In her New York Times #1 Best Seller Eat, Love, Pray, Elizabeth Gilbert escapes to Italy for four months in order to properly recuperate from a harrowing divorce and a deep depression. In Italy, Gilbert devotes her time to two things: learning, speaking, and cherishing the Italian language and discovering, enjoying, and treasuring the Italian cuisine. (She also goes to India to devote herself to prayer and continues onto Indonesia to find the balance between the pleasure she found in Italy and the peace she found in India… but I haven’t finished the book yet, so I can’t tell you how that went for Miss Gilbert.)
Although I’m not going through serious depression over here in Spain, I have had my moments of worry, pressure, and dare I say it… stress. In fact, I was quite overwhelmed last week with juggling all my private classes and my duties at school, and I was actually having trouble sleeping through the night. Blessedly, the remedy to quiet my boggled-brain came in the form of a short excursion out of Madrid to the beautifully charming town of Salamanca.
On Friday morning, SK and I met at the Southern Bus Station at 8:30, bought our tickets, and boarded our bus just before 9:00 a.m. The lack of sleep eventually silenced the tumultuous swirl of thoughts in my head, and I drifted off to sleep as our bus traversed a small sierra and entered the moorish-looking planes of Castilla. We arrived in Salamanca just before noon, and the profile of the city loomed above a small river. SK and I didn’t have any difficulties finding out hostel, Hostal Misol, which was only a 10 or 15 minute walk from the bus station. We checked in, threw our stuff in our room with 2 single beds (and a sink), and headed towards the central and old section of Salamanca.
Although it was rainy and cold Friday afternoon, the chilly dampness had little effect on my mood. We strolled through the ancient streets, between buildings made from sand-colored blocks of stone, and we repeatedly passed by almost all the major landmarks of Salamanca: Plaza Mayor, La Casa de las Conchas, La Catedral Nueva y La Catedral Vieja, La Universidad de Salamanca, La Casa de Unamuno, Huerto de Calixto y Melibea, El Convento de San Esteban, El Puente Romano, and McDonald’s. To compliment the light rain showers and low-hanging clouds, a light and low rumble in our tummies signaled a need for some sustenance, and we stopped dead in our tracks when a tantalizing window display of colorful and delicious looking tapas called our attention at Restaurante Don Quixote. Although we didn’t know it at the time, with that first food pit-stop we began a Quixotic quest of our own throughout the remainder of our stay in Salamanca. Unbeknownst to me, Salamanca has the best and the cheapest tapas that I have yet to experience in Spain (which I realize is rather limited). SK and I discovered that many bars and restaurants have one heck of a tapas deal: for around 2 Euro, you get a drink (coffee, wine, beer, water, or “pop” as SK calls it) and your choice of a pincho, a little portion of some Spanish delicacy. This may seem insignificant, but when you live in Madrid, a glass of wine usually cost more than 2 Euro and does not come with food. Imagine our sheer delight when we were given the option to choose from a variety of pinchos that ranged from tortilla española to toast covered with cheeses or veggies to rations of chorizo sausage.
On Friday night, we started in Plaza Mayor, which is proclaimed to be the most beautiful Plaza Mayor in all of Spain, and we climbed the staircase to Meson Cervantes, a restaurant that a local shopkeeper told us had excellent tapas. Our kind friend did not lead us astray, and in fact, she set the standard for the rest of our night. Jammed packed with locals, built with wooden ceilings and floors, covered with trinkets like old lanterns that hung from the rafters and off the walls, and displaying a spread of delectable dishes, Meson Cervantes embodied the ideal ambiance of what I pictured a true Spanish tapas bar should feel, smell, and look like. SK and I were enjoying ourselves so much, and we could have easily stayed there all night long, going pincho by pincho. However, after sharing calamari, croquettes de jamón, and the most delicious tortilla española I have ever put in my mouth (it was covered in raspberry jam, a giant slice of goat cheese, and topped with a kiwi), and drinking a glass of vino tinto, we decided to move on. Over the course of the entire night, we went to four bars where we would each order a drink and pick a pincho to split, and we made our fifth stop at café for some chocolate cake. Between our mini-meals, we would stroll through the streets and observe the city’s famous monuments and landmarks (such as the beautiful Cathedral). All in all, it was a glorious evening, and we returned to our hostel with satisfied bellies and satisfied wallets.
You’re probably thinking that all we did in Salamanca was eat… and you actually wouldn’t be too far from the truth. However, we did make a point to see a few sights, which I would like to mention briefly.
1. The Cathedrals of Salamanca: We paid to take the museum tour of the cathedrals, and it was totally worth the 3,45 Euro. La Catedral Nueva (The New Cathedral) was built literally next to—as in they share one wall—La Catedral Vieja (The Old Cathedral) when the Vieja seemed to be too outdated and not big enough to adequately attest to the glory of God. From an upper balcony room, we witnessed a wedding ceremony going on in the Vieja (oh, you should’ve seen the high-fashioned outfits of the guests when they loitered in the streets after the service!). We exited onto the roof of the Vieja and got a bird’s eye view of Salamanca. And we could pass through the sections of the two unified buildings, which allowed us to compare and contrast the architectural styles, etc. Oh, and the sun was out while we were on the roof, which was a nice touch to our merriment still lingering in our bellies from the night before.
2. El Museo Casa Lis—the Art Nouveau and Art Deco Museum of Salamanca: Just check out the website, because it’s visual art and would take more written description that you care to read about at the moment (http://www.museocasalis.org/), but know that it is also totally worth the museum ticket.
3. La Universidad de Salamanca: Salamanca has the oldest university in all of Spain, which was founded by Alfonso IX of León in 1218. The ancient building is still in tact and is now a museum, but the university is still up and running, with a campus made of newer building that takes over one entire zone of the city. A lot of famous people from years of old have studied here… just Google it!
We spent our Saturday moseying through Salamanca at a leisurely pace. Between museum visits and tapas-breaks, SK and I did some Christmas shopping… but I will say no more about that. Our bus back to Madrid was scheduled to leave at 6:00 p.m. Before we left, we made certain to buy samples from a pastry shop that had been taunting me since I first saw it on Friday afternoon, and we bought a small loaf of freshly baked bread, you know...to give us the strength and energy to properly nap on the trek back to the big city. As our bus passed by the Tormes River once more, the impressive and lofty profile of the cathedrals seemed to say, “Nos vemos pronto, Laura” (“We will see each other again soon, Laura.”). I sure hope it was right.
Although I haven’t gone through anything as traumatizing as a detrimental depression or a tragic divorce, I think I got just as much out of my trip to Salamanca as Elizabeth Gilbert did from her trip to Italy. Life in Madrid was starting to make me a little frazzled and frayed, and I could not make my mind stop churning continuously or running in a thousand different directions. It was time for a break, and Salamanca is where I found rejuvenation and restitution. Salamanca is a charming, quiet town, where the people are friendly and care to converse with foreigners, where the tapas are delicious and cheap, and where you can enjoy life at a slower pace.
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