In Madrid
Within 5 minutes of climbing out of the SOL subway station in Madrid, I realized that I was right in the middle of an international incident. Unlike Afghanistan or Pakistan, however, this international incident involved fashion. SO scary. Do you ever go into H&M or Old Navy and look at some of the clothes in horror? Sure, the bright orange stripld sailor tops and black-and-green pokladot knee socks are available for purchase, but WHo EVER BUYS THEM? Well, now I know. The Spanish. Madrid is a city of clothes clothes clothes, all on sale. Sales in Europe only happen twice every year, and from the beginning of July to the end of August os the main sale period. SO sweet. However, with my less-than-stellar current financial situation and 12 extra kilos of bag weight I am currently having to sneak onto each flight, shopping is not a good idea. But I will tell you a secret: I LUST for the pretty carrier bags. Everyone walking in the street has at least three! Oh well, MODEST MELANIE is a good concept. At least where being a shopaholic is concerned. Besides, the Harry Potter book is being released in just 2 days, and I found a bookstore here that is will be selling it.
It is almost 11pm in Madrid, which means everyone is going out to party. Alas, I am aLONE and cannot party. Besides, I am too tired to do anything much. It has been a long day.
This morning I left for work with Rebecca and spent and hour wandering around the streets around the embassy. As there are eery day, the streets were lined with people waiting to drop off applications for visitor visas, and it is hard for one not to feel a LITTLE smug when one can march right up tot he head of the queue, breezily ask to see a diplmat, and then to be granted entrance(!)
I had to catch the 10am train to Casablanca. At 9 I found the beauty salon that Rebecca had showed me on my first day in town. Now, I have a good sense of direction, but on the first day in a new place things are always a bit turned around, and Morocco has thwarted any directional sense I naturally possess. An hour to find a certain doorway was not so bad, actually. So, I arrived there at 9. By 9:20 I had gotten a leg and underarm wax (In Canada that costs I think 36 for the leg wax and 40 for underarms, or something like that shen the tip is added). In Rabat, I paid 50 dirhams. Total. That is approximately 5.60$ SOO sweet!
So, I was running short on time by that point, so I caught a cab back to the embassy to get my suitcase (which was waiting in Rebecca's office...sound familiar, Wendy?) and then to go to the central station. The first cab did not have change for my 100 dirham bill. That is 12$ only, so I had to get out of his cab after going a couple of blocks and then find another. With the two rides and the 5-minute stop the ride ended up costing only about 16 dirhams. I love Morocco!
I decided to save my dirhams and to ride second class to the airport. It was a LONG ride. And ahot ride, and there was b.o. everywhere and lots of pushin, and getting the extra weight on the plane was a bit of a struggle this time. But I am here! SO , so tired though. That's all for now, tomorrow I am probably going to ride one of those red buses all over the city so I can tour without getting too lost of too tired.
Ciao, bellas - or however they say it is Spanish, bloody confusing language compared to Italian!
It is almost 11pm in Madrid, which means everyone is going out to party. Alas, I am aLONE and cannot party. Besides, I am too tired to do anything much. It has been a long day.
This morning I left for work with Rebecca and spent and hour wandering around the streets around the embassy. As there are eery day, the streets were lined with people waiting to drop off applications for visitor visas, and it is hard for one not to feel a LITTLE smug when one can march right up tot he head of the queue, breezily ask to see a diplmat, and then to be granted entrance(!)
I had to catch the 10am train to Casablanca. At 9 I found the beauty salon that Rebecca had showed me on my first day in town. Now, I have a good sense of direction, but on the first day in a new place things are always a bit turned around, and Morocco has thwarted any directional sense I naturally possess. An hour to find a certain doorway was not so bad, actually. So, I arrived there at 9. By 9:20 I had gotten a leg and underarm wax (In Canada that costs I think 36 for the leg wax and 40 for underarms, or something like that shen the tip is added). In Rabat, I paid 50 dirhams. Total. That is approximately 5.60$ SOO sweet!
So, I was running short on time by that point, so I caught a cab back to the embassy to get my suitcase (which was waiting in Rebecca's office...sound familiar, Wendy?) and then to go to the central station. The first cab did not have change for my 100 dirham bill. That is 12$ only, so I had to get out of his cab after going a couple of blocks and then find another. With the two rides and the 5-minute stop the ride ended up costing only about 16 dirhams. I love Morocco!
I decided to save my dirhams and to ride second class to the airport. It was a LONG ride. And ahot ride, and there was b.o. everywhere and lots of pushin, and getting the extra weight on the plane was a bit of a struggle this time. But I am here! SO , so tired though. That's all for now, tomorrow I am probably going to ride one of those red buses all over the city so I can tour without getting too lost of too tired.
Ciao, bellas - or however they say it is Spanish, bloody confusing language compared to Italian!
posted by Melamondiale @ 1:33 PM
1 Comments:
At 11:39 PM,
ChannahShira said…
Thanks for telling bro that you were communicating through your blog. Thanks for writing all these details. I can almost see what you are experiencing. You should write a travel book. Oh! Hey! You already have!
QB and WL are fine. No more escapes! I rigged a piece of cardboard to block the doorway so they can run in the tubes but not around the cage. I put them back in the cage at night. Well, I thought I put them both away the other night....I saw them each crawl into the cage. But QB must have snuck out while I was closing the door, because the next morning, Andrew found him peeking out from behind the water cooler. What a rascal! I still can't figure out how he got away. I SAW him go into the cage! I SHUT the cage door. Andrew called QB the teeny Houdini. I think he's right.
The weather here is so hot and the tomato-plant jungle has taken over the deck. I hope we get some tomatoes. We tried to eat out there again tonight, but the wasps have discovered that we like to sit at the cute table with FOOD. They spoil everything.
You can remove this comment from your blog if you like. It's not really for public viewing.
So you are in Madrid. Have a wonderful time. And be careful.
Love, Mom
PS I typed this a couple of hours ago, but the site didn't like my user name or password. Then we took the dogs for a W and then I just reregistered and sent this letter. Have a great day in Madrid!
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