Spanish Fly

Porto Sketches, xii (last impression).

2010-11-01T17:07:00.001+01:00

yes, the perfect situation to be in when no one answers the door. phoneless and broke. back in the plaza at tasos' friend's bar somebody had their nokia charger with them and when i finally got the greek on the line around 4:30 he was just getting to the beach. i could take the many metro/bus trip to meet him there or sit tight till...<< later, malaka. >> i had no urge to search out nor be at a

Porto Sketches, xi.

2010-10-29T00:15:00.004+02:00

by the time i woke on monday the routine was standard and i was out the door and down at a café before 11. the previous night's burning bellyache was gone but to make sure it would stay gone i went down and got some plum and pastry from the old women hawkers in the market. most of what id seen outside of wine places had been closed the previous day so a lot of the morning was revisiting the open

Porto Sketches, x.

2010-10-24T23:21:00.001+02:00

then the only sounds in the air came from our sandals dragging along the shiny paving stones of the wide pedestrian shopping street down we strolled and our voices bouncing off the storefront windows. there was no one else in the avenue designed to accomodate hundreds, but i didnt feel out of step. i spoke at length with the brighter blond about the camino de santiago, which she had also done a

Porto Sketches, ix.

2010-10-22T11:57:00.005+02:00

on sunday i woke as normal - with bright sun sluicing through slats onto my face and no one in the room but tasos across from me, lying dead to the world as he was to remain for the next several hours. i got up and ready and headed back into the city for some kind of morning ritual. i skipped the poveiros praça and went straight into the center, to find comfort in the 50 cent coffees that were

Porto Sketches, viii.

2010-10-19T16:56:00.002+02:00

later on, we’re descending from the circus that is tasos and his 'hood and babak is venting. << are these guys actually enrolled in university? did we just experience the product of greek and portugese education? the credit ratings are all starting to make sense... >>up from aliados - the central avenue thus far used as the point of origin - on the other side we come into a series of squares and

Porto Sketches, vii.

2010-10-04T12:58:00.001+02:00

at 19:30 i was in just one of those old man bars, waiting for tasos and babak who were upstairs cleaning up and getting ready for the night. in a few they came down to join me and spend the next two hours watching the US blow nearly every opportunity they had to take control of the second round game against ghana. in the end it was terrible but we were in portugal and tasos was waiting outside

Porto Sketches, vi.

2010-09-28T10:14:00.010+02:00

a woman with an indistinguishable european accent wearing a black cape and zorro hat welcomed us in the ante room. babs and i chatted with some other spanish and english speaking tourists until cape and hat took us into the cellar. once inside, the white brick vaulted ceiling reflected the only bit of light coming from sparse electric bulbs, and the hundreds of oak barrels big and small and

Porto Sketches, v.

2010-09-20T12:32:00.001+02:00

as we scaled the sloping city up from the riverside we found shelter from the bright midday sun in the alleyways where old women sat in their doorways wearing aprons and sighing. one of them watched us as we came up and when we paused outside a door she spoke to us in strange words that we both nonetheless understood to mean "go ahead boys, they wont bite in there." inside we found the

Porto Sketches, iv.

2010-09-15T09:24:00.000+02:00

in the morning babs and i both woke while sun shot through the shutter cracks as beams along the walls and floors. early yet, 9:30 perhaps and tasos still asleep. on the street babak looked bad - weeping and gnashing of teeth. well not teeth but his eyes were not well. the solution tasos had provided was nasal spray. i feared the lad wouldnt be able to see, and though i stressed as his pale

Porto Sketches, iii.

2010-09-07T10:22:00.004+02:00

then it was night and we were back in the berry liqueur flat and back at the sauce. then i got the call and my best london lad babak was in town. i sprang down to the street and walked, walking as i did all 5 days with legs flexed and foot muscles tense, grabbing at the stones beneath my shoes and propelling my body forward with determined purpose. every hill was a new joy as i shot through air

Porto Sketches, ii.

