I was once in Salamanca for three days with my wife. Except for brief encounters in restaurants and stores, it was difficult to find people to talk with. However I found a bookstore and I was able to engage the bookstore owner in lengthy conversations, and he always welcomed me back.
The difficulty of engaging with the locals is another reason why we should prepare ourselves before we go to the country where the language is spoken. In most cases the idea that you can simply arrive, with little knowledge of the language and talk your way to fluency will prove to be an illusion.
I had a very similar experience in France. I attended a month long course this summer, and I found that most of the other students were young, relatively affluent, and also relatively uninterested in speaking any other language than English. Different from you, I was about the same age as them. I had to find a balance between socialising in English so as to not seem anti-social, and finding real conversation opportunities in French. I basically just went to all the organized events/parties, and spoke English when spoken to. Otherwise I did my own thing in town, and had some amazing chats with people. Bookstores were great! I even had some good, fairly long chats at bus stops when people were leaving town at the end of a day of work. I found a bar where no one spoke English, and I passed a few great nights in French there. French café culture is great; I could just read as long as I wanted, and I was able to strike up quite a few conversations there.
Would you do another course? I don’t think I would. Next time I’ll save the money and spend it on a month of rent and food incountry, much as it sounds like you are planning to do…
