“My Trip To Madrid,” or, “When There’s Nothing Left to Burn, You Have to Set Yourself on Fire.”
So I landed in Madrid at 10:20am Madrid time, after what was arguably the best cross-continental flight I’ve ever had. I had two entire seats to myself and a little screen all to myself. I took full advantage of this unexpected luxury and slept curled up like a puppy most of the way there. Cassandra arrived and after the usual flurry of hugs and loud exclamations (we’re both on the exuberant side) we made our way to her place.
Cassandra’s new apartment was gorgeous, in a nice part of town, and all around such a total improvement over the place she had when we last visited. And, since she now lives there with her awesome and dashing fiancé, Dani, the general atmosphere was much, much happier. I had anticipated spending a lot of time there (and brought the monstrous entire first draft of my novel with me so I could work on editing it), since Cassandra and Dani would be at work for a lot of my trip, but as things turned out, I had a much busier (and more awesome) schedule.
I met and talked to a total of four of Cassandra’s classes, and two of Dani’s. They both teach English to 5th- and 6th-graders, all groups of grinning, fidgeting kids that looked cute as buttons and asked me questions like, “Who is your favorite color?” Cassandra had told them that she had a famous celebrity friend that was going to visit, and I swear some of the kids ogled at me like I was Kelly Clarkson. One of Dani’s classes mobbed me-actually mobbed me-so I could dole out autographs. The whole thing was adorable and hilarious and gave me the chance to spend time with Cassandra and Dani even though they were at work.
The trip as a whole managed to be productive and action-packed while not being exhausting or too expensive. I asked them to take me to their favorite restaurants and bars and they did, with fantastic results. I have always had a brave palate, but my strange food repertoire was definitely expanded during my week there. Here are some of the things I ate for the first time:
* A caramelized onion and steak tostata (delicious)
* Blood sausage (phenomenal. I am such a carnivore)
* Tortillas (egg and potato cooked in a sort of pie, homemade by Dani, super-tasty)
* Shrimp cakes (the shrimp were about one inch long and whole-and I don’t mean just the shells on. Whole. Feelers and eyes and tails and everything, baked in the dozens into a crabcake-sort of thing. You’d take a bite and look down at it and there would be a little muppety-insect thing imploring you with its little beady eyes not to take a bite. And I didn’t take a second bite…but only because it was a little salty for my taste)
* Escargot (I’ve had this before but these snails were huge and you actually pried their little alien bodies from the shells, cooked in a delicious chorizo sauce, so I feel a precedent was set)
One of my first nights there, I met Dani and Cassandra’s friends Carlos and his girlfriend Rebecca. The language barrier didn’t really seem to present much of an obstacle, because Cassandra has become totally fluent and managed to keep the conversation flow natural. Around the same time the salty shrimp babies were mewling their silent plea not to be eaten, I tried the local dark beer and despite my preference for lighter beers, found it delicious. Then I switched to Cassandra’s favorite drink, a wheat beer mixed with what’s essentially lemon Fanta, which was also delicious. Oh, and I haven’t mentioned yet how much I love the coffee in Spain. Café con leche, por favor.
Of all the new things I drank in Spain, Vino Caliente was the best (and, as things would turn out, the most dramatic). Vino Caliente means-you guessed it-“hot wine,” and describes a dark red drink that’s fragrant and sweet and spiced and hot as a cup of tea. We discovered this beverage in a town called El Escoreal, which the six of us (me, Cassandra, Dani, Carlos, Rebecca, and the new arrival Lindsay) drove to in a rented car. El Escoreal is a gorgeous mountain town with a monastery and a charming village (and home to some very tasty rice and congealed blood in a sausage casing, aka blood sausage). We packed a lunch and walked around just taking in the scenery, and when we made our way into town, we found a small stand and all got a small cup of Vino Caliente. The drink was at once a unanimous hit, so we decided to find a recipe and make some more of it at Cassandra’s apartment.
Back at her place, we put the ingredients (brandy, cinnamon, orange juice, and some more spices I can’t remember) in a pot and brought them to a boil. We added a bottle of wine and covered it.
Maybe five minutes later, I decided to check on how it was going. I leaned in over the gas stove and removed the lid. Can you guess where this is going?
