Monday, December 11, 2017

Rastroing

I went to the Rastro on Sunday. It's a big weekly market that sells all sorts of stuff, from enormous bras to furniture and old books.
Every street has it's own speciality. This is the junk street.....I mean fine vintage items. I love this stuff. Bought a couple of old books, some fur pieces (No, I don't know why, but they felt soft), and some art. There was a couple selling zines and posters from an art collective. Andres and Laura. We exchanged cards and I'm so glad I took the time to make hand made calling cards. One the way home I stopped at the Mercado de San Miguel. It's a lovely glassed in old market that's been turned into a trendy tapas, drinks and deserts place. I had a Sangria. I'm so not used to drinking that I was tottering home. Smiling inappropriately. A lovely day.
But today, Monday, it was time to face the police to get my NIE number, which is a tax number you need for all sorts of transactions, like opening a bank account. Stood out in the cold at 8:30 for a half hour before the place opened. There were already about 50 people ahead of me. When there was only two people ahead of me to the door, a police officer came out and said that they were not taking anymore requests for NIE numbers today. I went in anyway and found out that I already been issued the NIE number in New York. Great!!!! Except then I went home and tried to make an online appointment to get the actual card. It's a long process. And not in English, so I had to look up phrases I didn't recognize. After filling out the whole form I reached the end at which point it said that there were no appointments available but try again. I tried again, and again. The same result. I googled it and it seems you just must keep doing it for hours or even days and you might get lucky. Or not. In the meanwhile got a note from Fed Ex that they could not find the address I gave them for my luggage. Called and spoke or rather listened to a very rude fed ex woman. No, they would not email me or text me when they were outside. Just lets cut to the chase, and it was a long chase: I ended up renting a space in a storage facility. Thank goodness for the 3 fishes guys, who are renting me this airbnb. They have been so helpful and told me where there was a storage place. So Andrea, that's why I couldn't chat on WhatsApp.
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Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Day One......ARRRGH!!!

Arrived in Madrid, muy tired. I’m waiting at this cafeteria for Airbnb boy. Nothing of significance happened except I had a mini existential crisis when the plane was landing in Madrid. I thought, “What the F..... are you doing?”