ALTHOUGH not a state in itself, Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. All of the inhabitants here speak Spanish. Most of the inhabitants though would like to go to the mainland states to try to achieve the American dream. Eventually, they wind up successful living in condo suites in Brooklyn. Once retired, you may as well find some time to visit the land where your language Spanish comes from – Spain across the Atlantic.

The United States is currently in the brink of recession. On the other hand, European countries such as Spain are making sure they will not be heading that way. You too can surely help dealing with that by spending. Vacationing to one country in Europe like Spain is one way to help. By reserving a flight alone through online travel agency Expedia, you will be dumping bucks for the American economy because Expedia is based in the United States.

When you board an Iberian Airlines flight bound for Madrid, you will then help the Spanish economy. If you take the Eurostar from Madrid to Salamanca, part of what you’ve spent goes to the economy of the United Kingdom because Eurostar is a British company operating in mainland Europe.

Salamanca is the most Americanized city in Spain (many students can fund long stays by giving one to one English class to local “salmantino” students). That is why I want Americans to go there and not elsewhere in the country. Salamanca was even the set of the upcoming Hollywood movie Vantage Point starring Matthew Fox of Lost and an ensemble cast of very talented actors such as William Hurt, Forest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver including that hunk who has two infant twins, Dennis Quaid. Because of this fact, employees in the hospitality sector in Salamanca can speak American English or the one with the rhotic accent. They are very professional and courteous because they are trained by Swiss hospitality universities and colleges.

But if you want to acquire Spanish as a second language, there are also lots of language institutions in Salamanca. When you do that, you can contribute to the economy in Salamanca already. It is not just tourism though that Salamanca is relying on. There are also tungsten mines there. For 2008 alone, Ormonde Mining PLC has spotted five more tungsten deposit sites in Salamanca. Ormonde Mining PLC estimates that there are around 5 million tons of tungsten deposit in Salamanca. This can surely buoy up the economy of the country whose central bank, the Bank of Spain, in conjunction with the European Central Bank, Prime Minister Zapatero and his counterparts at the World Economic Forum in Davos have already been panicking because of the stock market run in the United States.

Money is often a very important factor to all the students who study here - many have part time jobs whilst as a student and can forget things like they are sometimes entitled to taxback should they be in full time education - something which, although Salamanca is a relatively cheap city, when compared to Madrid for example, is always welcome!

Now let’s talk about foreign affairs. Salamanca has just established its sisterhood ties with Tehran. Tehran is one fascinating city. In fact, its former mayor who is now president of the country, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been nominated as the world’s best mayor during his reign.

SALAMANCA is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain and its image has indeed been boosted with the release of the Hollywood thriller Vantage Point in 2008 which is set in Salamanca. The movie, even though shot entirely in Mexico, features the city in precision down to the logo and the color and even the model of the Guardia Civil cars. Salamanca is one of the favorite destinations for British and Scandinavian tourists this Christmas season.

Aside from enjoying the beauty of Christmas here in Salamanca, have fun in other endeavors as well. For example, you can enjoy having to learn Spanish right here in Salamanca. There are numerous schools right here splashed in the middle of Salamanca which offers two-week short courses in Spanish. Here, you can learn Spanish the fun way. The lessons are not induced in boring lectures but all in a participative mood.

The tutors make use of slides where you can recite out loud the few vocabularies that you have learned so far during the course. Make no mistake, the Spanish crash course here is already included in bundled tour packages during Christmas so you will be toured with the many attractions in Salamanca as well.

And in Salamanca, even though it is not located in the Mediterranean, there are numerous swimming pools here to have a perfect romantic vacation. Since Salamanca is located in the middle of a hot city with so many Moorish-inspired buildings, it is not that cold here during winter so this vacation can really be a pleasurable one.

