mindstalk | Entries tagged with madrid

A bunch of private showers don't have curtains, just bathtub and shower head. Others, or in hotels, have a clear divider near the head, but it doesn't go all the way, so that a bad shower angle can easily flood the room. Like this morning, until I got it under control.

8 am airport shuttle is more like the "arrive at 8:08, leave at 8:11" shuttle.

I swear my duffle is spontaneously generating weight. Felt really heavy yesterday despite having my Spanish books in my backpack. Might be better today, after sifting through and throwing out some dead weight -- like the Paris guidebook I'd completely forgotten I'd bought. Forgot about my Paris map too, though I'm keeping that.

Big Sky morning, with lots of scrub, like blend between LA and bus stop Montana.

Found my old US SIM card; I'd even put it in a sensible place. So when I get to the US I can rez my number, assuming AT&T has been charging it for the past 3 months.

I get the impression that the shuttle driver doesn't know which airlines are in which terminals. Good thing I looked it up. Hope I remember the right one.

It'd be nice if the hotel listings on booking.com mentioned not just the existence of an airport hotel shuttle but how often it runs. Or when; someone might care about a :00 hourly shuttle vs. a :30 one.

At least the 20 minute estimate to T1 was accurate. My duffel ran afoul of the carryon weight limit of 8 kg, at 12 kg. So I took my clothes bag out, leaving 6.5 to be checked-in. I bet it won't reach SF on time but I don't think I need it for anything urgent.

Security fast but I forgot to empty my water bottle. At least I have my other empty bottle. But, insurrection! There's no water fountains, even inside security! Where's my little bit of America? What the hell, Europe?

Part of me cries seeing the direct Santiago flights on the screens. And passing the Ryanair Santiago boarding. Wait, Ryanair? Maybe Orbitz just didn't know about direct flights cheaper than $4000, and I had to look elsewhere. Crap.

Gang of loud Spanish people in the bathroom banging on stall doors.

Boarding is at 9:25, once again the opposite of online which implied boarding would close by then.

Got a water refill from a food place.

Check-in asked for my passport but security only asked for my boarding pass. It seems that if I'd managed to print out a pass that I could have arrived at the gate without showing ID. Or boarded the plane. Gee, like a flying bus.

===

Boarded. Took a while to taxi and take off, but hopefully it's included in the time two hour "flight", 800 miles, cruise speed of 500 mph. Ascent and acceleration seemed gradual. As it happens, the airline magazine has an article on how fragmented European airspace is, 47 traffic control agencies for an airspace the size of the US, and how this often means burning 25% more fuel than needed. There's a Single European Sky initiative underway, but in the meantime planning a route here sounds like a doctor dealing with insurance in the US.

Most of the plane announcements are in German and English, though one also came in what I think was Chinese. Definitely tonal and not Japanese, though sounded a bit odd, not that I know much about Chinese. Or Cantonese vs. Mandarin, or even which one I've heard more of.

Magazine also had a photo of inside Atocha train station in Madrid, where I apparently missed seeing a large indoor tropical garden in the waiting hall. Aww.

Crossing the snow-capped Pyrenees.

Food: croissant, decent; coffee, weak; OJ, standard. Followed by chcolates, the attendant smiled when I got excited at Swiss chocolate. But it's milk and pale brown. Still good. She also thought I'd be able to make my gate.

Was re-watching AMVs -- yes, I have a lot on my phone, and someone remind me to send James the good Haruhi suzumiya AMV links, if he's going to start watching -- but they're showing Tom and Jerry. Is it still funny without sound? Yes. "Professor Tom", "Snowbody Loves Me" -- though I think the music would help on this one, especially with ballerina Jerry, and weird, Tom seems to feel bad about freezing Jerry, and they get along at the end.

Oh, I forgot to mention the animated safety video. 3Dish, not quite Incredibles, maybe more like the Final Fantasy movie?

Not long to get through passport control and trap to the International terminal. Security, otoh... I just love how we need to go through security to go between secured areas. .aero is a new TLD the wifi uses.

Some Middle East looking guy had to be told to have his bag xrayed, and his jacket, and his shoes.

No water fountains! Took a chance on bathroom tap water. Swiss water should be really good, right?

At gate with half hour to spare. Not actually boarding yet.

