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4 Stars - 22 Opinions
Espoz y Mina 23 - 25, Salamanca, Castile-Leon, 37002, Spain
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of people enjoy staying here
22 Opinions
University of Salamanca
San Esteban church
Plaza Mayor
Old Cathedral (Salamanca, Spain)
i only have a little more than three weeks to spend studying in spain and i was wondering if i should spend all of those three in salamanca or if it would be ok to spend two in salamanca? ill be studying at a language school and living with a host family. i was wondering whether i shouldnt move around too much. i wanted to go to alicante for a week too. and then to barcelona for a couple of days. should i just stay put in salamanca?
Spanish is spoken everywhere, so from that point of view staying in one place is no better nor worse than moving around.
So it depends on whether your course(?) requires you to stay put and on whether your host family is expecting you to stay with them for 3 weeks (and perhaps pay for that amount of time?).
Otherwise, it matters not...although you should make sure you speak as much Spanish as possible whilst visiting elsewhere.
Certainly try to stay in Salamanca and immerse yourself in Castilian Spanish. If you move to Barcelona you are surrounded by Catalans ! And foreigners ! And distractions.
Actually is not so easy to "immerse" in Castilian Spanish in Salamanca during summer. There are so many international students (and the locals are on vacation) that you'll be surrounded by other languages and distractions too. I was having breakfast once at the Plaza Mayor and it was funny the waiter automatically addressed to me in English, I think I was the only one Spanish speaker there LOL
and the truth is that being "surrounded by Catalans" in Barcelona city center is not so easy... Spanish, English (and maybe Urdu) are a lot more prevalent that Catalan in Las Ramblas and the touristy areas! Anyway, I doubt that spending here only a couple of days would make any difference on your learning, positive or negative...
Don't know about Alicante
So, actually it's up to you, and as said above, your course/accommodation conditions. You'll have to force yourself to speak Spanish all the time, wherever you are. It is possible, but it takes some auto-discipline. I did summer courses in Scotland being mainly surrounded by Spanish and Italian speakers, so I know it is possible to learn if you really want to, and if you really focus on learning.
Have a great time!
I do agree that living with a host family in Salamanca with locals who speak Castillian Spanish is going to potentially be of great help. But it takes two to tango so to speak, so it is really up to the learner to make that extra effort ! And maybe the best time of the year to go is not during the summer when all the locals have disappeared and its full of foreigners !
Salamanca is well-known for its monumental stone structures, most of which are made from stone quarried in nearby Villamayor (about 5 km outside of Salamanca). Apparently, the unique stone changes colors as the sun hits it at different angles throughout the day, although the sun was hiding from me during my stay in Salamanca, so I missed out on this spectacle.
A frog hides on the façade of the university. Locals say that if you can see it by yourself, this will bring you a lot of good luck.
Of course, being half-blind from an eye, I didn't find it, but I photographed the column where other students said they had seen it. I hope I could find it looking at the picture, but I still haven't discovered where it hides. Well, it doesn't matter...
Away from the touristy Plaza Mayor and main roads, there are a lot of little side streets with shops, cafes, bars, etc. It's fun to explore and discover them. Especially since they're not usually filled with tourists.
There are lots of cafes in town, and in the morning you can buy your breakfast there. It's usually something light, such as a croissant, churros, or some other type of breakfast pastry, with a glass of juice and a cup of coffee. It's not very expensive, and hte bars and cafes where breakfast is served are usually quiet in the mornings. All you have to do is pop in, check the breakfast menu, and order what you want. On a Sunday morning after Mass, I went to a little cafe and ordered a croissant with orange juice and a cup of coffee. It was a nice light breakfast.
The main attraction inside the Old Cathedral is this retable ascribed to Nicola Fiorentino (1430), who is certainly the author of the Last Judgement (or Juicio final in Spanish) located above the retable.
The second picture of this tip shows the architecture of the very simple and bare ceiling, typical of the Romanesque style, although the arches already looks quite Gothic. As a matter of facts, the cathedral was built in the 12th century in late-Romanesque or early-Gothic style.
You can also see an interesting fresco and some altars dedicated to the Virgin.
However, the Old Cathedral has an even older part, which I will show in the next tip.
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