Vinnie Jones, an actor famous for playing hitman-type roles http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005068 We had a couple of glasses of their excellent house white wine and a few assorted tapas.

Within twenty minutes, the entire bar had turned over, with us the only two people besides the bartenders, who had stayed any longer. You wonder how they actually make any money given the super-low price of 2 Euros for a glass of wine and a healthy-sized tapa, but it must be because of this turn over, which results in a high volume of sales.

We wandered a while, searching for some more tapas, but not really finding anything that looked good. Eventually, we ended up at Restaurant Rua Mayor, partially because the selection looked slightly better there, but also because of the pretty bartender 😊 Spain ... how I love you ...

At this point, we both felt quite full, probably not because of the amount of food we ate, but likely because of all the wine sloshing around in our stomachs, so we decided against trying a third tapas bar tonight. Instead, we walked around a bit more before stopping at Cafe Novelty for a tea and dessert.

Back to the aparthotel to get our backpacks from the Spanish Josh Groban, before heading off to the bus station. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get there, which ended up being a bad thing - the guidebook suggested it was a 20-25 minute walk from Plaza Mayor, but it ended up taking us only about 10-12. Another hour to wait before boarding the bus ... which ended up arriving 20 minutes late, so more time to kill ...

We quickly settled into our seats, hoping for a good night's sleep before arriving in Santiago de Compostela but alas, sleeping on buses is never easy. I miss bus travel in Argentina and Chile, and their beautiful luxury coaches!!!

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Photos

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Interesting ... some latex gloves were found in a drawer in our room ... what other business does this place conduct here besides renting rooms to tourists???

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Today was rainy, so our plans of having a breakfast on a sunny Plaza Mayor terrace were dashed, instead sitting inside a little cafe on one of the streets that branch outwards from it. Yet another excuse to one day return to Salamanca!

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Mary opted for chocolate con churros and I went for the standard cafe con leche, and had it with some toast. I'm not a huge fan of toast in Spain as many times it's buttered and fried up on the plancha grill, which is how I received it today. It was nothing special but the coffee was excellent.

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The entrance to Salamanca's University, the oldest in Spain, founded in 1230. It's a textbook example of the Spanish Plateresque style

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The famous frog of Salamanca - they say you will have good luck if you can locate it without assistance from anybody. Many students come looking for it just before exams.
It's right in the centre of the picture halfway up the large pillar, sitting atop a skull.

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Fray Luis Leon - jailed for five years by the Inquisition, because he translated part of the Bible into Spanish, thereby defying the Church's control over the word of God.

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One of the University's very old classrooms - not sure if it's still in use.

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The old library is available for viewing from behind Plexiglas, but the newer one that students use was not, probably to keep creepy Canadian tourists from drooling over the female student body ...

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Casa de Las Conchas - a building covered in stone seashells, which houses the TI.

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Set menus in Spain are great because they often include an appy, main, dessert, bread, and a drink - in this case, we were each given a choice of water or wine. Mary chose water and I chose wine, and we received a bottle of each - can you say "great value"? Can you imagine having dinner in a Canadian restaurant and being told that wine costs the same as water?

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Mary started with black rice, made with squid ink - not so good, and it was a bad sign when it was brought out within one or two minutes of us placing our order. It definitely tasted like it had been sitting out for quite some time.
My cream of potato and vegetable soup was much better, and a very nice dish on a cold and rainy day like today - very rich, and very hearty. The dry bread wasn't so bad when soaked in the soup. After the first courses, we already felt quite full.

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Steak - very thin, I'm not sure why they asked me how I wanted it done, because I can't imagine being able to control that on something not much thicker than a few sheets of paper. The meat was quite sweet though a bit bland, as it needed some salt.
Mary had pork with roasted peppers - also a bit bland, but not bad.

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Dessert - I had a very rich cheesecake that seemed to be more cream than cheese, which left a bit of an oily feeling in your mouth. A bit too sweet.
Pear - neither of us had ever been given a whole fruit and a knife and fork to eat it with before. But I guess we shouldn't complain, because it's always a bonus to receive ANY fruit in Spain. The pear was very juicy and sweet. Mary said that it was so sweet that she felt sugar in her mouth - uh ... ok ...

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She later talked about how during this trip, she managed to see both the Eastern and Western part of Spain, though we never made it to the Eastern part this time around. She then said she had been to all five corners of Spain - I need to visit Spain once more, because that's one more than I thought it had! I think we should have ordered two bottles of water and skipped the bottle of wine ... because she sure looked quite red and drunk!

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The New Cathedral's facade - restored in 1993, this dragon eating an ice cream cone was added ...

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... as was this astronaut! I remember seeing an email going around suggesting that this astronaut was original, and saying how incredible it was that an astronaut could appear on a cathedral completed in the 1700s. Obviously, the email forward is a hoax.

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The bridge across the Tormes River, which leads to Salamanca's new town - we never explored that part of Salamanca, as there didn't seem to be much to see.

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Next up was a few hours in a cafe, having a drink and using the free Wi-Fi. The coffee was a bit bland, but the Internet was great! We booked our accommodations for the remainder of our trip which was sad in a way, since it showed just how close we were to going home :)

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The first round of tapas tonight at El Reloj - potatoes in tomato sauce, and topped with some fried bacon. Different, but decent.

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We also had more patatas meneadas - even better than yesterday's, fresher and crisper. Also good was a bit of a seafood pie, served atop an omelet base. Great flavour, and the shredded carrots and roe were a nice touch.
I had originally asked for another yummy-looking tapa that appeared to be a little burger patty served atop a slice of bread, but the waiter gave me a bit of a confused look and said "Morcilla??!?", which is blood sausage. I'm glad he realized it was a bit weird that I would ask for it, because I'm quite positive we would not have enjoyed it.

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Our second tapas stop of the night - we're such lightweights that we did a round of juices, not wanting to pass out on alcohol and end up missing our night bus. The calamari wasn't too bad considering that it was heated up in the microwave. The beef brochette was good, because it was nice to have something freshly made.

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Bar Paniagua, described by the guidebook as being rumoured as the place for expats to go and find a significant other from Salamanca. Too bad there were no Spanish females in there when we entered :(

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Jacko's Bar - named after, you guessed it, the King of Pop himself. Strangely though, there wasn't really an obvious Michael Jackson theme inside.

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A little snack before our night bus - chocolate mousse with cherry and some type of jam. Incredibly sweet, it looked much better than it tasted. Strangely, the teas each cost 2.20 Euros, which is the cost of a wine and a very good tapa at El Reloj.

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Christmas lights to celebrate the holiday season - isn't it a beautiful thing? Apparently not for Mary, who wondered aloud why Salamanca put up lights depicting strippers swinging from a pole. Uh huh ...