2010-09-03T20:59:00.002+02:00

in the morning i showered and realized tasos would sleep late again and took off on my own. more walking, but this time in busy center streets further in from the river - famous fin de siglo pedestrian boulevards with shops, covered markets and art nouveau cafes. i bought fruit from hawkers in an old station/market and pastries from old women in sidewalk booths. café after café as they were

Porto Sketches, i.

2010-09-02T12:36:00.079+02:00

i arrived at a bombsite.i landed in first daylight, thursday morning. the metro is 8 years old, its amazing. grand futuristic cars gliding along silently, wide glass doors and clean, airy platforms and stations. wardens periodically checking to make sure you validated your pass, which you did not do, and telling you the fine you’ve incurred is a cool 95 euros. but they know you’re a young

Notes from the Underground...a glimpse

2010-05-24T20:13:00.002+02:00

On the metro, midday. I was riding homeward. Not quite five minutes on I pulled myself from reflections on the place I'd been to the place I was. The car was full - it was lunch hour - of every sort of folk. Having left the barrio Salamanca there were townhouse ladies aplenty. Teenagers with notebooks and playing on their phones. And pink faced seniors saying things like "trousers" and "simply

Lying in Madrid

2010-04-10T13:14:00.000+02:00

The city sings - sings me out of sleep. Sleeping on Cam's couch. Oh shit, forgot that, I did. Fact, I woke and asked the old question: where tf am I? But then I recalled and it was all good. Guten. Guten tag. Yes, today is good. Gorgeous + good. A new respiration, a new vitamin D injection, a new rendition. But it's a bit sad. Not substantially, but a bit. For la gente in the street haven't any

Never According to Plan

2010-02-24T11:17:00.000+01:00

This is a winter of shit. Natives will use words like strange or weird. Liars. Caught up and so they believe themselves. But it's shit. Today is nice, but we wont let that stop us. Can't let the guard down against this crap. A wonderful time for a visit, you might say. My sister will agree. Last Monday was a paradigm day of this sullen season of leaden rain and cold. We took refuge in the Reina

Some memories you carry, some carry you

2010-01-27T20:30:00.002+01:00

The past follows me, but completely of its own accord and in its own preferred method. Some of the best parts dwindle and darken in the distance, just as some of the worst prick like thorns still stuck in my side. Sometimes friends come angelic and return to me lost parcels of my accumulated lifewealth. Sometimes a song, scent, or sight brings back not without pain things I would loved to have

My life, in an Eve

2010-01-25T02:53:00.001+01:00

I walked home tonight. Clouds were out but the sky was dry, so I could see the beautiful moon. La luna. It's funny, we have all these different names, but the moon knows no language. It's just there, and to it, we are here. We may even be living on its moon. The same moon I was on in high school, looking up from a blanket in a field one night in spring. The same moon as in college, amid buildings

Football, or the Value of a Day

2010-01-21T13:45:00.004+01:00

The font has shriveled to but a trickle. Words flow far less frequently, and with no clear stream of thought. Days go by without writing nor reading a single word save a sign or a signature. These times of unproductivity/inactivity leave me vexed and feeling pitiful. And time seems to pass faster, creating the dual sensations of lengthy dry spells and loss of life moments. Youth receding in the

Sweet Snippits of Old and a Cup with a Spoon

2010-01-12T12:06:00.000+01:00

The sun bore down on the sidewalks and streets with the white hot light that it burns in winter to fool the eye into believing it's warm while the wind numbs your ears and makes your nose run freely. It reflected off the tarmac and stone, both wet from the melting of the last night's snowfall. White shine and glare and cloud, blue and cold breeze, and city. I stood in the middle of it wondering

Weekend in the mountains...Asturias, Spain

2009-12-09T18:21:00.005+01:00

Not sure when or why exactly, but over the course of the day I decided that the best way to ensure my preparedness for the following morning would be to sleep at the house of those who'd arranged the whole trip. A good enough presumption, except that it was Friday, and nothing really occludes the festivities. So I threw some clothes in a bag and had a few drinks. Time miraculously flew and I

