MADRID, SPAIN

Everything went smoothly as I arrived at the train station in plenty of time for the train to Madrid. I bought my ticket for €30 and got on board. I had an assigned seat, but the car was only about a quarter full so everyone just sat where they wanted. Soon after we left a man in a suit came through the car handing out free headphones. There was a TV mounted in the center of the front of the car and they were showing some weird Spanish programming. A little while later a movie started and it was Back To The Future, dubbed in Spanish, of course. I actually watched the whole thing and listened in Spanish and since I had seen the movie several times before the Spanish wasn’t hard to follow.

The train arrived about 15 minutes early in Madrid after only making one stop en route. This was the Atoche Station that had 2 of the 4 bombs blow up near it almost a year earlier, but my train made it okay. The train station is connected to the subway system in Madrid so I walked straight into the metro without having to go outside, although I noticed that it was quite cold anyway just getting off the train. I found the right line to get to Puerto del Sol, which is the main town square and the area where most of the recommended hotels are. I really wanted a bit of luxury at this point and was also hoping very much to get at least one English language channel on TV for the first time in weeks. It would be CNN International or BBC World if anything, but those are both interesting, especially if you haven’t really kept up on the news lately.

The hotel I was going to try first had normal rates for a single room of €59 per night and is a 3-star place just off the square. I hoped since it was off-season that I could get a room for closer to €40, but when I asked at the front desk they said they were completely sold out. This was the first time on my trip (other than Rio during Carnaval) that a hotel was sold out. I had noticed on the hotel finding web site that I had been using that hotels were expensive for that weekend in Madrid, but I thought it was just because I was checking at the last minute. I went to three other places in the same building overlooking a nearby square and they were also all sold out. It was Friday afternoon so I wondered if there was some special event in town. A hotel clerk told me most weekends in Madrid are quite full, even during the off-season.

I was getting very worried at that point. I was already tired of moving so quickly and I really just wanted to find a comfortable room and relax for a day or two without pushing myself and now I was facing the possibility of having to pay a huge amount for an average room or stay in a really crummy or poorly located place. None of those sounded good and I considered going to an Internet place to try to find a room on the Web, but I tried another group of hotels in a building on the other side of the main square. The first two said they were full, but the third one had a room and it was only €35 per night. I was suspicious because that was cheap so why did they have availability? I looked at the room and it was very nice. I checked in and noticed they even had two sets of glass doors and a metal shudder that closed off the balcony from the cold and all sound and light even. The interior of the Hostal Esmeralda was also extremely nice with fresh flowers on a table at the end of the hall, and the girl at the front desk spoke clear English.

I was very relieved. I just rested for a while and scanned the television, but it only had 5 channels, all in Spanish, of course. I thought about buying a DVD to watch since my computer has an excellent screen for movies. I went to a couple of department stores and looked around for a long time, but all the films I wanted to see cost more than I was willing to pay. When I was walking back to the hotel, I noticed a group of black guys who spread out blankets on the sidewalk with bootleg CDs and DVDs on them. I looked at a few and they assured me they were all in both Spanish and English. I was skeptical of that, but I thought it still might be worth the €5 each as the ones in the stores were 2 to 5 times that price and many of these were movies that were just released including The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby. I was worried that they might be the kind of movies where someone filmed it in a theater, so I decided to keep walking. Just as I did there was this unbelievable panic and people started screaming and running. At first I thought it was an ETA bomb or something since it was both the vendors and pedestrians running, but then I noticed it was just the bystanders getting out of the way of the vendors.

All the black guys grabbed their blankets and ran as fast as they could around the corner and down the street. Evidently there was a police officer that had just appeared and running away is the thing that keeps them out of jail. As they were running, quite a few DVDs spilled out of their blankets and people started picking them up. I didn’t get to any in time to get one myself, but I convinced a woman who grabbed one to give it to me since she clearly didn’t seem to have any use for it. It was Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers starring Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis. I don’t like ultra-violent movies so I didn’t see it in the theaters, but I heard a lot of talk about the movie so I was fairly happy getting a free copy. I went up to my room and put it in my computer. Surprisingly enough, it played and the menu that popped up was the real thing. It had different languages and extras and so forth. I hit the play button and watched and hated it. Nevertheless, it was a treat to be able to watch something in my own language for the first time in a while.

