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The vacation is winding down. We slept in for a while, because my brother went clubbing last night --- I had been up at seven so I did not go by that point, as I cannot afford to adapt to the Madrid lifestyle clock as well as its timezone; instead I was already in bed, because I am so boring, and read Soldier of Fortune magazines.
Yeah, their political alignment is so far from mine it is ridiculous, but I have to admit that there is some sense to the value system they operate from. And the ads are fun. There is an interesting serial column on law enforcement in the magazine that I found well worth reading.
Today we went grocery shopping, ate, and then went back to the park and rented a rowboat again. However, this time our ride was earlier, the sun was higher in the sky, and even though I was wearing a hat, I got a headache. I used to know the symptoms of sunstroke and heat exhaustion, but that was a long time ago. Rest assured that I am drinking lots of water, and will probably be fine.
So, general observations on Madrid:
Old Madrid seems to have the circular-radial spiderweb layout, but unlike Moscow, the classic example of this layout, there is no one hub to the spiderweb, but multiple ones, the various plazas and puertas of the old city, leaving to a tangled cobweb of streets, with turns at the oddest angles. Except in the Salamanca region; looking at the map of Madrid, I quipped that the Salamanca region is where the urban planners actually found themselves some graph paper and put it to good use.
The people adapt to the summer heat not by dress so much as by very tactical use of the shaded sides of the street. In an effort to emulate them, my brother particularly grew quite adept at navigating the narrower alleys of the cobweb, where they were narrow enough to be shady on both sides.
There are a lot of beggars, particularly people who are visibly disabled, and it makes me sad. In the Canadian cities I have lived in, panhandlers generally look able-bodied, and from what I have heard, tend to be addicts or mentally ill. Here it is the physically disabled who seem to fall through the social cracks; Spain has a socialist system, but not enough, it seems, probably particularly at this time, when unemployment overall is sky-high.
There are also a lot of buskers, ranging across karaoke, classical guitar, erhu, cello, electric guitar, drums, jazz clarinet, or jazz trumpet. My brother tells of an eighty-year-old woman played "Besame Mucho" on the violin in Puerta del Sol at one in the morning. We passed an accordeon and a violin playing the "Habanera" from Carmen when we were on the way to the Royal Palace. I almost sang along, but my brother asked me to stop. The buskers seem to be enjoying themselves more, and are generally pretty good; some sell CDs.
There is a LOT of graffiti. Including in weird places like on bushes, on the domes of buildings, and, I swear, on the wheels of subway cars. There are signs that the street cleaners attempt to remove it, but not enough. Mostly slogans; not a Banksy among them; we did once encounter a couple of rather poetic ones by someone apparently lovestruck: "You exist, you are, I believe in you; that is enough for me." And I noted the supreme irony of a graffito on a public park bench saying "Madrid bonito," pretty Madrid. But mostly, they're illegible, just annoying.
Ham is, indeed, assumed to be part of the diet. We mostly, as I said, bought groceries and assembled sandwiches, but I can see how eating out for a vegetarian, or someone who keeps kosher or halal, would be quite challenging. The hotel continental breakfast, though well-served, was monotonous, and generally carb-heavy, although it also included ham.
Yeah, their political alignment is so far from mine it is ridiculous, but I have to admit that there is some sense to the value system they operate from. And the ads are fun. There is an interesting serial column on law enforcement in the magazine that I found well worth reading.
Today we went grocery shopping, ate, and then went back to the park and rented a rowboat again. However, this time our ride was earlier, the sun was higher in the sky, and even though I was wearing a hat, I got a headache. I used to know the symptoms of sunstroke and heat exhaustion, but that was a long time ago. Rest assured that I am drinking lots of water, and will probably be fine.
So, general observations on Madrid:
Old Madrid seems to have the circular-radial spiderweb layout, but unlike Moscow, the classic example of this layout, there is no one hub to the spiderweb, but multiple ones, the various plazas and puertas of the old city, leaving to a tangled cobweb of streets, with turns at the oddest angles. Except in the Salamanca region; looking at the map of Madrid, I quipped that the Salamanca region is where the urban planners actually found themselves some graph paper and put it to good use.
The people adapt to the summer heat not by dress so much as by very tactical use of the shaded sides of the street. In an effort to emulate them, my brother particularly grew quite adept at navigating the narrower alleys of the cobweb, where they were narrow enough to be shady on both sides.
There are a lot of beggars, particularly people who are visibly disabled, and it makes me sad. In the Canadian cities I have lived in, panhandlers generally look able-bodied, and from what I have heard, tend to be addicts or mentally ill. Here it is the physically disabled who seem to fall through the social cracks; Spain has a socialist system, but not enough, it seems, probably particularly at this time, when unemployment overall is sky-high.
There are also a lot of buskers, ranging across karaoke, classical guitar, erhu, cello, electric guitar, drums, jazz clarinet, or jazz trumpet. My brother tells of an eighty-year-old woman played "Besame Mucho" on the violin in Puerta del Sol at one in the morning. We passed an accordeon and a violin playing the "Habanera" from Carmen when we were on the way to the Royal Palace. I almost sang along, but my brother asked me to stop. The buskers seem to be enjoying themselves more, and are generally pretty good; some sell CDs.
There is a LOT of graffiti. Including in weird places like on bushes, on the domes of buildings, and, I swear, on the wheels of subway cars. There are signs that the street cleaners attempt to remove it, but not enough. Mostly slogans; not a Banksy among them; we did once encounter a couple of rather poetic ones by someone apparently lovestruck: "You exist, you are, I believe in you; that is enough for me." And I noted the supreme irony of a graffito on a public park bench saying "Madrid bonito," pretty Madrid. But mostly, they're illegible, just annoying.
Ham is, indeed, assumed to be part of the diet. We mostly, as I said, bought groceries and assembled sandwiches, but I can see how eating out for a vegetarian, or someone who keeps kosher or halal, would be quite challenging. The hotel continental breakfast, though well-served, was monotonous, and generally carb-heavy, although it also included ham.
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