Tony and the tortilla

Madrid, Saturday 3 October

Hola. Madrid might not have got the green light to host the Olympics but it certainly looks like they were going to give it their best shot. The airport was sensational. Modern and stylish, clean and easy to get around. The area I am staying in is off the beaten track and is undergoing serious street renovation. I felt a empathetically miserable for the workers today. Not content with one, they were digging up several roads in the heat of the day all the while back-dropped by a sign positioning Madrid’s hosting campaign. Bugger!

I am staying at the Hotel Praga, not to be confused with the Hotel Prada (if such a thing exists) which is where I would rather be. That’s because this hotel is making me pay E2 per day for the use of the safe in my room (old lock and key model not the sophisticated press code system in every other hotel I have ever stayed in) and I had to sign a disclaimer that I would not hold them responsible for more than E1800 if the safe is robbed after I have locked it with the dodgy old key. Ridiculous! Additionally this is the only hotel I have ever been in (have I said that already) that doesn’t have a map of the city for its guests. Also ridiculous.

While it is perfectly adequate it seems to primarily be a tour group hotel. A least eight buses have unloaded their passengers and each time the lobby is crammed full with people and bags and the lifts jam up as they only take three people at a time if you are lucky. I have had to cram into the lift with some well pressed young Spainish boys more than once today (every item of clothing wrinkle free). Loads of them are on my floor, I think they might be a sports team otherwise they are under wear models, either way they are up to high jinks tonight.

Not having a map didn’t deter me from exploring this afternoon, it probably should have but I thought I’d just wander for a couple of hours. I knew it was siesta time and that most places would be closed but I needed to be outside after spending most of the morning cooped up. It was a pleasant 27 degrees, hot in the sun but very nice out of it. I finally found my way to a park (with fountains and city views but nothing on Rome’s) and then that tourist trap of them all…the cemetery. I guess I really was a little out of the way.

I had worked up an appetite though and just could not decide where to eat. There are tapas bars everywhere and lots of menus on the street to entice you inside, problem is I couldn’t understand any of them and I was feeling pretty tired today…too tired to try and deal with major language mis-connects. Finally I saw one with Tortilla on the menu. Yum-o. When I lived in London I became addicted to Spainish Tortilla for lunch. This was made by the lovely Tony who owned a tiny deli in between several pubs off the Edgeware Road where I worked. I have occasionally tried to re-create Tony’s tortillas but I just can’t get the egg mix to cook to perfection. Today I was sent to heaven again.

The tapas bar wasn’t very salubrious. It was long and narrow with room only for a bar (funny that). There was one gaming machine which could be seen from the street and the TV precariously positioned above this that was on. Ash tray everywhere, smoking is alive and well here. Half way through my lovely tortilla I followed the gaze of the other patrons and found myself fixated on a very steamy sex scene on the tele. A little surreal, it was mid afternoon, but from what I could pick up it was a daily soap opera that the female owner followed. I suspect many more than the female owner if today is anything to go by.

Tonight I am avoiding the busy streets (Saturday night and everyone is out) and having a night in. It’s washing night. In fact I am dragging myself away from the BBC coverage of the meeting of the World Bank in Istanbul to write this. It is critical viewing, Madame Lagarde (French Finance Minister) seems a very sensible woman.

Tomorrow I will find a map.

Pic is the citscape from the park I found this afternoon.