So, I think I wanted "¿Cómo (yo) salo sin la llave?" "How do I leave without a key?" Actually, hmm, maybe "¿Cómo puedo salir sin la llave?" "How can I leave without a key?"

Went for airport hotel. Stupid wifi here is a paid username password pair, and it objects to being used on more than one computer at once.

What's with Cómo vs. Como? Wouldn't Como be pronounced Cómo anyway?

Went shopping. Area is full of monochrome terra cotta brick buildings, but the supermarket is large and has a newly seen diversity of cheese and meats. That would have been interesting were I sticking around longer.

Hotel is funky. Funk name, "taCH by Clementhoteles", with an umlaut over the a. Dim lighting in the hallways that I think is trying to be hip rather than creepy.

Food: feel cheap, so figured I'd eat bread, jamon serrano, and camembert, with mandarins for fiber. Poor me. :)

Good thing I don't believe in omens.
"The butter is too hard, let's try microwaving it in its container. Oh, the box has foil in it, now it's caught fire. Oh good, I can blow it out. But it's smokey now, let's open the porch door. Hmm, I can't. Let's turn on the stove air vent. Oops, that was the release catch, not the on switch, and the grill fell down and broke a plate..."

Though I had better luck earlier. I'd stepped out, and ran into the doorman. I've been concerned about how to leave tomorrow morning, given that you seem to need a key to get out of the building -- which seems like a massive fire hazard. Anyway, how to leave my key and leave if no one else is up? If I'd had time I could have planned out a grammatical question but as it was I forget much of what little I know, like puedo (I can) or sin (without), and ended up waving my key while going salida (exit), manyana (morning, or tomorrow), seis (six) pointing at my watch. This did produce an answer: he showed me that the mail slots are big enough to drop keys into, so I can open the door, prop it open with my copious luggage, drop keys off, and escape.

Assuming I don't just relocate to an airport hotel, which is tempting for getting up an hour later.

Had vague plans to take a high speed train (30 minutes) to Segovia or Toledo, am thinking that won't happen. Another night of 5.5 hours of sleep followed by not falling back to sleep, plus wanting to print out my boarding passes -- though at least I got better seats online, if I don't make my connection it won't be for lack of being upfront in the first one -- and seek my American SIM card.

I have tickets to SF through Zurich. Wednesday. The tour shall be over, let the era of free or cheap rent begin.

Del dia: wanted more paella, but seems to be a two person thing? Will try scrambled eggs and chorizo, and churrasco a la parrilla, which I think is something grilled. Google translate autodetects churrasco as Portuguese for barbecue and is clueless about it as a Spanish word.

Chorizo looks like blood sausage, and don't have the spiciness I associate with chorizo. I was wrong about rotos, the eggs are sunny side up.

On arrival, the churrasco is some sort of chop. I can't tell which animal from the flavor... I probably couldn't anyway, but there isn't much flavor. Fatty, bony, and hard to cut or chew. I notice it took 40 minutes for anyone else to come in to eat, and that person has trouble walking. Everyone else is at the bar. I'm just going to skip coffee and dessert and escape.

Some bathrooms in Madrid, including the one here, have motion detector activated lights, so it can go dark on you while you're on the toilet... No soap or hand-drying equipment, oh that's reassuring about the hygiene of my food.

===

Casa de campo park, half an hour out by subway. Zoo is here, if I want to pay €18. Big park is also here. Zoo has a pool with trained dolphin shows, I could see a bit through the fence.

Zoo entrance. Do I want to pay $30 for another zoo? Apparently not. Walked, caught bus, got idea that bus was going away from the city, where I have no maps, got off at the train station I came out of.

Old guy started talking to me on the station, basically "aren't you cold?" He's 88 in a heavy jacket, I have my sweatshirt around my waist. I told him I was from California in the states, he said he'd been on ships up and down the coast. And Gulf of Mexico too?

Different, more direct train back. Tempted to ride it into the north. Temptation killed by constant loud whine on the train. Principe Pio and a large park abutting the palace, then.

Big train station! Transfers to big trains. Not super fancy but nice. Row of restautrants, and free public bathrooms, no 30 or 50 cent charge. Nice change. Still no water fountains.

Big park: campo del moro. WC near "cave area". Hoo.

Haven't seen caves, though part of the park is roped off. Might have seen a cloud of bats. Then again it seems early and light for that, it was followed shortly by a cloud of small birds.

