So as those of you who read the wife's blog know, we spent the last week in Madrid and the surrounding environs. With the exception of the snow we saw on the way to the airport, a few episodes of getting lost while wandering around Toledo, and a comically bad dinner experience our last night there, we had a terrific time. Highlights of the week for me:
- Getting to see my host family again. We stopped by the store on Sunday to find it closed, on Monday to find only Deme there (Deme, short for Demetrio, is my host mother's cousin who lives with them - turns out they had stayed an extra day in their farm house in Talavera because the traffic was so bad), on Wednesday to again find only Deme there (my host father's mother had caught a cold since at 80 she still insists on doing all the chores - inside and out). We finally caught up with them on Thursday, upon which they invited us back for lunch (the big meal) on Friday. It was basically like being back with them - except for a different cast of dogs, the apartment had barely changed at all. And her lentil soup with chorizo was as delicious as ever. We spent a ridiculous amount of money at their store, but in true Spanish friend fashion, they gave us a few small pieces for free, and wouldn't let us pay full price for the rest.
- Knowing my way around. It was amazing how little I'd forgotten in the nine years since I'd really been there. It was a bit disappointing to find out that Middlebury didn't even have a program at the Instituto Internacional anymore - all of their classes are now done through the Universidad Complutense (which interestingly enough, I had been asking about when I took my classes there...I didn't want to take courses in Spain with a bunch of Americans). But all of the major streets joined together just as I'd remembered, and usually if we got off track, within two blocks I knew exactly where we were going and how to get there. It was also great to know the 'back story' to so much of the stuff in Madrid and have someone to tell it to. Funniest was seeing that even ten years later, they STILL give out "El Corte Inglés" maps to guide folks around the city. I've gone through several of them now on my various visits to Madrid, I think...
- FOOD. I'd always kind of discounted the tour books' recommendations of restaurants, figuring that if you were in a major city, you'd be able to find good eats pretty much anywhere you went. But as it turned out, most of the places recommended in the tour book were excellent and fairly cheap, and the places we opted for instead of the tour book recommendations were really hit-or-miss. Prime example of this was the place we ate at our last night - I should have been wary of the fact that it was on Gran Vía, one of the main thoroughfares of Madrid, but the menu in the window didn't look too bad and the way it billed itself as an Asturian eatery (Asturias is a region from northern Spain known for its hearty food and excellent seafood) was appealing. After our plans fell through at the first place we tried, we thought we'd give it a shot as we'd walked by it so many times. Viv's rule was that we wouldn't eat anywhere that was empty, reasoning that popular places were popular for a reason. There was a crowd at the bar as we went in and a couple tables full of diners. But no sooner had we sat down than the bar and one of the tables emptied, and the waiter handed us a bilingual menu (a sign they were slightly less authentic than they let on). And as it turns out, the full tables next to us were not full of locals but Germans who were smoking like chimneys. Ah, well. The other places were for the most part wonderful, especially Gambrinus, the restaurant in Toledo where we ate lunch out on the plaza in the glorious sun. Ran through a bunch of Fanta Limón, a huge plate of fried calamari strips, a pile of patatas bravas, and a mixed salad. In Spain they don't have the annoying American habit of coming by every two minutes to ask how the meal is, but instead they let you enjoy it at your leisure, so we sat there for a good 90 minutes, at least.
- Safety. It turns out that even the most momentary fears were unfounded about Madrid being in a state of panic or chaos while we were there. Of course, the train bombings were topic #1 on anyone's lips while we were there, but we weren't subjected to any additional, unreasonable searches in the airport or anywhere else, nor were we subject to any American-bashing or other untoward behavior. We traveled on the bus to Toledo, took the Metro (subway) around central Madrid, and never felt unsafe in the least. We did make an attempt to appear more nondescript while walking around Madrid, though - didn't carry the camera much (so not too many pictures, unfortunately), wore shoes instead of sneakers, skipped the flashy T-shirts in favor of muted shirts and sweaters, tried to speak Spanish whenever possible, etc. We were still greeted in English at a good number of restaurants, but despite not wearing a T-shirt saying "I didn't vote for Bush" (as I joked to my host family), there wasn't a single difficulty while we were there that wasn't entirely self-induced (like my stubbornness at going down several streets in Toledo that I was convinced would lead us to the Calle Santo Tomé or back to the Plaza de Zocodóver).
I of course wish we'd had more time - we never did get to the Retiro, the Royal Palace, or a dozen more little nooks and crannies of Madrid - but we're already making plans for where to go for our next visit. Will it be the green, foggy, rocky, New England-esque coast of Galicia? The cosmopolitan port of Barcelona? Or the southern Andalucía that everyone thinks of when they think of Spain? So many regions, so many personalities...