My hotel was conveniently located right above a restaurant/tapas bar called Museo del Jamon (Museum of Ham). I first thought this was pretending to be an actual museum as the inside is completely covered in ham shanks hanging from the ceiling, but as I roamed though Madrid I saw four other locations all within walking distance of my hotel. The one below my hotel was recommended in my guidebook as a good and cheap place to get tapas so I decided to try it. These places are usually fun, but seem to be designed in a way that minimizes their own business. This place has a huge U-shaped bar on the bottom floor next to the deli pictured below and a restaurant above (that I never even bothered to look at), but still the bar only has space for about 20 people inside the large room. There are no waiters aside from the guys behind the bar so getting served means shoving your way through the crowd to get attention from a bartender and also claiming bar space since there are usually no other tables. The room could easily hold 40 or 50 people, but with this configuration most of those people would quickly become discouraged and leave.

I went in and crowded my way into a corner spot. There were a few other tourists, but it was mostly locals, at least at this time of the year. I ordered a glass of beer and a ham sandwich that I expected to be tapas size since it was only €1.50, but it turned out to be a large sandwich. The beer came right away as usual and was about a 10 ounce glass that cost €1.10. I really like that aspect since the beer is cheap enough and served quickly enough that you can have a few before the food even comes if you are quick about it. The sandwich arrived and, as I mentioned, it was quite large, but once again it was a few thin strips of dry ham on a dry mini baguette of French bread. Somehow the concept of mustard or mayonnaise has not made it over the Pyrenees Mountains from France yet. The sandwich was so dry that you have no choice but to wash it down with several beers. I don’t think it’s a deliberate strategy, but dry sandwiches seem to be the national choice.

The other thing that I liked about that place as well as other places like it is they serve free olives or salami pieces right along with your first beer. If you aren’t particularly hungry you could actually have a few glasses of beer and eat a couple dishes of olives and salami and have a small, free meal. A guy vacationing from Mexico City was standing next to me and we chatted for a while as we ate and drank. At least this place isn’t as intimidating as the small places around Spanish towns as this place actually had a large menu visible from anywhere that also included photos and prices.

I was planning 3 total nights in Madrid so I had two full days to see the sights. The next day was a Saturday and I figured I would do the bulk of my sightseeing on Sunday since the museums are actually free that day and almost everything else is closed on Sundays. The other reason I delayed my sightseeing is that I’m finding it’s difficult to freely explore a city and roam around until I know how, and approximately when, I will be leaving the city. I absolutely love the freedom of skipping from town to town by the best means available, but I am also anal enough that I really need to know the exit options thoroughly before I can relax properly.

I was definitely planning on going to Barcelona in a few days, but I knew it was about a 6-hour train ride or a 9-hour cheaper bus ride, but it’s also a frequent pairing for commuter flights so I wanted to see what a flight would cost. I went to an Internet place and saw a flight for €42, but I would have to pay about €18 to have a physical ticket delivered. I went to a travel agency located in the huge El Corte Ingles department store and the man there told me the train costs €60 and a flight would be about €80. I wanted to try a budget or student travel agency to compare prices so I walked about 20 minutes up to one I knew about, but it was closed already since it was after 2 p.m. and most smaller businesses close at 1 p.m. on Saturday and don’t open at all on Sunday. I still thought I could get a cheaper flight so I went back to an Internet place and continued my search online.

An English guy I met that morning suggested I fly Eurolines Airline so I tried to find their Website. I think it’s a French-based airline, but the website only came up in Spanish. That’s another difficult thing about traveling, sometimes since the computers are normally set to the home language and some Websites think they are being clever by going to that language automatically and then never giving you an option to change it. I navigated the site in Spanish and found a perfect flight for Monday at 1:00 p.m. to Barcelona for €25. I had to translate a few words from the site by using a translation website in another window and started the purchase. It turned out there was a €12 booking fee and another €5 charge, but the €42 total was still very cheap for a last minute flight at a perfect time of day. I managed to buy the ticket online and got my confirmation printed out.

