Bienvenidos a Salamanca, Spain and Sandstone

The Plaza Mayor in Salamanca, Spain

Bienvenidos! I'm Jen Wong and here to provide you with a blog on traveling every Friday.

To begin, let's head to Salamanca, Spain, where I first caught the traveling bug, and a logical place to begin sharing my travel background and travel style.

In between my Senior (and before my Super Senior) year in college I applied for my first passport and headed for Salamanca to study for a month and then take on the Europe backpack circuit for two months.

Salamanca is about 2 1/2 hours northwest of Madrid and named one of two European Capitals of Culture for 2002. This meant incredible concerts (BB King! Manu Chao!) in the Plaza de Toros, special events, tourists and a freshly spruced-up city.

Salamanca's central streets, shops and outdoor dining

This place is gorgeous. It's nickname is the "Golden City" because of the golden sandstone architecture. The Plaza Mayor is often referred to as the most beautiful Plaza Mayor (main plaza) in Spain. If you've seen the movie Vantage Point, it was filmed here. To study here in the summer is to join the thousands of other international students at the Universidad de Salamanca - Spain's oldest existing University and one of it's most prestigious. Students bring a very lively and festive atmosphere to this college town. And a lot of bars.

More beautiful sandstone

As you may already start to notice, there are a lot of superlatives in this blog and there will be plenty more to come in this series of blogs.

After studying, I started traveling through Europe on the same route as many other backpackers, most who were traveling for further and longer (or so it seemed) than I. If they could do it, I could do it! After graduation I worked for about a year and a half before quitting my job and heading for New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe and a bit of the USA over the next eight months.

I came home ready to work, but soon decided that my traveling days weren't over yet. I headed back to the same job, with the understanding that I would soon take off again for five months to cruise around South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and China. After those big trips, my traveling has been limited to vacations of less than two weeks each and have been much closer to home.

Now for a bit about my traveling style. I buy a plane ticket from continent to continent and figure it out along the way. I bring with me a backpack that has room for things that I will inevitably purchase along the way. I always pack way too many shoes. I always pack a shirt from my college, UC Davis. (GO AGS!)

I usually travel solo, but I'm only alone if it's by choice. I often meet up with friends and family who come from the U.S. and will join me for one week to two months. I don't book a place to stay, if I even do that, until I'm just about ready to leave my current city. I like to try (most) local foods at least once.

I try to find the cheapest and safest way to travel from point A to point B on public transportation. I like to eat my way across a country. I will travel across the world for a great festival.

The more places I visit, the more places I want to go. I like most everywhere I travel to and if not, it's just because I wasn't there long enough to experience the place and the people.

Join me every Friday for a virtual trip, both near and far to kick off your weekend!