Sitting at Charles De Gaulle airport my feet resting on my suitcase as a symbol of my defiance to everything French I thought "I hope there is dog poo on my shoes". That would be a lovely view for the Parisians sitting around me at the airport. I really didn't like Paris. I read an article that said "during the sale seasons in Paris retailers are almost happy to have tourists purchase their wares" and that was attempting to publicise the town. It may sound harsh of me, especially to those who insist that Paris is wonderful but to me Paris is not a town that delivers on the hype.
My next stop, Madrid, may also be crap but at least it wouldn't be Pairs.
Madrid is a wonderful capital city full of wide planned streets that colesce with small windy lanes punctured with forums full of performers, markets, restaurants, bars and heaps of people.
On my first day there I spent four hours walking around. The weather is more like Australia so it is funny to see the townspeople in ski jackets complaining about the cold. It really isn't cold at all.
On Sundays the parks are packed with kids on bikes, rollerbladers and families teaching children to ride bikes. If they weren't speaking Spanish I could have sworn I was back in Australia. Especially with the odd outdoor senior fittness class.
My humble abode at the Cat's Hostel allowed me to meet an array of colourful individuals. First roomies were the Brittish girls on exchange from Salamanca university. There were amazed that I was travelling alone and asked me all these unusual questions, which I had never thought about, like sharing with unknown males. My honest answer was that in every hostel the men were my age or younger and I was pretty confident I could kung fu most of them if I absolutely had to. Most of the guys in hostels wear tight jeans and live on vegan food and read Hemmingway. They are not that much of a threat but they do have interesting insights about prose.
The next night I got talking to some very nice American girls who had just come from Lisbon and a Brittish girl who was writing her thesis and having a pretty awful time in Madrid. Just then a gaggle of South American boys wandered in and completely blew my theory of effeminate men occupying hostels. They were from Argentina and apart from being very loud they were also very confident. I think one of them said.
"There are four women and there are now four men perfect".
We started talking about everything from healthcare to theivery in our respective countries. It is very interesting to see the competition between North and South America. The girls did not consider the boys to be American but technically, they were and demanded we adjust any gerneralisations about American people to suit both continents.
I did manage a couple of museums and I did go to a couple of restaurants but the most fun I had was walking through the public gardens, parks and bar hoping. If you are thinking about travelling through Europe make sure you stop by Spain. Even if not Madrid some of the other cities are very much worth a look see.
Interesting experience 1: For lunch one day I decided I would have an authentic Spanish meal. I ordered Paella to start then ordered something really awesome to say in Spanish. At the time I had no idea what it was but I hoped it was a large plate full of spicy vegetables. It was steak and chips. Can you believe it? The most interesting thing I found to say in Spanish is the blandest meal.
Interesting experience 2: One of the street performers was a very over weight man wearing a full spiderman outfit. He kept doing all these crazy moves that were hilarious. Unfortunately my camera was back at the hostel charging and I never saw him again so it may have been some kind of spiderman pychosis I was in.
Interesting experience 3: The showers in Cat's had a button which sprang back after ten seconds and stopped the flow of water. It was quite humourous to be having a shower battling with the button and hearing seven girls groaning about the same thing in respective cubicles.
N.B Photos coming soon.
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