"Tapas Hopping"

Okay so I have a warning for you…this is going to be a long blog post. I did a lot last evening and this morning so be prepared for some excitement…also some of the things may gross you out if you get queasy easily jajaja (which is how you say hahaha in Spanish text). So where do I start…I took a nap after lunch and woke up to a text from Alli saying we were meeting in the plaza at 4:15 to head to an art museum. I quickly got ready and met up with her, Megan, and Rachel. We proceeded to walk to the art museum. It was slightly off the beaten path and was in a location we hadn’t ventured to before. I liked it because the streets were not as busy and it was more populated by locals, not tourists. The outside of the art museum was very beautiful. The back entrance, where you got tickets and entered, was small but cute. We only saw the outside haha because it was 5 euro to enter and we knew that there were days where you could get in for free so we decided to save it for one of those days. We decided to walk down towards the river, which is in the southern part of Salamanca. We were close already so it wasn’t too long of a walk. The main entrance of the art museum over looked the river. It was made of beautiful stain glass and stones. It made me really want to see inside so we made it a prority on our to do list. For the next couple hours we wandered around by the lake and went across the infamous roman bridge. From across the river the view of the cathedral was breathe taking. There was also this really cute bar/ tapas place that was along the river that I want to check out sometime. The whole afternoon we just wandered and enjoyed each others company. I saw a poster of Rafa and me and Rachel both rushed over to get a picture of it. We are both avid tennis fans.
The weather, as usual, was gorgeous. It was slightly colder than usual but it felt really nice. There hasn’t been a cloudy day here. I love it because it is nothing like Michigan. It is never cloudy, rainy, or humid. You know what to expect every morning. I usual do not like warm weather but I could definitely live with this because it never seems that hot. The one thing I do miss though is being able to run. After about 10am it is too hot to run until about 10:30 pm. So I either have to get up early or go at night. I think I may get up sometime in the morning to run but lets see if that ever happens.
After our afternoon of wandering I came back to my place to change for tapas since it was chillier I changed into my capri’s (so very European…I know ;)) I met up with my class for tapas with our teacher. We were going to three different tapas bars. We split up into two groups of seven and each place two different people had to gather our orders and give them to the waiter. We had taked about tapas earlier in the day in class so we knew which place was famous for what. The first place we went to was called Don Cochinillo. There my group ordered patatas bravas, cochinillo asado, lomo de cerado, chorizo, calamari, and of course a pitcher of sangria. All of the food was delicious. My favorite at this location was the lomo de cerado, which was pork with a pesto sort of sauce. I am slightly obsessed with pork so this was perfect for me. Also the sangria was the best I have had here so far. It was very delicious. We took our time at the first location then walked further down the street to our second stop. The second location was called El asador. This place is known for their costillas, which are like ribs. I think they are the ribs of a pig but I am not positive. My group order the chorizo, queso, costillas, and clara con límon. My favorite here was the costillas. They were very tasty. At this point I was starting to feel like we were on a bar crawl or something because we were getting drinks at each place and food. I was stuffed already and we still had one more stop. The last place is my favorite. It is called Los Faroles. They are known for their comida extraño, which means peculiar or odd food. This tapas bar is also famous for their cidra, which is cider. They pour it far from the cup and let it fall in order to gather air in the liquid and make it more bubbly tasting. It was interesting but I liked it…maybe a little too much but we will get to that later. Here my teacher Carla (who is the best teacher ever by the way) told us to get everything so we could try a little of each. We ordered so much. I don’t know how we ended up eating it all. So I don’t remember all the names for these in Spanish but we got various common tapas dishes but we also got lengua de vaca (cow tongue), orega de cerado (the ear of a pig), molleja (the neck of the pig), the mouth of the pig, black sausage (which is made of blood rice and herbs. This one was gross). I love love loved the neck of the pig. Mark, Austin, and I were extremely obsessed with this one and we kept pulling it towards our end of the table…mark also kept pulling the bottles of cidra towards our end. It was so much fun pouring it except we always ended up spilling a little somewhere. The ear of the pig was also gross. It had a little crunch to it and that is all you can think about while eating it. The tongue was surprisingly good and the lips were odd but okay. Nothing was as good as the neck…we plan on returning soon so we can just get a huge dish of neck haha.
