Spain Road Trip Travel Diary Part Three (Final Part)

9.1. 20:53
I wanted to sleep longer today, but I guess my body is used to the rhythm during the week, so I woke up early anyway. But I enjoyed a slow morning before I finally packed up my stuff and left. Originally, my plan was to go straight to Valladolid, and then afterwards to Salamanca, where I have my accommodation for tonight, but last night I had a phone call with my mum, and she told me, that she pretty much doesn’t know a city in Spain anymore that I haven’t been except Burgos. I told her that I’ve never heard of Burgos. And so after the call, I actually looked it up, and I couldn’t believe that it was basically on the way. Not exactly, but it wasn’t like I’ve already been in an area nearby. It wasn’t too far off my original route, and I had enough time, so I thought, I might as well go. I also researched with ChatGPT if it was worth going there and I didn’t even know there’s a church that’s an UNESCO World Heritage. So I thought why the hell not, you know? So I left for Burgos and I explored there and it was really interesting to see that church. It was actually really amazing.

It was very big and I walked around through the centre, and then I walked up to a viewing point and enjoyed the view. Everything was pretty quiet.

It was alright, honestly, one or two hours is definitely enough. At least that was my impression. After Burgos, I continued my way to Valladolid, which appeared a little bit bigger to me, but luckily, I still found a parking spot. I’ve always researched parking spots before I went to any place, because I really like to save money for parking and I don’t like to go to the centre because the traffic there is crazy. So I always look at free parking spots a little bit outside, but still a walkable distance if possible. I think only twice so far I took a public transport from the parking spot to the city centre but I was lucky again in Valladolid. And I walked around there a little bit. Actually, Valladolid wasn’t too impressive.

I think if you skip this one, you wouldn’t miss out too much, to be honest, but it wasn’t as boring as Bilbao. Literally, nothing can top Bilbao in the sense of being boring. Anyways, I already started to get hungry as well and became a little bit tired from all the walking, I already had my 10000 steps. Oh, I forgot a little side story. So when I was in Burgos and I was about to leave, on my way back to my car, there was this person on a street having a sign. You know how they always ask for money, and he had a sign that said “ayuda para comer” which means help for eating, for food. And I looked him straight in the eye. I don’t know what it was, but it kind of left a mark. So when I walked on, I thought about him. I don’t like to give money to anyone, because I really dont know what they’re spending it for but I was like, you know, you have enough money, you could invite someone for some food. And so I thought a little bit, and then I decided to just go to a grocery store and buy some food and then give it to him. It took me a little bit to find one, but I finally it and bought a few things. I think altogether it was like €15, just a few items like bread, some cookies, water, nuts, tuna, stuff like that. And then I walked all the way back and this was heavy because I had like a 2 l litre water bottle inside. I think altogether it must have been about 30 minutes till I made up my mind, found a grocery store, bought everything and walked back. And guess what: I walk back and I’m looking, and looking, and I can’t find this guy anymore. He was gone. And I don’t know what I felt, but it felt like a mixture of disappointment and anger, because I was already starting to get a little bit tired. And then I was carrying all the heavy stuff. And then it’s not even 30 minutes later, and he’s not even there anymore, are you kidding me? I felt scamed. I think this guy obviously really didn’t need help because it wasn’t late, so you can’t tell me that maybe he went to his home or whatever because literally I was gone 30 minutes. It was around 12 or 1 o’clock. So I don’t know, I was a little bit lost. I didn’t know what to do. I thought maybe I find someone else, and I just walked back to my car. I was exhausted, and I wanted to get to the next place. As I walked back with that heavy stuff carrying and starting to become tired, I was really annoyed. I was like, you know what? This is the last time I did this. I felt like it was a scam. I thought to myself that I will not do this again here in Spain or in Europe. I don’t think the people are as poor as they apparently pretend to be. But luckily, I bought stuff that I can eat as well. So I guess I’m just gonna use it myself. I thought the only time I’m going to do this again is when I go to a very poor country because right now it felt ridiculous. Anyways, back to the story. I explored Valladolid. Like I said it was cool, but it was nothing too special. I didn’t spend too much time there, because I was really starting to get a little bit more tired from all the walking. I had more than 18000 steps, and so I continued to Salamanca. The accommodation was stating online that they have parking for 10 years per day, but I always try to find free spots nearby. I never booked accommodations in the city centre with the one exception in Gijón. And lucky enough, I found a spot right in front of the accommodation.

