Baby Seal visits Senor Beecho in Spain

The decision to go to Madrid was made after I cancelled the Egypt portion of my trip due to the unstable situation there. I have a very good friend from my middle school and high school years that lives there now, Iggy Romano. The name of the post refers to nicknames of ours from high school. No need to go into the embarassing origin stories. It was really good to see an old friend after traveling solo. He showed me  around and provided me a place to stay. Gracia Snr. Beecho! All pictures can be found here.

I took an easy metro ride from the airport to his apartment off the Tribunal stop in the center of town. We went to his apartment’s roof to get a bird’s eye view of the neighborhood. Iggy was an excellent tour guide and started teaching me some history of the area. We walked around town checking out Madrid’s highlights.

We started with the Capitol building, one of the most iconic, at the start of the busy the Gran Via (Main Street). We then walked past the Almudena Cathedral, which looked rather magnificent with the light at the time of day we passed.

Other cool buildings included the Caixia Forum, which featured hanging gardens

and a building with an M.C. Escher print on its facade.

It was Halloween night and a Saturday, so costumed kids and adults were sprinkled along the streets of Madrid.  After my first round of yummy tapas, Iggy and I ventured out to his local bar, El Perro, and saw a band I could not stand the sound of. I met some friends of Iggy’s, mostly a collection of talented and eccentric ex-pats. After the bar, we ventured on to the Sala Heineken, which featured the Stupid Zombie Kids DJ’ing. It was insanity. The DJs were working up the young Spaniards into a frenzied mosh pit, the likes of which I had not seen since I was a teenager at a hardcore punk show. I felt the electricity in the venue and this city. It was way past my bed time and things in the city were just getting started.

After a couple of rainy days exploring Madrid and relaxing, Iggy and I rented a car and were off to his country place in Chinchon, a small beautiful medieval village 50 kilometers south east of the city. It was a relaxing respite from the city. Since Iggy had been there last, they had taken down the bull ring they keep up all summer  in the plaza. It’s a shame there were no bull fights to watch, although we were to witness a big bull of sorts bearing down on us the next day. We woke up and went to the castle for a driving lesson. It had been years since I last even tried driving a manual car, and I needed a refresher. I have never really developed a competency with a manual car before, so it was definitely adventure time.

Adventure time turned into un accidente. Que lastima! I was merging onto a highway and was yielding to traffic on a ramp. I had come to a stop. Once it was clear I made the transition into first gear and started moving but stalled out. The big truck (aka the bull) behind me assumed I was going, didn’t notice the stall and rear ended us with a pretty strong jolt.

Iggy and I were ok, but stunned. The driver admitted fault immediately. Iggy took the driver’s seat again after we traded information and were on our way to Toledo.

Since the rental agency office in Toledo was closed for siesta, we had to wait to file an accident report. So we ventured into the old city of Toledo, a UNESCO world heritage site.  It’s a city that has been populated since the bronze age by such peoples as the Romans, Visigoths and Moors. There was even 700 years of peace and religious tolerance in this town before the inquisition known as La Convivencia, where Jews, Muslims and Christian co-existed peacefully. Iggy took me to the Synagogue de el Transito in the Jewish Quarter, which houses a museum about Sephardic history which was fascinating. After Toledo we went back to Chinchon for the evening where we took it easy and played with Iggy’s neck brace he got from the clinic in town.

He was a little sore for a couple days after, but is ok now. I was fine, besides my bruised ego.

The next day were off to Salamanca. This was bar far my favorite city to say out loud. It just rolls of the tongue. Salamanca. The city itself was as visually pleasing as it is to pronounce. It’s 200 KM west of Madrid and a UNESCO site as well. I was really impressed with beautiful Plaza Mayor, the University of Salamanca and the lovely parks. One park featured locks from couples who attached them to light poles and fences as symbols of their love.

We returned to Spain for one last night, my birthday celebration. We started at El Perro again, and went to the Diamante party at Sala Gold. It was a chance to check out how the Madrilenians really do it up in a club. I liked the neon sign that switched from:

to the dark and menacing:

Madrid was definitely more of a “Hello There” type of city for me, friendly and fun to explore. But for this aging man on his birthday and at other parts of the week, staying up way past his bed time was sometimes “Hell Here.” 😉 It’s a good thing rest and relaxation with Nicky was coming up in Thailand, but first a few days left in Istanbul before the long flight to flooded Bangkok.