This weekend, our group had a trip planned to the north of Spain. After several months of cold winter weather in Salamanca, everyone was ready for the beach. As we sat on Facebook with mobile uploads taken by our Wake friends on vacation in Florida, Mexico, and various tropical islands, we could only think about escaping for at least a weekend ourselves. Luckily for us the Salamanca program director planned to visit several cities with gorgeous beaches over our long weekend excursion. However, since meteorologists aren’t known for being accurate, the beautiful-weather predictions were almost too good to believe.
We searched the upcoming weekend’s weather with high hopes of sunshine and warmth and found that our wishes were going to come true! The second morning we sadly awoke to cold temperatures, inclining us to throw on boots and sweaters. To our surprise, however, when arriving at Llanes, a beautiful little city in Austurias, the sun was beaming on the coast and we were kicking ourselves for leaving our Rainbows and Sperry’s in the suitcases. At our next stop, a town called Comillas, we were thrilled to have lots of free time where we could eat and drink by the beach.
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As two of my friends and I made our way from the center of town to the shore, we looked above and saw an enormous blanket of gray clouds covering the sky. Walking along the cliffs by the coast, we experienced what were arguably the strongest winds I have felt in my life. And, the moment we made it down to the shore, we began to feel drizzles. Although our parade was literally being rained on, there was one silver lining: we happened upon the bus in our long journey near the cliffs along the coast and were able to snatch our coats and umbrellas. When we met back with the group later and saw other students wet from the hours of rain, we could not have been more thankful.
By the time we hit our final beach destination, San Sebastián, we were blessed once again with clear sunny skies, only to have them be demolished by rolling gray clouds. Luckily the rain refrained at this spot, and we had the opportunity to at least walk some of the beautiful coast and explore the tapas bars in town without fear of catching a cold or getting our clothing drenched. Although our beach experiences did not exactly match those of many of our friends back at Wake and their spring break adventures, it was fantastic to explore so many interesting and gorgeous cities in the northern region of Spain and escape Salamanca for a long weekend.