They're aggressive about closing times in Spain. The archaeological museum closed at 8, but they were chasing us out at 7:45. This park has staff drivingaround half an hour before, telling us to head for the exit. And there's a sign saying the same thing due to park size. But it's not that big, especially if you go straight to the exit... Now someone walked up to me where I was sitting to wave me over. In London they don't start shooing you until the listed closing time. Here, I guess it's the time that the staff want to leave.

Meowing white cat inside the gate.

Back to the train station for a cerveza place with cheap montaditos, Cerveceria 700 Montaditos, a word I haven't seen before but which I guess is another word for tapas, canapes, etc. Small glass of wine, white in my case, for €1.50... Wine eh. Montaditos turned out to be small sandwiches, like about the length of my hand but narrower. Not bad.

Taking one of the Circular buses whereever it goes. Off my map, but circular is circular, right? ... But sightseeing by bus at night may not be the most productive idea. It's a smart bus, announcing stops and final destination, and inside and outside temperature. I managed to find us again on my big map, then bailed at a metro station. What with all the walking in the stations, and now waiting 5 minutes for a transfer, I wonder if I'll have saved any time; first semicircle was only 30 minutes.

There was a very pretty fountain at Plaza Republic Argentina. Lots of fountains in the roundabouts, but this one seemed particularly nice.

Lots of roundabouts, called glorietas in Spanish, abbreviated Gta. Which I learned tonight from the circular trip. Many of them have arches instead of fountains in their centers.

Someone serenading the train car.

Walking to Prado. Stopped for del dia at some bar called La Diavoletta and Halloween themed. Jamon and cheese empanada, canellones that seemed just like lasagna, and apple+raisins empanada.

Prado, line, left, nearby Thyssen museum, line, left.

Weird tinsel costume in Plaza Mayor some days ago. Blue skinned King Neptune sitting near Prado today. Spiderman in same plaza as tinsel, along with 3 heads in a table.
Magic trick on last night's train. Costumed kids in a square of people in the plaza -- oh right, the date.
General feelings of annoyance and rootlessness. Somewhat eased by stumbling into a tiny garden/park. Guess friends or plants are more needed than paintings or architecture.

Oh, my laundry dried pretty well overnight on a rack, even in my cool room with damp rain outside. Go Madrid air.

===

speaking of friends, plane shopping time! Good price to Chile Wednesday. Half that to SF the same day. Woo, diversion! Wait, it vanished from Orbitz. But I found it on Swissair. But my card got denied again. Called... and seem to be waiting on the Ticket Office to try again. *twitch* and if I do get it, it's a flight to Zurich, with one hour to change to the US flight. Blake is skeptical that I'll make it. Well, I'll get to see Switzerland from the air.

Ticket Office doesn't open till 8 am, so I won't find out till tomorrow. Why can't I just try it again myself? Sheesh.

Night walk, away from the city center. More modern buildings, a river or canal, some little kids in costume on the sidewalk, at 10pm Sunday night and no adult immediately visible. === Found bananas in an alimentacion. Also stuff on the shelf claiming to be orange juice. I have doubts about the purity. Or perhaps just the vitamin C remaining after enough heat to not go bad at room temperature.

Didn't actually nap. Part of what I want from transhumanism is a safe go to sleep switch.

Walked out, got some aerobics from elevating gradient, and then a View. Didn't climb that much so my area must itself be elevated. Saw a flower garden, dahlias? Went into a cathedral next to the royal palace, looked at the palace exterior. Stopped by a pharmacy, looking for more Breathe-Right nose strips. I knew a Paris pharmacy had equivalents. This one had the exact brand. Sweet! 21 euros though, rather steep. But I know fom experience that other brands (well, generics) don't necessarily actually work as well, so I paid. But I also noticed that the pharmacy also sold... bread, pasta, herbs, and eggs. Better bread choices than I'd seen in the alimentacion or supermarket, even. Hell, good pasta choices. So, um, if you're in Madrid and not running across a panaderia, since they're less ubiquitous than Paris boulangeries, check a pharmacy. Oh, remember the naval museum Chinese sign? I've seen more of that, and I now know it was kanji, not Chinese characters for Chinese. I know this because today's next event was the Sabatini gardens, a depression with hedges statues and a pool, and that sign has katakana and characters beneath the English. So Madrid's catering to English and Japanese tourists in part; I wonder if these signs date back to the 1980s.

