Happy 2006
January 6th, 2006 by e-man
I'm sitting in what has become more or less my second livingroom, the Starbucks in the Calle Ortega y Gassett, on what is oficially the last day of the Navidades in Spain: the day of the Three Kings (Los Reyes Magos).
While in other countries it's Santa Claus who brings gifts, here in Spain the biblical kings of old (Balthazar, Melchior & Casper) are the bearers of gifts on the 6th of January, an official holiday here no less. Which also means the University's library is closed once again. sigh.
The past few weeks have been great, with friends (and girlfriend) coming over to visit and party through the New Year here. It's a bit rough at times having to work (morning hours no less, since those are the only hours the libraries are open) when everyone else is just hanging around in the local tapabars, or spending obscene amounts of money on shoes (with Camper a firm favourite) and clothes.
Finding a restaurant that would open on Christmas Eve was near impossible so we had dinner in our hotel room, a selection of canapes from the trattoria Mallorca in the posh barrio Salamanca, washed down with several bottles of excellent cava (boycot, what boycot?).
We once again setlled down in the Hostal Adriano, and this time were awarded the dubious honour of spending over a week in the infamous Maria Callas Room. Same scenario for New Year's Eve, although we did make it down to the Puerta del Sol to eat 12 grapes on the last 12 strokes of the clocktower there (this is called tomar las uvas and is the traditional thing to do here, apparently it brings good luck). Lets hope it works.
We did a few tourist things. like visiting the Prado. We saw Peter Jackson's reinvention of King Kong. And we caught a performance of Cuban cantautor Luis Ferrer in the Cafe Central, a jazz cafe just off the Plaza Santa Anna which I highly recommend: the food and the ambience are great, as is the music there.
I already have the dates set for my exams here, and it's slowly starting to dawn on me that I'm down to my last few weeks here; not (dare I say it) a very pleasant thought. Madrid has really started to grow on me. Even the fact that I'm sharing the appartment now with almost 6 people (Patricio's Bolivian family is spending the holidays here in Madrid and they have a slightly different concept of privacy than I have, to say the least) hasn't really been much of a burden.
So, for now, I'm still kickin' it here in Madrid and you can check out the New Year's Eve photographs over at Flickr.
Happy 2006 to all of you...