Morbid Madrid

20.10.05

I knew I shouldn't have listened to the receptionist of my hostel in Granada who said I didn't have to book for my hostel in Madrid. She shrugged "After all, it's autumn and it's the capital..so many hostels to choose from." Capital Schmapital I say! I arrived and pretty much walked for 1.5 hours with the turtle shell breaking my back. You should have seen my shoulders where the straps of the bag made their impressions, I looked like I had been tortured by a medieval device. Don't get too excited now..

It's one thing being turned away from one hostel to another, but it's another thing when the hostel staff don't speak a word of English (and they work at international hostels, go figure), and, to top it off, it didn't help trying to find a hostel when you are in a strange city and getting lost while looking for a hostel, arrrgh.

Eventually, I marched up yet another street off the city centre, not particularly pleased to see the working girls already busy working. By that time though, I could have easily hired one of them just to get a room myself! Again, don't get too excited..

Eventually, I found not only a hostel with a room, but it was a single room at a very reasonable price and I said "SI, SI!" before the receptionist even came to asking that question. Then I was off in search of a Vodafone shop to top up my credit. Ok, please allow me to whinge a bit. When I first got to Europe, I thought it would be cheaper if I buy a basic phone here with an European SIM card so I could text or call people who I would be seeing or staying with in Europe. Of course, I then found out that Vodafone had a "passport" system where you can text and call people at a reduced rate for countries participating in this system. Guess what? NZ was one of them, which meant, I could have used my NZ phone and SIM card and still paid the same! Arrrgh! Having said that, it's not that cheap to text people. 75 Euro cents each text sent. I have easily spent at least 120 Euros just on topping up my credit to date, crazy!!

After that little errand, I was back at the hostel kicking back and it was nice to see things beginning to turn around in my favour. I discovered that the hostel organised some sort of evening activity each night and tonight, it was the Flamenco dancing night!! Excellent, been wanting to see one of those and I actually was getting one for free!

Wasn't sure what to expect, but I had images of guitars, clarinets and lots of "Olè!", I got all that and more! A group of 4 appeared. The guitarist was easily recognisable together with the male and female flamenco dancers (unless their normal evening frocks often resemble the cast of Saturday Night Fever).The fourth person, a beautiful Latina's purpose was rather unknown until the lights were dimmed and the first string of the guitar was plucked. Suddenly, the most beautiful clear crisp voice filled the room as the mystery lady enchanted us all with her amazing voice, crooning a beautiful tragic Spanish lovesong. Before we could "return" from being blown away, we were swept further into this tidal wave of music and dance as the guitar came alive with a fast number and first the lady and then the man took to the dance floor exhibiting a harmonious marriage of strength and grace as they swirled, kicked, tapped and clapped to the upbeat flamenco song accompanied by the feverish strumming of the guitar. As the sweat trickled down the head of the guitar player, he would emerge from his strumming trance and chanted "Venga...Olé!" (like "Let's go!"), motivating the dancers to move faster, the clarinets clapped, the feet loudly tapped, Olé!! It was magical!

Venga!!! Vamos!! The flamenco dancers cheered on by the songbird.

21.10.2005

Today there was no smiling sun to greet me. It marked my first raining weather in Madrid. Oh well, guess the sunshine couldn't last forever *pout* I decided the best way to see such a big city would probably to catch one of those "hop on and hop off tour buses", like the one I took in London. It turned out to be a good idea as I managed to see a lot in the whole day plus my bus ticket entitled me to 3 museums as well. Just in case you think most of the time, I memorised all the name of places I've seen together with its history, I am sorry to burst your bubble by admitting that I often referred to the tourist information and map that I gathered for each place of my visit and as you would expect, if you know me well enough, sooner or later, something like this was going to happen..I lost my tourist info on Madrid and so I couldn't exactly tell you the name of places but I can kind of described them!

Ok, let's focus on something more positive..so this bus tour, it was not as fun as the London's one as there was no Live commentary from a local telling us naughty jokes about a monument of the city, instead we got one of those "If you want to listen to the commentary in English, press 2". However, to make up for it, we were treated to a big protest by the farmers federation,(probably sick of the sheepdogs' siestas). I had to laugh out loud when two of the tourists on the bus kept pushing the tape recorder and adjusting their headpiece, looking very much like they were expecting some sort of commentary on the protests and of course, they were outraged not to get any..I can only guess they're probably Australians.. *duck*. Here are some of the pics taken and I shall announce them in no particular order...(drumroll)

This is a building with pointy bits on top..(what?!!)

Ooh, I know this one..it's the National Library of Madrid!

This is a fountain displaying Neptune coming out of the water, fountain located at the square...the one near the garden..

This is by far the most impressive building for me, it's the city's old post office, with a strong gothic design.

Majestic sculpture of Dianna, Goddess of War, on the square just in front of the old post office.

After all that sight seeing, I went and have some lunch. Here's another thing interesting in Spain. For a country once ruled for 700 years by Muslims, you wouldn't expect to see a country so obssessed with pork meat. By obssessed, I mean you constantly come across restaurants with legs of ham dangling from the restaurant's ceiling. I'm serious! So instead of under a sky full of stars, your dining pleasure would be under hundreds of pig thighs hanging from the ceiling. They are coated with olive oil and just underneathe them, there's this cup that catches the oil that dripped from the meat. Thinking of becoming vegetarian today?! I see that Lonely Planet was not kidding when it described Spain as "Miss Piggy's nightmare!" In Madrid, they are slightly more civilised, hanging porkies in a more discreet manner, see picture, sorry, the blur was due to my giggling while taking the picture.

With a oink oink here, and an oink oink there..

The evening was spent checking out the museums. I won't bore you with the details but Madrid was more famous for its modern art and so I saw a lot of abstract and modern art which I must say, if they weren't free, wild horses wouldn't be able to drag me through them.

22.10.2005

I cannot pinpoint what exactly, but if you are like me, a firm believer in auras and vibrations, then I can tell you that Madrid gave me a very bad aura and vibration. Something about the place, just wrecked of unsavoury like feeling. The city isn't dirty, but at the same time, I constantly feel a sense of discomfort and unease, like I need to "wash" constantly..and I use this word metaphorically. There was something unpure about this place. I decided on this basis to leave Madrid for Valencia. I initially planned to spend my morning visiting the city's palace but ended up instead stuck at the hostel, searching the net for accomodation in Valencia. In the end, I only managed a quick glance of the palace from the outside and the cathedral opposite to it before leaving the city in the same mood that I arrived in, foul.

AO Rating: Combination of things made my stay in Madrid rather unpleasant, not all bad of course, the Flamenco dancing and bus tour was great but all in all, I would bid Madrid "Adiòs", rather than "Hasta luego".