November 11: I had an afternoon flight, so the morning was spent at El Rastro, a HUGE Spanish open air market frequented by locals, tourists, and pickpockets. Apparently there’s a common scam where someone will toss a baby in the air and as you reach out to catch what turns out to be a doll, someone is already picking your pockets.
I managed to get away with my wallet intact, until I passed a bakery that sold truffles as well as balls of chocolate mousse rolled in chocolate shavings.
After being overwhelmed by the market, we headed to the park. There were puppet shows!
And also a play of Hansel and Gretel. The particularly clever aspect was the free candy they offered afterwards, so kids run up to get the free candy and their parents are guilted into handing over money. Smooth.
One thing that really struck me in Marrakesh was the number of languages that people spoke. It seemed like every shopkeeper spoke at least six different languages – Arabic, French, English, Japanese, German, Spanish…
In the US, it seems like learning a foreign language is something reserved for the wealthy. Seeing Marrakesh made me realize what a joke that is. And so my New Year’s resolution is to become conversational in Spanish and learn some French. But I’m getting a head start by beginning now – I’ll be doing a Pimsleur French lesson everyday and working my way through Harry Potter in Spanish. This will be interesting…
I went to Shadowlands last night for my sister’s birthday party. At Shadowlands, you can play Laser Tag against your friendswhile simultaneously being destroyed by eight year olds who are way better than you’ll ever be. The best part is that the arena is filled with with fog so that you can see your laser as it zips across the arena to sear your opponents’ unprotected retina (goggles are for pussies). I want to go back!
November 10: No city has exploited my love of street food as successfully as Madrid. After watching an impressive street performance,
I was hungry so I had some roasted corn on the cob. No butter, just lots of salt. I’ve never had corn on the cob that way before, but it was delicious. Almost worth the $3 I paid for it.
I ate a $2 waffle cone. No ice cream, just the cone. It was good.
Also among today’s purchases: Nutella pie, toffee, orujo (a Spanish liquer), horchata, chocolate covered everything, and Turron, a popular almond-based Spanish candy that was surprisingly hard to track down.
Pre-dinner meal was at El Tigre, a popular Spanish tapas bar. In Spain, when you order a drink, you get tapas, which is Spanish for free food. And at El Tigre in particular, you get a lot of free food. I love this city.
Dinner was at a Japanese restaurant where we ordered four desserts between three people. The black sesame flan was good, as was the red bean ice cream, but yesterday’s dessert just set a really high bar.
Tonight found us at the street market for a third time where I assisted a bronze statue and examined vats of olives before discovering my new favorite snack in the entire world: roasted candied sunflower seeds. I can’t even put into words how much more delicious these nuts were than every other roasted nut product I’ve ever eaten.
This has been a productive trip. Before arriving in Madrid, I was under the impression that I didn’t like calamari, roasted chestnuts, or sunflower seeds. Turns out I was wrong on all counts.
I took the subway home and felt sorry for anyone who gets violated from behind by a large blue rectangle.
It’s great to be back in the US with my family. Today will be spent with them, doing nothing but eating and sleeping. Oh, and laundry. My pants made it from Seattle through Munich, Madrid, Marrakesh, London, Paris, and back to Washington, D.C. without a wash – it’s time. On a related note, three weeks appears to be the maximum amount of time for rewearing my jeans, as that’s when then waistband becomes too stretched out for them to stay up anymore. On an unrelated note, I had coffee with chicory in Paris. Nestle makes instant coffee with chicory, apparently it’s still popular in Europe.
