This weekend was specially reserved for getting out of town. It's been four months since I've left the city, and I think about the same for many of my friends. I didn't want to go anywhere to far, since I'm still bracing for the "holiday" season-- the season when I'm not paid. So we decided on Toledo and decided to take it easy on Friday night, which in retrospect really wasn't all that easy, but much easier than usual. This can be quite an effort. There are way too many people having fun in this city at any given time to go to bed too early. But going to Toledo was important.
So I stayed in, more or less, and the next day went to the train station about 20 minutes before our train was supposed to leave at 1:50. One person had to cancel because of work, another overslept. We were down to three. By the time I arrived, Manuel had already taken a number to stand in line. The Spanish like dispensing numbers to wait for things. It's kind of nice for letting you know how long you're going to wait. In our case, unfortunately, the number was pretty high, and our time that we could wait, low. We almost made it, but in the end we had to make a quick decision whether or not to wait for the next train or go another day. We chose to wait for the next train.
About one minute later, we decided that waiting was a terrible decision. We wouldn't get into Toledo until about 4:30, which would give us maybe an hour and a half of light. So we got to take another number and repeat the process, pay a fee for changing our ticket, and spend an extra 40 minutes in the breathtaking Atocha train station. Sometimes quick thinking is difficult.
So I stayed in, more or less, and the next day went to the train station about 20 minutes before our train was supposed to leave at 1:50. One person had to cancel because of work, another overslept. We were down to three. By the time I arrived, Manuel had already taken a number to stand in line. The Spanish like dispensing numbers to wait for things. It's kind of nice for letting you know how long you're going to wait. In our case, unfortunately, the number was pretty high, and our time that we could wait, low. We almost made it, but in the end we had to make a quick decision whether or not to wait for the next train or go another day. We chose to wait for the next train.
About one minute later, we decided that waiting was a terrible decision. We wouldn't get into Toledo until about 4:30, which would give us maybe an hour and a half of light. So we got to take another number and repeat the process, pay a fee for changing our ticket, and spend an extra 40 minutes in the breathtaking Atocha train station. Sometimes quick thinking is difficult.
So instead we went to Retiro. There's a big glass palace there which is always closed when I go on Sundays but was open that day. The sign said there was an exhibition by an Italian artist inside. It's a glass palace, so I could see inside, but I didn't see anything being exhibited. Still, people were walking at museum speed, so there must have been something.
Plus, there was a sign. No one had there shoes off, but apparently if I wanted to take my shoes off and walk through the "water area" the option was on the table. Madrid isn't cold compared to places that actually get cold, but it gets cold enough that walking through water barefoot didn't sound that great, either. From here it was clear that the exhibition was actually the water zone itself, which had little indentations cut into each block of floor, in a way that if you looked at them all it kind of looked like a rippling surface of water. I think if I had a glass palace I might dedicate it to a slightly higher purpose than this, but I think I missed out on the full experience by keeping my shoes on.
Just a note, we did actually make it to Toledo the next day. More on that soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment