A New Dance

Yesterday was my last full day in Madrid.  I would definitely return to Madrid, but it wouldn't be the first stop on my list.  I considered rowing a boat in the park for my grand finale, but then I recalled what a futile ordeal that was when I tried at Golden Gate.  So, I returned to my favorite part of town, El Sol.  I came up the metro entrance to find the entire square of people decked out in yellow plastic bag panchos.  This was confusing.  First, I confirmed that I was not wearing a yellow plastic bag pancho; I was not, but looking at everyone else in one played a trick on my mind.  Next, I confirmed that it was a perfectly sunny, glorious, not a cloud in the sky day; it was, but looking at everyone in their yellow plastic bag panchos had me wondering if I was the only one not clued into a major impending downpour.  Then a bunch of pamphlets were passed my way (along with my very own, yup, yellow plastic bag pancho), and I learned that they were having a gathering to support acquired cerebral palsy.  It was all energy and dancing (and yellow plastic bag panchos), and I thought it was pretty cool that everyone joined in.  I am now, also, ready for any rain that comes my way.  I am so prepared...in that yellow plastic bag pancho sort of way.

I also visited the Centro for their Sunday open air bazaar, Rastro, and I met some interesting vendors.  We'll leave it at that (but I'm pretty sure a lady with no teeth sold me a shirt for a friend and hit on me at the same time). 

I totally enjoyed my first round of paella and sangria (yes, it's lunchtime again).  I got the version with lots of seafood.  It was totally tasty, and I was pretty hungry.  They're intended to be shared, but I wasn't planning on it until...the bees showed up.  First it was one.  Then it was two, and then it was three and four.  They totally were into my paella.  (After having seen the offbeat horror movie "Candyman" I know that this is because bees like to bunker down in corpses, and the prone, cooked bodies of the crustaceans in my paella pan were irresistible to them.)  I'm not scared of bees but not wanting to end up making a scene since I didn't know how to say bee in Spanish (abeja), I surrendered.

I took an hour flight out of Madrid today to Lisbon.  Now I have a full blown Iberian adventure.  I am digging Portugal already, and the B&B style apartment that I'm renting is utterly my new infatuation.  [This is the door to my Lisbon bedroom.  I loooooove it!]