Friday Madrid... Midnight Repast

2009-11-30T22:10:00.000+01:00

When I walked in the door the men at the entrance to the dining room turned with prepared expressions that dissolved as they recognized my face. I stepped down from the entrance and they put their arms on my shoulders smiling and told me my friends were sitting in the back. Three tables had been put together--a decent banquet board for the small restaurant on Cava Alta which seems to remain

FIESTA: Al Fin

2009-11-13T15:30:00.007+01:00

WAKE UP. TOM WAKE UP. Erik shakes me out of REM and before the blood even begins to flow he's telling me we have to leave. His lips are blue. He's shaking. "I'm freezing, man. I can't stay here anymore." Without a word I rise and pack my things, feeling the cold myself now penetrate my jacket to the bone. We're luckier than we know to be dry, but it doesn't occur to us breathing fog on the

FIESTA: Nightfall

2009-10-27T19:49:00.002+01:00

I WOKE to the sound of shrieks. I opened my eyes abruptly and in the purple gold city lights I watched a young child and his father diverted by a bouncing rubber ball. Erik was still on the bench. He saw me as I tried to feign uninterrupted sleep and walked over to expose my charade. With the blanket now folded in the pack we made for the center again, to load up on small cups of hot black

FIESTA: Wine-induced Sensory Forfeiture Blues

2009-10-19T19:06:00.001+02:00

Outside the cathedral, amid thousands of bodies moving in all directions or none at all, we found Paula and her two friends standing in the sun. Erik introduced and I passed the tinto. We stood for a while conversing in the usual chat and looking around at the people sea in which we were situated. A call was made and we began to move, heading toward a narrow outlet at the northwest corner of the

FIESTA 3

2009-10-06T21:08:00.002+02:00

According to our festival program, a large portion of the events were set to go down at the Ayuntamiento plaza. We walked eastward along the main thruway of the center, a narrow street paved with pale stone bricks that's walled in by archways and colonnades and is overshadowed by the outward jutting balconies of the old apartments above the street, enclosed with glass and painted wood here in

FIESTA 2: Pre-storm Calm

2009-10-01T19:30:00.003+02:00

OUTSIDE in the main plaza full of green trees, small soft grass lawns, and anchored in the center by one of Spain's ubiquitous horseman effigy-topped plinths surrounded by a gentle pool, the number of people had begun to rise. We headed to the western edge, where we came in much earlier in the morning, to check the opening time of the tourism office. Behind the bandshell where bundled bodies

FIESTA: Food, Wine, and Barbarism in Logroño, La Rioja

2009-09-24T20:04:00.009+02:00

ONE It was on the floor of a large salon in Tribunal when, amid small glasses of silver tequila and jovial summer accounts, I remembered that I had a few minutes to gather my things at the place I where was crashing in the quiet, musty barrio of Lista and walk to catch the coach set to pull out of Avenida de America at 01:00 with or without me sitting in the seat I'd paid for. The adrenaline of

Dry Well No More

2009-09-17T16:52:00.006+02:00

A week is through and the bounce is back. No easy start to the first week of work in almost three months. As can be imagined, one slips with comfort and ease into a routine consisting of leisurely activity, contemplation, and reflection. Eating well and visiting every city, town, and country fitting the dual-pronged bill of accessibility and affordability does much to relieve the mind of the

One from the Archives: Camino Journal (Day3)

2009-09-15T17:39:00.007+02:00

LEARNING FROM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS BEFORE ME. Yesterday it rained. A lot. The storm came in so hard and fast toward the shore that the very sea itself vanished in the torrent. As we walked under the heavy skies toward the city streets from one of Donostia’s promontories, shrieks behind us and the flashes of people running past made us turn to watch the white wall of storm come hurling in from

Volver

2009-09-07T11:57:00.004+02:00

THE SUN ALIGHTS on green leaves and grass across the street in front of the plaza set in and shaded where I sit in the back in a café that shall not be named. The morning is about to end and people outside are walking in every direction. But I have finally stopped moving. 48 hours ago roughly a bus carried me eastward across dry, thirsty plains of sun-baked earth and sparse pale green

My Mother's Teashop

2009-08-13T23:24:00.007+02:00

My Mother owns a teashop. She runs it with her smart and lovely English friend. It is perfectly situated in the only place outside of England appropriate for such a quaint little building, here in the wood and pasture town my father lovingly calls, The Shire. From their house I drive uphill by The Academy - the two-hundred-and-eight-year-old town high school that's made up of five or six free

The Return...

