January 1, 2013 - Madrid, Spain




"Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up."
                                                                 ~Ernest Hemingway

Madrid has grown on me.  It's not the most magical city in the world.  Or in Europe.  Or in Spain.  But, 15 years after my original investigation of Spain's capital city, I've come to better appreciate this land within the context of historical, religious, and geographical significance.  Reading National Geographic's Madrid travel book and Noah Gordon's, The Last Jew (2000), reminiscing summer 1998, and enjoying the last days of 2012 with new friends - renewed my enthusiasm for the region. I will return.

New Years Eve.  Feliz Ano Nuevo.  Making peace with the year prior.  Preparing for the future.  Often an anticlimactic evening of safely evading drunk drivers in the United States.  Europeans walk and use public transportation.  Thus, last evening flowing Spanish sparkling cava wine resulted in a cumbersome headache as I maneuvered through airport customs and aching muscles on return flights through New York, and eventually Portland.

1998 Journal Entry (from 'D's' perspective)
Important things I picked up in Spain:

  • Calimotro = red wine and coke (gives bad hangovers)
  • Tortillas de Patas (great the first 10 times)
  • Don't travel in Spain or Italy in July or August, because everyone else and their mother does
  • Next time buy a First Class Eurorail ticket
Summer return to my garden is always full of surprises.
Buried under snow, an unexpected purple cauliflower
welcomed me home with winter.

Popular Posts