Salamanca

Finally, we are in Salamanca for the night. It's been a few days since I've had a solid night's sleep and we'll be doing the majority of our exploring tomorrow, so this will be brief. To make a long story short, our flight from Philly to Madrid ended up having to turn back halfway across the Atlantic due to engine troubles last night, which means that we spent a total of about ten hours in the air, excluding the flight into Philadelphia. Needless to say, I'm still pretty tired and mentally absent, but here goes nothing:

After flying into Madrid and spending a few hours there, we hopped on a bus and drove through the countryside to Salamanca, in western Spain. This city is beautiful. Tonight, despite some rain, we went to the Plaza Mayor, this huge open plaza fringed by shops and restaurants in the middle of the city. There we found an upstairs cafe called Meson Cervantes for cheap tapas, drinks, and lively quasi-Spanish conversation before scouting out some crepes and live music nearby. On the way back to our hotel, we walked around and looked at some of the churches, all of which are beautiful and old and unbelievably enormous. It was close to 11:00 p.m. when we finally returned, though most of the locals seemed as though they were just beginning their evenings. I guess people here really do live on a much later clock.

In a perfect world, I would have photos right now, but alas, they will have to wait until tomorrow. So I apologize for the rather underwhelming blog post, and I thank you for reading. ¡Hasta mañana!