The rain in Spain doesn’t want to stop
March 29th, 2004 | Posted by Shannon
I love, love, love Madrid. This city rocks. We have been walking everywhere and eating a tapa here, a tapa there… I will save the details for the trip report. It is bleeping freezing here, and raining all the time. If I had cajones they would be freezing off. We have not let this stop us, but I missed out on the flea market and the Retiro park, also we won?t make it to Segovia – it is just too wet and too cold. I will be back though I know, I really love it here, forget Chow! Amsterdam if there was ever a city that needs Chow guide it is Madrid. There are tapas bars and hip places to drink EVERYWHERE. It is like my own personal mecca. We have one more day and then we head to Toledo.
So, last night we got home in time to watch the last part of the Miss Espana contest. As soon as we started watching they picked the six finalists. Instead of just calling the six finalists, the camera would focus on a contestant and then the finalist was made to wait in agony for like two minutes on camera and then very slowly the MC would say whether she made it or not. It was brutal to watch! The misses Barcelona, Sevilla, Jaen, Valencia, Melilla (I think) and Orencse (or some such city) made it. Barcelona was very weepy and heartfelt and got the most cheers. Jaen was the prettiest in that so perfect you make me sick kind of way, and very polished. Sevilla looked downright mean. The others were boring. The scoring system was as follows: There are a gazillion judges (Twelve? Twenty four? It seemed to take forever.) Each one rates each girl from 1 to 6. So if you get a 1, you get 1 point, 6 and you get 6 points. The totals are tallied on the TV screen and also a huge screen at the contest; still, the MC had to rattle off every score very slowly after each judge. If you thought the Oscars were long… Jaen took the early lead. It went up and down but it was a clear race between Barcelona and Jaen. Everytime Sevilla got a bad score she looked like she was going to kill that judge. Jaen smiled alot the silly cow. The others just looked scared. Jaen won, of course.
So that was just hours of entertainment. There is also a show here that we have seen twice as it seems to come on in the right-before-going-out-for-the-evening time. It is called Hecho Pareja I think. It is like the Dating Game but for older or perhaps socially inept people. The first day the woman and the three men contestants were in their sixties. On this day there were questions about sex and I heard the word “Clinton.” Then they put on blindfolds and the woman had to slap the guys in their faces! The show last night was better, it was a pretty scary woman named Petra and the three contestants were a Clark Kent type guy, an Erik Estrada type guy (perhaps not packing as much as Erik) and a balding, fat freakazoid named Jesus. We got to see them do a sexy dance, push ups, and slapping (this time the guys got to slap Petra). Jesus won! I took a picture of the TV, I have never seen such a mismatched couple.
Later I will write about the comedy show involving a married couple, a whip, black vinyl, soccer balls, and a naked guy in the closet.
We have also been to the Prado and the Palazzo Real, I am not spending ALL my time watching Spanish TV. We are going to the famous Casin Botin tonight. We were suppose to go last night but somehow the time jumped an hour ahead and we missed our reservation.
My favorite thing to eat so far – well two things. A huge plate of fried seafood at a tapas bar in a cave under the Plaza Mayor (we thought we ordered a tapa… we are still learning.) Also a piece of bread that was toasted on an open fire right by the bar and spread with garlic and oil, at a taverna near the Prado. It was so GOOD.
There are incredible buildings and big boulevards with huge fountains in the middle everywhere… cool boho streets with too many tavernas to try and not enough time to try them… Madrid is surpassing all expectations so far.
