Rochester-->Washington D.C.-->London-->Madrid--> Salamanca
I can't tell you enough just how good it feels to have that done and over with. It was so long and so tiring :( Even having been here 3 days now, I still don't feel caught up on sleep or adjusted to the new time zone, but for any of you who know Spain, part of my problem is most definitely because they have quite the night life here... and right now Salamanca is "de fiestas"-- ha ha-- so you can probably guess how much sleep I'll be getting this week! I feel like I haven't stopped moving since I got here... hence, the reason I have not been able to update you all until now. I know many of you have been anxiously waiting-- so here it goes!!
Wednesday, September 9th
I'll never forget waking up on the bus ride from Madrid hearing the woman behind me saying "Look, there's Salamanca!" It was 11:30pm and I had fallen asleep... but when I looked up I almost couldn't believe it. I had seen pictures of the cathedral before, but seeing it in person for the first time was amazing, especially from a distance! Since I have been here, I have learned
that Salamanca is known by many as "la ciudad dorada" or the golden city. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture myself, but here is one that I found on the internet that I think demonstrates perfectly what I saw from on the bus that night.
I was just so impressed! The stone that many buildings were built with in Salamanca have a yellow tint so it truly does look like a golden city, especially at night when the city glows with all of the lights.
Not only does Salamanca have beautiful golden buildings but, from what I have seen so far, it is also has people with hearts of gold :) As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar I was assigned a host Rotary counselor here in Salamanca. His name is Fernando Prado and he and his family have been nothing but amazingly hospitable. Fernando's wife, Magdalena, and two of his daughters, Eva and Virginia, offered to come meet us at the bus station that night and they took us to the hostel that they arranged ahead of time for us to stay in. We were so relieved to meet such friendly people because unfortunately, Madrid was not such a great experience for us. We had a 4 hour wait in the airport before our bus arrived and many of the people we spoke with (to ask for directions or information) were very rude :( It made me so sad!! It was so nice to meet Fernando's family after such a long trip.
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