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Real Madrid v Barcelona
David celebrates his win (getting us great tickets on the day to "el classico" at Santiago Bernabeu) with Desislav, a Bulgarian guy he met in the line at the ticket officeWell, the last 3 weeks have been full on with friends and family in town (and therefore lots of trips to our fave places to eat, and drink!), futbol matches, opera, a bullfight, a trip to Toledo, an excursion to the races (for one certain enthusiast anyway) and an exam!
What we’ve done: • Experienced the ultimate
‘futbol’ grudge match -
Real Madrid v F.C. Barcelona at 10pm on a Wednesday night - prime time in Spain, which happened to be Real Madrid’s first game back at home after winning the title on the previous weekend. I'm glad they won. It was a sensational atmosphere and I have enormous respect for the enthusiasm of the fans who did not stop cheering as Real wiped the floor with their traditional opponents.
(Barca was outplayed throughout to lose by an embarassing 4-1. Highlight was seeing a couple of my favourite strikers score, Raul and Henry. Henry had a shocker and looked out of sorts - might be time to head back to London) • Gone to a smaller, more local feeling, but no less passionate,
Atletico Madrid (v Deportivo La Coruna) match where David
L.E.K. Crew at Atletico Madrid
Us with the L.E.K. crew outside the Vicente Calderon stadium after the Atletico match chewed on sunflower seeds, spitting out the pips like a local
(I only lasted 15 miuntes before my tongue was destroyed by the salt while the locals could do a whole game of it (including one old guy who even continued during half time in the gents)) .. Again, very impressed by the fans (except the fascist who used it as a political platform, yelling something about killing us all if Franco was still around)
(... who would have thought Harvey could get so animated. A bit like Leichhardt on roids this ground - fantastic atmosphere as they needed to win to qualify for Europe next year. They got a 1-0 victory with a goal from Australia's old Uraguayan nemesis and former Man U striker Diego Forlan. The victory cigars all round the crowd were a nice touch too. Shame there wasn't a shisha pipe around for Chris) • At both these matches I was very impressed but too scared to drink the
buckets! of beer that were served by the surrounding outlets. No responsible service of alcohol here! The upside; getting served quickly at the bar (because people didn’t have to go back so often), the downside, at least
Cava at interval at the Madrid Opera
Maree, Anna and Beverley (David's Mum) on the balcony of the Opera House which overlooks gorgeous gardens for the gents; the biggest queue for the men’s (at the Atletico game) that I have ever seen! I could only just resist taking a photo!
• Hosted an
L.E.K. contingent in town (well managers anyway, on the way to the partner / manager meeting that happened to be in Spain). This naturally meant some big nights and long days!
(A cracking weekend) • Had
David’s Mum and her friend Maree to stay
(it was great having them come to visit and to show them some of this place) • Went to the
opera, which was a surprisingly easy expereince as, although it was sung in Italian, we could understand a lot of the Spanish surtitles. The production was L’Orfeus, the greek mythological tale, which made it easy as they went on about the same things a lot ... love, the sky, pain, stars, broken hearts, fate ... it made it quite easy to follow! The opera theatre was stunning and it was a real pleasure to sit in it for an hour or so listening to great music. It was worth it just for the experience of cava on the balcony at interval. Yes, it did rival drinks at
the end of the opera house! Not as breathtaking but truly beautiful (and not as crowded with people as the end of the opera house at interval).
(Thought the lead bloke was a bit too weedy to be an opera singer but apart from that it was a good night out) • Had our friend
Richard to stay. Another set of big nights, with lots of great mojitos, and some unexpected experiences. Richard’s colleague, who has family in Madrid, was also in town and one of his cousins is a roadie for a band and got us tickets to a
rock concert. It was very left field. The crowd was like something you would have found in the library sharing science fiction books at high school, but overall it was awesome. The whole look of the band was heavy metal, but the music included everything from Metallica-esque tracks to ballads with bag-pipes and the flute. It was great fun ... and for the LNA crew, it was in
Salon Heineken - a venue that was completely Heineken branded, with just their beers. One hell of a way to try and marry their image with music. Not sure this band was
Restaurant with a beach
Us and Richard with Emilio and cousins what they were aiming for but interesting all the same.
(Not to mention the tapas bar crawl Rich and I got into while we were waiting for Anna to finish class. Then at the end of the night the DJ at the Groovie Bar (or room might be a better name) found Rich his favourite Iggy Pop album, in vinyl, out of what looked to be a very limited collection and played a track for our man. During the song the bar emptied out and was closed shortly after. Rich is no DJ Weeksy) • Tried another new dish -
pig’s ears ... twice. The first experience was awful, the second, improved, given the sauce was great, but still, cartilage ain’t our gig!
(I heard they were good) • Found
one of the coolest restaurant experiences yet, where the floor is covered in very clean sand and you sit on cushions. The food was very mod and very good, and the experience overall tops, but I can’t say it’s the most comfortable way to eat!
(Good mojitos) • Had the experience, that we felt we had to have, to complete the spanish trilogy after eating tortilla and drinking sangria,
Bulls and Men
Human cruelty in a stunning setting - we went to a
Bullfight. The season here started last week. Truly, this is one of the cruellest things I have ever seen!!! It was horrid to watch, not least because I was wrestling with myself for having paid money for it, and really enjoying the beauty of the stadium (truly magnificent), and the generally great vibe of the crowd. Somewhat like the cricket actually. I couldn’t even make myself feel better by cheering for the bull. It was all just wrong. Fans, of course, don’t think about it. They also feel somewhat justified as the bull is at least eaten afterwards, and, as one person said to me, they have a much better life until that point because they are well looked after to ensure they are big and strong, not tortured all their lives in feed yards with no room to move before they are sent to slaughter. That just made me feel worse about everything!
• We finally visited
Toledo, a town outside Madrid, that was once the capital, with a complex history, having been under Moorish and Catholic rule, and once had Jews, Muslims, and Catholics living together somewhat peacefully. Unfortunately, at one point, the
Toledo Album Cover
David walking with Rothio and David, new friends in Madrid and our tour guides in Toledo catholic monarchs got rid of anyone who wouldn’t convert, and there are very few jews in Spain still. Apparently, those jews chased out of Toledo still have the keys to their houses and plan to return. Who knows? It was a really busy day as they are celebrating Corpus Cristi this week, but the place looked awesome, decorated with flags hanging from the buildings, etc
• Finally, today, David went to
the races, while I went to the (somewhat) famous
El Rastro market. Naturally, a good day was had by all
(It was great to smell manure again. Sunday racing over here at La Zarzuela Hipodromo with a 6 race card that started at 11.15. Wednesday night meetings commencing at 10pm during the heat of summer. Reasonable quality bloodstock which seems to be rebuilding - the Madrid track only reopened a few years ago but good size crowd and I managed to work out how to read the form and jagged a few good collects. They put on a good show and adequate facilities (no bookies though). Looking forward to a night visit) In between all of this we have continued
classes, done our
homework each day (yes, we
Another winner
Banks replace beer at the finish line here :) do get homework), and last week I satisfactorily passed an
exam to move onto the next level (new textbook and all!). The problem is, I am not sure I can fit anymore in my brain!!! We both feel pretty overwhelmed, there is a lot we should know, and not much we can say. I am hoping there is a turning point!!!
This is the last week of this stint in Madrid, on Friday we fly to Berlin for 3 weeks in Germany, Croatia and maybe a couple of days in Slovenia.
Hasta luego ...
Besos ...
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