Tangent: dollar is at 80 yen, vs. 100 2 years ago. Got 550 Chilean pesos last year, 450 now. The fact that it's only $1.60 to a pound makes me think the pound is weak.

From the gardens, the street seems to get freeway overpass dull for a while, and I was hungry. A restaurante y cervezia advertised beer or house wine and tapas for €1 so I went in there. The wine was decent, meaning I drank the whole glass without my usual entertaining grimace. The free tapas was eh, two pieces of bread one with jamón one with cheese, but then I ordered smoked salon with brie, and pork loin with red pepper; the last was particularly good. I also had two churros, which were apparently free. €9 for the meal, but I need an ATM soon.

Some sort of open market in a plaza. Looked at Inka silver and other jewelry, bought fancy cashews.

Walked down Gran Via from the other end to Callao, where I'd been before from the other way. Passed a strip club/cabaret on a street with Catolico in the name, which amuses.

Found a panaderia, bought a loaf. I didn't ask what it cost because it's bread in Europe, can't cost more than a few euros, right? And I've had trouble understanding people, he couldn't really have said 8.50, right?

WHAT THE FUCK. I JUST SPENT €8.50 FOR A KILOGRAM OF MULTI-GRAIN BREAD. THAT'S $12.

Thiis had better be the best loaf ever. More likely a lesson not to take prices for granted.

===

Home, hanging out with host and English girl, who recognized the chain as a really expensive chain from London. It is in fact good bread, with raisins and such in it, justifying at least some of the price. Better with the local butter than the brie spread I bought last night. -They'd made cake out of the butternut squash while I was gone: I gave them bread, they gave me cake and ice cream. They carved a jack o lantern face in the cake, I got to take the picture. -Talk of security theatre and bombs and Iraq politics, then dyeing hair and tattoos. Garbage truck at 1am, wtf?

30 October
Yeah, I'm out of clever titles. Slept fairly well, but after the night before I'm just marking time as still tired. Gray and cold out there. Right now I feel very unadventuresome and want to go home. Or have a home. Or a surrogate thereof.

I mentioned yesterday feeling full. Learning more Spanish probably hels too. I haven't made tie to formally study grammar but my written vocabulary has certainly been increasing. Brain activity!

Host started some laundry for me; I don't know if it'll dry well, my hotelhad the advantage of 5th story heat accumulaton and a west window with sun, but I've got to Tuesday.

Host showed me a "pumpkin", what the US would call butternut squash. Wikipedia says pumpkin for winter squash is Brit/Australian English.

Del dia: green beans, salmon (bony), bread, and coffee. And wine. I said yes to vino de casera imagining a glass and got a whole bottle, which I've been too intimidated to try to open. Seems like a waste given my tastes. And if a €10 meal includes a free bottle of wine, and salmon... Dang, stuff is cheap. Host was surprised at my getting a brand new bottle but not at getting a bottle instead of a glass.

I have a full set with the bread again: oil, vinegar, salt, like yesterday's lunch. Host has many spices but no black pepper. Spain doesn't do pepper?

Started looking at Chile tickets. I'd assumued non-stop Madrid to Santiago would be easy. Nope, $5000. $4000 3 weeks in advance. Maybe you need an expensive plane for that distance non-stop. Cheapest flight is Swiss through Brazil 3 weeks from now; hanging around here would wipe out the savings. Next cheapest is Tuesday, but involves Madrid to Cali Colombia to Bogota Colombia to Santiago, and such extra transfers make me nervous. After that it doesn't much matter, Madrid to Bogota to Santiago apart from how long I have to wait in Santiago for the plane to La Serena.

Once again Orbitz fees are odd. Swiss is $900 list but +$400 in taxes and fees. Others are $1700 say but +$40 in taxes.

I finally walked by a Vodafone store. I could finally get a SIM card! For 3 days? Mind, it'd be nice to be able to look up Spanish on my phone.

Nap sounds good now.

Heh, right as I plan to leave the hotel, I remember one of its little cultural architectural quirks, which I first saw in Chile. Little open areas entirely enclosed in a building, like Lesotho. But you don't walk out into it, at least easily; it's just some plant or fountain surrounded by glass or walls. So you walk down an interior hallway and to your left you see a plant in sunlight, backed by your own walls.