I was still a bit tired of moving around so much so I just went back to my hotel to relax and later in the evening I went out to sample a few tapas bars right in the area of my hotel. When I went out that evening I actually realized how perfect the location of my hotel was. If I have a choice of a hotel near the museums or near the restaurants and bars I will always prefer the latter. If I go to museums it’s during the day so going across town is never a big deal, but if I go out at 9 in the evening and come back to my hotel at midnight I don’t want a long way to go. That evening I tried a couple of nice places recommended in my book where the beer was more expensive and the food really wasn’t any better. Madrid seems like a really fun town for nightlife, but again I was finding that very few bartenders or waiters speak more than a few words of English so it’s hard enough just to order and impossible to actually chat with them. I had a bowl of Gazpacho which is normally just a warm weather dish, but I think is on the menus of a few places just to satisfy the off-season tourists like me. It was tasty, but completely liquefied. My mother made much better Gazpacho when I was a kid, but I don’t think my taste buds were ready for it at that age. Another fairly early night and I was back in my room.

The next morning I was ready for my big sightseeing day. Unfortunately the freak cold snap that was actually wreaking havoc far more on Northern Europe was setting into Madrid. It was below freezing in the late morning when I set out, although I was surprised by how well my fleece pullover over my thin t-shirt was handling the cold. Still, it was pretty uncomfortable, especially when the icy wind picked up. I started by trying the Puerto del Sol to Plaza Major walk that Rick Steves included in his book. I was once again very impressed by how well he describes interesting things and leaves most of the boring parts out. After getting to Plaza Major I headed toward the Royal Palace and it was still bitter cold. I made it to the Royal Palace and saw a huge line of people out front waiting to get in. I think it was €8 or so admission, but I didn’t really even consider going in. I am not particularly interested in the Spanish monarchy so the lavish outside of the palace was enough of a taste for me.

The next stop was a long walk across town to the Prado Museum. I stopped at a Starbucks along the way for a large coffee and to warm up. The Starbucks in Spain are identical to those in the States except everything is about 50% more expensive and after you add in the exchange rate everything is nearly double the U.S. cost. If I live to be 1,000 years old I will still prefer strong coffee in a cup larger than 2 ounces in which I can balance the temperature and creaminess with my own amount of cold milk. Coffee throughout Europe and even in South America seems to only be served in tiny glasses of differing strengths of coffee with a sometimes-overwhelming amount of steaming hot milk added to dilute it. I would have paid $5 for a Grande drip coffee at that point, which is lucky because it cost over $3.00 as it was.

I made it to the Prado where I would be saving the €3 admission by going on cheapskate’s day. It was crowded, but not as bad as it might have been. I find that sometimes going to places like that on the free day means fighting massive crowds to the point that it’s not even enjoyable. I went in and began touring through the various exhibits of classical paintings. It was during this visit that I finally came to the conclusion that I am completely missing the gene that allows one to appreciate paintings of men with wigs or sad looking groups of people standing around in dark rooms. I honestly could not have been more bored. I think I walked through almost every room of the huge museum and the facility itself is extremely impressive, but I don’t think I saw one painting that really caught my eye. Movies, poems, songs, books and plays can make me laugh or cry or think or feel all sorts of things, but classical paintings never make me feel anything. I can totally appreciate the skill involved in painting them, but I really think many people just stare at them and go to these museums because they think they are supposed to appreciate these paintings and not because they actually do. I know some people truly do, but I think that is a small number.

