Week Two In Salamanca

Me, Mary, and Elena enjoying our 2nd out of 3 tapas bars on Calle Van Dyck, a street full of bars & restaurants

A new week meant a new student and a new roommate!  First was Elena, knocking on my bedroom door last Sunday night at 11:30pm asking what time was I going to use the shower in the morning...= my new housemate.  She had just arrived from Germany and was here for a week to do her practical for becoming a Spanish language teacher.  Born in Argentina she's obviously fluent in Spanish and has been taking private students at home in Germany but she'd like to get into her state's education system as a part-time instructor, ergo her visit to my school in Salamanca.  You'd think I'd have taken advantage of living with a Spanish instructor to do a little extracurricular practice but we clicked so well we spent every lunch and dinner together chatting away about everything and anything in English!

And Mary joined my school class last Monday- she's from North Carolina, an International Relations student who needs a foreign language for her upcoming degree. She'll be here for a total of ten weeks.  She has far more background in Spanish studies than I but in our own way we each have problems getting our mouths to spit out what we think want to say so we've signed up for some additional conversation classes with our morning professor, Pablo.  He's very gentle with us, and obviously knows what we've been trying to learn, so we hope he can coax us to make some coherent sentences, if not phrases, during our sessions.

This makes a good segue! I decided to stay two more weeks here in Salamanca.  There was a special at the school, pay for 3 weeks of study and get a 4th week free.  I wasn't really feeling that I'd learned a huge amount already, enough that I'd actually remember some of it, and I was so close to learning the Past Tense (it's very frustrating to try to only talk in the Present!) that I delayed my plans to visit the Canary Islands to stay here longer.  I'll have to move apartments next weekend as 15 members of the bride/my flatmate's family are coming to stay, but that's no big deal. Perhaps the next apartment will be quieter and cleaner! :-)

I was going to publish some pics of Salamanca but instead here are some photos of last Saturday's day trip to Avila, a small city famous for its town walls, the most complete in Europe I believe and 2.5 kms in circumference. One could walk exactly half way around, which I did, but as you can see from the photos, the weather was iffy and it was cold! I shivered most of the day.

A poor photo as it was taken through the train window as we were slowing down from 152kms/hour! But it's a good indication of the town walls..

Every city has its cathedral. This one was built with its back end right into the town walls, for protection most likely, but without a large square in front so it was hard to get an image of its scale...

As well, every Spanish city has its Plaza Mayor, Avila's little one was nice, but less impressive than the larger cities

A little noontime refreshment - a little 'bite' to accompany the beer, 2€ in total

With lots of churches to look at I'm glad I chose this one. Not always impressed to pay an entrance fee to see a church but 3€ included the audioguide and the $ goes to preservation

For example, this shows the martyrdom, then the accuser repenting after the trio die and go to heaven. Hard to miss that message that you might get it wrong sometimes....

Everyone's seen the inside of a church before so I'll highlight this Sepulchre which I thought was pretty unique. Built in renaissance times its frieze panels tell the story of the brother & his 2 sisters who were martyred here in quite graphic detail, but it's the literalness and intense coloring of the figures that got me. And carved what, 600 years ago?!

Wonder what the bored 3rd Wise Man on the right was thinking....!

 There's lots to see and do in Salamanca and many scenic towns a short bus ride away so I won't be bored while studying here!

A "Student" Once Again...

I've been a very dedicated little student this week, spending every afternoon and evening after class studying my Spanish.  I was not put into a pure Beginners class, as expected/hoped, but into a "A1+" class which was already finishing up Chapter 7 of the textbook(!), so I have a lot to catching up to do.
There's 5 of us in the class: one each from England, Holland, Japan, and a lady I met at the registration desk who's also from Southern California and who's just finished a Camino!   We're taking Spanish Immersion, so it's supposed to be conducted wholly in Spanish but I'm afraid I tend to insist on some explanation in English when I'm totally confused.  Luckily everyone speaks perfect English so I don't feel too selfish taking up the instructors' time :-)

We have classes from 10am - 2pm with a half hour break in the middle which is ideal.  I have time to do my last-minute homework in the morning, and we finish at the perfect time for a long, large lunch which is so popular here in Spain.  The route I take from my apartment to school is right on the main pedestrian shopping street which runs from one end of the historic center to the other and is lined with bars and restaurants and gourmet food shops so I'm spoiled for choice.




My apartment is ideally located on a small square, surrounded by car-free streets and with a large Carrefour supermarket just 50m away.  My bedroom window looks out into a huge maple tree with a church beyond so I've a peaceful view, much better than the other bedrooms that stare right into the school classrooms opposite.