Since this was our third stop and we had drinks at each one you can imagine that the noise level was increasing as the tapas journey progressed. I am sure the locals were thinking we were such stupid Americans but hey we were having a really good time. Everyone was laughing and getting along really well. Also every one was being adventurous and trying some of the odd foods. I spilled some of the lip juice on my pants and that grossed me out a little. Haha. Anyway Carla told us that when you stand up after drinking the cider you feel a little dizzy. She was right about that. The way you drink the cider is different than most drinks. You have a little at a time because you don’t want it to get warm so you feel like you aren’t having a lot but it ends up being a big amount. No one was drunk or anything just a little happy haha. Our end had an extra bottle that I suspect Carla purchased because the two boys were bugging her.
Let me tell you more about Carla because right now it probably seems like all she does is buy us drinks. She does go out to tapas with us but that is not all she does. She is an amazing teacher. We all have such a great time in class and she gives us advice about living in Salamanca. She also helps us experience the Spanish culture and she also understands that we are bunch of college students and that we want to experience life as a young adult in Salamanca.
After we were at our last tapas location Carla said she had a surprise for Jenna, a girl in my class, earlier we were talking about chopitos (shots) in class and Jenna made a remark about them so Carla told her that she would get her one. Carla held true to her promise but also said she would get one for everyone. She wanted us to try the orujo, which is the one Salamanca is known for I think, it is called the flaming shot. It isn’t on fire or anything but she said it takes like acorn and cocoa puff. When she said that I thought I was going crazy cause that is the oddest description I have ever heard. We went to a bar nearby but they didn’t have that kind so she got us a different one. This shot was made from distilled grape skins. It tasted like a raisin. It was very odd and I didn’t like it very much but I wanted to give it a try since we are in Spain. After our “tapas hopping”. Some of us went to the plaza to hang out. On our way to the plaza a guy jumped out in a mask and cape holding a plastic baby. It scared everyone so much, especially Mark. He made me laugh so hard because he screamed like a little girl and did this weird jumping thing. Haha he cracks me up. From the plaza we went to a local bar but I was tired so I left early.
This morning I woke up and had to do my homework, which was to dress like a Spaniard for class this morning. When we got to class we had a fashion show for the guys and a fashion show for the girls. The class then voted on the best dress male and the best dressed female. I would have made my brother Ryan very proud because I won by a landslide, I will try and be modest haha. I wore a long dress with a belt and sandals and then my fedora. I think the fedora is what did it because it looks very European. Anyway Austin and I one and we each got a prize of Filpinos, which are a type of cookie here in Spain. We then talked about differences in dress between Spain and the US. In Spain people dress up more. There are never sweatpants or flip flops being worn. Also pants for men are shorter and tighter here. The colors in their clothes are also very bright. After talking about la moda we talked about music. We listened to a bunch of different songs from Spain. My favorite was Ave María by David Bisbal. It is not what you think of when you think of Ave María. It is a fast pop song and I encourage you to look it up cause it rocks. After class we went to get tapas at a new place. I got a vermouth (a margarita) and some sort of tapas with jam, kiwi, goat cheese, and potatoes. It was different but good. After that I went back home for lunch. I was already full so I felt bad when I couldn’t finish everything my señora gave me but I don’t want to stuff myself.
I know I say this every time but these past few days have been unreal. It is so beautiful here and I love the Spanish culture. I am a night owl anyway so I enjoy staying up late. I love all the new friends I have made and all the places I have gone. Me encanta Salamanca!!!!!
In 30 mins. I am meeting Rachel in the plaza to just chill before the bull fight demonstration we are going to at 5. Then I am probably just going to hang around the rest of the evening. Hasta luego. ☺ Oh and there are pictures of everything on my FB.