Kilometro Cero

I´m in Madrid now, although there is a lot I still want to say about Morocco.

Sucks for you Morocco. The first thing I noticed about Madrid was the size. I guess in terms of population, Madrid is about equal with Casablanca, both weighing in at a respectable 3 million, but when I got a look at the Madrid metro map, I was thoroughly intimidated. That thing is a hydra-like beast, serpentine and multi-headed. I had seriously never seen so many lines and transfer stations. So Ross and I disembarked from Easyjet Flight U2 277Y, and upon being confronted with this beastly map, could do nothing but stare dumbfounded.

Fortunately, it turns out that the Madrid Metro is really well designed, and the signs in the transfer stations are printed in such a way that it is almost impossible to get on the wrong train, and the future transfer points and transfer lines are also clearly indicated. So I did that. I bought a ticket for 10 journeys, because Madrid apparently refuses to use a card and credit system for its metro, and I rode around, creepily ogling the cute Spanish girls, with their delightful propensity to wear Converses, and their unsettling desire to wear disgusting, pajama-sized jeans. as well as being harassed by itinerant musicians, who wheel about homemade portable karaoke machines, which they use to torture entire cars full of people until the victims deposit their strange European currency into a hat. It is a weird custom.

I guess that isn´t so weird. But I did notice one uniquely Spanish thing while riding the metro. When Ross and I first rode into Barrio de la Concepcion, which is the closest stop to the person whose couch we are sleeping on, I saw what looked like a "slippery when wet" sign guarding a large pile of sawdust. 3 days later, the pile was still there. Apparently the customary Spanish solution for leaks, and other water related crises is to throw sawdust around and forget about it, which helps explain why the Spanish had such a difficult time hanging on to the Netherlands in the 1600s.