Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Thursday, March 26th, 2004

Part II - 'Geez its cold here'

I hadn't realized it in all the hussle and bustle of trying to get to a bed the night before, but when I awoke and went outside the next morning, it was cold! I discovered that February may not be the best time for visiting Western Europe -coming from the rainforest of West Africa, but I was there and I was going to enjoy it!

Because of my flight luck, I had three days in Madrid all to myself, and I proceded to the tourist information desk to get all the maps I needed. I then spent the next two days wandering around Madrid with my camera, wearing only a light sweater and a windbreaker to protect against late winter winds (and on one afternoon, snow). The first lunch- my first real meal in Spain, I headed to that bastion of American values (and value), McDonalds. Its pretty difficult to explain how a Big Mac can almost bring one to tears unless you've been there.

I walked all around the city, exploring virtually all of the major sites and museums. The main palace of Madrid was pretty amazing, but I couldn't get into the main cathedral which is opposite because it was closed for renovations. It seems the Crown Prince is getting married this summer and he wants to have it there. If someone could tape it for me, then I'll know what I was missing...

The museums were, on the whole, very nice but not New York or Paris or London or even DC. I guess when you're lucky enough to live and be able to travel and see much of the great western art of the world, even the acclaimed Prado falls short. They did have a few astonishing pieces though, which made the trip worthwhile. In terms of museums, I really enjoyed the modern art of the Queen's gallery, Reina Sofia. Picasso's Guernica is one of those legendary works which despite all the hype manages to inspire and awe that much more in person. I guess more and more I'm becoming a "modern" art fan, as I have ceased to appreciate a perfectly rendered still life of arranged flowers, pewter pitchers and animal heads.

As you may know, I'm an architecture freak, and Madrid provided some awe-inspiring moments. I have to say that I can't imagine a more impressive post office than the Palace of Communications. Its litterally a cathedral to the art of letter-writing.

Having been starved of western culture for the last nine months (as stark contrast to my at least once weekly cultural outings in New York), I set out to find a concert, opera or guy with a guitar to appease the thirst. I found what I needed. One night I discovered the chorus and orchestra of the City of Madrid. As luck would have it, it was an all-American program. It was just like being back in Lincoln Center. A note to New York cultural institutions: the best seat in the house cost 15 euros. The concert was wonderful, and I truly missed my friends at the NY Choral Society.

The following day, the 19th, was my 31st birthday. The positive side was that I was in a great western capital and could do anything I wanted. The downside was that I was all by myself. I decided to "seize the day" and get up early to spend the day in Toledo, the ancient city made famous by an El Greco painting, so I got on a bus and arrived an hour later. Toledo is a relatively small, hilly, walled-town with lots of cobblestone streets too small for cars (but which they seem to have found cars small enough to fit). I had a small map from the tourist office, but the small curvy streets were difficult to follow, so I got lost several times. Luckily it was small enough that if you tried not to turn for a while you ended up at a landmark. I saw all the major and most minor sites of the city, including the phenomenal Cathedral with its Spanish medieval and baroque interior.

I stopped for lunch around 1pm and found myself the first one there (Spanish folks, I came to find, do everything several hours late). I decided to treat myself to a good restaurant and enjoy the specialties of central Spain. Luckily, my hotel had a small library with a Fodor's guide in english, so I had some direction... The restaurant was a bit on the expensive side, but quite worth it. An extravagant lunch of smoked duck, roasted pigeon and baked local fish followed by marzipan cake and ice cream was truly a birthday gift to myself. I did make it back to the bus station and Madrid before dark. A Burger King double bacon cheeseburger and New York superfudge chunk from Ben & Jerry's capped off the day.

The next day, Deema, Jean and Frankie arrived together around noon and Tara got in late that night. The fun was only just beginning...

End of part II. there's more...

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Monday, March 22nd, 2004

Ok, I realize that its been more than a month since my last posting, so I'd like to apologize. With the vacation and then the aftermath when I returned (for example: George, the bank manager, is out sick with malaria), it hasn't been easy to find a few minutes to write down some of the fun, interesting and delicious things I did on vacation!

