September 13 - Hasta Luego, Madrid

See ya, Madrid

As I prepare to leave Madrid, I get to thinking, if a friend helps you move, what do you give him or her? Perhaps pizza and beer. But if a friend helps you build a dam, what’s an appropriate token of appreciation? Maybe an Egyptian temple from 200 BC? That’s what Egypt gave Spain. And Spain plopped it in a Madrid park where it has puzzled pedestrians since 1968.


Anyway, my thirst for new knowledge never stops, like:

1. Machine guns – I have learned that the presence of people in military uniforms holding machine guns is not, alone, enough to spoil an otherwise delightful day. Two stories here. One – when I went for a run my first day here I was approaching a group of four large men holding machine guns and I was so focused on the guns that I didn’t see the curb that tripped me and landed me face first on the ground in front of them. As they all stepped forward to help I continued to mainly see the guns and pretty much got out of there as quickly as possible, thanking them as I ran away. Two – a couple of days ago I crossed a street against a light and a machine-gun guy wagged his index finger at me. He may have been fooling around, but now I cross with the light.

2. Elevators – the fact that an elevator drops 4 or 5 inches whenever you step in it, which the elevator in my apt. building does, does not mean that you will go plummeting to your death.

3. Shirts – if there is a reason not to wear the same shirt four days in a row, I don’t know what that reason is.

Now I'm off to Valencia, the place where Valencia oranges do not, and never did, come from. And why "hasta luego, Madrid"? Because when I left here the last time, 40 years ago, the mother of the family I was living with told me that saying "adios" was too permanent. Instead, you always say "hasta luego," "until the next time." Which it kind of turns out there was.