This One Has Pictures Which Are Not on Facebook

This morning I needlessly took the bus again to Retiro because Magi thought the Metro was still down. We stayed up last night trying to figure out a quicker way to get to my work via train and bus – however, I don’t think there is a quick way. And once I was sure that the Metro was running this morning, I got off the stop and walked to Principe de Vergara. Ohh, Principe de Vergara is such a beautiful name. It’s not a very beautiful street, but it means so many things – you’re in the Centre, you have access to a lot of lines. (It's the same with Avenida de América.)

Today at work was different – instead of writing and editing, I finally got to publish some things on the internets! Yay! You cannot see them yet because they’re invisible when I’m not working on them (which is anywhere between midnight and midday for those of you stateside, depending on where you are in the States). They probably won’t be up for another month because of PR, but rest assured that my day at work was good.

I’m making plans to visit this place so that I can get myself a book in English. I finished the only English novel I brought from home a few weeks ago, and it's time to purchase some more Metro-reading material, especially since the Metro seems to be back online. The English bookstore is in the opposite direction of where I live, so it will be an adventure.

And I need to go on another adventure to find stamps. I need an estanco, but they’re never around when you need them.

Now it is picture time – which aren’t on Facebook, so readers will have some incentive to read this blog.

This is proof that I stood in front of the Museum Reina Sofia. I went inside it, too, but no pictures were allowed.

Inside the Catedrale de la Almuneda

Modern stained-glass window. Very pretty.

La, la, lala la la-la. This is from the day trip to Toledo. I think the Alcazar is the large squarish building behind me.

La Catedrale de la Almuneda, right in front of the Palacio Real.

Got my sights and pull trigger... That is actually really terrible.

This is a whole mis-mash of different days. There is no rhyme to these photos (except for the common factor of being taken in Madrid), nor reason to how they were ordered.

I'd like to do a trip to Segovia soon. I would really, really like to go to Barcelona at some point, or visit some acquaintances down in Sevilla. However, I have made no plans on that front yet.

Blogging compatriots, make me accountable to you if I do not go to Barcelona.

In front of the Palacio Real.

The Catholic version of Heaven... an endless eternity of waiting rooms, going on and on...

This is also from the weekend in Toledo. I'm sorry Shakespeare, but I had a weekend fling with Cervantes.

Hey, this is also from Toledo. Alfonso VI, anyone?

I'm trying to mess with your perception, but I think it's going to end up in a very bad, poorly-laid-out post.

And the Madrid Metro Strike Continues

In which I cultivate a different voice from what I normally post.

So tomorrow, the Metro strike is supposed to continue. Up until last week, the Madrid Metro system was the way to get around town. Not so anymore.

Magi heard that no trains are supposed to run, which makes me very angry indeed. The public transportation system is supposed to run at least 50% of their trains during a strike - minimal service for the 2 million or so people who use the Metro to get to work every day. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, they did not run any trains at all, which caused a huge tax on the bus system.

I have been personally inconvenienced by this, but the Metro strike - any public transportation strike - affects the productivity of all sectors where workers commute. All because Metro workers didn't want to take a 5% pay cut (yes, if you're on subsistence wages, that is a lot), every sector where workers commute is losing money. Their selfishness is causing other people to have to wait for buses, not work, and not get paid. For salaried workers who use the metro, their work is not being done.

With the Metro down, the buses have to take additional people, make additional stops, and use additional fuel. (I don't know how much energy it takes to run a Metro train, and I don't know if there are more buses being used to compensate for the lack of trains, but it seems like the air quality here is worse than in the past.) I feel that the metro workers are sloughing off their work onto the bus workers. The bus workers won't get additional payments for having to deal with extra people. However, it's not like taking more people is a major inconvenience; the routes run regardless of how many people there are.

It is grossly unfair of the workers to protest the wage cuts while taking away their regular commuters' working time. The economy is pretty bad, but it's bad for everyone. The Madrid metro workers should stop rocking the boat and let everyone get back to life using their otherwise phenomenal service and promptly-timed schedules.

Displeased.

The Metro Train Law of Lizzle

I have discovered a new law today: the Law of Lizzle. Whenever I take the metro, it is a law irrevocably decreed that I just miss the latest train. Had I been a few seconds earlier, I would’ve caught it. As such, I have to wait for at least another seven minutes until the next train comes. If it’s after 7 pm, I have to wait eleven minutes.

Regardless of the hour, the train will always be busier going in my direction. However, I am allowed a seat  once every three journeys.

No matter the circumstances, a train going in the other direction must always come before my train comes, and it must be less full than my train. I can be standing in my train, but the other train must come before the doors of mine come. Whenever possible, the universe will make it so that two trains arrive going the other direction before my train comes.

The result, every single time: exasperation and a very long commute.

Mmm, delicious.