I, much like my father, measure the success of a vacation by the number of pictures that were taken. With the advent of digital photography, it has become that much easier to take TONS of photos. And, using Dad's photography law of averages, the more photos you take, the more likely you'll get some really good ones. So, during the almost three weeks of my vacation, I took slightly over 800 photos with my trusty Canon Powershot G1 with 1 gig compact flash card. That would clearly place this vacation in the highly successful category. I will be uploading the photos when I next visit Peace Corps headquarters in mid-April. I have sorted through them, however, on the bank's computer, and there are about fifty that I am extremely happy with. Maybe I should be creating a portfolio to become a professional photographer when this is over?

I left Edéa early morning, caught a bus which dropped me on the side of the road near the airport. A short taxi-ride later, I had passed the first level. The trip was remarkable in that there was nothing remarkable about it. We were not stopped by police, nothing happened to the car, the traffic moved smoothly, no one tried to cheat me, it was almost pleasurable...

In the airport, I met a really nice Indian-South African who was, like me, on his way to Malabo (my intermediate stop before continuing to Madrid). He works for an oil equipment company as the shipping agent. There is lots of oil activity on the small, and formerly poor, island of St. Isabel, Equatorial Guinea- of which, Malabo is the capital. We had a nice conversation, and he mentioned that there was a flight leaving to Madrid that afternoon. Apparently there are more than a few Houston, Texans on Equatorial Guinea, and the best way back to the ranch is on the twice-weekly Iberia flight to Madrid. Well, since my scheduled flight was the second of the twice weeklies, I set about planning how to convince the powers that be that I'd much rather spend three extra days in Madrid than Malabo (I know, tough decision).

Upon landing in Malabo, we walked off the plane and were hit by a wall of humidity which is similar to the feeling of going to the enclosed rainforest at the Montreal Velodome after coming in from sub-zero temperatures. It confirmed the theory that, as bad as you think it is, it can always get worse. The Malabo airport is so new that everything still works, and shines. After getting through customs and passport control, I had to wait a couple of hours for the Iberia staff to show up. Apparently if you only have two flights a week, you only have to work the two hours before the flight. When they arrived, I waited until I got to the front of the line (by this time, I had eaten lunch served in a back room behind the bar). I struggled with my limited Spanish and the woman's limited French to get across the idea that I wanted to fly standby on that flight. Since they didn't have a computer system, she didn't see how it was possible. She left to talk to the manager and came back with a definitive "no". I gathered my bags and began walking dejectedly towards the taxis to begin my three day stay in a steam chamber.

As I strapped my backpack on, the manager came over and said that there was space, and that I could indeed get on the plane! Happily, I paid the exit tax, and made my way to the waiting room with the rest of the Texans leaving for home.

Arriving in Madrid airport was like revisiting an old memory- the memory of western civilization. In nine months, its possible to forget to the point that you think your memories were implanted by some dubbed movie on satellite TV. But, as distant as it seemed, I seemed to get the hang of it and move back into 'Metropolitan Pete' mode. I got my bag (it made it) and headed towards the subway -note to New Yorkers: most cities with subways have stops at the airport so why did it take 30+ years for the Port Authority to get off their butts?. I arrived very late at night (yes, the same day I left my home in Edéa), and looked through my limited research and picked the Hotel Europa. I made it there, checked in and went to sleep.

to be continued...

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

I realize that its been quite a while since I've written last, but a long vacation and catch up upon return has that effect. I have been prewriting my blog with lots of juicy and funny details from the trip and events since, but have yet to find a computer to let me upload it. As such, I will hold on until I can- at most that would be two weeks. At that point I'll also be uploading the photos from the trip. I'm quite happy with the way they turned out, and I hope you will be too. Thanks for your patience and continuing interest. I hope it'll be worth the wait (I'm doing my best to be extra witty).