Central Spain

Barcelona - Zaragoza - Madrid - Segovia - Toledo - El Escorial - Avila - Salamanca

Hola!

Zaragoza is another "how on earth did I end up here" town for me (like Nazare in Portugal), I had no plans to go there, but I’m glad I did.

Zaragoza is the capital city of Aragon province (insert bad joke relating to Lord of the Rings here), but to me it seemed like a very big country town. It is a beautiful peaceful city by a dirty brown river.

It was good timing to be in Zaragoza because they had a medieval market around the main cathedral for the whole weekend where everyone dressed in medieval costumes and sold medieval stuff.

Also saw the famous basilica of the pillar, which contains a holy marble pillar that had apparently appearing out of nowhere, left behind after a vision of the Virgin Mary disappeared. Yes, people are worshiping a piece of marble, even decorated it and built a huge cathedral/house for it.

Arrived in Madrid next. I don’t really like Madrid that much, and everyone I’ve met in the youth hostel thinks the same thing. But mainly due to the really bad weather we are having. Madrid just has a whole bunch of museums (I’m not really a museum fan), and gardens, one garden has a cool statue called "The fallen angel", apparently the first statue to be dedicated to the devil.

Madrid is known for its museums (which I didn’t go to many of), and its nightlife (which is great but the hostel we stayed at run by really mean people had a curfew of 1:30am - when the nightlife actually starts! That didn’t stop half the hostel mutinying and turning up at 4am, and they had no choice but to let us in.)

Met some really cool people in Madrid, amongst them two Canadians who are "partying" their way around Europe on 10 euros a day, a funny Quebec girl called Catherine who I went to Salamanca with, a Korean girl travelling on her own with limited English (which goes to show those afraid of travelling alone, especially if you're a girl, how easy it is to travel), some Brazilians...

I even had a nice pretty Brazilian girlfriend named Carolina for a few days before we parted to our different destinations, shame really but that’s what happens when you travel, you met people and then you may never see them again. But then you never know what the future holds...

Went to a bullfight in Madrid. It was interesting and I went for the cultural experience and all, but I felt sorry for the bulls (6 of them being teased and killed in one night - how they call that sport I don’t know). The toreadors were all dressed in glitzy outfits and strutted around with their chests out whenever they succeeded in stabbing the bull etc.

The bullfight would start with several toreadors with pink capes teasing the bull. Then horses with men with long spears would try to stab the bull at the back of its neck a couple of times. Then the toreadors would get some long knives with arrowheads and when the bull charged them, would leap out of the way and stick the knives in the back of its neck. Then the main toreador comes out and with a long sword and red cape will continue stabbing the bull at the back of the neck at each charge, finally getting a sharp long sword and driving it in the back of the neck right into the heart! It really is quite horrific! Though sometimes the bulls are allowed to leave and live when the bull gets too tired too quickly before any real damage is done.

Did some day trips to places like Segovia, which is a beautiful walled city with an enormous aqueduct and an alcazar castle with fairy tale cone shaped turrets (apparently Rapunzel's castle), and houses and buildings with Mudegar decorations and carvings on the walls.

Toledo is a nice old Moorish town with a cathedral with so many intricate ornamentation and decorations almost to the point of being over the top! There are also heaps of swords and medieval stuff there too. Tried a fried deer sandwich and marzipan which Toledo is famous for. Yum, good for me, bad for the deer!

El Escorial has a palace, monetary, basilica, gardens, library, and school, which is pretty ordinary but is saved by the absolutely fantastic mausoleum of marble and gold containing dead kings and members of the royal family etc. All these buildings are contained within a huge building structure.

Avila is a extremely well preserved little walled town up at the highest point in Spain. Its 88 towers and walls are virtually complete and intact. Avila claims to be a town left in nostalgia untouched by modern technology and life. Which is why the kids there have mobile phones and the library has a large number of computers. Hey, wait a minute!

Salamanca rocks!!!

Salamanca is one of my favourite towns in Spain. Huge monolithic colossal old buildings, convents, monasteries and the two cathedrals loom over you as you walk the nice streets and gardens of the Spanish university town. The main plaza is meant to be the prettiest plaza in Spain, though I reckon the Plaza de Espana in Seville is.

Anyway Salamanca has an awesome nightlife, entries to the numerous bars and clubs etc are free, and Salamanca has places called Chupetarias which are cheap 1 euro shot bars that apparently don't really exist anywhere else in Spain or the world! And people there party till noon! I did not sleep much in Salamanca.

Spotted the little frog on the wall of the intricately detailed university facade (with lots of help). Apparently if you can find it you will have extremely good luck coming to you and you will get married. So since I got lots of help I suppose does that mean I will get an arranged marriage?!

Salamanca also has the best kebab place in the world, and it is cheap too! I ate nowhere else in the 3 days I was there and was never sick of it! And others I’ve met and introduced to the place think the same too!

I reckon I may have found my calling in life being a travel advisor, because I ended up helping most of the people I met in Madrid with their travel plans, and I also acted as a travel guide for some people I met in Salamanca! It would be nice to be paid for that sort of thing. That, or a world food critic would be my dream job!

Anyway, back into Portugal next....