Junto Boys

TRIP RECAP

Here's the basics from my recent trip abroad:

12/28) Left LAX for a 13-hr flight with no good movies offered. Marci watched WICKER PARK, but I opted instead for excerpts from Brian Wilson's SMILE on one of the audio channels. This lost masterpiece to me sounded like post-Sgt Pepper, late '60's surf-psychadelia. It may be genius and I'm too dull to realize it, or maybe it was better when it was unreleased, existing only in the minds of hippies. The plane was struck by lightning shortly after takeoff, which got some hearts pumping. I read and slept the rest of the way.

12/29) We arrived in London and made our way to the hotel. The cab fare was $100 thanks to the lousy exchange rate. We took a walk around and found a quaint sidestreet pub for sheperd's pie and Newcastle. We went to a neighboring pub for a couple more rounds before resuming our walk. We saw Piccadilly Circus, but decided not to go closer, as we can see blatant consumerism back home. Back at the room, I watched THE FORTUNE COOKIE, which gave me a PAL headache. For the first 30 minutes I could see the flicker, then finally the flicker subsided, but was replaced by a sharp pain in my visual cortex.

12/30) Onward to Madrid and the rehearsal of the Pooh show we were being paid to see. I set up my camera near the audio board and took sound directly from the console. The show is in Spanish, of course, but you can't beat good audio. My 6-hr battery showed its age, by conking out in the second act, so that night, Marci and I went on a quest to find a replacement battery, which we were able to do. We rewarded our efforts with a nice meal at an Asian restaurant. We had forgotten our translation book, and nobody there spoke English, so we had to point and pray. Luckily, we remembered "cerveza." After dinner, we found a tapas bar and enjoyed bread and cheese with our drinks. This is where we first saw the ghastly contraption behind the bar. From the back room, the bartender brings a long leg, complete with hoof, and locks it into this contraption that looks like an upside-down shackle on an electric chair. This holds the leg in place so that a knife can slice wafer-thin strips of jamon. I am not a fan of pig, nor much of a fan of seeing carcasses so near the tapas I am eating.

12/31) We never had to be at the show too early in the day, so we began our custom of picking a direction and walking until we find good food. We found a delightful square called Plaza Santa Ana with children playing and an accordianist looking for tips. I had some delicious lamb, and a side of asparagus not to be believed. It was so ugly when it showed up, I was at first afraid to eat it. It looked like it was covered in brown fur. Later, we surmised that it had been grilled and the fur was some kind of garlic salt. It had a bernaise-type sauce on it, and it was so unbelievably delicious that asparagus became a staple of every meal while in Madrid, though this preparation would never be surpassed. After rehearsal, we got back to the hotel, realizing that we had nowhere to go for dinner and it was too late to get a table anywhere. We asked concierge to work some magic for us and his advice was basically to enjoy a nice walk and "tomorrow is another day." All the tapas bars were SRO, so we found a nice British pub and had a few rounds of Guiness for dinner. It's the closest thing to food found in a beer. All the pubs closed at 1130P, so the workers could go enjoy the strike of midnight. We were ushered out onto the street with no particular plans, toting Guiness in a plastic cup. We walked to the famous Plaza del Sol, which was packed with people and had police stationed at the barricaded inlets. Marci got nervous about the beer, even though dozens of vendors were selling champagne on the sidewalks. Standing in line, we quickly downed our beers when I determined that the cops were confiscating cups. On further reflection, I realized, they weren't taking cups, they were distributing them. We should have broken line to buy some champagne, but we didn't. We had our grapes. On each of the twelve strokes of midnight, it is customary to eat a grape to bring good fortune for the coming year. It was a challenge we were up to, but found after the first stroke that the grapes were seeded, which lessened the experience somewhat. It was a nice festive atmosphere for bringing in 2005. Afterwards, we went to another bar that was playing obscure American music from the early '60's, despite the proprietor speaking no English. He had the music on reel-to-reel, so he must be an afficionado.

1/1) Today is another day, but alas, another day without food. We walked for miles and found nobody serving food. The only signs of life were the street cleaning crews. We ended up having to wait for noon for Starbucks to open, so that we could greedily down some sandwiches. Concierge came through for us that night with a table at Rincon Esteban, which served traditional and mighty tasty Castillian cuisine. The meal ended with a gratuitous bottle of grappa, which is some kind of potent apple licquer. We should have had one shot, but stayed long enough for four, then spent the rest of the night arguing about the UN.
 
