Madrid: "Oh we know about that."

Not to toot my own horn too violently, but I am good with directions. I have an uncanny sense of where we are, even if I can't tell you west from north (I can never, ever, tell you this). Even this summer, while in Interlaken with Ron & Mary, I could get us to the McDonald's (for a refreshing fountain soda) despite the fact that I was there for 2 nights with Joe over 5 years ago. So, we both assumed I would have a serious handle on Madrid. I had lived there for 6 months after all.

We arrived early Friday morning & followed the hotel's provided directions. We arrived at an NH, however, not the NH we had booked, despite the fact that the hotel's directions led us to that location. Finally, we arrived at our hotel & gave the receptionist the low-down; we'd wasted over an hour going to the WRONG hotel location (that they provided) and she responded with "oh, we know about that." No sorry, nada. Needless to say, we were a bit fired up & the room only increased this feeling (both physically & emotionally). Literally, it was a tiny sauna cell, with non-level mirrors & door numbers. So, we booked it out stat & headed out towards my old neighborhood. We exited the Metro, expecting to see familiar sights everywhere. But all I felt was a giant blankness. Although convinced we were at the right stop, everything looked, well, it looked dumpy, and completely unfamiliar. We walked towards a giant "stick" sculpture in the middle of the road & I said, "it's not this way. i have never seen those sticks or that terrible tenemant building in my life." Cut to 1 hour later. We have somehow stumbled upon SLU Madrid, after I saw a familiar building. From there, I am confident I can find the house. Turns out the house is located one street away from the earlier mentioned "stick" sculpture & giant tenemant building. I saw said items every day for 6 months. Yet, I was convinced I'd never seen them before. This bothered me. This bothered Joe as well, especially considering I'd walked him all around a boring Madrid neighborhood while hungry. Not a stellar combo.

I couldn't stop thinking about being unable to recognize a place I recall fondly & frequently. Until I realized it had nothing to do with the scenery & everything to do with my perception. I had idealized it in my head to such a point that the reality was completely diluted. I'm sure the cleanliness & gorgeousness of all things Swiss didn't help with this perception problem I had.

From there we attempted to walk to "our bar." After the disheartening experience with finding "our house" I had little to no confidence in this mission. We got close. I could tell. We walked down one street that I felt it was on, to no avail. Then, about to give up, I said, let's just go down one more street...and then I spotted it. Joe was incredulous. Really?! This is it? I looked in & said, oh yeah this is it. It became harder to believe once we entered that this in fact was a place I still talk about & think of as a personal Cheers, Madrid-style. It's wretched, faux wood paneling, horrible metal chairs, some gaming machines lighting up the corner & the trash, oh the trash, all over the floor. It would give a street sweeper in Zurich a heart attack to see. We had one beer & said, let's get out of here. It was only when I went to pay that we got a clear indication of why we spent so much time there. 2 Amstels came to a total of 2Euros & my .30Euro tip was greeted with a huge smile & grande Gracias. I guess this place had some positive points (besides the handicapped Asian man) after all.

In addition to my long, sordid trip down memory lane, we spent a lot of time strolling Madrid, walking in & out of various shops (oh the cheap Madrid prices!). Joe even picked up a fashionable new brown coat while there (so nice). We had beers & tapas in various different establishments. I had a traumatic red wine spilling experience (it luckily seems to have come out of all our favorite clothes which we, of course, were wearing during said wine spilling) while Joe bumped the shit out of his head on a low ceiling at the same place (we are convinced that place had it in for us, there is no other plausible rational). Siestas, Dunkin Donuts, and many more nostalgic moments made for a phenomenal weekend to recharge & help get ourselves through the next 4 weeks of work (and miserable Zurich weather) until we are in the US hanging out with you all!