vobiblog

Just warning you that this is going to be a long one.

It’s 8am, I am at the airport one and a half hours early. While most of
the time this would be unbearable, it does have its advantages. I didn’t
have to queue to get through security, I had time to gorge myself on a
chocolate croissant, carragola and an Illy short black. While Illy is
better than most of the coffee I have had so far, it’s it still has
nothing on Di Bella. I have also found myself a nice see to sit and
watch the comings and goings on the tarmac, which could probably amuse
me for many hours.

Mum has always claimed that I must be in culture shock coming from
Brisbane to Sitges. Which has never really occurred. Sitges always felt
like a second home, it was familiar. Even Barcelona was to a certain
extent. Howerver, I was completely unprepared for Madrid.

Within 10 minutes of collecting my baggage, I was on the Metro. The fare
into the city cost a whole e1. Within 20 minutes and 2 train changes,
I was there… about 100m walk from where I was staying. The first thing
that struck me was how beautiful this part of the city was. Plenty of
old, well adorned buildings defining the edge of the street. The detail
can be seen everywhere. From the paving stones of the footpath to the
traffic islands in the middle of the road. Clearly this place wasn’t
built by an engineer.

After meeting Gary and dropping of my bags, I was keep to explore,
despite just completing 27 hours of travel with only 6 hours of
interrupted sleep. Gary provided me with a map and phrase book and I was
off. I started to walk along the main street up towards Plaza de Espana.
Despite the road being filled with traffic, the pavements were alive
with activity. Some people were just sitting around, others in a rush,
about 200 were queuing for lotto tickets. While most of the shops are
closed in the middle of the day, there is still plenty to look at.

I sat down in Plaza de Espana to observe. I was sitting on the edge of a
marble barrier. A girl was holding her fathers hand while walking along
the barrier. Rather than jumping off, she went around me, with them both
passing their arms above my head. On a cold and windy day, it was
amazing to see so many people out for no other reason than to just
experience the place.

I decided it was time for some food. I walked past a Pans and Company
store… It’s like an Italian/Spanish version of Subway. Initially I
resisted. Then I saw a poster for the new Santa Clause Menu. Which came
with a baguette filled with a long sausage, bacon, cheese and sautéed
mushrooms, served with a beer and two types of potato chips (regular
thick chips and these criscross things). Mmmmmm. The junk food here is
so much better than in Australia.

Being the closet train spotter I am, I decided to catch the metro back
to the other end of town. I love the older train stations, with their
winding tunnels and tiled walls. I arrived on the platform just as the
train was leaving. I looked down the platform for information on how
long the next train was likely to be. There was an electronic sign, but
rather than saying how long it was till the next train, it had the time
since the last train left. Who wants to know that I thought. People
started to flood into the station, and within 3 minutes the platform was
almost full. Another 30 seconds, and the train was there.

I got off the train at the Retero Gardens. Walking through the gates, I
thought that it was a pretty average park compared to what we have in
Australia. There were hardly any interesting plants (it is winter I
guess) and the only thing that was really growing was the grass, which
had the obligatory keep off signs. Once again, I was surprised. As I
ventured further into the park, I found a perfectly rectangular man made
lake. Plenty of people were out on the lake trying to row boats. It was
quite amusing watching them.

Along the lake, there were stalls selling pipas (nuts that you eat with
the shell on, then spit out the shell) and sure enough, people were
eating them in public. That woulnd’t happen in Australia. Men of African
decent were selling counterfit CDs and DVDs. They had their wares
layed out on a sheet with rope tide to each corner (obviously to aid in
a quick getaway). This also wouldn’t happen in Australia. Then there was
a mime, who was imitating everyone who walked passed. He was quite good
at it. He even dared to make fun of the police (who took it in good
humor). In Australia you would be branded a public nusance for doing
something like that. So much for the aussie laricken spirit.

On my way out of the park, I walked down a massive ramp. It would have
been a 3 or 4 metre drop off the edge, yet there was no barrier
preventing someone from falling off. The ramp was at least 10 metres
wide, yet this would be banned in Australia under state building code
XF3432343523 no one would be trusted to stay away from the edge. Even if
it was allowed in Australia, if someone fell off, they would feel the
right to be rewarded for their stupidity and want to be compensated
financially.

I spent about 4 hours wandering round The Prado. I would have liked to
have spent more time, but it was just overwhelming seeing so many art
works, many of them quite thought provoking. By this stage exhaustion
was setting in, my foot was starting to play up, it was time to head
home for a while. Trying to stay awake for as long as I could I jumped
on the Internet. Shortly after that there was a blackout. It was time
for a sleep. I had all intentions of getting up at 11pm to go down to
Gary’s bar but I realised that I was still exhausted and would have no
trouble sleeping through till 6am, which I did waking 5 minutes before
my alarm went off.

So here I am, at the airport. I have just watched the sun rise. The
activity on the tarmac is getting more frantic, people are filling the
terminal and no doubt the security points are a shit fight.

On to Bilbao.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 9th, 2006 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Holiday 06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.