2009-08-12T15:41:00.004+02:00

THERE AND BACK. The hero's journey. Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Jesus. So I gave it a shot. Set out with questions and realized pretty early on that the answers weren't out there waiting for me. Instead I found new questions and different answers than I was looking for. Walking across the land with a backpack and a staff gave me a new perspective to have a look through. Many people and many places.

ID:4 and a bit of Orgullo

2009-07-07T13:12:00.012+02:00

SATURDAY wake-up to the light taps of clanking in the kitchen, metal fork on thick glassware filled with something thick being mixed. That's fine cause it's about time to rise anyway. Walk through narrow sunfilled hall and enter la cocina to find Natalia facing away. Only one thing could be happening. It's the day of the last Aussie barbie, and Natalia's prepping her Blue Ribbon Guapamole.

Fuencarral Styleyes

2009-07-07T13:05:00.002+02:00

First Weekend in July...

2009-07-06T20:24:00.008+02:00

Last weekend in Madrid. Been out of my place since the end of June, living like a king on a couch in Tribunal with glorious hosts, gregarious gatherings, and gradual preparations. Right now I'm on the couch with my computer in my lap and my bags semi-packed around the room as the sideways evening glow fills the room and a languid breeze carries me back to the weekend that began the summer...

SlowSummerMadrid

2009-07-03T11:31:00.008+02:00

I'M TRYING HARD not to take it for granted. Yet as I wake to look out the window at what feels like the 100th immaculately blue, sun-filled sky, I find myself having to make a conscious effort to appreciate every second of this. My efforts are, of course, stifled by both virtue of my residence here and the heat that accompanies the unfiltered sun. Sleeping sin A/C is not really sleeping, and

End of a Month and More

2009-06-30T10:02:00.003+02:00

This day has my last round of classes. In the morning I finished with two young women of advanced levels with 90 minutes of speaking and listening. I had read an article recently about the life ideas of Thomas Jefferson. I read this aloud to them, asking them to take note of the lives he touched, his favorite things, political beliefs, personal advice, major contradictions, and overall lasting

Just a Tuesday

2009-06-24T00:38:00.005+02:00

MIDNIGHT on a Tuesday and not a second thought. It began with a text message, received late after turning on the mobile only after 7pm. --Barbacoa at the Aussies at 5, bring whomever--. Or stay in and neglect to pack in favor of reading. Right. So head out for vino and start walking. Fruit with Rosé and Tinto de Verano gave way to kebab creations, later expertly cooked on the barbie by the

Boxes, Bags, Time On My Hands

2009-06-23T11:57:00.004+02:00

July draws near. It brings with it many changes, including the end of employment. As such, it's time to get out of this landlocked sunbake and head for shores. That means the end of housing and it's these combined ends that will shape the coming months. No income. No shelter. On the personal level, the Spanish economy can be imagined as a jellyfish. One graceful plunging motion and a motionless

Sunnyday Stilo - young ladies, old men

2009-06-17T14:23:00.002+02:00

Gentle Roughness in Spanish June

2009-06-16T20:37:00.008+02:00

Tuesday in the center of the month and I'm reclined across the loveseat on my terrace. The rain comes straight down from the leaden sky although the tree limbs are blown about roughly by the wind. The bellowing thunder is intermingling with the roaring traffic below in such a way as to create some kind of harmony. It soothes me while Kurt Vonnegut fills my mind with the image of a human being

Friday Nightmoves

2009-06-15T21:22:00.006+02:00

TWO: THIRTY ANTE MERIDIAN and the doors are closed or closing. Iron gates like rolled-up rugs suspended over doorways clank down along the street, mechanically echoing the sound of night's end. Having walked for thirty minutes in a circle around dark and empty La Latina streets behind a rose-seller leading us to a non-existent all-night bar, we consider. Sit for a moment on the stairs of the same

