Gooooood Morning, Madrid!

OK, so technically I didn’t sleep. It’s a good morning anyway!

I went to El Corte Ingles about a hundred times, mostly because it just has everything. And at the Metro stop where I am (Sol) there’s 3, count ‘em, 3 Cortes Ingleses. One has a main floor, 7 upper floors, and 2 basements. That’s the one that has the post office (I mailed a post card) the supermercado (I bought some cheese and melocoton juice) and the travel agency (I got an adaptor for my laptop ’cause I have no clue what happened to the last one.) Not the converter thing–my laptop has its own. Just the do-hickey that changes the plug from flat-prong to round-prong. And I had a devil of a time describing it, because I totally don’t know the word for “prong”. So I picked up a European plug, pointed to the round metal prongs, and said (en espanol, of course) What do you call these here thingamabobbers? And the cashier blinked, squinted, shrugged, and said, “I don’t know.” So I said, “I don’t know either, but mine are flat and I need an adapter to make them round.” And he said ohhhhhh and gave me the right thing. So I’m fine now.

At the other Corte I bought a AA battery charger, because the last two times I brought a US one, I fried them on accident. Figured I might as well suck it up and get a European one so I don’t have to worry about it. The 3rd Corte is a massive bookstore, which I’m pretty sure I’m not allowed to go inside, since the last time I did, Bri and I ended up paying exorbitant “your suitcase is too heavy–what the hell do you have in there?” fees at the Charles de Gaulle (Paris) Airport.

None of these trips happened at the same time, of course, so the sales force got to see me return again and again and again. That’s all right. They’ll probably see me tomorrow too.

Today I hiked down the road that my hotel is on until the road ended (2.5 mi) and back. That was fun, but I realized belatedly that my hiking shoes are all ripped up on the inside (how does that happen?) and now the backs of my heels are threatening to get blisters. No matter! Blisters or no blisters, a-hiking I will go. El Corte Ingles has a parafarmacia stocked with bandaids, so I’ll be just fine. (Toldja they’d see me tomorrow.)

I also wasted some time going to Atocha at about 7pm. This was stupid of me and I should’ve known better. I was thinking, “Oh, I’ll reserve my train tickets in advance like a good girl” when I should’ve been thinking, “Everyone’s out of work by now, bet the train station is *crazy town*.” You have no idea how packed that place gets. Especially since I’ve stood in that monstrous line before. Well, I got there and took a number from the paper number distributor dealy, and I got A410. I waited for 15 excruciating minutes while they helped A198, A199, A200 and A201. I was still 209 numbers away. At 3 minutes per person (which is *fast*), that would be something like 10 hours to wait. So I left. I’ll try tomorrow. I’m a little disappointed, because my initial plan was to get to El Museo Del Prado first thing in the a.m. and now it looks like I’ll be trucking over to Atocha instead. Oh well. As long as they can beat a 10 hour wait, who am I to complain. =)

Plaza Mayor is the same as I remembered–pretty, and somehow both busy and relaxed at the same time. However, the place where I got my SIM card last time was no longer there. (I wandered around every side street for an hour or two before I finally conceded its disappearance.) I was forced to go to the FNAC and switch my plan from Avena to Movistar. (pronounced “movie star”.) But at least now I can call the US even if I don’t have an Internet connection, so that’s a good thing. (And with an internet connection, Skype is a good thing!)

Now I’m sleepy, but I’m trying to stay up until at least 10 so I can keep a decent schedule, and maybe wake up without my alarm clock.

Tags: hiking, lost in translation, shopping, technology, trains

International Travel (& Madrid!)

Since I know it’s the main question on everyone’s mind, here’s the answer you’ve all been waiting for: Yes, I was able to take Purell on the airplane.

The guy in front of me in the security line got searched and they confiscated his aloe vera and inspected a bunch of other things, but I had no problems.

So now I’m on the plane from Tampa to JFK (NYC). My ticket said plain old Delta, but this was a “Song” plane, with the nice seats and adjustable individual movie screens and in-flight trivia. (I had 100% accuracy for three whole questions and then I missed the next four or five. Shoulda quit when I was ahead.)

