Asia to Europe
Yesterday, I had my final moments in Istanbul. I took a taxi to the Taksim square area and tried to capture in photos and video the vibrancy and beauty and intensity, but sadly they are mere silhouettes of the true experience. I will do a full retrospective of the Turkish leg of my Journey when I am more grounded with consistent internet access with MY computer and not some random freakshow setup in an ergonomically void box in some far-flung corner of the world.
I left Istanbul with a pretty intense sleep deficit, the beginning of a nasty cold, and a very short night´s sleep ahead of me in Zurich. Fortunately, I had spent a night in Zurich on the way to Turkey, so was familiar with my hotel and its surroundings. My first impressions of Zurich were of a clean, modern, friendly and cosmopolitan place where everyone spoke perfect English. My return impression turned to one of a land of the entitled where one can´t even find a simple snack for less than $15. I was starving when I arrived and had left the Swiss Francs that I had been saving for this part of the journey in my other bag that I´d checked through to Madrid, so I decided to just use the credit card and have a decent meal. I was wearing the same clothes from the day before and hadn´t had time to take a proper shower before I left, so already felt like kind of an outcast. To top it off, the head cold had rendered my brain cells incapable of forming a complete sentence in English.
I finally decided on one of the many nice restaurants after wandering around for a while marvelling at the prices. The meal was an extraordinary black pasta dish with osso bucco and a creamy leek sauce, but the experience was kind of pathetic, as I had to eat reeeaaaallly slowly and raise my glass to drink with the utmost care to make sure I didn´t dump everything in my lap while on display in the restaurant window. When I planned this trip, I found that even the cheapest hostels in Zurich were $60, so I decided to pay a little more and book my room in the only gay hotel in Zurich. The added bonus was that they had a bar and discoteque in the same complex. The down side for sleeping was that they had a bar and discoteque in the same complex. On this Easter night of the delirious and sick Jeff stay, they had a special party for the holiday weekend. Apparently, the Swiss also get the day after Easter as a national holiday, so the gays of course wanted to make the best of this by cramming as much debauchery into those last few moments as possible. I knew that I wouldn´t be able to stay up until the fun started, so decided to do an early bedtime in the hopes of waking before my 7 a.m. flight to sample the big party. As planned, the pain and stuffiness from my cold woke me up at 4:30 a.m., just in time to go down to the disco for the tail end of what seemed like a lot of fun. I was glad I was able to see it, but not really able to enjoy it due to the aforementioned illness and delirium :(
The next morning, upon my arrival in Madrid, I realized that I had erroneously booked my reservation at the Madrid hostel for April 18-20 and was actually arriving on April 17. Fortunately, they were able to accommodate me. (I would have died if not, and I´m not kidding.) I wandered around a bit for the first time without Jerry, who had accompanied me the entire time in Madrid before the Turkey trip. Strange, I thought I knew Madrid pretty well, but found myself walking in a seemingly familiar direction, only to be spit out on some foreign corner. Resign yourself to the confusion, resign yourself to the confusion, it will be this way for a while. I have to remember that. I honestly don´t know what I would do if I had to work this first month. I really think I´ll need this time to adjust to the culture, get settled and find my way around.
I finally found my way back to the hostel and laid down for a "nap", only to wake up at midnight after 8 hours of sleep. What the $%&! happened to my alarm? Fortunately, I´m in Madrid! The bars are just getting started at that time, and I was able find a kebab place for cheap eats on the way. Most bars were pretty quiet, but I found the loudest and most happening one on Chueca Plaza and hung out as long as I could stand the loud music and thick cloud of smoke. The crowd was very young, cute, hip and mixed (I think). My gaydar is completely whacked here, since the straight guys dress much more colorfully, and listen to much more techno music than their American counterparts. I was still uncertain at this place until later in the night, when the lesbians pretty much took over one corner and the rest was straight couples (or gay guys with straight women?) making out. I found it advantageous to play down my knowledge of Spanish when a creepy trollish guy latched onto me in my corner oasis of calm and continually kept trying to start a conversation. Fortunately, his English was pretty much 0, so he eventually resigned himself to dancing next to me sans conversation. I finally wandered home and was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly when I returned to my room at 4 a.m.
This morning, during my first lost period of the day, I came across the filming of a movie on Gran Via. It was kind of cool to see them try to integrate their actors and extras with the random folks passing in the street to make for an authentic street scene. It's quite possible that I'm in the film, since I walked through the area at least three times before settling on my final direction.
