Day One: Madrid

Day one of the adventure was fabulous. After I got settled and slept for a couple of hours, I headed out and discovered that Madrid is totally walkable, freakishly clean, and home to both the world's greatest orange juice and a host of unemployed young people who are anxious to find jobs. Unemployment is at 30 percent for young people here, and they've taken over one of the big public squares to bring attention to their situation. I know next to nothing about the substance of their grievances, but I did see a fair number of people in their 50s and 60s stopping by the rallies and discussion groups, and they seemed to be listening supportively. For such a large gathering, it feels more like a festival than a protest--there's no tense undercurrent, at least that I could detect.

When I walked through it around 11:30 tonight, the square was still absolutely jammed. I spotted a scaffolding for press photographers, and since only one photographer was working up there, I figured I'd test my luck. I asked the police officer guarding it whether I could go up, and at first he asked to see my press credentials, and when I admitted I didn't have any, he smiled and let me go anyway. I snapped away for about ten minutes, and the whole time, the officers were eating their yogurt and chatting. Clearly the officers weren't on edge.

Other observations. Tapas here are all they're cracked up to be! I had a small serving of veggie paella at a market and it was otherworldly--I can't even imagine how to coax a taste like that out of rice, but luckily here I don't have to. :)

Later on, I tried some gazpacho, which was poured out of a carton into a glass in front of me. My initial thought was, "Great, I just got a glass of tomato juice," but it was fantastic. From now on, I won't be so quick to judge stuff that comes out of cartons here. :) Oh, and dinner was a gorgeous plate of grilled veggies drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with salt, and otherwise left alone to taste like vegetables. Awesome! I will be eating well here, and it's a good thing because I must've walked ten miles today.

One thing that's not awesome: my five years of high school and college Spanish seem to have mostly dissolved. I guess not using it for 20 years wasn't the best plan. Go figure. I can understand snatches of things from time to time, and I can understand a fair amount of written Spanish, but when I'm searching for words, I'm having a ton of trouble even coming up with the basics, and now it's getting commingled with Arabic. I'll think of or say a sentence in Spanish, but I'll forget and use Arabic prepositions and stuff. And just when I get it straightened out, I'll be headed to Morocco, so I'll probably be making the opposite mistake there. Oh well.