080908 – Spain, Madrid

The morning began, as usual, with a very late dash to breakfast. This morning, said dash had been a little too late. Gazing with disbelief, I sulked back to the others with the bad news. I settled myself with a consolation prize of another yoghurt drink and a suitably long, fragrant, sit on the toilet.

Emma had us out the door in record time, we made our way to designated meeting spot in the plaza at Sol.

New Europe walking tours are free... no, literally... free... The guides are not paid a salary and do not get any kick-backs or commissions. They don't try and sell any other tours or take you to “a friends shop”. The only recompense that they get is in the form of tips by the customers. The tour starts with the statement “If, at the end of this tour, you feel that it has not been a complete waste of time, you are welcome to give me a tip. Money, phone-numbers, drinks.. all are welcome!” with that, the tour started and the topic of money was not mentioned again until 3 hours later (with the same two lines and no haggling). Apparently this is an excellent business model, as the meeting corner in the Sol plaza was crowed, requiring the guides to spit everyone into two groups.

The tour through Madrid was quite long and covered the history of kings, plazas, monuments, hotels and theatres. Unfortunately there were a great number of construction-sites, which cut out a number of statues and fountains, but on the whole, it was an excellent tour. Talking about the various kings and their respective palaces and theatres, our guide was comical, up-beat and presumably accurate. He conveyed the details of many sad and distasteful topics in a manner that wasn't depressing. The mass murders of the Spanish Inquisition and their love of garrotting was one example. He tastefully and respectfully told us of the many foreigners, converts and intellectuals, whose blood deeply filled the Plaza de Mayor for years on end.
Carefully timing the tour, our guide brought us to a chain restaurant that serves small sandwiches just as his colleague, “The False Prophet” departed with the other half of the massive tour group. A large lunch at a small price later, we finished the second half of the tour.
The main sites included the main Palace, the Cathedral, the site of the 1900's bombing, the old palace and the various theatres. Many topics where covered, including bull-fighting, the tardiness of Spanish construction workers, the sites of poets and artists, and Franco.

Franco was reserved for the end of the tour, we sat in a small park opposite the senate and heard about the rise to power and succession of Franco. So violent and violating, over 400,000 people lie in unmarked graves, the torture chambers beneath the parliament still make many citizens shudder. Poets, artists, intellectuals and homosexuals where his victims of choice. Franco died of natural causes, attempting to leave behind a legacy regime. At first choosing a General to be the next dictator, a quick assassination resulted in Franco choosing the prince that he had taken on and groomed as a son.

Franco's heir had been sent to Italy for an education of specific tutours, teachers, people to associate with and what he would and would not do or see. On rising to power, this new king spent just a few months before deciding to leave his mark. Much to the amazement of Franco's associates, the new King had reversed many of the restrictions within the first 6 months in power. Decades later, King Carlos the Second has set his people to govern themselves. Watching for a short distance, he is their monarch but not their dictator. Having refused the position of dictator twice, there was an attempted coup by a general, he is the single most highly loved and cherished man in all of Spain. His only rival for the position is the playwright Savant (spelling?), and I believe that is a distance second. I have a great deal of respect for a leader who can inspire such loyalty and love in his subjects, the King of Spain has definitely joined the list also containing the King of Jordan.

Despite his regime of torture and death, Franco currently ranks in the high twenties as “most loved in Spain”, I guess he was a good thing for some people... Due to the pain and suffering under the reign of Franco, there was the “Act of Forgetting” which awarded amnesty to anyone involved. People guilty of atrocities walk the streets with their victims, it's simply that no-one wants to remember. Currently, there is the new “Act of Remembering” which is to exhume the mass-graves in order to offer proper funerals. Statues of significant victims, such as poets and intellectuals, are being erected. None of the victims can be identified, but they are being remembered for the losses.

Tipping was briefly mentioned for the second time that day, after the last monologue was finished. Emma, Josh and myself pooled some funds and handed him a 20 Euro note. Most tours would have cost us at least that each, but we could not afford much more.

As we left the rest of the group behind, we wandered back towards the hostel. It was now mid-afternoon and we had already been fed lunch plus a few drinks. Discussing the other requirements for our trip, I completed packing and organised my airport transport for early tomorrow morning.

Venturing again, we managed to print and fax the form stating that we were “overseas and might not be able to vote” to the WA electoral commission. We then proceeded to hunt for a Chinese restaurant.

Not the simplest quarry to capture, we followed the directions from the hostel past dozens of closed store-fronts. Throughout Spain, during the month of August, everybody shuts up shop and goes to a different part of Spain, they all simply rotate location... Finally cornering the only open chinese restaurant, we dined on incredibly western “white-boy” sweet and sour chicken, lemon chicken, Emma's beef dish and rice.

MSG dosages administered, we wandered back to the hostel for the last time. I finished packing and saying goodbyes to Emma, Josh and Charlotte (who had succeeded in finding an apartment!!!). Setting the alarm and a visit to the bathroom ~shudder~ I was off to bed.