On her last day in new york city before leaving for madrid, my sister saw Robbie Williams at the airport, but she had forgotten his name. She knew only that he was somebody famous. During her last night in Madrid, my sister saw Adrien Brody walking near Sol, the city center. I was with my sister then, and actually Mr. Brody walked right beside me, but I was absent-minded and did not look at his face. After he had passed, by sister grabbed me by my arm and told me who had just walked by. Oh well. I figured Brody was in Madrid for a reason, like a movie or something, and later that night, after imdb.com´ing the man, I learned he was starring in a movie shot in Spain.
On Friday we took a high-speed train to Cordoba, which houses the famous cathedral-inside-a-mosque (mesquita en espanol). Back in the day Cordoba was Muslim turf, but most of the remnants of that culture were destroyed when the good ole Christians came.
The mosque´s architecture was gorgeous, the arches many and impressive. Mad photos were snapped. Later, as we were navigating the tiny, serpentine streets right next to the old Jewish neighbourhood, we came upon an empty but beautiful garden that, we soon learned, was a tea salon. At first it looked empty (and what a shame for such a pretty locale) but then we noticed a woman behind the counter. We ordered flavoured tea and sat down. The architecture, art, plant life, the music… was all reminiscent of the Middle East/North Africa. Think Morocco. Okay, so at one point the sound system played a song by Tracy Chapman, which was anachronistic, out of place, but in general the garden was a relaxing, old-looking, gorgeous place where we spent about half an hour drinking delicious tea and taking a break from all the walking we had done until that point. To keep with a similar theme, the following night (back in Madrid) we went to a hookah bar. The ambience (lighting, furniture, cushion seats) was wonderful, but the hookah experience was sub-par. Two of my friends came along, and it was the first time one of them had smoked anything in their lives. Next, we went to a Cuban joint for some quite delicious mojitos. Mojitos are yum yum yum. Like whoa. If you are of drinking age then I wholly recommend it.
(random: as there was a big Bambi chain/necklace for sale, my lil sis got it)
Afterwards, our bellies led us to a doner kebab joint, where after looking at semi-good, semi-crappy, but always funny music videos from India, and talking to the Bangladeshi workers behind the counter, we walked out into the street and began to laugh. We had, in all seriousness, forgotten to pay for our food. We laughed harder and then began to run, because we did not know what else to do. But we quickly slapped ourselves back into a state of sanity and, because the workers at that place had been so kind (and because we had every intention of paying in the first place) we went back, apologized, and paid. No big deal.
Countdown to Poland: 4 days. To borrow Kiran´s phrase, ¡No me foquin digas! So excited.
|
