So this is Spain?

I have gained a lot of good and also bad experiences in Salamanca. Watching stork babies everyday, someone calling the police because I made a photo of him working, experiencing unusual weather... Some stories might be funny, check it out!

Weather

Well, what can I say... The weather was just unbelievable... It was always cold and rainy. You would normally say that about the UK, but no, I am talking about SPAIN! The first months my friend and me thought that it was normal because it was during February and March.

The locals said that the good weather began in April, and towards the end of April the weather would be a lot sunnier and warmer. Well, it's now the 3rd of June, I am sitting here writing this while outside is 20 degrees, in the next day it will go down to 14.

Has it been like this just for a few days? No. It has been like this since I set a foot in Salamanca. The average temperature here from April to June was of about 15 degrees. I mean, there was at least one day with 25 degrees (wow, just wow). But yeah, not higher than that and most of the time much lower. I am German and my friends always ask me "You are in Spain, it's pretty warm isn't it? ". And then I remember that I missed the warmest April in Germany to experience the coldest and rainiest weather of Salamanca of the last 25 years.

And this is not the whole story about the weather. Normally Salamanca is a semi-arid region, it doesn't rain much and sometimes they have problems because there isn't enough water. Well, not this year, just four days ago the streets were flooded.

The city

Yeah, welcome to Spain. Salamanca is a really clean city because the town employs a lot of people to clean the streets at night. In my opinion there are too many people employed because I always see 3 men walking down one street to pick up one piece of paper - minimum one person is unnecessary.

They also usually clean the streets with lots of water. As I previously mentioned, Salamanca is a semi-arid region, however, they waste loads of water every two to three days to clean the streets which are most of the time already clean.

But this one day when the streets were flooded (as you can see on the picture) - they did it again! They cleaned the damn streets with water! Why would you clean the streets with water when there was heavy rain all day?

That's why I needed to take a picture. What happened next was that one of the street cleaners started shouting "Hey! Hey! " And I was like... Is he talking to me? Then he started walking, almost running in my direction, and he started pulling off his gloves like he was up for a fight, shouting at me (in Spanish):

"Why are you taking pictures?! Don't take pictures of me while I am working! "

I was like "I am a tourist, I take pictures for the sake of memories! "

He said: "No. You won't take pictures while I am working. I will call the police. "

And I replied: "Yeah do whatever the hell you want, I took a photo but your face can not be seen. But now continue cleaning the streets because it is really necessary since it didn't rain all day. "

Then he left while saying that he will call the police - what he actually did. He called the police because I took a photo. Ten minutes later the police arrived, passed me and went straight off to that guy who called them. Then they were talking for other ten minutes (again, isn't this guy supposed to be working? ) and then the police went off. A really interesting experience. Ah, and here is the photo. I hope he sees that I uploaded the photo and calls the police during his working hours.

Beautiful Salamanca

Enough with the complaints.

Salamanca is a really nice city. Its architecture is absolutely unique. All buildings in the old city have that nice yellow-orangey touch. Furthermore you can see big churches every few minutes. I mean there are a lot of cool places like the Cathedral, Plaza Mayor, the Roman bridge... (check out my profile if you want to see photos of those places and a detailed description). But even the regular buildings are amazing.

There are a lot of tapas bars which are amazing. The prices are quite low, you pay between six and twelve euros for three or four tapas plus something to drink. There is always some time and space for some tapas!

I had a quite cool flat which wasn't that expensive. The best of it was the view from my balcony. I could not only see some historic buildings but also storks! There are plenty of storks in Salamanca and I am really lucky that I had an amazing view of the nest of one stork family!

Yes, family, they had babies! I could see how they grew up slowly and from a few weeks back they are standing up in their nest and trying to fly.

They can't fly yet, but it's really funny and cute to watch them trying, wanting to move their wings and jumping without success. For real, this memory is one of the best of Salamanca! Absolutely unique.

Universidad de Salamanca - "Campus de Excelencia Internacional"

I chose Salamanca because I wanted to improve my Spanish and I heard that this university was a really good one nationwide. I'm happy to have improved my Spanish in Salamanca, but I am really disappointed with the university. The system is absolutely awful, reminds me of high school or sometimes kindergarten. The professors way to easily offended and they treat you like a child.

For example, if you arrive to class 5 minutes behind schedule, the professor would say "We start at 10 a. m. sharp, and not later. " Another example, my friend and I were talking quietly and the teacher threatened us with telling our Erasmus coordinator. And if you are on your phone, the professors go mental.

For me it was really weird, because I am used to the stance of professors in Germany who don't care about what you do because in the end it's your problem if you're late, on your phone, or failing your exams. Here they treat you like a child and try to educate you. Should this be the level of a university? I am not the only one who says this, my friends told me that in their faculties and classes it is the same.

Moreover, I don't feel like I have learned anything in class. I started the semester with 4 courses, ended with 2 because some of them were really a waste of time. For example, they explained definitions (4 weeks), presented book covers with PowerPoint slides (for 2 weeks) or showed how you search for bibliography and references (for 6 weeks).

Nightlife

For me as a German, the alcohol here is extremely cheap. In the supermarket you get a liter of beer for €1. There is a pub where an Erasmus party goes down every Tuesday, you get 10 drinks for €5.

Besides, you can enter every nightclub for free. The price of a bottle of beer in a pub is never higher than €3, most of the time it is between €2 and €2, 50. Basically you can party any day you like because there are people in the streets and pubs every night except for Sundays and Mondays.

A big problem for me was the music in the clubs: reggaeton, reggaeton and... Reggaeton! I think there is only one club that plays electronic music, in the rest of clubs they play only reggaeton. The first two weeks I thought "Ah, it's not that bad, I will get used to it". Now I despise it. Always the same music and always the same background beat: Bam Badapbam bam - badapbap bam - badapbap bam. I can't hear it anymore! And the worst of all is that I will go back to Germany in one month and my friends told me they are playing reggaeton also in the German radio right now... I don't want to go home.

Is it possible to get in touch with locals?

I would say it is really hard. In the university you normally don't get to know any Spanish people, so you have your Erasmus friends and that's it. I was a bit luckier because I do breakdance. When I went to Spain I didn't believe that there were people also breakdancing in Salamanca, but in fact, there are a lot. So I wrote to one guy and he invited me to his dance school. From that day on I was exercising with them one to three times a week. We became good friends and also travelled together to national competitions in Zamora, Zaragoza and also one in Salamanca. So, because of breakdance and the strong hip-hop culture I could meet Spanish people who are now my friends, I travelled and I improved myself. Triple Luck!