Day Trips and "THE NIGHT IN WHITE"

So, this weekend was characterized by my unpreparedness. Basically, whenever I should have had my camera for some awesome pictures, I either forgot it, didn't charge it, or broke it. Therefore, this post won't be accompanied with some awe-inspiring shots. On Friday, Tori and I took a train to Salamanca which is about 2 hours outside of Madrid. Once again, this city was filled with history and was absolutely gorgeous. The Cathedral here was the best one I have seen thus far (that statement wouldn't have meant anything a few weeks ago, hahaha) and we could actually take pictures inside. But of course, my camera was dead. Also, the Plaza Mayor and the river here were beautiful. Words just don't do it justice. Check out Tori's pictures for the full effect. After a disappointing search for nightlife (we ended up hanging out at a bar filled with 30- somethings singing the "Grease" soundtrack), we headed back to our hotel for the night.

After an unfulfilling breakfast of Nutella and croissants, we met up with a group from school on Saturday and continued to explore Salamanca. The university here is supposedly very good and famous throughout Spain. Interesting fact: It was founded in the 1400's (that could be made up) and when each class graduated back then, they celebrated by slaughtering a bull and mixing its blood with an oil, which they proceeded to use as ink to write their names on the wall encompassing the campus. So there's this huge wall in Salamanca with a bunch of 600-year old names written in red (That part's true). Moving on....

So we returned to Madrid on Saturday evening just in time to enjoy La Noche en Blanco. This is an annual festival celebrating the full moon where everyone stays up all night in the streets of Madrid drinking, mingling, and going to museums for free. A bunch of us met up and wondered around the city for a few hours. Knowing I had to get up early on Sunday, I called it a night at the weak hour of 3 am. (This is going home early on a normal weekend).

Thanks to Tori, I was able to get up Sunday morning at 8 am to meet the bus at school for our day trip. Of course, the one day trip that involves winding roads on the edges of cliffs is the one where I am horribly hungover, hahahaha. As Tori said, it was comical at how miserable the morning was. But all in all, the day trip was totally worth it once we got to the last mountain town. This town was in the shadow of an ominous SuperCrag looking mountain. (Appreciate the reference Nickelodeon fans. D-D-D-DO YOU HAVE IT, GUTS!! Let's get the scores from Mo', MO!..... hahahaha that was more for me than you). So, this town's castle was situated so that it not only had a sweet view of that mountain, but it looked out over the river below. I had to settle for a mental picture because at lunch my camera fell out of my pocket and somehow broke. I was upset to say the least and still am.... help, parents!

That was yet another successful weekend in a nutshell (a rather large nutshell, at that). Sorry for the lack of pictures. Hopefully I can get this camera thing straightened out before I head to Barcelona next weekend!