The next stop was the Modern Art Museum down the street from the Prado. Modern Art is a completely different category for me and I do confess to liking a lot of it, even though I think a lot of it is pretentious and stupid. That museum was free on Sundays also so I walked on in and saw some things in the first few rooms that I found infinitely more interesting than anything I saw in the Prado. People were stirring in an unusual way around me so I figured something was going on. I looked at my watch and it was about 2:20 and I soon found out the place closes at 2:30 on Sundays, unlike the Prado, which stays open until 8 p.m. I had to leave without really getting to see too much, but I was still happy I went in.

It wasn’t quite as cold then, but it was still not warm enough to enjoy walking around too much and I think I had already covered about 5 miles on foot so I just went back to my hotel. That night I went to a cheap all-you-can-eat restaurant that I saw earlier and had a predictably bad meal, but a lot of it. Those places always seem to have so much promise when you are really hungry because the price is usually the same as just a normal entrée, but the food is almost always disappointingly bland and this place was no exception. I really wanted some meat since it’s served in such tiny portions in Spain, but this place had mediocre sausage, some tired-looking fish and a dish that I thought was beef chunks in gravy but turned out to be liver chunks in gravy.

Madrid is a beautiful city by the way. My walking tour really highlighted the grandness of the city as I toured through several town squares and along many attractive boulevards. I can imagine that it must be an incredible place to be in the spring and summer with all the outdoor cafes and restaurants lining the streets and filling the squares, but it was kind of a tease since not only was this winter, it was a bizarrely cold week near the end of winter. I would love to go back in May or September sometime to properly enjoy all the things I could only see on this trip.

My flight was scheduled for 1 p.m. the next morning so I was able to wake up late and take my time getting ready. I left the hotel at around 10:00 a.m. to get on the metro because it’s necessary to transfer twice in order to get to the airport for the €1.10 fee. No problems and I made it to the airport before 11:00 and found the check in counter for my airline. The lines were short and as I got up to the front I noticed the girl at my window was stunningly good looking. I generally found the women of Spain to be rather plain and very few of them were head turners, but this girl looked like Miss Spain. It’s strange how often the most attractive girls seem to work at airports and as flight attendants. I guess the jobs pay reasonably well, but flight attendant in particular seems like a terrible job since you have to often spend a couple nights a week in a sterile business hotel near the airport.

I wanted to check in but Miss Spain told me there was a problem and I should come back in 15 minutes. I went to finally get my first cup of coffee for the day at a counter around the corner and paid about €1.40 for the three ounces of coffee and milk I received. I came back and asked if I could check in, but it still wasn’t possible. I heard an announcement over the loud speaker soon thereafter saying “All flights to Barcelona may be delayed”. What the hell does that mean? May be delayed? Any given flight MAY be delayed. I went to the customer service counter nearby and they said it was snowing in Barcelona and the airport was closed for the time being. Snowing? She said I should wait for a while, so wait I did.

They repeated the ‘May be delayed’ announcement a few more times and I went back and asked Miss Spain if she knew any more. Her friend nearby who spoke far better English told me I should go to the Customer Service counter and rebook my flight since mine had been canceled. Canceled? The Customer Service Desk told me my flight was indeed canceled, but they could book me on the 4 p.m. flight, which was scheduled to leave at 8 p.m. at that point, but there was no guarantee it would go at all that day. The other option was a 9 a.m. flight the next morning. Hmmm… Normally this would be a terrible development, but since I really have no real schedule the only thing it meant was calling the hotel I had made on online reservation for and asking if I could push it back one day. I figured they couldn’t argue too much since it was the airport in their town that was closed and not mine. I chose the 9 a.m. flight and headed back into Madrid.

If you are still with me, there was some excitement on the trip back into town. I had to take 3 different subway lines to get back to the Sol station in the middle of town and I had gotten off the first and walked to the second line for my connection. I had my whole backpack rig on obviously since I was coming back from the airport, but I only had my large backpack hung over one shoulder at this point and I had my shoulder bag dangling from my neck as usual. Together they balance each other out nicely and don’t really weigh too much, but I must have looked vulnerable. A subway car pulled in and a woman about 50-years-old was standing right next to me as it pulled up. I saw the car was almost empty, but there were a few people getting off at that stop so I shifted over to the left of the door to clear their path. They got off and I stepped in, but just then the woman crowded into me in an unusual way, as if we were wedging ourselves onto a completely packed car. A second later I felt something on my leg and there was another older woman pressing against me as she got on the metro. I quickly put my hand down on my pocket, but there was a hand already there. The second woman—who was rather ugly and almost certainly a gypsy— now had her hand trapped on top of my large and full cargo pocket with my hand on top of hers.

