“If there’s a sweet spot to be born in history, it was after the invention of air conditioning and plumbing, but before the advent of crushing artificial intelligence and mobile phone games.” – Old Sean
The Center Of Spain
After a brief time visiting Pamplona, I moved towards the center of Spain, allowing myself several days to fully enjoy the capital Madrid.
Visiting Madrid was a surprisingly taxing trial at first. The heat wave currently striking Europe is entering the realm of unbearable. Most of the places I’m tempted to visit lack air conditioning, causing me to sweat buckets every time I go outside.
I simply can’t move around midday. This is especially true for inland cities where there are no shoreline winds to stir anything up.
The weather is so crushing, it’s created an odd, daily compression schedule. From 6 AM to around 10 AM, I’m free to wander and enjoy new places. But afterwards, I’m required to hunker down at a hostel or coffee shop, knocking back a half-dozen espressos until around 7 PM.
Art Watcher
Even with this more limited window for daily oppertunities and exploration, I’ve found that I’ve enjoyed a ton of places while visiting Madrid.
During the early mornings, most of the storefronts are tightly shuttered with metal doors. These all have some graffiti, which is usually quite artistic or clever when I translate it. However, there’s so much metal-door-graffiti, my brain has started to buzz pass it, failing to register on occasion.
By around 9 AM, most of the doors are pulled up anyway, and Madrid can be viewed in it’s “daytime” form.
Throughout the city, there are hundreds of sculptures, fountains and art installations. There are so many, my mind tends to bypass these as well.
It’s rather funny, but I feel like noting certain artworks feels the same as noticing an oddly-shaped tree in a dense forest. For example, I recall ducking under a two-ton-concrete abstract-sculpture under a bridge. I didn’t realize it was art until I was already seated on it, eating an orange.
Managing To Travel
One of the sad realities of traveling for me is a lack of linguistic abilities. I’m not the best at picking up other languages and my Spanish has atrophied greatly over the years since 2nd level Español classes in high school.
What Spanish I do recall is mostly used to make profound apologies when asking for directions. I can also count using my fingers with the utmost pride.
To be frank, however, I’m managing to muddle through. Most of traveling is less about instantaneous language comprehension and more about “excessive miming hands.”
Points of Interest Around Madrid
While exploring Madrid, I had quite the list guiding me.
I first attempted to visit the Egyptian temple, Templo de Debod. Sadly, the area was roped off, the water was drained and the venue was closed.
Undaunted, I enjoyed walking through Puerta del Sol, with numerous nice and shady streets surrounding the plaza space. Sadly, shopping centers aren’t in my wallet’s wheelhouse at the moment. I’m traveling as a lots-of-thread-and-needle-and-patches kind of shopper.
I made a point of visiting a couple more plazas, including Plaza de Oriente and Plaza Mayor which were both pleasant to visit. Both plazas had buskers playing the accordion, fostering appreciation for an instrument I rarely think about.
During a late breakfast, I managed to catch the end of a Flemenco show while nibbling at a Tapas bar. Shortly afterwards, I poked my head into El Retiro Park’s Palacio de Cristal, an impressive transparent glass-house located in El Retiro Park. Unfortunately, it was about this time that the day was starting to heat up. The Crystal House turned into an oven as four direct sunbeams speared into the interior like God’s magnifying glass.
Trying to reach a slightly cooler area, I also got to follow an extended walking route beside the Manzanares River until I was able to rest at the Royal Palace of Madrid. I ended up staying here during the zenith of the day, but eventually ended up returning to my hostel, The Motion Hostel Chueca, to lay down.
One of the challenging things about traveling in high temperatures is the heat-sap. Realistically, slogging about in toasty climates tends to weary a body quickly.
Rest Attempts
I would return to my hostel quite frequently. There just wasn’t enough time or energy to explore all of Madrid to the extent I wanted to.
Instead, I spent several hours with my nose in a couple of books. I read a translation of Monkey King’s legendary “Journey to the West” and Ron McLarty’s wrenching “In Memory of Running” novel.
Was my time in Madrid terribly exciting? No, but it was relaxing, toasty and I still doggedly got to head out each morning and evening to explore. I saw old jeans stuffed with dirt with flowers growing out the top, numerous equestrian statues on pedestals, colorful shopping alleys, comfortable cathedrals, expansive parks and royal historical troves.
On my last night in Madrid, I gave myself an extra break. I found a an American throwback retro diner called Tommy Mel’s and ordered a plain, delightful cheeseburger.
There are few things so restorative on Earth as a well-made cheeseburger.
As I write this post now, I’m on my insanely long bus ride to Portugal, chatting with two girls from Holland who I’ve just learned cannot sing. But they’re willing to share Oreos, so they’re better people than me.
Until Porto,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written August 2nd 2018
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