===

Of course it would start raining just as I transfer.

New place, near Puerta de Toledo, still central but southwest. Seems good and nice people. Local hostess, English girl, and older woman. Host's sister and niece were visiting, niece dressed up for Halloween, which her mother claims is like 3-5 years old for the Spanish. All Saints' Day, now that's a holy day.

Alimentacion: sort of like convenience stores but geared more toward sweets and jank food. I did find baguettes in one. Got fruit at a fruteria though the carrots were scary. So were the bagged carrots at the supermarket. 24 hour pharmacies are common. "Helados Italiananos" or whatever it was called wasn't that good. There's some program to el EU students study or work in another city; English girl is an English lit major working here, her German friend is studying business here.
God bless WEP, that my broken Linux can handle.

The plane flight may have made me think "it's LA again!" With regard to climatogeology, as mentioned, but I haven't had that feeling since. There's almost certainly some overlap but I never saw much of those parts of LA. A bit with downtown La Serena. But nothing like the low pastel buildings that really struck me as similar between the more Hispanic parts of LA and La Serena (though the palettes were different).

Hmm, noisier here than the hotel.

Handful of men in green vests with signs and a bullhorn. "Madrid en peligro" -- Madrid in danger. "Bomberos bajo mínimos" -- firefighters low minimum??

Men in dress uniform standing on a street, why? Oh, probably because they're next to the Naval Museum. Which has a sign in English and... Chinese.

At Prado, though wondering if I should be given good weather and rain tomorrow. Zoo'd be good but I forgot to look up where it is. Long slow line for special Renoir... Kind of slow for the permanent collection too. Oh hey, I asked a tourist with a map where the zoo was, and he just gave me the map. Mine only cover Metro or the central area. But since I'm right by the Parque del Retiro, let's do that.

Prado has free admission for legally unemployed EU citizens, and EU citizens in "large families". Also families with one adult and 3+ children, or 2+ where one is disabled.

Huge park. Very ordered and geometric, English hedge garden not Golden Gate urban pseudo-wilderness. Some cypress trees that either grow very oddly or have been trimmed oddly. It's definitely fall, at least for some of the trees here; lots of red dead leaves around and falling as I watch. There's a small cat in a fenced off area. Big rectangular boat pond. Jamón sandwich. Another cat -- I'm no expert but neither looks in a bad way.

Crystal Palace area looks more natural.

Rosalea. Sounds like a rose garden, is a rose garden. A rather large one, with a very broad range of roses, some of which smell heavenly.

An avenue west of the park is lined with used book stands.

Botanic gardens. Cheap! And with a black cat. Squirrels and rabbits I don't see, cats (and magpies) I do.

Me: "Donde esta aqui?" Pointing at map.
Her: "I'm sorry, I don't speak any Spanish."
Me: "Oh. Do you know where are on this map?"

Greenhouses! Not huge, I think IU's are bigger, never mind Glasgow's. But the first such I've seen with stairs taking you to a high walkway. Well, not counting various zoo or museum rainforests.

Reading The Confusion in breaks. Pepys just made a prayer about urinating. Rather funny, as was an earlier scene with the Liberation of the Monkeys.

Took my first bus here! Had to be shown how to use my pass, but it saved a lot of walking back to my hotel where my bag is.

Food: being in the park meant missing the mediodia meal, so I've been on fruit and a light sandwich in the park. Found a place open at 5 though, ordering tomatoes and Iberico ham (and bread), and Catalan sausage with fried potatoes (French fries) and ali-oli sauce. I was finally brought dispensers of olive oil and vinegar.

Rosetta risks: they're not always rigorous in their translations. When "con patatas" is "with potatoes" on one line and blank on another they're just being lazy. But the English menu here has "Fried 'chistorra' sausage"; in Spanish it's "chistorra al infierno flambeada al brandy". My dictionary just translates infierno as "hell". Further down, anchovies and big holes (??) becomes "matrimonio de anchoas y boquerones". Some idiom being left behind, there...

The sausage is all right, nothing for me to get excited about (I go for Italian and/or hot and not too greasy, insofar as one can ask that of sausage.) Too much meat in this diet, a few more good salads and bread wouldn't be amiss.

