This morning was hard. Andy having the air conditioning on all night meant I was rather freezing and didn’t sleep so well (I’m prepared for this on the entire tour) and the 6am start was less than welcome. After repacking and showering we headed downstairs to meet everybody at 7am, then we all trudged off to the metro to the train station. Breakfast at the train station meant coffee and churros – not the crazy big churros dipped in chocolate this time, instead just small ones which were a little underwhelming perhaps. Andy liked them.
Soon we were on the two and a half hour train to Salamanca. There was an attempt at sleeping (Andy’s new function on this trip = pillow) but everyone was very chatty so most of the hours passed talking. At just before 12pm we arrived. Again, our hotel room is quite nice, next to a pretty square. After a quick settling in period we headed to a small Tapas bar for a drink and a ‘snack’ (1pm is way too early for lunch here). Andy ended up ordering 7 different Tapas plates so it ended up being a little bit more than that… all were yummy, including one of rice fried in blood? Jaime only told us what that one was after we’d eaten it. I also had a drink that translates roughly to ‘summer wine’ – my new favourite.
We then began our hour or so orientation walk of the town. It is quite small, everything is within easy walking distance. Specific attractions included a seminary, cathedral, house covered in shells… but the best thing about the city is just being able to wander around and admire the pretty streets with flowers and beautifully intricate architecture. The weather is perfect today – mid 20s with a slight breeze.
After the orientation walk the group split up and Andy and I followed Jaime to a lunch spot (at the proper lunch time of 3pm). Andy and I shared a meal of seafood paella, suckling pig (the local speciality) and an eggy chocolately dessert thing. The paella was very seafoody (mussels, clams, prawns etc.) but the pig was amazing, with a crisp skin and juicy meat. Another glass of summer wine for me, beer for Jaime and Andy. The whole thing for all us, including six courses and four drinks came to just under $40. Cheap!
After lunch Andy and I wandered around the town for a bit – we climbed the seminary dome and admired the view and went and checked out the cathedral. Then it was time for a traditional Spanish siesta… at 6pm we were in bed. It took a lot of effort to get of bed again at 7pm but we wanted to get to the square early to find a table to watch the final of the Euro Cup. We arrived at Plaza Mayor around 7.30pm to find pretty much all the tables had been reserved or were already full, clearly this was going to get busy. We eventually scrounged ourselves a table with an angled but sufficient view of a TV screen and settled in with a bottle of local wine and some Tapas to pass the time before the match.
At 8.30pm I went to meet the others, bringing them all back to our tiny table (pulling chairs from anywhere we could find them). Some had bought t-shirts, flags and a coloured stick for drawing flags on bodies and faces – I got a flag on both cheeks. And then the match started – within the first 15 minutes Spain scored a goal and it was all uphill from there. This match was a lot more exciting than the last one we watched, Spain scored four goals, Italy scored none and every time the ball went in the square went crazy. At the right climatic time the lights in the square went on, including a big display of red and yellow lights on the main building (more cheering here).
And then Spain won and everything went nuts. The square turned into a blur of red and yellow, with horns and yelling and cheering. A whole mob of people started running around the outside of the square and as we had consumed quite a lot of wine at this time, a lot of us jumped in and ran with them. We spent the next two hours diving into the square amongst the crazy fans and popping up for air back at our table. At one point I stole a Spanish shirt for another guy in our tour group. I also had lots of photos taken with crazy randoms. We couldn’t stop grinning about the chances of us being here for this – honestly one of the most memorable moments of my life (do check out the photos at the link on the right)
At around 1.30am we headed back to bed, looking forward to a much needed sleep in the next day!
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