PULSE... (Or, What's Ha'nin)

2009-06-10T15:10:00.005+02:00

If you live here it's a truism that requires no mention. But for the audience abroad I begin by saying at this time of year Madrid gets positively hot. Since frozen winter botellons I have ceased thinking in farenheit, so trust me when I say that when afternoon temps reach 38, it's time to seek shelter. The long time Madrid tradition in this situation is to seek it at an aluminum table on a

Fair Play, Once Around

2009-06-09T07:12:00.003+02:00

Judges' tableAt Goya, people gathered among skateboarding youth, art market browsers, septuagenarians in solidarity, and the terraza set to queue up for entrance. Madrid is all about the queue, or cola, as they call it. This one for the annual Feria de Tapas. A fair dedicated to the consumption and competition of Spain's most famous export. Naturally, the TEFL bloc would have to attend.Twas a

BlacknWhite; My city by night

2009-06-05T16:50:00.003+02:00

Gourmand Traveler surfaces again...A meal for all time, or at the very least a Nobel

2009-06-04T07:16:00.013+02:00

I SWEAR I woke this morning with the tastes still in my mouth. Somewhere coating the inside, near the pivot of my jaw sat the salty, nutty flavorfulsensation that conjures sounds like 'zing'. Down in the back of my throat laid the tannic coffee, pipe tobacco, darkfruit and chocolate vanilla textures that helped me doze so well. Both zones as I left them when I laid me down to sleep a most

It's June - No More Excuses

2009-06-03T11:09:00.005+02:00

Tuesday night. Out the door at 10:15 to answer a distress call with wine and conversation. Look up and guffaw at the still (albeit dark) blue sky. Disbelief, but onwards. Pass couples young and old, beach clothes work clothes color clothes street clothes. The streets get narrow on the western side of San Bernardo where you cup the smoothed cobbles with your feet, leaving the sidewalk for people

Reflections, Reeling Along

2009-06-01T23:03:00.005+02:00

HALFWAY between my quarters and the toilet adjacent. I stand legs astride in effort to move while remaining still enough to keep my unzipped pants from falling to my ankles as I simultaneously reach forward and behind to blindly transfer the light from bedroom to bathroom. This is what I have become. It's the 60 minutes I have to myself in my home before heading out to plan and deliver my third

Madrid SurvivalSeries...Culture Shock, an empty stage

2009-05-27T15:07:00.005+02:00

LIKE HUMMUS, fresh-squeezed orange juice, or skydiving. You can easily live your life without a daily dose of live music, but as soon as you get some you wonder how you ever went so long without it. The last city you lived in/visited seemed to be teeming with it. Moreover, the longer you stayed the more it seemed to beckon your attendance. Friends invited, hosted, even played shows. It was

B&W...Madrid by Night

2009-05-26T12:24:00.001+02:00

WeekendConclusion: Domingo, 3 May

2009-05-19T17:42:00.009+02:00

Time is running and I've fallen behind. My subject is the third day of the month after three such Sundays have passed. Recollections pile up like books without a librarian. Below me the same person who bangs on piano keys for hours each night is watching television with a megaphone attached to the speaker. Outside cars rush past like an irregular mechanical surf that occasionally whistles and

Increased Insight and Classes over Cañas...

2009-05-13T21:35:00.009+02:00

MORE THAN SOBER and less than drunk, I stepped down into the toxic breath of Avenida de America's seething subterranean bus terminal. Mid commute, having just pulled in from my furthest, longest, and most profitable class I clutched my bag and my book to which I was eager to return. Stephen Fry chronicling the exploits of a young madman between public school (in the English sense) and Cambridge "

Dos de Mayo

2009-05-11T20:18:00.005+02:00

The day happened in the sun. Lazily I rose and took my time slicing the golden apples I get for next to nothing at the market and took my bowl of fruit and yogurt to the porch. The view is obscured through the foliage of the tall trees sprouting from the street below which I used to discuss jumping out to with my other aviationally-inclined bretheren. The international traveler's forum otherwise