Add caMy building is to the right of the picture, you can just see the green of my maple(?) tree

The girls I live with are friendly and they've had a massive cleanup of the apartment as they hosted a Bachelorette party last night for one of the flatmates who's getting married at the end of the month. I took some pictures of them while they were prepping for the party and they knocked on my door at 11:15pm asking if I wanted to join them but as they were practising for going out to a Karaoke bar later, I graciously declined.

The girls were "stewardesses" and they had a "pilot's" costume for the Bride-To-Be!

The Chinese student moved out Saturday so I had huge scrub-down of our bathroom and am no longer afraid to go barefoot in there or touch the walls of the shower. I'll have to set some cleanliness rules with the next lodger I share with!

Salamanca is a wonderfully vibrant city that's full of young people due to its two universities and countless language schools.  There's lots to offer tourists too: cathedrals, squares, shopping and cafes. It's all astonishingly clean and in good repair, as if all the old buildings have recently been power-washed so their soft golden stonework glows brightly.  That'll be the topic for my next blogpost - Salamanca's sights!

Day 6-8: Traveling To Salamanca

I flew from the Madeiras back to Porto, where I had two nights before heading over to Salamanca where I'll spend just over two weeks. I've been suffering a bit from a gimpy groin pull (what else?!!) so I stayed close to my Porto hotel and caught up on old episodes of Lewis and Vera on TV.  Luckily few shows are dubbed here, unlike Spain, just subtitled, so I had quite the number of crime dramas to choose from!  I've no idea what church that is pictured above but it was right outside my Metro station and it's the only picture I took in Porto!

There isn't a direct way to get to Salamanca from Porto, the easiest was a one transfer bus ride: Porto-Viseu, Portugal; Viseu-Salamanca.  If any of you have taken a long-distance bus ride in Europe, I'm sure you'll agree that it is no hardship - comfy chairs, wifi on board, toilet (if you dare), and my 2nd leg even included a free 3-course buffet lunch! No kidding! We pulled into gas station/rest stop and the driver passed out vouchers and said we'd be here 40 minutes.  That seemed like an outrageously long bathroom break but it turned out the voucher was for a meal so we all trooped off, stood in line and had a nice repast.  Not bad for 40€.

The 'why' re: spending 2 weeks in Salamanca is that I registered for a Spanish Immersion language class.  I've been taking a once-weekly class during the winter and I thought I'd try to keep up with it, if not improve it and Salamanca apparently has one of the more neutral accents in Spain.  I opted to share an apartment with other students but after being shown my apartment I'm not so sure that was necessarily the best choice.  There's 5 of us altogether, 3 are full-time university students (female), and the other is a Asian-Russian male with one week left at my Spanish school who seems to not want to do his share of cleaning.  Not that I could tell that anyone cleaned at all.... At least my room was spotless, if basic.



After a run to the grocery store I tackled the kitchen counters, cabinets and sink and my shelf in the fridge; then my shared bathroom (with Fei, the Asian guy).  I'll leave the living room to the girls, they've been here almost a year and if that's how they want to live; "hay no problema", I've lots of room in my little room.

Day 5: Eastern Island Tour

It's my last full day in Madeira so I decided to check out the other half of the island - the east side. I scored a front seat in the minivan again, but unfortunately a middle one squeezed between the driver and a Polish Facebook fanatic so I wasn't able to take many photos during the drive itself. There were only 8 of us in the van, 2 being German so the driver conducted the commentary in both languages. Unfortunately, this particular driver seemed to have forgotten to bring his personality along today so I was able to give the scenery my full attention!


Our first stop was a wicker factory, which didn't fill me with high expectations for the day, but I dutifully checked it out and was pleased to see a lady actually making a basket. It's a dying art as there's been a 50% decrease in weaving in the last 20 years alone as demand has plummeted.  I think now they're primarily making only 'treasures' for tourists.




We then drove up to the highest driveable point of the island, Pico do Arieiro, at 1801m. Very windy, very ch-ch-chilly, very view-tiful. It's also a very popular spot for hikers to start on various treks and ambles.


We descended down to Ribeira Frio, a tiny bend in road which my guidebook tells me has some of the most scenic walks on the island , including the .5 mile one to the waterfalls. My driver/guide told us to go see the trout farm and cafe....



Then, we stopped for lunch, saw another viewpoint, then drove out to the far, dry, eastern end of Madeira.

A re-creation of the original type of home built on Madeira

All in all, it wasn't a bad day. My Polish seatmate said literally one word the whole time, and our guide not much more, so it was really quite relaxing; the landscape wasn't quite as stunning as the as the west coast but how can you compare great unless there's a less great?
My trip to the Madeiras has really been brilliant. I'd love to come back some day and do some of the great hikes they have but tomorrow I move on:  a layover day in Porto, then on to Salamanca for two weeks.

