Hola! My name is Mária and I come from Slovakia. I’ve been asked to write a few articles for this awesome Tía Tula blog. First of all, I think I feel I should tell you a bit more about myself and so my first post will be about exactly that but don’t worry, I will keep it short. I am still less than a quarter of a century old and in my ‘relatively’ short life I’ve managed to live in Slovakia (big surprise), Thailand and The Netherlands and I’ve visited a few more, mostly across Europe. I love old but vibrant cities such as Prague and that is also one of the reasons why I chose Salamanca as a place to improve (or actually ‘start learning’) my Spanish. Before I arrived I could say ‘¡Hola!’ and now after a few days I can add a bit more to it so it became ‘¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?’. But more on my Spanish language skills later. People say I sound (almost) like an American when I speak English which is probably due to the unimaginable amount of hours I spent listening (and sometime watching) Friends and Two and a Half Men.
As the title of this post suggests, I am a newbie to Salamanca. I’ve never been to Spain before so I was noticing everything (for example the nice scent of the toilets at Madrid airport – really nice, I am not being sarcastic here). Once I got to Salamanca’s bus station I took out my Google Maps printout and started walking to my apartment. Until I noticed I was supposed to go ‘southeast’ and I had no idea whether that was right or left. So I asked. In English. And I found out I was supposed to go left, in the direction of city centre. As soon as I saw Salamanca’s two Cathedrals (at that point I thought it was just one cathedral), I knew I am going to like it here. But when I saw the buildings in the city centre I fell in love. So once I managed to get my things to my room (which is 2 minutes from the 2 Cathedrals) I decided to get lost in Salamanca (some people prefer to use the word ‘wonder’ or ‘explore’, I say ‘lost’ because that’s how I usually start in a new town). Once I finished my ‘lost in Salamanca’ session I decided to meet up with a friend at McDonald’s at Plaza Mayor which is one of most stunning squares I’ve ever seen. I was surprised by the amount of people everywhere at such a ‘late’ hour. Now I laugh when I realize I thought 11pm is late. I guess I am getting used to the Spanish life style. I can’t say more about it now as I’ve just arrived but if you would like to know more about Salamanca, Spain and Spanish culture from my point of view please stay tuned for more stories!
To sum it up, my name is Mária, and you will read more posts on this blog authored by…me. My first impressions of Salamanca are positive: it’s full of people, stars some beautiful old buildings, has an awesome garden with an amazing view of the Cathedrals, and there’s always something going on. As I told all my family and friends, you definitely have to come and visit!
¡Hasta luego!
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