Action! - Filming in Madrid
The pic below is almost all extras trying to create the look of an authentic busy street scene. When the camera started rolling, they all just started walking and blended in with the other foot traffic. The guy in the beige suit is the star. He kept doing the same 30 second clip over and over again.
The Star
I´ve been playing this game of trying to see how little money I can spend now that I´m in Spain and living on savings for the moment. It lasted well until lunchtime today, when I just had to break down and buy a full meal for 10 Euros (approximately $12). But, for that price, I got a yummy soup with a roll as a starter, a huge pork chop and french fries for the main course, and bread pudding for dessert. Now I understand why they need a siesta after lunch :) Of course this is perfect Jeff food, and if I can just find some pancakes for breakfast (unlikely here), my life will be complete!! I chose the budget option called the Menu. Apparently, each restaurant is required to have one by law, and most have the regular and the higher-priced Menu Especial. I honestly don't know how the residents here afford it. I mean, I´m living on the weak dollar, but the average wage in Madrid is only $20,000 Euros annually. Everything seems to be about the same price in Euros as things are in dollars in San Francisco, and the average wage there is much higher. I guess I´m existing in the most expensive zones and it is perhaps possible to live on much less every day.
When I first arrived in Madrid 12 days ago, I mentioned the contrast between Munich´s hyper-modern and exceedingly efficient airport to Madrid´s Barajas, which seems like a bit of an anachronism with its dingy walls and 70´s decor. My friend Jerry said that while I was getting accustomed to life in Spain I should prepare myself to expect "The Flintstones." I laughed, thinking he was joking. Later, during a discussion about the famously oppressive summers in Madrid (one of which I am about to experience), I said, "But, they have air conditioning, right?" To which Jerry broke out in song, "... from the town of Bedrock, it´s a place right out of history..." This rang true to me today when I was searching for an internet cafe where you can both use the internet AND relax with a coffee and pastry in a comfortable environment. I asked the attendant at the internet box where I was currently checking email if such a thing existed. He pointed to the cappuccino machine in the corner proudly and said, "No problem, we have coffee here."
Yesterday, I had my final moments in Istanbul. I took a taxi to the Taksim square area and tried to capture in photos and video the vibrancy and beauty and intensity, but sadly they are mere silhouettes of the true experience. I will do a full retrospective of the Turkish leg of my Journey when I am more grounded with consistent internet access with MY computer and not some random freakshow setup in an ergonomically void box in some far-flung corner of the world.
I left Istanbul with a pretty intense sleep deficit, the beginning of a nasty cold, and a very short night´s sleep ahead of me in Zurich. Fortunately, I had spent a night in Zurich on the way to Turkey, so was familiar with my hotel and its surroundings. My first impressions of Zurich were of a clean, modern, friendly and cosmopolitan place where everyone spoke perfect English. My return impression turned to one of a land of the entitled where one can´t even find a simple snack for less than $15. I was starving when I arrived and had left the Swiss Francs that I had been saving for this part of the journey in my other bag that I´d checked through to Madrid, so I decided to just use the credit card and have a decent meal. I was wearing the same clothes from the day before and hadn´t had time to take a proper shower before I left, so already felt like kind of an outcast. To top it off, the head cold had rendered my brain cells incapable of forming a complete sentence in English.