Day 4: A Morning Stroll and the Nun's Valley Tour

I'm afraid that Madeira is just so beautiful that I'm going to have to convert my blog into a photoblog. I had nothing planned for today (I know, strange for me) and the sun was brilliant out so I just went for a stroll to check out the waterfront. This baby was built in 1614 and had a useful life right up to 1901!

The streets were strangely quiet for a Monday until I remembered it was May 1st, the worker's holiday. I came across this procession back down on Rue de Santa Maria. I think the mayor, elected officials, spouses, and more were marching as several had important-looking sashes on and carried silver staffs.

The New Town - I think I'm in love with Funchal. It's just so clean and pretty; flowers and trees are blooming, there's a beautiful wide promenade for walking. A bandshell plays music in the afternoon, while little fun stalls sell drinks, gourmet coffee and bites. There's a bike lane that goes for miles, and today the front boulevard was closed for duathlon for all ages. There's art everywhere in the form of murals and statues, both modern and traditional. There's a cohesive blend of old and new in the buildings too - modern hotels rub shoulders with old forts. Funchal has it goin' on!

 



I returned to my hotel about 12:30pm to find a reply from my tour company to an email I sent in the morning: "sorry, we don't offer that tour tomorrow, can you go today at 1:45?" Uh, okay! Luckily I brought a takeout salad back with me so I had a wee break then met up with a different minivan driver for the 3-hour Nun's Valley tour.


This viewpoint overlooking the bay of Funchal was our first stop = gorgeous!

Next stop was another scenic overlook called Eira do Serrado. At 1095m it was to give us a fantastic view of Nun's Valley far below.....


And this is all we saw....

Kidding, if one was patient enough the mist would part momentarily to get a little taste of the valley hidden below. It was named Nun's Valley because back in 1566 French pirates were attacking the port of Funchal so the nuns fled into the hills, scaling the vertiginous mountain to the safety of the hidden valley below. While they were there they helped the sick, taught the young, etc., etc., so when the hamlet grew large enough to warrant a name they called it Curral das Freiras, or Nun's Valley, in gratitude to all that the sisters did.

If you look very closely at this photo, right above the apex of the roof on the right, you can see a faint zig-zag trail in the green cliff face behind that leads up to the viewpoint building half-hidden in the midst. This was the path the nun's had to hike, and was the only way into the valley for centuries until the road was put in! You can still hike it today. It's only 1.5km one-way, but 540m ascent! And that concludes my 4th day in the Azores!

Day 3: Western Island Tour

Roads are crazy curvy here and narrow, so as a solo driver I'd be concentrating too much on not plunging over a cliff let alone taking in the view, so I'm taking a few guided tours while I'm here. Today's tour was the west coast of Madeira, famous for its dramatic scenery. As the trip runs 9a-5p I'm sure I'll get my money's worth!


Camara de Lobos, cute fishing village 4 miles down the coast, famous as the place Winston Churchill came to paint in 1950


Cabo Girao, apparently the 2nd highest sea cliffs in the world at 580m



Dozens of people were crowded onto the glass viewing platform, all elbowing for space to take pics/selfies of the view THRU the floor! Why not just look out over the railing???? Have to admit, it was kinda cool to look down and see the cliff below your feet


Ribeira Brava, little coastal village with a beach! Albeit a black pebble one, but one of the few on the island. This is a typical looking church, with fancy stone inlaid patterns in its courtyard, like all squares/sidewalks/plazas here




Being the first one picked up by the van, I scored the front passenger seat so was able to take a lot of scenery shots during the ride. Here we're heading up to 1000m, this is the typical island terrain: sheer. That's why Madeira is famous for it's terraces. If you want flat land to grow fruit or vegetables, you have to cut it out of the mountainside. And as it's a volcanic island, the soil is rich and great for produce



Well, saying all that about the steepness of the island, here at 1500m is the only flat area on the island, about 7km square. In 1964 they contemplated putting the airport way up here, but as you can see from this typical day, the idea never gained any traction. It's now an environmentally protected
area.


Love this photo. It's of the terraced hillside above Porto Moniz on the north side of the island


Porto Moniz. They've turned the volcanic tidal pools into swimming pools! Each high tide flushes out the old and brings in new, fresh water. Too cold for me but two of our group actually went in. I settled for a great seaside lunch with a couple of fellow passengers


Lunch with a view!


The north coast of Madeira reminds of Hawaii, so lush-looking! My guidebook calls this stretch of road "one of the most difficult but dramatic drives in Portugal, requiring nerves of steel....the adventure is surviving the trip"!!! Glad I'm riding shotgun.


This, and the next 2 photos, are of Sao Vincente. A tiny little place with a dramatic backdrop. Only spent enough time to pop into the church for a look and a 3 minute circumnavigation of town


And that was my day! I was pooped from all that fresh air so stayed in for dinner at my hotel's great rooftop restaurant. Vinho Verde with a view!