It is Friday! Which means writing for the blog and should be working on EOM… but it is also my last day before beginning the Camino de Santiago. (Which I have actually blogged about before if you care to scroll back far enough.
I wanted to fill this blog with beautiful descriptions of my travels. I used to do that wish so much pleasure. But this time I’ve been working so consistently on fiction that I’ve barely had time to reflect on the amazing things I’ve seen, like Alhambra, Sacromonte, cathedrals of Cordoba and its towers, the old quarter patios… When I travelled alone, I had no one to make my remarks to, so I wrote everything down. But now that I’m travelling with someone, there seems to be much less time for reflection.
Writing is, at its heart, a solitary business.
Whenever and wherever my next trip will be, I think I should like to take it alone. Else, not expect myself to get much writing done.
During our days in Madrid, the highlight would have to be a string quartet of old men who were playing on Calle de Alcalá. They played so beautifully that I sat there and listened the entire time they played, applauding obnoxiously every time the finished a piece and singing along to both version of Ave Maria they played. It truly made my day (which was looking pretty grim, as our hostel didn’t give us access to a kettle and we were having a dreadful time trying to find one. But! We ended up finding a little water warmer right after they packed up and we started to head back.)
Things I probably shouldn’t love, but still do and won’t apologise for
Pigeons. I love them and I revel when they triumph. They make lovely sounds and people are only disgusted by them because they eat all the rubbish on the ground. Well, that’s OUR FAULT for leaving rubbish everywhere and not leaving them room to find good stuff. Seeing someone who is being mean to birds getting pooed on by one feels like righteous justice. I’m team pigeon all the way. Also team crow. And even, though they are a bit scarier, team seagull.
Seeing people pick their noses in their cars. It feels like a private space, but we can all see you. This tickles me every time.
When dogs inconvenience their owners by stopping to smell a pole or bench.
Fountain pens. This merits its own blog post. It’s not bad to like fountain pens, but my love borders on addiction.
*
What is something you love that is weird but don’t care?
2 replies on “Hello, from Madrid”
I remember reading about Camino de Santiago in a N/A in EOM in a chapter I don’t remeber which.
I love reading your updates on fridays. I not always comment but I do strongly appreciate them. As I have told you before, It has been one of my relaxation activities after a week of study/work.
I love, love, love Ugly Betty soap operas. I say soap operas because There are multiple versions and I have watched many of them. They are long, some of the storyline is almost terrible and yet, I always come back to it. Mind you, I can always watch it so I have on background to listen to quite often in its original language which is spanish and I don;t actually speak spanish. Most of the time I don’t know what they are saying exactly. But I keep having it on background. Also rubiks cubes. I can’t have one being mixed. They have to be solved. The problem is I am not a rubiks cube savvy person, so the only way I can solve them is by spending many, many hours on Youtube watching tutorials.
Anyway, Thank you for coming back to the blog and for being consistent in your writing to us.
Oh that is wonderful, and so relatable, the Rubik’s cube thing! I literally laughed aloud when I read it. So weird. So perfect.