The flight attendants head down the aisle with the drink cart, selling pink lemonade and pink martinis in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Just as they are about to approach my row, this girl staggers up the aisle. (Yes, staggers.) My first thought was maybe she’d had a pink martini too many, because she had that I-can-barely-stand-up drunken gait. Just as she reached my aisle, she collapsed and pitched forward. The flight attendants jerked the drink cart backward so that she didn’t crack her head against the metal corners, and the girl tumbled to the ground unconscious. When they couldn’t get her to respond, they picked up the intercom phone (also right in front of me) and asked for any medical personnel to come forward. That brought a cattle-herd of rubberneckers more than anything, but there were a few legitimate nurses and EMTs that tried to help her. Another flight attendant ran for the oxygen, and that finally revived the girl. So then the flight attendants bumped the people in the row across from me up to first class so that they could lay the girl down flat. She stayed there the rest of the flight. (And me? No drinks, and no first class. <<sob>>)

Once I reached the JFK Airport, I wandered around looking for my gate. The flight attendant gave me a vague “that way” gesture when I asked, and the gate did turn out to be that way… Just down about a mile and a half. Along the way, I started noticing dollar massage chairs peppering the terminals. I made it about halfway down the hall before I caved and plopped onto a chair. (I didn’t give $1. I gave $5. Why have 3 minutes of massage when you can have 15??) The massage chairs are situated in 2 sets of 2, and my expression must have been particularly relaxed (or blissful) because people would look at the empty chair, look at me in my chair, and then fish in their wallet/purse for change. I should’ve got commission for that.

After a lovely 3.5 hour layover <<eye rolling>> I finally get on the plane for Madrid. Let me just say that I was not impressed. The seats were close and uncomfortable, we were too far to one side to see the single TV screen for our cabin (which at least worked, even if I couldn’t see it… Of the other 4 screens throughout the plane, 1 was too orangey, 1 was too greenish, 1 flickered in and out of black & white, and the other just did some red wavy lava-lamp-ish thing.) Oh, and there was no adjustable headrest. Or eye masks. Oh, and the light switches were wired wrong on our seats, so when I hit the light bulb button on my armrest, he was hit with the spotlight, and vice versa. Fun fun. (Can you *feel* the bitterness???)

Pretty much the only interesting thing that happened on that leg of the flight was when I almost didn’t get a customs form. I reached for it and the flight attendant jerked it away and said, “Españoles no.” (Not for Spaniards.) Oh, and the guy next to me was an Iranian New Yorker who ordered kosher food. For breakfast they brought both of us ham & cheese croissants. (Obviously neither kosher nor vegetarian.) They did realize their mistake before we started screaming in horror (although it was close: I’d unwrapped mine and he’d almost taken a bite) and gave us shiny new breakfasts. (Cold bagels and OJ.)

And then, THEN, I finally land in Madrid! Yay! My favorite city in maybe the whole world! (I say maybe since I haven’t actually been in every city in the world. I’m not even sure such a feat would be possible.) I check in to my room (which won’t be ready until 1pm although I was free to leave my bags, which I did) and head outside. My hotel is in the Puerta del Sol, right across from a vegetarian restaurant (good!) and major construction (bad!).

Right now it’s siesta time, and I’m sitting on my bed with my laptop listening to the calm, soothing sounds of jackhammers in concrete and bulldozers beeping to back up. I hope this doesn’t go on during the night… Yuck.

So, what was that smack I was talking about how cold it might be here? When I walked outside, it was 23C, or about 79F. I was wearing layers. First thing I did (okay, third, since the first two were Hit the ATM and Buy a Metro Ticket) was take off my fleece sweatshirt. The weather is unbelievable right now. Warm, sunny, beautiful. Since I had some time to kill (I checked in at 10am) I headed down Calle Arenal to Retiro Park, a sprawling mass of trees and flowers and playgrounds and statues and lakes and benches and fountains. Even one of the Devil, as the angel falling from the skies to the waiting demons below. Madrid claims it’s the only park in the world with a fountain depicting good old Lucifer. (No one has ever disputed this claim, so it may well be true.)

OK, till next time!

~ERiCA

Tags: airplanes, airports

Brussels, Belgium

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig… (Or, yanno, a $2 soccer jersey!)

Tags: shopping

Bruges, Belgium

Venk@ and I go to Brugge, where we annoy the locals by speaking in French instead of Dutch. During the first half of the drive there, all the signs along the highway were in French. Only. Suddenly they all changed to Dutch. Only. Aaargh!

Tags: road trip

Paris, France

After leaving the airport, I checked into my hotel to drop off my bags and wandered around the city. I ended up at the Muslim Museum (a giant, 10-story glass building, not all of which is open to the public) where I surprised myself by spending several fascinating hours looking at all the cool artifacts.

Tags: museums

Brussels, Belgium

Today we went about Brussels, sightseeing. We saw the Eglise Notre-Dame du Finistere aka De Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Finisterrae Kerk aka “Notre Dame du Finistere” church, then the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie aka Koninklijke Muntschouwburg (yes, both are written in large gold letters between the frieze and the columns) and we ate lunch at the Bamboo Fleur restaurant. (We actually tried to eat in an Indian restaurant, of which there were many, but they were invariably “closed”. Quotes because there were no posted hours, and it was lunchtime. Who knows.)