If you guessed: giant blue flame billowing out from the alcohol fumes that ignited at once and engulfed the pot, you’d be 100 percent kee-rect! I leapt backwards, frantically patting my head (it wasn’t the first time I’d been on fire, I’m not too proud to admit, and hair is flammable). The flames went really high and then burned out quickly. Everyone rushed into the kitchen and I asked if I’d burned a huge chunk out of my hair or something. I hadn’t-just a few stray strands shortened-but all of my eyelashes had turned white at the tips. That’s how close this was to not being a funny story. We were laughing our asses off at the time, but in retrospect, it could have been bad. As things are, my eyelashes are a little shorter, and I'm a teensy bit wiser in the ways of thermodynamics. My first dreadful thought wasn’t one of my own safety but of the fact that I had to tell the story to Enda and Chris, both of whom would know better than to allow alcohol fumes to collect over a gas stove.
Of all the crude Spanish phrases I learned when I was there, here is my absolute favorite: “Me zumba la polla.” What it means is, basically, “I’m really pissed off.” But directly translated, it’s: “My cock is buzzing.” I couldn’t get over this and kept saying it the whole trip, in both Spanish and English. I’m totally bringing this one to the states.
Other than the interesting food and drink I had while I was over there, we spent most of our time just walking around and taking in the city. Lindsay and I walked around the Retiro, a gorgeous park in the center of Madrid. We all went to the Rastro, an outdoor market that takes place every Sunday and I stocked up on souvenirs. We saw historical buildings, monuments, squares, sculptures, all of which Cassandra told us about since she had to teach her students about them. Lindsay and I joined Cassandra for two hours of yoga (where you barely move but somehow wake up sore as a puta the next day) at Carlos and Rebecca’s yoga place, and ate a ton of pizza in the lobby after they closed.
The last night there we went to one of Cassandra and Dani’s favorite restaurants (an Italian place, just for a change of pace) and Lindsay unexpectedly (and awesomely) sprang for the entire meal. With the help of this generosity and Cassandra and Dani’s, who pretty much let me eat all the food I wanted from their place and covered the price of a lot of the tapas and drinks, I managed to not spend very much money at all. I plan on repaying all of this kindness in the summer when they visit NC. :)
Overall the Spain trip was amazing and far too short. It was so great to see Cassandra again and finally see in person the life she’s leading over there. We did a lot of catching up and being silly (not to mention setting things on fire)-just like the old days! Dani is officially one of my favorite people on the planet. The newly (and happily) single Lindsay flew into Madrid as the start of her three-week Eurotour: Madrid, Oxford, Stockholm, Berlin, Salzburg, back to Madrid. I am so excited for her on this new adventure. I know she’s going to have a blast and I can’t wait to hear about it when she comes back. I’m so happy with the fact that I was able to go and with how much I was able to do while I was there.
Good news in Risaworld:
Thanks to Renter’s Insurance, I’m getting back a lot more money than I expected for my stolen things and will actually end up coming out a couple hundred dollars ahead of the game. I’ve spent most of the day today in a barely subdued happy-dance.
My parents are both doing well-Mom finally finding her footing in the dating world, Dad still recovering but showing promise following a second minor operation.
The new bassist, after two shows on the road with a third tonight, has proved totally awesome. We’re all really excited about him being in the band. Last night after a phenomenal show in Savannah, the following things happened: Paul tried to drunkenly climb in the car of a girl who turned out to be a very perturbed stranger; a SCAD photographer took a bunch of pictures of me with steam-punk goggles on; Kat chastised Enda over the phone and, to my horror, cited our future children in her silly-drunk stance that he shouldn’t call me a certain crude word, even if he does say it in affectionate jest and I’ve come to see it as a kind of foul-mouthed pet name (you’d be amazed at the things that can sound adorable when spoken with an Irish accent); we sat around the brightly-decorated living room of an adorable lesbian who is apparently a bit of a lawn-ornament klepto; I found out that Enda (who leads a life so charmed it defies physics sometimes) had scored three free tickets to an AC/DC concert that night and called him the aforementioned crude pet name right back; and we generally celebrated and congratulated Jeramy on being the newest addition to our happy little family.
Enda’s tentative date of arrival will land sometime in early April. We manage to talk online or by phone almost every day despite the 16-hour time difference. He’s making the most of his last weeks in Australia, which for him means doing such retardedly dangerous things as cage diving with great white sharks. Here’s hoping he makes it to April and gets his lily-white ass on a plane safely.