Feels like a busier and more filled day. Up earlier, no siesta, lots of walking. Days like this I could almost see sticking around longer.

Off to my new lodging, will post this while I know I have hotel wifi.

Maybe? Went out to museums, about which more anon. But on the way back I started passing a huge mass of bicyclists (and the occasional unicyclist or other oddity) many in odd outfits and with some music playing. At first I thought it was neat. I tried asking one man what it was but he didn't understand me at all. And eventually they ran out.

But as I continued, and tried crossing a main street, they seemed to have looped around and crossed my path. I got halfway across the street before the walk sign started flashing, at which the waiting bicyclists started up -- meaning they had stopped, unless my perceptions were off. But at the next walk sign -- red light for them -- they showed no sign of stopping. Not wanting to wait for minutes in the rather noxious pollution of Madrid's car-filled streets, I exerted my right of way and stepped into the mass.

Swerve! Shout! I don't think they were happy. But all the other pedestrians promptly followed my lead, in a micro critical mass of our own, and the Mass had to suffer the horror of stopping at a red light and letting other people get on with their lives for half a minute.

Wanted to try tapas, but my first attempt didn't give me the right menu, a second was loud and smokey, others had no prices listed or were too high. Ended up at my local cafeteria aka yesterday's lunch del dia. Got ignored for several minutes and I don't know what I was told finally, but I did get to order and the food was prompt. Good potato omelette, eh slab of cooked tuna with red pepper, good if greasy pork skewer. More greaseless bread. Hard crust too, meh.

Bicyclists again. And gone again, so I'll be able to go home without forcing another crossing.

Oh, today's lunch had paella with shrimp that still had the shell or skin on. Only the second time I've had that and the first was a deliberate experiment by Stephen. I didn't like it then and I didn't like it now.

Right. So I'd looked at the map and realized I was near a lot of museums and a park I'd heard of. It was 6, but this is Madrid -- stuff is open till 8 or 9! First the Biblioteca Nationale, free, with an exhibit on Sistine Chapel codices, and on some person whose name I didn't record. The rest seemed to be lecture halls or closed off or some digital Museo I didn't understand. Then around to the Archaeological Museum. Big building, but under renovation, so there was just one hall of "Treasures", bit of Egypt, bit of Greece, Spain or Iberia from prehistory to medieval times. See everything in an hour. But they had bilingual signs, so I got to play Rosetta stone. Though the English they translate into is sometimes odd, as in "X was the exponent of Spanish Y." Do British use 'exponent' for peak? Americans don't.

Also, the minimal contents helped highlight something I've had growing awareness of and which would probably be covered in 5 minutes in a proper class on Greek art. They had two cases, each with a piece from the 7th, 5th, and 4th century BC. The evolution of art style becomes very obvious that way, from creepy weird elongation, to the Classical red and black we all know, to Hellenistic realism, detail and color I grew up not knowing they could do.

"Pardonme, photographio permito?" *waves phone*
"Sin flash."
Woot, communication!

Stability is good, so is cheaper rent. Moving from hotel to Airbnb host tomorrow -- if she gets back to me with the address. Pity, airport was more convenient from here. Prado too.

So I've noted a lot of differences on this journey, but most of them haven't felt culturally deep, even if they are. Missing water fountains, good trains, legal prostitution and pot, driving on the left, bakeries, clerks who get to sit down... A lot of this is random, or could be changed easily by law, even if getting a legislature to make the change would be really hard. And what feels deep is totally subjective, like the intuitiveness of geometry proofs. And on prostitution and drugs I view the Dutch as too conservative and my fellow Americans as incomprehensible aliens. But everyday life can be like the US, with some quirks and a different language.

In Spain, a difference in lifestyle is harder to avoid. From what I belatedly read, a Spaniard has a light breakfast, then a huge meal at 1 or 2 pm, followed by siesta nap. Further hunger is abated by tapas snacks, because meal 3 will be a medium dinner after 9 pm, with a nightlife easily going past 2 am.

And I've seen it and been part of it. Places were closed in mid-afternoon. The most economical big meal is what initially scared me, the menu del dia (menu of the day) where you get a first and second course, dessert, and coffee from a changing menu for far less than ordering those items off the regular menu. I haven't been out at 8pm yet, but I did go out from 10 to midnight and things were hopping. Lots of restaurants open from 8 to midnight. And non-restaurants, catering to the crowds: souvenirs, hairdresser, jewelry. Strong signal to change one's eating and sleeping habits.