She never looked at me and started to stare off into space as if she was blind for a second. I was still thinking this was no accident and just before the doors closed in the car both women jumped out and onto the platform without ever looking at me. I saw them talking as they walked away so it was obvious they were friends and neither was blind nor had they intended to actually ride that subway. I was in shock. I had just been the victim of a failed pick-pocketing attempt! Luckily this was a horrible job on their part because in that lower right cargo pocket I did actually have my wallet full of credit cards as well as my ankle safe where I had about $500 in cash along with my sunglasses and airline ticket. I am pretty sure that the fact that the pocket was stuffed so full of things with the sunglasses on the outside was the reason it didn’t go any further. If the woman had felt only my wallet she might have tried to pull it out and run if I noticed, but it was so crammed that there is no quick way to get anything out.

I was still shocked and it took me several minutes as I rode the metro before I ruled out any possibility other than pick-pocketing. I am pretty sure these older gypsy women just prowl the subways and when they see someone like me who probably had some valuables in my pocket since I had all my stuff on me they figured they could try to get them and they obviously have an ‘abort plan’ if things don’t work out. I am still a bit shocked over the whole thing. I carry my main cash supply in my front upper pocket and that is really hard to get to, but when I am going on a plane I load up my lower right pocket with all the stuff I mentioned. I really think the fact that it’s stuffed in there is the reason I still have it all, but I will definitely watch myself even more carefully. When all the guidebooks tell you to watch out for pickpockets I always picture some scruffy, skinny guy trying to bump into me and then feeling nothing else until I realize my wallet is gone, but these were older women and they really did a terrible job.

I am not sure all Americans realize (and I didn’t until I started traveling to Europe a lot), but Gypsies are not like Leprechauns, they are real people. I think they originated in Egypt (thus the Gyp part of the name) and are more recently mostly based in and around Romania. They are, in fact, often thieves and con artists and are widely hated through Europe because this is well known about them. One scam they pull that is very visible is the women hang out in front of cathedrals and will approach tourists with a free flower. Once you’ve accepted this “gift” you are talking with them and soon they are either picking your pocket or charging you for a ridiculous palm reading or something equally dubious. I have read enough about this one that I take the books’ advice and just ignore them when they approach me with a flower.

I thought about checking into a different hotel at this point since it was now a weekday and surely the hotels would all be available, but the Hostal Esmeralda was very comfortable and affordable at €35 per night so I just went straight there and checked into the exact same room. I was still a bit burned out from traveling so I was planning on spending the day just working on computer stuff and my Website in my room in Barcelona when I arrived, so this was even easier to not be distracted by the city outside since I had already bid it a fond farewell that morning. I just stayed in the room most of the day and typed and worked on some writing projects and grabbed a simple dinner nearby that night. Now I had to get up very early for the 9 a.m. flight the next day. I sort of regretted taking that early flight. They offered me the same 1 p.m. flight I was originally on as an alternative, but I figured it was best to get to Barcelona early if I could.

I woke up around 3 a.m. I think, which is what I always do even though I hate it. When I have my alarm set for 6 a.m. or earlier I never sleep soundly and keep waking up thinking it’s just seconds before my alarm goes off. It’s usually about 3 or 4 hours before I really need to wake up that this process starts and often by the second time I wake up I realize I am too tense and wired to sleep at that point. I was out of the hotel a bit after 6 a.m. and to the airport before 7 a.m. I didn’t know if the snow had let up so I was expecting it might be a complete madhouse and at the very least my flight would be completely jammed with all the other people who did not get out the previous day. As it turned out the flight left on time and was only about half full.