Why the Bus System is Marginally Okay

Today I had so many thoughts running through my head. There has been a massive public transportation strike in Madrid over the past two days, and a good three hours of my day was eaten up taking buses from one stop to the next. Standing in a bus for three hours gives you a lot of time to think, and I thought about strange things as I was crowded in a moving vehicle, swaying back and forth. I was very close to a pole, and I almost felt like a pole dancer in the midst of a massive, transportation-al orgy. Sorry, I should censor that. My attempt to be funny didn’t really work out. I’ll be sticking to straighter stuff from here on out.

I thought about posting how much I dislike buses. Oh wait I already did that. I thought about posting some stories and observations I noted while riding the train. They will be coming shortly.

What made my day interesting was that I jumped on the first bus that came to my stop. This wasn’t the wrong bus, but it wasn’t the right bus, either. I needed to get to Sol, one of the big tourist hubs, and switch buses so I could go back to “mi casa,” and the bus that came was heading that way. I did not realize that Sol was the end of the line, and I was at the beginning of the line. I shrugged my shoulders and felt that it was okay to take this bus; I haven’t taken buses much before, so I don’t know the topside of Madrid very well. I took this chance to get to know it a little better.

I let myself get lost.

I knew I was getting lost, and I kind of knew where I was the entire time, but it was wonderful. Walking down the streets listening to my iPod as it played this song (yes, the video is cheesy), seeing the architecture and the people and the fountains. Back home, I used to go walking or driving if I wanted to be alone. I figured out how to be alone in Madrid: hop on a bus. Even though I am surrounded by people, it’s like moving in a sea of loneliness. Wow, I am tired and oh my goodness it’s late for me.

Anyway, I learned today that I still don’t know my way around very well in Madrid yet, even after being here a month. I’ve been able to navigate the bus system passably, but I can’t simply wander around. The wandering will get you farther and farther away from the right bus stop sometimes.

(Argh, I want to rewrite this post and make it pretty and beautiful and poetic, but that will have to wait for some other time. Today really did feel like a page from a story.)

((I also have the phrase, "stranger in a strange land" reverberating in my head. "No more a stranger, nor a guest, but like a child at home"?))

In Which Buses May Explode

Oh my goodness, two posts in two days! Something must be wrong in the world.

Actually, there is something wrong in the world today (my world, anyway [ooh, that sounded really bratty]). I have something to write about other than, "I sat at a desk for eight hours today wracking my brain for things to say about Israel." Today, the Madrid public transportation system was a massive failure.

Every day, I take the metro to go to work. I walk ten minutes to the nearest train station, take a twenty-minute metro ride, and then walk another five minutes to get to my work. It's like opening an umbrella or blinking: simple, right? Everything is fine and dandy until the metro workers decide to strike, and not even offer basic metro services - at least while I'm awake. I admit that I inadvertently slept in this morning, but I thought the metro would be running at 9 am.

Not so.

Instead, I had to figure out how to use the bus system under the pressure of getting to work within a reasonable amount of time. Let me just say that I don't like buses. You can use the metro to get just about anywhere in Madrid. It might take you two line changes, but it's alright. You know exactly where you're going on the metro lines. There are maps everywhere. They stop at designated, well-advertised stations. It might not be very scenic, but at least you're not stuck in traffic all the time. It's difficult to find bus stations, and then know when to get off, and before you do anything you have to worry about the direction you're going, and you don't have little signs leaping out at you saying, "Look at me! I'll show you the right way! No worries! Follow me!"

At about 9:15, I called my house-mate Magi and woke her up. I was pretty frantic, asking how to get the bus to my work and how to pay for things and how to know which bus to take. She couldn't log onto the internet to check times and buses - perhaps because everyone else was logging on to check times and buses, or the computer people at the public transportation department were also on strike - but she couldn't really help me. I got on the bus that I had taken to go to Sol a few weekends ago, and then at the Parque del Retiro, I got off, wandered around for a while and asked a few people where the nearest bus 29 station was, and then eventually - finally - thankfully - made it to work. Two hours later than I normally arrive, but the important thing was that I arrived.

No thanks to the metro.

So many people were on the buses today. For as hot and crowded as the metro can be sometimes, it's even worse on a bus.

Coming home today, I saw one bus break down. I want to think it was because there were so many people on it. Water started spewing from the end of the bus (overheating much?). On a side-note, I thought the air and steam smelled faintly of waffles. Someone must have said that the bus was leaking, because all of a sudden there was a panic and some people left the bus. Watching people exit the bus was vaguely reminiscent of watching blood flow at a cellular level: you see all these little specks rushing by on certain paths, while bigger specks just sit there. The majority of people who left the bus in a panic were young teenage girls.

This is not what the bus looked like.

Well, at least I can say I learned how to use the bus system today.

Sorry for the poor quality of this post (lo siento!), but today was a rather long day, and I didn't feel like writing this up in a word document, maybe editing it, and then posting it here, which is what I usually do.