Weekend in Salamanca

So it has been a while since I have blogged, but honestly, the weather here this past week has been in the 60's and sunny, so can you blame me?? There is so much to do outside in this weather. All the restaurants are setting up their outside terraces with table and chairs, everyone is outside all the time.

But anyway, last weekend we had a weekend trip with our study abroad program to Salamanca, Spain, about 2 and a half hours north west of Madrid. We left at 4:30 Friday afternoon to go meet the bus, which was much more favorable than the typical 9am meeting time. Salamanca is a much smaller town, but it is a very popular college town, so there was a lot going on at all times, just like Madrid. Our hotel was in a good location, we explored as soon as we got there, and found that they have a Plaza Mayor just like in Madrid. It was all lit up at night and absolutely beautiful!
Saturday morning we got up and visited la catedral, and Universartaria de Salamanca, two very old and beautiful historical buildings. We had the rest of the day and evening to explore and shot through out the rest of the city. We were surprised to see that all the stores and restaurants closed down from about 4:30 to 8:30 for siesta. Which we knew that they celebrated in Spain, but it is not really followed in Madrid since it's such a big city.
Sunday morning we got up and headed back to the bus as a group. We had a wine tasting scheduled at a wine vineyard called hacienda zorita. It was the most beautiful plot of land, on a small river, with a spa and wedding chapel. They showed us how to swirl the wine in the glass, smell it, swish it around in our mouths, spit it out, and then finally sip it. It was delicious. They also provided us with cheese, salami, mini hamburgers, and crackers. We were in heaven since we hadn't eaten since the night before.We made our way back to Madrid after the wine tasting. It was a great weekend away though, I loved everything about Salamanca!!

Weekend in Venice

So my roommates and I were trying to plan a weekend away in Florence, but there are no inexpensive flights to Florence, so we were planning to go to Milan, and then take a train to Venice. We had the plan pretty set, but as we booked flights, it turned out that it was just Kaylen, Jill and I. Trains from Milan to Florence were very expensive, so instead planned a weekend away in Venice, which was less expensive to get to than Florence. Great decision! After an interesting, to say the least, first night in Milan, we were ready for a better day in Venice, and that was exactly what we got. We had our hostel all set, and it had gotten good reviews online, so we were excited about that. We had talked to a few people who have been to Venice about what we had to do/see while we were there, since we were only there for a limited time. Our hostel turned out to be a somewhat bed and breakfast, it was great.

Venice is a small(ish) town in Italy, and legitimately EVERYONE spoke English, which was convenient since the only Italian we knew were the few words we looked up on my blackberry on the way to Milan. Venice is more of a tourist destination than I had expected, which would explain why everyone knew English. The food was amazing! Even though our waiter at the restaurant we had lunch at laughed at us and knew we were from the United States because we ordered spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna, thinking it was a typical Italian meal. Apparently a real Italian meal consists of fish, which I guess makes sense, but I wasn't trying to have fish in Italy... so I stuck to the pasta/pizza/red wine diet. Yes...red wine, which I hated up until this weekend.
The shopping was great. There were SO many little stores, many of which were selling masks since they are popular in the town for Carnival in the Spring. Many stores were also selling fine leather handbags, shoes, gloves and coats. I wanted so bad to buy everything, but as to be expected, everything was very expensive. There were also a ton of murano glass products since the original murano glass blowing factory is in Venice.

Murano glass bead necklaces

Venice is a city built on water, so every corner you turn, you see another bridge. There are no cars in the city, only boats. It is a nice change, to see everyone walking everywhere. The pace is much slower than here in Madrid. We definitely felt like we were on vacation. There are gondolas everywhere, and the men who row the gondolas in the striped shirts and hats are always offering their "special price" of 60 euro just for us! What a coincidence. We took a gondola tour, it was really pretty. Check that off the list of things to do while in Europe!

The buildings in Venice are absolutely beautiful. The reflections in the water make for a perfect picture. We saw the two spots to see, the San Marco Square (from the gondola), where the Basilica church is, and the Rialto bridge. I got some pretty amazing pictures if I may say so myself.


We had an amazing weekend and I would definitely go back again, there was so much more I felt like we could have seen, but we just didn't have the time to!