I finally decided on one of the many nice restaurants after wandering around for a while marvelling at the prices. The meal was an extraordinary black pasta dish with osso bucco and a creamy leek sauce, but the experience was kind of pathetic, as I had to eat reeeaaaallly slowly and raise my glass to drink with the utmost care to make sure I didn´t dump everything in my lap while on display in the restaurant window. When I planned this trip, I found that even the cheapest hostels in Zurich were $60, so I decided to pay a little more and book my room in the only gay hotel in Zurich. The added bonus was that they had a bar and discoteque in the same complex. The down side for sleeping was that they had a bar and discoteque in the same complex. On this Easter night of the delirious and sick Jeff stay, they had a special party for the holiday weekend. Apparently, the Swiss also get the day after Easter as a national holiday, so the gays of course wanted to make the best of this by cramming as much debauchery into those last few moments as possible. I knew that I wouldn´t be able to stay up until the fun started, so decided to do an early bedtime in the hopes of waking before my 7 a.m. flight to sample the big party. As planned, the pain and stuffiness from my cold woke me up at 4:30 a.m., just in time to go down to the disco for the tail end of what seemed like a lot of fun. I was glad I was able to see it, but not really able to enjoy it due to the aforementioned illness and delirium :(
The next morning, upon my arrival in Madrid, I realized that I had erroneously booked my reservation at the Madrid hostel for April 18-20 and was actually arriving on April 17. Fortunately, they were able to accommodate me. (I would have died if not, and I´m not kidding.) I wandered around a bit for the first time without Jerry, who had accompanied me the entire time in Madrid before the Turkey trip. Strange, I thought I knew Madrid pretty well, but found myself walking in a seemingly familiar direction, only to be spit out on some foreign corner. Resign yourself to the confusion, resign yourself to the confusion, it will be this way for a while. I have to remember that. I honestly don´t know what I would do if I had to work this first month. I really think I´ll need this time to adjust to the culture, get settled and find my way around.
I finally found my way back to the hostel and laid down for a "nap", only to wake up at midnight after 8 hours of sleep. What the $%&! happened to my alarm? Fortunately, I´m in Madrid! The bars are just getting started at that time, and I was able find a kebab place for cheap eats on the way. Most bars were pretty quiet, but I found the loudest and most happening one on Chueca Plaza and hung out as long as I could stand the loud music and thick cloud of smoke. The crowd was very young, cute, hip and mixed (I think). My gaydar is completely whacked here, since the straight guys dress much more colorfully, and listen to much more techno music than their American counterparts. I was still uncertain at this place until later in the night, when the lesbians pretty much took over one corner and the rest was straight couples (or gay guys with straight women?) making out. I found it advantageous to play down my knowledge of Spanish when a creepy trollish guy latched onto me in my corner oasis of calm and continually kept trying to start a conversation. Fortunately, his English was pretty much 0, so he eventually resigned himself to dancing next to me sans conversation. I finally wandered home and was able to get back to sleep pretty quickly when I returned to my room at 4 a.m.
This morning, during my first lost period of the day, I came across the filming of a movie on Gran Via. It was kind of cool to see them try to integrate their actors and extras with the random folks passing in the street to make for an authentic street scene. It's quite possible that I'm in the film, since I walked through the area at least three times before settling on my final direction.
The pic below is almost all extras trying to create the look of an authentic busy street scene. When the camera started rolling, they all just started walking and blended in with the other foot traffic. The guy in the beige suit is the star. He kept doing the same 30 second clip over and over again.
I´ve been playing this game of trying to see how little money I can spend now that I´m in Spain and living on savings for the moment. It lasted well until lunchtime today, when I just had to break down and buy a full meal for 10 Euros (approximately $12). But, for that price, I got a yummy soup with a roll as a starter, a huge pork chop and french fries for the main course, and bread pudding for dessert. Now I understand why they need a siesta after lunch :) Of course this is perfect Jeff food, and if I can just find some pancakes for breakfast (unlikely here), my life will be complete!! I chose the budget option called the Menu. Apparently, each restaurant is required to have one by law, and most have the regular and the higher-priced Menu Especial. I honestly don't know how the residents here afford it. I mean, I´m living on the weak dollar, but the average wage in Madrid is only $20,000 Euros annually. Everything seems to be about the same price in Euros as things are in dollars in San Francisco, and the average wage there is much higher. I guess I´m existing in the most expensive zones and it is perhaps possible to live on much less every day.
When I first arrived in Madrid 12 days ago, I mentioned the contrast between Munich´s hyper-modern and exceedingly efficient airport to Madrid´s Barajas, which seems like a bit of an anachronism with its dingy walls and 70´s decor. My friend Jerry said that while I was getting accustomed to life in Spain I should prepare myself to expect "The Flintstones." I laughed, thinking he was joking. Later, during a discussion about the famously oppressive summers in Madrid (one of which I am about to experience), I said, "But, they have air conditioning, right?" To which Jerry broke out in song, "... from the town of Bedrock, it´s a place right out of history..." This rang true to me today when I was searching for an internet cafe where you can both use the internet AND relax with a coffee and pastry in a comfortable environment. I asked the attendant at the internet box where I was currently checking email if such a thing existed. He pointed to the cappuccino machine in the corner proudly and said, "No problem, we have coffee here."
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