We left Santiago de Compostela this morning. On our walk to the train station on the other side of town, we randomly ran into Brantley the professor from Bucknell. One last Camino friend to see before heading back to the real world. Or maybe one more to come.

Madrid is a wild and vibrant city. We stayed here before, but in an area that shut down at night. Not so in the Literary Quarter. Yeah, Books may = Nerds, but not in Spain! There are hip restaurants on every block and the place we went to for lunch had a movie theme going everywhere.

This is also Bloomsday, an annual celebration of James Joyce and Ulysses. you’re going to have to Google this one, but basically, Ulysses takes place in one day – this day – and many people celebrate it, Ulysses was never one of my favorites, but I can appreciate Bloomsday, and when you’re in the literary quarter of a major city, they celebrate it, too. I saw large groups of people in period garb, wandering around and performing lines from the book. Honestly, really cool. #nerd

Next up was dinner. Paella. With Janet 1!!! She’s in town and met up with us and we had our first paella of the trip. It didn’t disappoint, even though the shrimp kept looking at me and I don’t think Paula had too much of the morcilla (blood sausage). The food was excellent and the company was great. She travels a ton for her work, and has family in California. I don’t think this will be the last time we run into each other. Even though she’s a grandmother, Janet 1 is as vibrant as this city. We love her.

We got back to the hotel at 11:30 and the city is showing no signs of sleeping. Thankfully, our room faces the courtyard instead of the street. See you tomorrow, Madrid.

-Will