Zaragoza Day 1

My first day in Zaragoza is pretty much this – after navigating an overnight flight, two bus rides and two train rides, I made it to Zaragoza with the operating part of my brain limping along and reluctantly doing the minimum amount of work necessary to get me through the day.

A few early observations about Zaragoza:

1. Pilar is a very popular name. When

I began to decide where to go to get to my hotel, I remembered that the name was the “Pilar” something or other so that’s where I went. When they couldn’t find my reservation, I eventually realized that “Our Lady of Pilar” is the massive main church in town, so about half of the hotels, bars, grocery stores, dogs and streets within a half mile of that church have
“Pilar” in their name. The conversation with the clerk in the wrong Pilar hotel in which I figured this out either (1) went surprisingly well or (2) my Spanish was so alarming that she just decided that the quickest way to get me to leave was to politely nod.

2. It’s so hot and dry here that when I washed my stinky t-shirt in the “invigorating body cleanser” that the hotel left in my bathroom and hung it out on my balcony, it completely dried in about 45 minutes. Bonus here was that when I was headed back after a walk around town, I was actually able to identify my hotel because it had a t-shirt hanging from the balcony of one of its rooms. This is something every 4-star hotel would probably love to be known for.

3. They sell something called “meat chips” here. These are things that I both want to know more about and do not want to know more about.

My goal for today is to stay conscious long enough so that I can go get some tapas and wine and then crawl back to my hotel and pass out. Setting the bar for success so low that all I have to do is go to a bar and eat is basically where I’m at right now.