Last week I was back in Madrid for a conference. Every year the Spanish military and US military get together to discuss what mutual training events we will do. The weather was beautiful, as is usual, and it was a very easy conference. First there are introductory speeches, then coffee break, then some meetings, then lunch, then more meetings, and that was it. It was a two day conference which could have been fit into one day, but I'm not complaining.
I also took the Madrid Metro which was easy. It's color coded just like the Washington DC Metro (and like the Stuttgart area S-bahn) and to make it more-er easier, there's an app for that. The only problem came when I got off at the stop near my hotel. I walked out of the station looking at the map on my mobile and some old guy comes up to offer help. I tried the usual pointie-talkie but then remembered I had the hotel business card. He looks at it and starts talking and gesturing for me to cross over the street and walk down 2 or 3 blocks. So off I go and after maybe 10 minutes I figure I'm not near my hotel. Once again I pull out my mobile and navigate my way back and as I turn the last corner where my hotel should be, I look one way and see the hotel a half-block away, and look the other way and see the Metro station a half-block away. Muchas gracias old Spanish dude! Not!
Walking around Madrid is nice. But, the last night I wanted to get a light, simple dinner, and I wanted to eat at one of the outdoor sidewalk cafes. They are everywhere so it didn't seem too difficult. The problem is most of them serve tapas; appetizer stuff, and I wanted something a little more substantial. Eventually I found a place that looked good so I started off with a beer. "Una cerveza, por favor." After awhile he he brought out a menu with English subtitles. I saw chorizo and thought that was perfect. A nice cooked spicy sausage probably with some rice and maybe vegetables. Nope. He brought out a plate of deli-style sliced cold chorizo. And nothing else. Yay....tapas.
Ah well, whaddya gonna do?
Me tapas... Su tapas
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