1/2) Starbucks again for breakfast since we were pressed to get to the show early. Nancy Tirik was now staying in our hotel, so we had a buddy for the rest of our time in Madrid. After the show, we took a walk to the Filmoteca, which promises American films, but hoping for The Aviator, we instead found Taxi Driver, and no shows before 5P, so we passed. We found a restaurant which served Mexican dishes but in a style wholly different from what we find in the States. When I found a bone in the chicken in my burrito, I swore off chicken for the remainder of my trip. They just take a butcher knife to the whole damn bird, rather than plucking the meat from the bone. We ate dinner at the hotel. Our appetizer was a petite squid in its own ink, which may sound delicious to some. Nancy roundly ignored hers, Marci cut hers up so as not to insult the chef, and I actually ate mine, but found nothing to like about it.

1/3) With Nancy, we walked to Palacio Real to see how the other half lives. That night, we went to a very nice restaurant with the director of the show and his wife, both in their 70's. Jerry is quite the raconteur, and Helga has travelled the world, so the company was splendid. We had a private room, and ate quite well. After dinner, Jerry bought me a Cuban cigar on company expense, and I was most appreciative. Back at the hotel, I enjoyed a glass of Oban (single malt Scotch) and the cigar in a comfy chair in the elegant bar, and felt like I belonged in THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. Definitely a highlight of the trip for me.

1/4) I never got tired last night, and living high off the aftertaste of scotch and cohiba, I stayed up reading and watching CNNi until about 5A, so I opted out of breakfast with the girls. We met back up for Starbucks, and a day at The Prado. I had been videotaping the show every day and I learned the blocking enough that I got a great tape the day before, which enabled us to enjoy this day as tourists. That night, we went to Botin, which is the oldest restaurant in the world, dating back to 1720. We didn't expect the food to be much, since it sees so much tourist action, but we were surprised. The asparagus wasn't as good, but in total, this was the most delicious meal we had in Madrid. The highlight was the garclic soup, which I am dying to make in the crock pot at our next social.
 
1/5) Back to London. We found a great pub called The Nag's Head, where we enjoyed some sheperd's pie and a pint. A kindly gentleman sitting near us engaged us in conversation for an hour or so. He was a wealthy businessman with royal connections, who found us as intriguing as we found him. He told us that this pub was the last privately owned pub in London, as all the others have been purchased by the breweries. On the wall was a picture of Bono, who seems to like the place as well. He introduced us to the owner, whose name is Kevin, and we had our picture taken behind the bar. Marci went back to The Nag's Head last night with her boss, but I haven't yet gotten the story. Afterwards, we went searching for the Grenadier, which is now a pub, but in its day, it was the haunt for the royal stable keepers. The Grenadiers would put the horses away and meet up at this place for cards and drinks. It has been haunted for a couple hundred years according to some clippings on the wall.
 
1/6) Marci gets thru London regularly, so she gave me the opportunity to plan the day. I wanted to choose one thing and do it all the way, so I chose the Natural History Museum. The Prado had been much easier to do in a day because all the blurbs were in Spanish, so we weren't compelled to read everything. Not so at this place. I could have spent days there, and then gone next door to the Science Museum, then the Victoria and Albert Museum, as recommended by Robert at The Nag's Head. We spent the day looking at very cool things, bought some nice mementoes for the kids, then found a gourmet pizza joint. After dark, we walked over to see Buckingham Palace, which was only about a mile from the hotel. Closer to the hotel was Hyde Corner with its beutiful arch and statue. Robert had told us that this was once considered the center of the world, until the coal pollution made it tough on the royal astronomers and HQ was moved to Greenwhich.

1/7) The transatlantic flights are a highlight of the trip when you're in business class. The food is great, the wine plentiful, the seating comfortable, and since it was a new month, the movies were even watchable. I watched I HEART HUCKABEES, which I absolutely loved - should have been nominated for best original screenplay. I can't for the life of me remember the second movie I watched, but it was a good one. Then I went with CELLULAR, which was conventional popcorn fare. Marci watched GARDEN STATE, which I had seen recently - very good flick.

Upon return, I set about uploading the video into my computer and realized that I needed to buy more hard drive space. Then it was requested to deliver on DVD instead of VHS, so I had to purchase a DVD recorder and I also bought Final Cut Express. I put over a thousand bucks into computer and video equipment, but it paid off when Marci's boss was blown away by the DVD and showered me with thousands of dollars. He also paid all my expenses during the trip, which was fantastic since I ate like a king while I was there (other than the Starbucks days.) I really liked Madrid. I especially hope to get back to London and check out those other museums and down another pint at The Nag's Head.