You can have a romantic evening with your partner or if you have a kid in tow, you can put your kid at one of the nurseries in the hotel that you are staying. Salamanca offers a varied selection of five-star hotels and inns. These inns have newly-installed nurseries, an addition that has been the trend recently following the Madeleine McCann kidnapping in nearby Portugal. And get this folks – these nurseries are all manned by professional child psychologists so your stay will definitely be a pleasant one and you need not worry about your child’s welfare because these nurseries are operating 24 hours.

With this freedom in mind- do something you’ve never tried before! Salamanca has a very prestigious casino to be enjoyed and what better excuse to experience the glamour of the poker tables than a holiday? You needn’t spend too much once inside but you should plan in advance how much you are prepared to lose - you don’t want to be struggling come the end of your holiday! Of course, your luck could go the other way and you may find yourself with enough to finance another city break! Give yourself the best chances by practising poker online before you come away - you’ll make the most of your Ocean’s 11 experience and feel a lot more confident on entering Salamanca’s extravagant secret!

Binge on some of the best Salamanca food at the topmost restaurants here. After all, these restaurants are regularly checked by the Salamanca tourism ministry because they don’t want to feel embarrassed with poor service. Tourism is one of the lifeblood of their economy here. There are lots of yummy treats available in the Salamanca way like several variants of the famed Spanish staple tortilla, chorizo and the fish. How can anybody forget how tasty the fish here is? Fish here is sautéed, fried and grilled the Mediterranean way – in olive oil.

In fact, you can even order fish right from the aquarium before they are cooked in various forms - monkfish, salmon and king prawns bundled in one salad; sautéed langoustinos in garlic sauce (hmm…yummy), king prawns marinated in chili (get that?); seafood salad with marinated octopus, squid and mussels; oysters dipped in lime; lobsters dipped in tartar sauce; and everything else in between.

SALAMANCA is a landlocked city in western Spain. It means magic in Spanish. And indeed, it is a magical city. To get in Salamanca, there are daily flights coming in from Madrid and Barcelona. And there are likewise buses coming in from Madrid and Barcelona as well, including those ones coming in from Portugal. As you know, Portugal is bound with Spain and they all belong to the same Iberian Peninsula. As signatories of the Schengen agreement, Spain and Portugal do not install border outposts along their boundaries and travelers are free to cross to each other’s country. So one can easily get inside Salamanca using his or her own car from anywhere in mainland Europe such as France, Italy and Germany. All these countries are also signatories of the Schengen agreement.

The city of Salamanca is a plateau and is considered one of the Renaissance cities in Europe. For this, Salamanca as a whole is instituted by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. As winter is approaching, many visitors from Britain are slowly going to Salamanca. There are lots of visitors during summer but undeniably, there are a few who want to go back here during winter even though the temperature is as cold as their home country and may likely go down a little more than -3 degrees Celsius. That’s one thing why winter is savored by tourists here. They want to stroll around the nice spots of the city without the rowdy crowds of summer. Think of something like a second honeymoon if you may.

And it’s nice to be out here in Salamanca to celebrate Christmas. After all, most companies in Great Britain and all of the United Kingdom give Christmas breaks to all their employees. It’s nice to bring one’s family here in Salamanca, lodge at some three- or two-star hotel and be present at every mass during the nine dawns preceding Christmas Eve. The folks here are highly religious and they can surely appreciate a foreign family diligently going to mass. That’s it if you’re Catholic though. But if you’re not, then merely marvel at the cathedral and other smaller churches here and it’s some sort of spirituality already. Speaking of churches, theirs in Salamanca is designed as Gothic. This was duly part of the Catholic’s desire to convert the natives into Christianity back then and to do that, they have to incorporate designs in the physical structure of the church which reflects the dominant culture among the locals. When the churches were overrun by the Moors, they were converted into mosques and integrated with Islamic designs in the interiors. These were then retained when the Christians reconquered Salamanca back.

Another plus factor when you’re out here during winter is that hotels and motels here are not fully booked. You don’t need to have that hassle going in and reserving for motel suites at a month’s advance. All the motels here are nicely kept, even the smallest ones. They all abide by the European Union standard.