Both del dia meals have come with a roll of bread but no butter or olive oil. Maybe I have to ask?

First courses have been more interesting than second: salad Nicoisse vs. Meatballs and potatoes, seafood paella vs. Steak and fries. Today's place is cheaper, I get dessert or coffee, and the "plantano" I nodded to is just a banana. In its peel, but with knife and fork. That's €11 vs. €17, I guess.
Also I'm in a smoking restaurant. :( Got offered coffee after dessert, but it cost me another €1.30

I've seen full launches of dry ham in the supermarket. Also a museo del jamon, seems to be a chain restaurant devoted to ham, also with haunches hanging from the ceiling. Wiiiilllllbuuuurrrr!

Last night accidentally found the red light district. Half a dozen streetwalkers a block from a police station. Nad lots of men thrusting strip club flyers at me.

I found an actual laundromat too; nice to know. I'll probably keep shower washing stuff. Unlike in Scotland, wet things here dry quickly! Unfortunately including my nose.

Oh yeah! Faces! Remember when I noted the US had a shortage of French or pure Spanish people? Yeah, one look at the subway passengers and I knew I wasn't in London, Amsterdam, *or* Paris.

Hmm, haven't been up that long, but poor sleep and big meal suggest siesta. Do people prefer rare long posts or more frequent shorter ones? Shall post.

Chatted with a gentleman near me on the plane. He's English, wife is American, kids were born in US but they've lived in Amsterdam for 6 years. Nice for kids, not too big or busy, so bicycle friendly. He calls UK trains a disaster, chopped up and privatized, not like dirt cheap Dutch or Italian trains. He pointed out the view to me, so flat and low (I'm not sure if one can *see* it's below sea level but he implied that) and lots of glasshouses. I looked at the Easyjet destination map, and noted how Spain seemed to have Madrid by itself in the center and everything else on one coast or another; he said in between is mostly mountains. I can see them now -- we've gone from rather odd cloud texture to none, save for low ones filling some valleys -- and they're dry and lifeless seeming. Though now with what loo like reddish agricultural patches, then grey ones. Quite odd.

Obviously Spanish made it to some rather tropical area, but so mar my experience -- LA, Baja, Chile, Spain so far -- seems amazingly uniform in climate and geology.

His 9 year old daughter is a "reading fiend" and asked him to load Tom Sawyer onto his iPad. Aww. Also he has preloaded Google maps on the thing. Just PDFs? I tried doing that once for the phone, but the result wasn't usable.

Some of the mountains have trees now. And some of the other mountains are much higher and steeper than the rolling topography I was taking for granted.

Madrid airport signs: English on top, but Spanish bigger. Spanish takes precedence outside the security zone.

Ah right, this is why checked luggage sucks; long wait for it. And I need something distinctive to put on my bag, to distuinguish it easily from all the other oversized black duffle bags.

Got my overkill tourist pass. 7 days, all zones, including Toledo. Let's see if I justify it.

I was told 50 minutes by transit. Actual train ride is more like 20, though I spent another 20 getting out of the station and finding my street. Building mounted signs again, and also again, signs are scarce at the really complicated multi-street intersections. Or possibly hidden by construction.

Odd system: the lights don't work unless the hotel keycard is in a specail slot. But a table lamp, the TV, and the hair dryer do, so it's not a total electricity lock.

I was told there'd be a laundry price list in here; there is not. Nor wifi code, though I was told that at the guest. And it's WEP! My computer will work!

=====

Time for food, and once again being intimidated by the language barrier. I wouldn't mind guessing at ingredients and pointing, but with the firsst few places I was unsure of the whole style of delivery, not wanting a fixe prix multi-course meal just now. Ended up at a Chinese restaurant of all things. Not that great, but their table menu was bilingual; after ordering I held onto the menu and started learning.

Google Translate had suggested something for tap water, and it worked!

Restaurant had ashtrays, a shocking regression.

I've already decided that the Spanish dictionary that's been weighing me down for 3 months can finally earn its keep. Pack it, or even walk around with it, translating words as I see them. Demand driven learning, like my Latin poetry ordeal.

Hmm, laundromats seem very rare in Spain. How interesting.