We tooled around the Grand Place until it was time for Venkat and Anjali to get off work, and then we drove around with them. The car sightseeing was a bit limited since the main streets were closed down due to a hostage situation, (!!!) but hey. Flexibility is a life skill. =)

Tags: cathedrals, food, theatre & shows

Paris, France to Brussels, Belgium

Today we did some more low-key sightseeing, then ended up at Sacre Coeur. I’d been there before, although I hadn’t yet been inside.

There’s lots of good eats in this area, but the restaurants are more expensive.

We rode up the little sky train (I know there’s a word for it in English, but right now my brain refuses to let on what that might be) and were let out near Sacre Couer and the square. (The sky lift thing costs the same as a Metro ticket, BTW.)

Sacre Couer is beautiful, and you can get another great view of the city from this vantage point as well.

Afterward, we headed to the train station and bopped on over to Belgium. Bri was excited to see Venkat and Anjali, and we all headed out to see the Grand Place all lit up at night. (Place like “plahss”, meaning “plaza”, not “place”.)

We ate dinner at an outdoor cafe and Bri got to eat Mussels in Brussels. (And I finally caught on that in the song Land Down Under, the singer says he met a man from Brussels who had a lot of mussels, not muscles. Ohhhhhh.)

Bri also got to visit the Mannekin Pis and the Golden Lady, and we got our picture taken with Vincent Van Gogh. Oh, okay, not the real Vincent Van Gogh, but a guy whose entire career is to dress like a statue of Van Gogh (that’s right, he doesn’t dress like the man, he dresses like a statue of the man) for tips. Fun!

Tags: cathedrals, random facts & history, travel tips

Paris, France

Last night, we got to sleep in a real, live bed, which was wonderful. OK, it wasn’t alive. Or a real bed. But it was a pair of bunkbeds in a train cabin, which far outranked sitting upright in train seats.

Today we got up and visited the Louvre. This was Bri’s first time and he was a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of *stuff* crammed into such a large space. Whatever your interest is, the Louvre is bound to have a room (or wing, or entire floor) dedicated to that area.

Next we went to the Eiffel Tower. Too impatient to stand in the ridiculously long ticket line for the elevator ride to the top, we stood in the shorter (and free) do-it-yourself, walk-up-steps line.

We made it up as far as you could walk–just under halfway–and I thought I would die of an asthma attack. Good Lord, that’s a lot of stairs. The view was spectacular, however, and worth every step.

Near the Eiffel Tower is an unofficial viewing area, just on the other side of large, oblong fountain pools. (I believe this is near the Trocadero stop.) Here you can get a Kodak-perfect photograph of the tower while noshing on the hot, fresh crepes and chocolate. Yum!

We rounded out the evening with a trip to the Arc de Triomphe at night, to see it (and the Eiffel Tower, which you can also see from here) all lit up at night. The lights on the Eiffel Tower do patterned flashing at regular intervals, which is neat to watch.

Tags: trains, travel tips

Barcelona, Spain

Today we went to Park Guell, another of Antoni Gaudi’s melty, Seussian masterpieces, which was a lot of fun. It’s a bit of a hike from the train stop, but well worth it. The towers and mosaics were colorful and asymmetric and just plain fun to look at. Some of the buildings even reminded me of gingerbread houses.

Deep inside the park is the Gaudi house, which we got to tour. It’s a pink, layered concoction stuffed with antique furniture and original artwork, including Gaudi’s initial designs for La Sagrada Familia.

There was some sort of religious celebration going on in the park as well. A lot of people grouped in a large circle and sang songs. Other people woke up from their sleeping bags (no tents) and got up to join the celebration with music, chanting, and dancing.

Tags: festivals & fiestas, museums

Barcelona, Spain

Yay! Today is the day I’ve been waiting for. We finally got to go check out La Sagrada Familia. If you’re going to be in Barcelona for the first time, let me quickly state two facts.

1) You must see La Sagrada Familia. It is not to be missed.
2) There is nothing else around it. Pack some water/snacks.

We were just as amazed and horrified by this massive, melting monstrosity as I had hoped and feared. It has tall, jutting peaks dripping Gothic elements like wax from a burning candle.

Most people who see La Sagrada Familia either love it or hate it. I thought it was cool. Bri did not. I find Gaudi’s architecture to be an intriguing clash between Salvador Dali and M. C. Esher. You gotta see it to believe it.

This building was also undergoing renovations, so I definitely hope to make it back out here and see it without bright yellow cranes obstructing my view.

Tags: cathedrals, travel tips