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easyJet Madrid to Geneva for Thanksgiving
2007-11-27 10:47:00
A LATE Happy Thanksgiving to United Statesens living abroad!Just returned from 3 nights near Geneva , Switzerland over the Thanksgiving holiday with a few American family members, some Brits, and one Spaniard. 3 of us (the one Spaniard, a Brit, and I) flew easyJet from Madrid to Geneva Switzerland last Thursday morning from Madrid Barajas Airport and had a nice, smooth, 25% full flight. The price was the same as my previous easyJet flight to Geneva - 64 Euros! CHEAP!At the Geneva Airport we passed through customs in minutes and received our checked luggage within 2 more minutes. How fast! Someone was waiting for us on the other side and we immediately took our money from the ATM.After arriving home and saying our hellos we sat down to a light lunch in anticipation to a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately it was raining nearly all Thursday and Friday but was merely cloudy on Saturday. Finally, of course, on Sunday morning - our last day there - the sun came out a bit and we could ...
More About: Travel

Madrid Rain, Wet Laundry, & Umbrellas
2007-11-20 10:07:00
FINALLY, IT'S RAINING!! About 7 weeks have passed here in Madrid with nothing but clear, sunny skies. This is great when out and about. I particularly love cool temperatures and those blue blue skies. The oddity is that it USUALLY rains during this time of year. In fact, "the experts" are worried again about the possibility of a long-term drought as we had here JUST last year! The reservoirs were at 20-something-percent then and, well, if we don't start getting some serious rain we'll be returning to that. Reservoirs here now are at about 63%.Okay. So the rain is great - and much needed. BUT NOT WHEN I'M DOING MY LAUNDRY!! Sunday night I did two loads of laundry and got up early Monday to hang out the clothes. Cloudy. Grrrr!!! I take the clothes upstairs to the roof to hang and, of course, there's the neighbor's clothes hanging there, dry for (no doubt) 3 or 4 days. So the 3 "good" wires are taken. Fine. It's cloudy anyway.20 minutes later I'm just finishing hanging the last...
More About: Environment , Laundry , Rain

"Españoles: Franco ha muerto!" - Franco Has Died
2007-11-15 22:41:00
November 20, 1975: The day the dictator of Spain, General Franc isco Franco , died. This day is an important day in the history of Spain.I'm sort-of watching the weekly 1-hour TVE1 Spanish television drama series "Cuéntame Cómo Pasó", a popular series which takes place during Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy in the mid 1970s. It's loved in Spain by mainly older generations - or at least by people older than 45 years old, those which remember how it was before and how Spain became shortly after Franco's death. Most people enjoy the nostalgia of the show. But these weeks, approaching the 32nd anniversary of the dictator's passing, the show is focusing on his failing health and eventual passing into...another life. (bet it's hot down there!)Believe it or not - okay, you believe it because this is the internet and almost anything goes here - there's a website dedicated to Generalisimo Franco's memory @ http://www.generalisimofranco.com/ . I hesitate even mentionin...
More About: Espa , Died

"¿Por qué no te callas?" - "Why don't you shut up!"
2007-11-14 20:14:00
"¿Por qué no te callas?"("Why don't you shut up!")....is what esteemed King Juan Carlos of Spain said to Hugo Chavez, President and dictator wannabe of Venezuela.The phrase is now a sound-bite, a catch-phrase tossed around in Spain in as much as Bart Simpson saying, "Eat my shorts!" in the United States. And while catch-phrases have a limited shelf-life they always stay in our minds, pulled out of the catch-phrase-drawer whenever pertinent.King Juan Carlos got his start in Spain as appointed by another dictator - a Spanish one - General Francisco Franco. Franco thought his "image of Spain" would carry on through the new King Juan Carlos - and maybe the new king even believed it himself at the beginning. But the fact is that after Franco died, the King turned Spain around 180º and took his country from a poor, fascist-ruled Spain to a constitutional monarchy, and then to a democracy. For this, the vast majority of Spaniards love him for his help - even if many don't love him for hi...
More About: Shut , Shut Up , Alla

Wasting Water: Two Tissues - Two Flushes
2007-11-12 19:59:00
¡Súmate al reto del Agua!(Turn off the water faucet!)Today at the gym I was absolutely furious after finishing my workout.I'd just returned to the locker room to use the restroom. While washing my hands there was a man who'd entered one of the stalls behind me. I heard him blow his nose and a toilet flushed shortly thereafter. What? He FLUSHED a tissue down the toilet? But wait. It gets worse. After the flush the man left the stall, took 3 steps away, then returned to the same stall and I heard him blow his nose again - and then ANOTHER FLUSH!HOW MANY LITERS OF WATERS DID HE WASTE FOR TWO NOSE BLOWS?? I don't have any idea but likely at least 4 Liters of water per flush. That's EIGHT liters of wasted water for two nose blows. AND THERE WAS A TRASH CAN RIGHT OUTSIDE THE STALL!!I was angry after the first flush. But after the second one I just wanted to shout at him and ask him how he could be so wasteful. I took a second and couldn't formulate the sentence in my mind in Spanish....
More About: Environment , Water , Issue