InPictures: Street Seen...LaLatina, Lavapies

2009-05-05T23:40:00.007+02:00

IN THE OLD CITY, as with most of central Madrid, the streets confound a a natural sense of direction. Little turns and not quite right angles lead into strange corridors and unknown quarters. Here and there a space opens up to reveal a vast stone pond-like plaza or a building site left on pause and forgotten. Don't pay attention to the clicks, hisses, and whistles you hear from the

MAYhemMadrid: Opening Weekend cont'd...

2009-05-05T18:01:00.009+02:00

BACK up on the street at Metro Alonso Martinez, where barrios Malasaña, Chueca, and Salamanca muddle together and dress the land with disparate notes of high heels, jazz/funk bars, and stonebench perching 40oz clutching leather jackets. Suits breeze by scuffling chinos (this is not derogatory, but the Spanish word for chinese, which they are) and loud preoccupied girls while your three musketeers

MAYhemMadrid: fiesta comida Gallega

2009-05-04T22:23:00.008+02:00

KICK OFF the festive month in high fashion when upon Friday lands the initial day. May 1st carried sun, blue skies and a temperate breeze that staved off ill-famed Spanish heat for all but a few mid-afternoon hours. AM walk with E-rok through chairoscuro Malasaña streets included a better than average café cortado (Spanish macchiato) at a sun-filled corner café I'd been eyeing for some weeks for

PlazaWatch; P. España

2009-04-30T21:24:00.005+02:00

FIRST time I viewed Plaza de España was late October 08 betwixt 5 and 6am, after watching the lights go on at a friend's university-servicing nightclub out near Moncloa. I looked down the mild sloping gap in the buildings to my right and thought, "Shit, that's a lot of space. How did they manage that? How do I manage that?"Twas to big to my fresh eye nerves to understand. I'd seen Sol, Mayor

Cambio del Aire!

2009-04-28T17:13:00.004+02:00

A CHANGE in the weather looms large in the closing week of fine and holy April. Sol watches me again as I walk briskly from palatial place to metro mouth, to be spat out on the other side of central Spain among the business elite and all others suited to sweat off the sweetness of precrisis prosperity. Vegetation multiplies and expands its fingertips into vision's scope so that even when ruffled

First days of SemanaSanta and bumbling into Paris...

2009-04-14T19:09:00.005+02:00

HOLYWEEK (or Semana Santa in the language of those who truly celebrate it) is, for the fortunate, the entire week leading up to Easter. Such was my fortune that my holiday began postmeridian Thursday, the week before SS. The plan was thus: wrap up a few cosas around madrid after work then fly to Paris predawn Friday morning (this is 03abril) and spend the day kicking it in the city of lights with

He vuelto a Madrid...

2009-04-13T15:56:00.003+02:00

OCHO DIAS en Francia and I'm back. Semana Santa could scarcely have been more action-packed, and there is much much much to report( including Valencia and other wanderings before the trip). Unfortunately, the return to the capital coincides with the return to work, but I'll be back at the keys in due time...

MadridSurvivalSeries: "I want/need..."

2009-03-26T20:44:00.007+01:00

You land in Madrid with intent to inhabit. Flying is a bitch and packing is worse and you seek to expand beyond the minimum allowed weight of living items. Kitchen supplies. a clock. some records and a player. a knife. a shoulder bag. a gas mask. an empty picture frame.Work. You need shirts. And 2-euro ties. Shoes. a 6-euro watch.To your surprise, the seasons change here as well (not a joke).

dais afueras...AlcaláDeHenares

2009-03-23T00:57:00.005+01:00

ALCALÁ de henares. Home to Miguel de Cervantes, Spain's first university, the site where the Catholic Kings first listened to Cristobal Colón talk his jive, and abnormally large storks. Small and close, a decent day trip to escape the ballyhoo of the capital and pass out on a bench in the plaza de cervantes after a couple cañas and some tasty cerdo at the city highlight, Indalo tapas bar. Took a

Last day wanderings...

