Finally! An Internet Café
It took me 4 days, but I finally found a place that I can surf for a while.
It´s not that there is any shortage of them here, but mi hermana has had every minute booked since I walked off the plane. I have done quite a lot since touching down at 7:15 in the morning on Saturday.
According to the clock on the computer, I only have 9 minutes left, so I´ll write until I run out of time:
On the first day, I met my sister´s roommate, Andy. A very nice Scottish fellow who teaches at the same school as Jane. After that, Jane and I took a bottle of wine, some bread and cheese to the park by her house. We sat on the grass, caught up, ate the food and drank the wine. It was great. We got home a few hours later and started in on a new bottle. We talked quite a bit more, I had a siesta and we sat up that night to watch a soccer match.
Sunday we set out to see some areas of town and meet a few of Jane´s friends. We started by visiting Le Restro, a huge open-air market that spans about 20 blocks. As you can probably imagine, most of it was just tourist stuff, but there were a lot of people and vendors there. Later we went to Plaza Mayor which is a large square that I took a lot of pictures in. We walked on to Sol, at the center of Madrid, which looks like a smaller version of Times Square. When we arrived, there was a large demonstration going on to do with liberating Palestine. There were many people with placards, Arafat-style headdresses and lots of yelling. I took only 1 or 2 pictures before my sister figured it was time to go.
We walked to Plaza Dos de Mayo and waited for her friends at the wrong café for a while before meeting them at the correct location. While waiting, we angled for a table and missed out a number of times. In Madrid, they don´t have waiting lists, you just circle around like vultures, waiting for someone to get up and you run for the table.
Most of her friends speak quite good English (not suprising as she is a teacher), so I wasn´t getting a lot of practice at Spanish...
So anyway, I was talking with Hector, a painter friend of Jane´s, about his work and there was a loud *bang* from the direction of the Plaza Dos de Mayo to our left. I asked Hector what it was and he said ´Oh, you know...terrorista´ and then laughed. I figured it must have been a firecracker or something, and then all the people at the tables to our left either hit the ground or started running toward us. We all stood up and tried to see what was going on. Out of the Plaza ran a man with 4 or 5 others in hot pursuit. They tackled him and started beating the crap out of him. They were kicking him in the head, beating him with a chair and jumping on him. Then, two of the assailants started walking in our direction and people really started moving! Hector, Jane and I sttod rather like deer in headlights as they walked our way and watched as one of them calmly put a gun into his beltline, pulled his shirt down over it and walked on. I don´t think my eyes have ever been wider.
When we sat down again (Jane called the police), Hector was apologizing, saying that he had no idea that it was a gun shot and his comment about terrorists was just a joke. It was about this time that we noticed that one of the people that had been at the table was missing...and so was her baby. In all the commotion, we didn´t notice her jump up, grab her kid and run into the café. She had run past the indoor patrons, past the waiter station, past the cooks in the kitchen and was hiding at the back of the building in the kitchen storage area.
Well, I am past my time limit, so the rest of the stories will have to wait.
¡Hasta Luego!
It´s not that there is any shortage of them here, but mi hermana has had every minute booked since I walked off the plane. I have done quite a lot since touching down at 7:15 in the morning on Saturday.
According to the clock on the computer, I only have 9 minutes left, so I´ll write until I run out of time:
On the first day, I met my sister´s roommate, Andy. A very nice Scottish fellow who teaches at the same school as Jane. After that, Jane and I took a bottle of wine, some bread and cheese to the park by her house. We sat on the grass, caught up, ate the food and drank the wine. It was great. We got home a few hours later and started in on a new bottle. We talked quite a bit more, I had a siesta and we sat up that night to watch a soccer match.
Sunday we set out to see some areas of town and meet a few of Jane´s friends. We started by visiting Le Restro, a huge open-air market that spans about 20 blocks. As you can probably imagine, most of it was just tourist stuff, but there were a lot of people and vendors there. Later we went to Plaza Mayor which is a large square that I took a lot of pictures in. We walked on to Sol, at the center of Madrid, which looks like a smaller version of Times Square. When we arrived, there was a large demonstration going on to do with liberating Palestine. There were many people with placards, Arafat-style headdresses and lots of yelling. I took only 1 or 2 pictures before my sister figured it was time to go.
We walked to Plaza Dos de Mayo and waited for her friends at the wrong café for a while before meeting them at the correct location. While waiting, we angled for a table and missed out a number of times. In Madrid, they don´t have waiting lists, you just circle around like vultures, waiting for someone to get up and you run for the table.
Most of her friends speak quite good English (not suprising as she is a teacher), so I wasn´t getting a lot of practice at Spanish...
Oh my god! I have to interrupt here and say that the guy at the counter just slipped in a Ron Sexsmith CD! I had been listening to horrible Musak until now, but this is an amazing change in musical direction.
I just asked if he was a Sexsmith fan, but his English is non-existant and the subject is a little outside my range of Spanish. Strawberry Blonde...I love this song!
So anyway, I was talking with Hector, a painter friend of Jane´s, about his work and there was a loud *bang* from the direction of the Plaza Dos de Mayo to our left. I asked Hector what it was and he said ´Oh, you know...terrorista´ and then laughed. I figured it must have been a firecracker or something, and then all the people at the tables to our left either hit the ground or started running toward us. We all stood up and tried to see what was going on. Out of the Plaza ran a man with 4 or 5 others in hot pursuit. They tackled him and started beating the crap out of him. They were kicking him in the head, beating him with a chair and jumping on him. Then, two of the assailants started walking in our direction and people really started moving! Hector, Jane and I sttod rather like deer in headlights as they walked our way and watched as one of them calmly put a gun into his beltline, pulled his shirt down over it and walked on. I don´t think my eyes have ever been wider.
When we sat down again (Jane called the police), Hector was apologizing, saying that he had no idea that it was a gun shot and his comment about terrorists was just a joke. It was about this time that we noticed that one of the people that had been at the table was missing...and so was her baby. In all the commotion, we didn´t notice her jump up, grab her kid and run into the café. She had run past the indoor patrons, past the waiter station, past the cooks in the kitchen and was hiding at the back of the building in the kitchen storage area.
Well, I am past my time limit, so the rest of the stories will have to wait.
¡Hasta Luego!
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