Yes, I'll Have Cheese (And Madrid, Please)

The train ride from Valencia to Madrid was about four hours today, so a stop in the dining car was inevitable. I pulled my person up alongside the counter and proceeded to order a bottle of water and a ham sandwich. All of a sudden a commotion broke out. The man standing beside me started talking to the lady taking the orders; I heard "ham", "cheese", "American"; then the old guys on the other side of me started jabbering; then the first guy on my side started talking to them; the order taker lady looked at everyone; so, I fixed the first guy with my pseudo-polite/pseudo-I-know-you-said-American eyes and elicted a response. He asked if I knew that I had just ordered a ham sandwich. I confirmed. In fact, I did know I had ordered a ham sandwich because I had ordered it. He said did I understand that it was "sin queso". I confirmed this too. In fact, I knew it did not have cheese on it. This caused more commotion. At this point, I gave in, and I said loudly that if everyone wanted me to have cheese on my sandwich then alright I would have cheese on my sandwich. I don't know if I was the focus of "silly American would deign to eat a ham sandwich without cheese", or "this poor American girl is going to have her day ruined if we don't get cheese on her sandwich stat". Either way; I had cheese. Forget turning into a pastry; at this rate I'm gonna turn into a cheeseball.

Madrid is ridiculous from all angles. The streetscapes are incredible, and there is a ton going on. It is a different vibe than Barcelona though, and, I'd say Madrid has much sharper edges. My pictures don't do the buildings (not just monuments/historical) justice at all. It's like a perfect blend of curves and angles along both straight and winding streets, up and down and flat again with an imperturable historical dignity intertwined with discernable sophistication.

I caught some street mariachis who were excellent and entirely charismatic.

I ended the day with a tumble into a theater having a comedy show, "A Saco". There was a dead body, a power drill, dentures, lots of implied sexual favors, a pic of the pope, lots of fog, a cooler with something rancid inside, and a ton of dinero that everyone wanted. I have absolutely no clue what happened, but it was kind of funny.