2009-03-21T20:08:00.000+01:00

Can't say we never tried, right?Budapest boasts: FashionableFowlThat multicolored centraleuropean charm I wrote of

Last Night East - Castle hill and Pest cafébar

2009-03-21T19:50:00.000+01:00

PestEats - Mangelica pig festival

2009-03-21T19:37:00.000+01:00

Not sure if these ones got eaten too, but they could definitelysmell which way the wind was blowing...

PestEats - Mangelica pig festival

2009-03-21T19:24:00.001+01:00

Stirrin' the pot - goulash for allMustardy pork and onion fantasy (loose translation) - One of the best meals I've had in europe. Ate that entire plate and wanted more.

PestEats - great market hall

2009-03-21T17:36:00.000+01:00

Market stalls below the massive roof for everyday groceries and life-changing pastries----Food fair diners on the mezzanine fill you with hot wine and stuffed cabbagewhile you pick out ChainBridge tshirts and castle hill ashtrays

Street Shots: Pest

2009-03-21T16:44:00.000+01:00

TravelsEast iii

2009-03-17T18:58:00.001+01:00

The sun was shining weakly when we got up on our last day. An easy morning, more tea and the couch. We knew we had seen much but there was much left to see. I do not like to run a trip if I can help it, so I put it to erik where we should go. We would have to return before 2pm, and it was coming on 10, so we had only time enough for one good trek. Even before arriving, erik had expressed desire

TravelsEast: BudaPest ii

2009-03-06T11:40:00.000+01:00

I awoke from my bed feeling truly rested. A night in clean, flannel sheets on top of a larger, more comfortable mattress than I have been using for the past 3 months was one of the best parts of the trip. What's more, I had gone to bed nearly sober so my stuff was all arranged and I made sure to get comfortable instead of laying down fully clothed. For these reasons, it was a treat to wake up in

TravelsEast: BudaPest i

2009-03-06T11:25:00.000+01:00

I suppose I allowed enough time to elapse since the trip that the memories and motivation to scratch it all down have faded. I am not quite sure why, except that maybe the entire time I was there I was feeling a distinct flavor that I could neither identify nor describe. Nonetheless we landed in a tiny airport with a lobby rivaled by most city hospitals. I had read that there was no way toward

Night falls on the Danube

2009-03-06T10:51:00.001+01:00

All taken in Pest:Castle Hill on the Buda side of thingsChain Bridge to Castle HillE-Rok's first album cover (or novel jacket-sleeve)

Touchdown in the East...

2009-03-06T10:32:00.000+01:00

After landing in BUDAPEST, rode this train...from outskirts......to center

Doy a Vuelta

2009-02-19T20:02:00.000+01:00

BEAUTIFUL was today. The sun shone even as I emerged from the metro at 8am and continued unfettered by clouds to the end. Thursdays are usually the best of my workweek - I have only 3 classes and after 15:00, week becomes weekend. Today was different. Here in Spain, many empresas receive federal cash to fund the process of Anglification. Ironic, after all the isolationism still surviving from

Transluscence

2009-02-13T12:23:00.000+01:00

ONE WEEK into the month of February and the sun has finally returned to la capital. Yesterday was Thursday, which for me not only begins my weekend but is my shortest day. At 3:30 I was already at my flat eating lunch on the terrace, considering how to spend the remaining four hours of sun. I decided that it was too late to take the metro to a park across the city so I threw on a scarf and some

Nieve en la captial

2009-01-11T20:47:00.000+01:00

I awoke after a lame date to the abrasive sound of my mobile phone ringing way too early on this past Friday morning. "Go to your window. Motherfucker, run." Only Juan - the young lawyer from Murcia and one of my favorite living creatures - could deliver one of our more vulgar expressions with such limitless charm. And only he could be excited enough about a city blanketed in snow to wake me

Daytrip: SEGOVIA

2009-01-07T21:49:00.000+01:00

I emerged from my bed between 8 and 9 am on monday morning. had some coffee and cereal and got on the cercanias line which is a train that goes to only select major subway stations to make cross-city commute a snap. of course i got it facing the wrong direction and instead of being one stop away from the Chamartin train sation, i went around the entire city and thus held up the group from

On the Street...Tirso de Molina - the former 'hood

2008-12-27T15:44:00.000+01:00

An epicenter of anarchists, socialists, and the milieu most often referred to as "punks"Lunchtime in the plaza - choice of chair, ground, or the chew/stroll combo

Finally, the fotos are here...