Salamanca is pretty much my last stop, because when I planned the trip, the almost 6-hour drive from Salamanca to València felt a little bit too long, so I booked one accommodation on the way just to have a good night’s sleep. It’s in a very small pueblo, so there’s nothing there. I just booked it so I wouldn’t have to drive all the way. But ever since the day before yesterday, I started to think maybe I should just go straight to València. I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. I cannot even explain properly why. But it’s pretty much that driving all these long hours in the car isn’t as exhausting as I thought it would be. Today, for example, altogether I was driving about five hours. And I didn’t feel exhausting from the driving. So I thought maybe I can do the six hours with a little break in between. And I looked up the way online and I saw that it’s passing by Madrid and I actually have a friend who lives a little bit outside of Madrid. Although she’s doing Erasmus in Poland, she visited her family during Christmas. And just yesterday she sent me a message which sounded like she’s still there. So I sent her a message that maybe if she’s still there, we could meet up tomorrow and catch up which would be so cool, but I’m still waiting for her response. So actually I’m not really sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, but I am pretty sure that I’m not going to go to that acommendation that I booked even though I cannot cancel it for free. It’s just that I don’t know, I have this feeling. I looked up the reviews again and altogether it doesn’t have that bad reviews ( 7.7). But Iooked up the most recent ones, and they were pretty bad. They all say that the heating isn’t working properly in the room. Everyone who’s been there in December or January says that it’s super super cold. And that’s one thing I really hate: Having a cold room. So I’m not exactly sure what I will do tomorrow. Spend some time with my friend in Madrid, maybe stay one night there or if I go straight to València and maybe just do a stop somewhereon the road. But I’m pretty sure, I’m not going to stay in that place that I booked and it’s not too bad. It was less than €30, so its not like im gonna have a lot of financial loss.

10.1. 19:19
I enjoyed another slow morning today, before packing up my stuff for the last time, and checking out of my accommodation. It turned out that my friend in Madrid had a bus back to Poland this morning, so we missed each other by one day. I walked about 20 minutes to the city centre. My first stop was Plaza Mayor. Pretty much every city in Spain has a Plaza Mayor and they usually aren’t very special, so my expectations were pretty low. But the one here in Salamanca was pretty nice. I liked it a lot.

Then I continued to the probably most known attractions, the university, the cathedral and the library. They’re all very close to each other and simply impressive. I was fascinated by the architecture and thought to myself if I had to study at a university, I’d love to be in this one. Such a cool building to spend your time every day. It was founded in 1218 and is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the world.

I also went to the public library, which was free to enter, and I definitely recommend to do it, if you get the chance. There isn’t much too see, but what you can see is worth it. It was really fascinating to me to see the stone and marble construction upstairs.

The more I see of all those big churches, the more I wonder how they built these back in the day. I asked AI and it said the following:

People in the past could build buildings like the University and Cathedral of Salamanca mainly because of time, skill, and collective effort.

• These buildings were built over many decades or centuries, so there was no rush.
• Workers were highly specialized craftsmen who trained for years and mastered stone, geometry, and structure.
• They used simple tools but very smart techniques like arches, vaults, and gravity.
• Entire cities supported the construction, funded by the Church or the Crown.
• The goal was to build something lasting and meaningful, not fast or cheap.

In short:
They built slowly, skillfully, and for permanence — and that’s why these buildings still impress us today.

Interesting, isn’t it?
I spent about two hours exploring Salamanca, before starting the almost six hour drive to València. It was way less exhausting than I thought it would be. I took a few breaks, altogether about 45 minutes. Now I’m glad, I’m back and starting to prepare my move to Gandía.