Taberna La Bola & Cocido Madrileño
2007-11-11 20:53:00
Last Friday, El Día de la Almudena, we had 1:30pm reservations for Madrid's Taberna La Bola to eat Cocido Madrileño - their signature dish. The 'long-form-term' of this dish is "Cocido a la Madrileña", if interested.Background: El Día de la Almudena is Madrid's female patron saint day and is a city-wide holiday. Banks, schools, and most businesses are closed on this day which begins at roughly 10am with a mass in Madrid's Plaza Mayor. That lasts until about noon and then begins the procession, carrying the patron from the Plaza Mayor, down Calle Arenal, through Plaza Santa Isabel II, and to the Almudena Cathedral. Leading the saint are a number of groups in religious and or period dress and often representing different churches and church groups. We arrived by taxi as close to the city center as we could - right next to La Catedral de la Almudena - because all the streets were closed. We paid, got out, and walked briskly to OPERA where we were meeting more people. Our timing wa...
More About: Food

Doing Laundry & Washing Dishes
2007-11-08 11:21:00
Housework in Spain, to me, is NOT one of my favorite pastimes. Gone are the days, at least for the time being, of dishwashers and clothes dryers for me. Here, where I live, I do all the dishes by hand and air-dry all the washed clothes. The ecologist in me is satisfied with this saving of energy. No doubt large-kitchen-owning Americans and Brits are reading this and asking "Why don't you just buy a clothes dryer and dishwasher?" Good question. But where in the world would I put them? There's absolutely no space in my small kitchen.I wash the clothes in a clothes washer but take them up to the rooftop terrace where 8 metal cables stretch the length of the roof for air/sun drying. I actually love the part about air drying clothes, using no more energy than is required to tote the loads up one flight of stairs and then bring them down again, always being aware of weather conditions. It hasn't happened often but sometimes rainstorms can sneak up on a person, rendering your nearly dry...
More About: Laundry , Dishes , Washing

FC Barcelona vs. Glasgow Rangers: Soccer or Football?
2007-11-07 22:31:00
I've just finished watching the FC Barcelona versus the Glasgow Rangers football/soccer game. It ended in a 2-0 win for Barça. To be clear, I'm not a soccer/football fan - much preferring American Football with pads, field goals, and hard, brain-jarring hits. Afterall, MadridMan was the was a tailback/running back since the 8th grade and was the starting tailback/running back for the Shelby Whippets in Shelby, Ohio USA his senior season and much preferred to GIVE hits than to TAKE hits.I generally find Football - the kind with a soccer ball - rather boring but am compelled to watch the big games just to consider myself "in the know". So much back and forth, change of possession, low-scoring games don't keep my attention very well. When a Real Madrid versus FC Barcelona game comes around, however, I TUNE IN without exception. Even a Real Madrid versus Atlético de Madrid game is never passed up.I did know about the game beforehand since I've recently listed the FC Barcelona schedu...
More About: Entertainment , Soccer

Spanish Bread
2007-11-04 23:09:00
Sometimes I'm "enlisted" to buy the lunchtime bread at the local panadería and I do it more than willingly. There's almost nothing better than walking into that bread bakery, waiting in line, and ordering a barra de bandeja and they give it to you with a smile, charge you 60 or 65 centimos, and it's still hot from the oven. There's something so basic about the whole process, the whole custom. It smells SO good in this moment that I can't help but raise it to my nose while I transport it in its paper bread bag to the lunch table. I'm usually the one who's "in charge" of cutting the bread but when I do so, since the bread is still hot and moist, it crushes under the weight of the cutting knife. What a wonderful smell it emits.Here in my neighborhood, if I happen to awake at 4am for whatever reason, from a bad dream or a need to go to the bathroom, I often smell the baking bread at the bakery on my same block. No matter if it's summer or winter I must open the window of the kit...
More About: Food , Spanish , Bread , Nish

Language Exchange in Madrid every Tuesday
2007-11-01 10:46:00
Last Tuesday I attended my first "Intercambio de Idiomas" - "Language Exchange " - at O'Neill's, an Irish bar on Calle Principe, 12 (metro SOL). Read some discussion on the topic and find links to YouTube videos in THIS THREAD on our ALL SPAIN Message Board.The Intercambio is held every Tuesday night starting at 10pm. I went with an English buddy. We first met at "Kilometro 0" in Puerta del Sol and then went to a nearby "Las Bravas" bar for some patatas bravas and a couple glasses of white wine to warm-up the wonderfully cool evening.We arrived at O'Neill's Bar at about 9:45pm and were lucky to get an available 4-person table just in front of the bar. O'Neill's Bar is HUGE, deep, and seemingly very authentic in Irish-Bar-Style with lots of wood, decoration, and few people at 9:45pm.By 10pm the bar was filling and people were greeting one another, presumably people who habitually attend the Tuesday night get-togethers. To be clear, I don't believe this is a part of the "MEET UP...
More About: Madrid

easyJet Madrid: Easy & Cheap!
2007-10-26 14:12:00
easyJet really is easy. And CHEAP too! I just got back from a few days visiting family in Geneva, Switzerland and flew easyJet for the first time. I was a little uneasy not knowing "how to do it" but learned quickly enough.My reservations were booked a month in advance online - of course. The total price, after taxes, etcetera, was nearly 64 Euros. Oh, that's ROUND TRIP travel total! Incredible, isn't it! easyJet charges extra for everything over the base price. They allow one carry-on bag. More bags cost 6 Euros extra per bag, I believe. They charge extra for checked luggage too. They charge for drinks, snacks, and goods on the plane as well. There's no movie but they do provide their in-flight magazine which I found entertaining.I arrived at Madrid Barajas Airport about an hour early for my 9am flight. There was a lonnnnnng line inside for some check-in counter but it wasn't for easyJet - NOT that it mattered to me because I was traveling super-light. Having ONLY my one carry-...
More About: Travel , Cheap , Easy