2008-12-26T18:59:00.000+01:00

Some early photos of the center, taken during my first month...C/ Campomanes, just north of Plaza Mayor, looking south at the eastern facade of the Royal OperaCalle Bola, a typical one-lane street in the old city where lies a restaurant rumored to have the best Cocido Madrileno (traditional chic pea stew) en la ciudad.A busy shopping street off of Puerta Del Sol, where cars have been ousted by 24

New digs...Plaza de Espana and the holiday weekend

2008-12-09T22:30:00.000+01:00

selfportrait on my new terrace (notice the palatial view reflected)(plaza de espana) arial view of the new HQ - my flat is just off the lower left cornerLong march of lugubrious days gives way and the sun has made what feels like his first appearance this month. I take the opportunity to spend time on my new terrace before taking a stroll around the neighborhood going down every street that pulls

Post Script: Barna

2008-12-05T19:25:00.001+01:00

Last weekend's trip was also a time of lessons.When going to a place, especially a place one has already visited, make reservations in advance for a restaurant of exceptional repute, even if one must spend the rest of the trip surviving only on complimentary hostel meals.Check the weather beforehand to bring necessary clothing/accoutrements.Make sure traveling companions understand what needs to

Vida ciudad

2008-12-05T18:30:00.000+01:00

Christmas is coming. Throughout the city, the calles and plazas that have for some weeks been adorned with various and often truly puzzling light fixtures now illuminate the nights. Giant conical skeletons of black iron and colored acrylic shapes and lights have emerged in all of the main plazas - sol, espana, atocha, etc. Today the temperature reached t-shirt temperature and still madrilenos

Transitional

2008-11-13T16:08:00.000+01:00

Emerging from the labyrinthian metro station of bright white lights bouncing off shining tiled walls enclosing a sea of bobbing heads, the sun temporarily blinds as the breeze carries a fresh scent from the hills just beyond the city limits. I'm standing at Moncloa, surrounded by students and drones alike, looking over a broad vista through the gate of a great stone arch at a downward-sloping

Domingo en el Centro

2008-10-26T13:18:00.000+01:00

Today the barrio pulses and thrives like a chrysalis exploding with a million copies of the same tiny creature. The ancient streets that wind wrap around one another, creating an organic metropolis that tells the story of its life in its cobbles and walls. People from every corner of the globe come each sunday for El Mercado del Rastro, or simply, El Rastro--the largest and oldest outdoor market

Fin de Semana and other buzzings-along..

2008-10-24T20:08:00.001+02:00

A week rolls on and the axle gets smoother. In the morning I walked to the metro and realized I left my pass back at the place and hadn't a single euro in my pocket with which to buy my fare. Hours later, however, it became apparent that the day would be a good one. Fresh dressed like a million bucks, I was eager to get my teach on. The sun shone and my shit was pretty much straight. I got bumped

One more thing

2008-10-20T23:35:00.001+02:00

Before I forget, there will be numerous pictures posted showing the extremity of fashion and architecture and culinary culture here in Madrid but I left the States without my camera charger and the bastard is stone dead. Don't recommend buying one here because the prices are spine-tingling for that type of shit, but be patient and I'll find a solution...

One week in..

2008-10-20T23:00:00.000+02:00

I begin the virtual record of my life in Madrid 9 days after its beginning. I have been recording thoughts and impressions in a notebook I carry from time to time but much of this first week has been reception and assimilation of all the elements in which I have immersed myself. Like a strange new food, I had no immediate reaction but to feel and attempt to recognize. Now that it's become clear