Salamanca

This week I visited my partner, Dan, in Salamanca, Spain! He is studying at the university there, but I had the week off from DIS! 

I arrived in Spain Friday night, and within the first ten minutes it struck me how hard talking in Spanish was going to be. Although I had taken classes for years, the Danish words were coming to mind first! So not only was I slower to begin with, but I must have been painfully slow to the very patient people I spoke with. Nevertheless I figured out how to get to the AirBnB I was staying at and took the train to Salamanca the next morning! (And it was such a beautiful ride!!!! There were mountains with snow and we went through tunnels!!!!) 

Saturday Dan showed me around Salamanca! We saw the Roman bridge and most of the central city. There were so many people out! Even by 9pm the streets were full, including people from every age and families out together. We also got the beautiful combination of melted chocolate and churros (I didn't love the churros but we got melted chocolate several times over the rest of the week).

On Sunday we went grocery shopping (my fav) and for lunch I took Dan out for a late birthday meal! We went to Mandala, which was kind of as obnoxious as it sounds, but the food was sooooo good. It was a super cheap four part meal: stuffed peppers in a kind of caramel sauce, eggplant and veggies, arroz con leche, and white wine. The weather was so so good again--I was definitely a little red by the end of the day. 

On Monday Dan had classes, so I worked in the library for awhile and afterwards we went to el parque de los jesuits, which is a huge green area just outside the original city. All the trees were flowering and it was so pretty. But the majority of our time there was spent watching the ducks and geese at this little pond. We also sat around in plaza mayor for awhile (it's super common for people just to sit in the middle of the square) and it was a lot of fun to people watch!

Tuesday Dan had classes again, and the weather only got worse the rest of the week. I think the was the most low key day for us -- we just went for walks, made meals, and watched TV with the other people in Dan's apartment!

Wednesday morning we did homemade pancakes! European style, of course. The other highlight was that I went to El Teatro de Juan Encima to watch the documentary Shadow Girl (Niña Sombra) about a blind filmmaker from Chile. It was super interesting and beautiful, even though I didn't understand most of the dialogue. 

Thursday morning Dan and I went to Casa Lis, an art nouveau and Art Deco museum! I loved the statues that looked speedy, but I could have done without the three galleries full of dolls. Casa Lis also had a gorgeous view of the city! We then went to the garden by the cathedral, which is one of the best in Salamanca! 

Iconic.

Dropping our mixtape Dabby2k17 next Wednesday

Will we get our act together? Stay tuned.

That night, we hit. the. town. We started with tapas at Cafe Atelier, a rad vegan/vegetarian place next to Mandala. We had seven little plates to split, including peppers, soy burgers, lentil soup, yellow gazpacho, and stuffed mushrooms. 10/10 would recommend!!! Even though it was a little chilly, it was still fun to walk around and see all the people. We then went to a bar that looked like the inside of a submarine! And even though we showed up late by my standards, things wouldn't have picked up there until about 3am. So we set out for mojitos elsewhere and eventually found ourselves at Doze, which was a little quirky but had great cheesecake. 

Friday was my final day so we revisited some of the places and foods that had been highlights! We also spent a solid few hours making burritos from scratch--and they weren't a failure! :) 

Saturday I caught my flight back to Copen (I'm writing this post miles up and through semi-terrifying turbulence!). But it was a super relaxing week and a great change of pace from the study tour trips I had before!  Next up: my parents are coming in five days! Stay tuned for exponentially more pictures courtesy of my mother, the photographer. :)