A la mañana, demain or tomorrow?

David and I recently spent 5 days in Madrid, Spain.  He was working and I was fortunate enough to tag along and play.  If you are reading this and English is your first (and maybe only) language you might not appreciate the nuances of communicating in Europe.  (Yes, I know that I keep bringing this up…but it really does present a challenge)

When you are forced to communicate in a "2nd" or even "3rd" language, your brain scrambles.  I do not know how business people can work all day in another language without their heads exploding.  Your brain knows that it isn't supposed to feed you the English word, but often will feed you the word of the most recent language you've been speaking.

The title of today's blog comes directly from a taxi ride conversation.  We were trying to ask our taxi driver what the traffic would be like "tomorrow".  We had already asked him if he spoke English and he responded "un poco" (a little in Spanish).  David used the French word (demain) and the driver had no idea.  Thanks to my HS Spanish teacher, Señora Duchin, I was able to offer the correct phrase in Spanish (a la mañana).

Don't give me too much credit.  I had also in the same taxi ride used the phrase "merci beaucoup" and "oui" to respond to the driver.  Habla/parle/speak, cuánto/combien/how much, sí/oui/yes……you get the idea.  Fortunately, you can usually tell by the person's reaction to what you've said if you have gone off the deep end.  Just know, that our entire week was one of mixed language phrases and neither David or I could help it.

Like most of my foreign travel excursions, I try to find a tour of the city/country that I am visiting.  Most of the larger cities will have a hop-on/hop-off bus.  Madrid had one and the pick up location was about 6 blocks from our hotel.  I was able to get both the "lay of the land" and quite a lot of historical information.

Following my afternoon on the bus, I went to Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to buy tickets to see Real Madrid play soccer on Saturday.

We were eager to see a live European "football" match and called DJ to let him know we had gotten tickets. DJ was concerned that we were going to go to "El Classico" without him….which is the match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.  Luckily, that wasn't held during this week…the tickets for that match sold out in the same fashion as Final Four/Superbowl tickets.  The cost was also on par with the American rivalry games…upwards of $3,000 for good seats.

Saturday was a busy day for us.  We changed hotels in the morning, we explored the Retiro Park most of the afternoon, went to the soccer game (via the Metro) and ate at the oldest restaurant in the world….La Botin.

You might need a little background on La Botin.  David had been eagerly anticipating his meal here for several weeks.  They are famous for their roasted meats.  David's favorite….roasted suckling pig.  As we were shown to our table I was able to snap a photo of the kitchen/oven area….

Yes, those are little piggies getting ready to be placed into a cast iron wood burning oven that has been in use since 1725.  Our meal was delicious…I couldn't do the pig, I settled for a phenomenal filet mignon. La Botin is in the Guinness Book of World Records if you want to read more.

Sunday was a marathon day as well.  We started our day at the street market. "The Rastro" is said to the the oldest flea market in Europe and has over 3500 different vendors.

How do you like my new stole??

People EVERYWHERE!!  David was in awe.

After we left The Rastro, we walked all over the city so that David could check out some of the landmarks.  We went to the Royal Palace

Puerto del Sol, Plaza Mayor and many more. It was about 1:00 and we decided to eat tapas for lunch.

After lunch we did some window shopping on the Gran Vía.  I was able to get a Starbucks hot chocolate, so I was in HEAVEN.  Off to Retiro Park to enjoy the sunshine.  It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and nearly 70 degrees.

As we wandered to the park I began in earnest to look for a public restroom.  I even commented to David that I hadn't seen a sign for a public restroom during the entire week.  Retiro Park is over 350 acres (roughly half the size of Central Park in NY) and sits in the middle of the city.

We walked around for about 15 minutes without seeing any sign of a bathroom.  We finally spotted a small "concession/restaurant" stand and went in.  No bathroom!  We asked where we could find one and the employee told us "the Western pavilion" and pointed in the direction we should go.  Well, another 20 minutes later and we were at one of the many exit/entrance gates to the Park.  I was starting to panic.  

We turned around and headed back to a "fork" in the path to see what we could find.  A building!!  Shimmering like an oasis in the midst of trees, shrubbery and fountains….but alas, not a bathroom.  By this point I was going to die.  There were very few people in that area….and so I picked a spot.  Yep, I was going to pee in public right in the middle of a Madrid park.  David was horrified, but I couldn't wait another minute….well, I probably could've waited a minute, but there wasn't a bathroom on my horizon.

Wouldn't you know, as soon as my bare butt was exposed a man started to walk in our direction.  While my husband was kindly "protecting me" from view, he was doing so by facing me….you can imagine what the guy must've thought was going on.

Oh, sweet relief.  We were now headed back to the area that had the large boating pond.  As we were nearing the pond I spotted another "concession/restaurant" building.  Now that I had made room, I wanted a bottle of water.  David ordered us a drink and then asked the worker where we could find a restroom.  The employee pointed to the end of the counter….we looked outside, nothing.  David asked again, and the guy pointed to the end of the counter….there were STEPS leading down to a bathroom!!!  My husband started laughing and said, "sorry, T, but I gotta go".  Can you believe that?  We laughed about it the rest of the day.  

We got up early on Monday and headed out to visit the Prado Museum.

 I have decided that I would prefer to go to a sporting event than spends 3 hours in a museum looking at paintings.  I know, that makes me uncultured, but hey, it's who I am.  I was very disturbed by paintings by the artist Goya….he must've been a very psychotic man.

We left Madrid tackling most of the "top 10" things to do.  We didn't get to see a bullfight, but hope to do that when the kids come to visit next summer. 

I know that I've shared "luggage" stories before, but I have another one for you.  I like to carry a Vera Bradley bag when we travel….especially, if I'm going to go through customs.  It's big and it's LOUD and I can ALWAYS spot it without difficulty.  Most of the bags that you will see on the luggage conveyor will be black….I would sooner shoot myself than try to figure out which black bag belonged to me.  Well, Vera saved us.  While we were in the Strasbourg airport waiting on our luggage (at the correct baggage conveyor) I looked over my shoulder and guess what I spotted?  Yep, our two bags.  They were on the wrong belt.  I'm not sure how that happened, but I was sure to remind David that being UNIQUE has it's advantages.

God made you UNIQUE, don't conform to this world, be TRANSFORMED.  Romans 12:2