Landed

Flight #126 landed at 6:50 am in Madrid this morning, and I'm pleased to report that thanks to some Tylenol pm and a good sandwich before leaving JFK, I slept almost the entire flight. Despite my position in the middle seat of the middle aisle, the flight seemed like it was only an hour long. I woke up just in time to have a cup of tea and fill out customs paperwork before hitting Spanish turf.

In Madrid, our group formally met with or Resident Director, Esteban, and acquired our Spanish cell phones and student handbooks. We also gave one of our bags to another program director to bring directly to Cordoba, so for this next week plus of travel around Spain, I just have my trusty blue L.L.Bean duffle bag, Sally. And then we hopped on a bus to go west.

Our first stop was Avila, a small city about 1.5 hours west of Madrid. The first activity was grabbing a sandwich for lunch that we ate outside a little cafe. The air is cool, but the sun is incredibly strong, which creates an interesting climate. The city is named for Saint Teresa, and is surrounded by an old stone "muralla," or fortification. Avila is special because unlike other expanding cities in Spain, Avila has maintained the muralla. Before leaving our lunch spot, which was on the outside of the muralla, everyone snapped a few pictures.


A man painting the Avila muralla

And then back to the bus for another 1.5 hours to Salamanca, where we checked into our hotel, took much-needed showers, and are now out and about roaming the city. I'm currently out exploring the city and eating frozen yogurt with pistachio topping for lunch- so yummy.



This is my view from where I'm sitting on the Plaza Mayor de Salamanca:



I thought it was a great spot to take advantage of free wifi (which runs 24€/day at our hotel) and update on the past 24 hours. Ok back to exploring before dinner. Hasta pronto!

Location:Calle de Zamora,Salamanca,Spain