So time to catch up again…about time? I know right? Synopsis time!
22.06.11 (day.month.year let’s get European.)
The day of the actual Santander trip was a well…a trip. We made an early rise at the crack of dawn…for no apparent reason. Oh well, paranoid planning makes for an interesting bedfellow…personality…whatever. Today is the day that the rest of the group gets into Madrid. The morning was pretty amazing…the air was fresh for being as metropolitan as it is. It was just before the city itself was beginning to take its first breath. The city was rousing itself just like we were for ourselves. In lieu of that, we decided to take one last stroll around the city while we were able to enjoy it. It was best that we take in some of the spots we caught the previous night and check them out during their daytime form. We ended up peeping souvenirs and other various window-shopping goodness. I’m going to miss this city for the next few weeks.
Allow me to rant on about this place a bit more. I love the way that this city breathes. The city feels so old, but at the same time so modern. It’s an interesting metaphor like the new built upon the old, as if the city itself based its progress on where it came from. Other signs of this lie in the street culture as well. “Los Indignadas” are what they’re called. They’re like a 20/21st century version of the Taiyozoku of Japan. Some back history, the term stems from a group of high school to college aged youth in postwar Japan, a group of hopeless youth rendered indifferent for the fiscal and social future of the nation and its government. The difference in the Indignadas is that they’re done with being indifferent and complacent and they’re willing to fight and speak out against the injustice of their government. From what I gather, its overly conservative here, but the point isn’t put down like it is in the US. There are no party wars, just a struggle against the unjust powers in control. This country has a chance to really explode with growth; a spark of inspiration needs to happen to put it simply. It’s a matter of nothing more and nothing less in my opinion, but obviously it’s going to be more difficult than that. Nonetheless, it inspires me the change that the youth in this country want for its nation and culture. So yah…enough soapbox.
This Madrid experience is way too short lived, but oh well. I’ll be back the end of the road surely enough. We decided to taxi it up to head to Madrid Chamartin (the train station to Santander…and a grip of other places in this country). I have to say that the drivers here are straight G. They drive manual through these narrow, busy ass streets, creeping in between the tightest of spaces. Cars, alleys and what not, these drivers can’t be faded. It was nice seeing the city by car. It’s a totally different perspective though brief. The vista is so dynamic. Saw mad graff and got to check out the highway system in Europe from a glimpse. We got to see more of the city in a short time, much more efficiently than on foot mind you. I can’t believe that we made it in the time we did throughout that horrible traffic. The driver took care of us fat for sure. We finally made it to Chamartin. Finally, the group is together. I felt bad for them, because they basically looked how we felt on our first day in Madrid. That cramped, dirty, no-sleep travel feeling is a downer for sure. I totally understood. Everyone is looking forward to getting to point B, ready to sleep and shower and all those lovely amenities….ooohhh yeah.
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