Category: Staying

New Hotel

My room is tiny, but it’s warm. The extra blanket didn’t make an appearance that I can see, but I may not need it. Taxi cost half of what I thought it would, which is great! Now for a shower and some clean clothes , then on to the Prado.

Room is barely bigger than the bed.
Proof Europeans are smaller than Americans

Later I will show you guys the world’s tiniest elevator.

Changing Hotels

TRS is using COVID funds to issue a health insurance payment. I know I should use the money for something else, but I am spending it on a private room near the Prado museum. I can face exploring in the cold better if I have somewhere warm to go afterwards. Forgetting my silk sleeping bag liner was an expensive mistake!

But I am figuring this. I will be within walking distance of multiple museums. I’m saving on transportatlon, plus I will have the support of an English-speaking concierge who can help with taking the bus to Pola de Allande. But more importantly, I will be warm!

Blanket Thievery Doesn’t Pay

I’m wearing both sets of long Johns and I stole two extra blankets. I’m still cold. The blankets are so small I can’t keep them on. That I’m by the window doesn’t help.

So now I have a choice. Go to a home store and buy a big warm blanket, find a camping store and get a thermal blanket, or change hotels. I’m leaning toward the last one, but a private room is not cheap. I might be ready to spend the money though. I’m tired of being cold! I am a Texan. We don’t do cold.

To Spend or Not to Spend

Yesterday I eventually figured out that even though my map wasn’t giving me directions, I appeared as a blue dot and I could track my progress. Until the cab driver, I was so far off the map from my destination I couldn’t even see myself.

And I realize that money is a protection. Had I the funds, I could have taken a nice safe cab. But I wouldn’t have had the adventure (even wracked as it was with visions of street sleeping and police stations.) With more money, I might have stayed in a safe, comfortable hotel with a helpful concierge to smooth my way. I wouldn’t have had the trouble and worry and exhaustion of yesterday.

But armor is not only protection, it is insulation. It keeps out things you might want to let in.

I saw what great care the Spanish take of their elderly, as I passed pair after pair of someone giving an older person their arm. I saw parents walking with their children, person after person walking their dog. And cars that actually SAW ME, a pedestrian. I felt respected by the traffic even though I was walking. In the USA the attitude is “Well, if you didn’t want to get hurt you should have been in a car like a sensible person.” That’s if they even realize they hit you. Drivers in the USA, or maybe Texas, more accurately, only see other drivers.

Anyway, back to money. Schwab did an override and released my funds early, but I still don’t have a lot. ( I can just get to the little I have.) And I can pay another $10 to be a little blue dot again. That will save a lot of the stress and worry. BUT I won’t be as willing to reach out for directions. Insulation as well as protection.

I think I’m going to do it though. Once I get to Pola de Allande I won’t be going much of anywhere, and I do have the money coming from the rental of the house.

So when I go to the Prado, today’s adventure, I will be a blue dot on a bus. It’s too far to walk and now that I can access more than four euros I’m comfortable spending the money. I just hope not to need a bathroom.

More Bathroom Adventures

I could not figure out how to flush the toilet on the plane. I eventually concluded it would do so automatically when I opened the door. Not so. I left a mess for the next person.

So the toilet I used this morning wouldn’t flush. It had a knob on the top that came off in my hand. And I thought, “ I can’t leave a mess again; I just can’t.” But how much more complicated than an American toilet can a Spanish toilet be? So I took the top off the tank and pushed on the part the knob was to control. No dice. So I pulled. It flushed. And in getting it back together I dropped my phone in the tank.

FORTUNATELY, I insisted on a waterproof case for my phone, even waited extra days to get one. And I’m pretty religious about putting the charging tab back in. So all is well. But I would really like to have an adventure that doesn’t involve getting lost or a bathroom.

The offending toilet

A Bathroom Buddy?

So if I wasn’t an experienced pilgrim showering would have been a challenge. Since I am, I had plastic bags with me, one of them big enough to hold my clothes. Showers are small stalls with a curtain and no distinction between genders. Hooks are outside the stall.

Next to the one I was in; that one was occupied

So, experienced pilgrim that I am, I put my phone and money belt in a bag, and all my clothes except my pants in a bag. The bags stayed in the shower with me. I of course took the shower closest to the hooks. Balancing while sliding your feet in and out of flip flops to dress and undress is a trick that can’t be described.

Sinks are in a separate room with two toilets each in their own room. I was trying to turn on the light in the sink room and turned it out on a gentleman on the toilet! I learned this because I heard, “La luz, por favor.” “ Oh! Perdon !” I said. Nada,” he replied.

I slunk off into the adjoining sink room and hoped he wouldn’t look over. I was just finishing my teeth when a different man came out of the toilet in the room I was in. “Una mujer,” he said, clearly startled. He then proceeded to assume, since he was unaware the bathroom was coed, that I was the sort of woman who hung around in men’s bathrooms. Either that or he was trying to direct me to the right one.

When I didn’t respond, he looked at the door and saw the coed sign. “It’s for both,” I confirmed. Awareness mixed with a small amount of embarrassment washed across his face and he gave me a little wave good-bye, slightly flirtatiously, and proceeded to do that every time he saw me again. Apparently I have a bathroom buddy.

Speaking of Penniless Adventures …

I looked up directions to the grocery before I left. It was quite a walk and I forgot a bag so I had to buy one. I bought bread, salad, an apple, and Coke Zero. They have caffeine-free Coke Zero here! That’s it. I’m moving.

So I go to walk back and my map won’t work. Or at least it won’t give me any directions. So I make a guess and start out. I discover being a pilgrim is very different from being a tourist. The trail for a pilgrim is marked, and if you get off there are people who know you are lost just by looking at you. Not so if you’re just an elderly lady with shopping.

I’m not in a tourist area so there is very little English. I tried a farmacia, thinking they would need English. Nope. Tried a fruteria (fruit stand,) because I was desperate. Most helpful was a cab driver. I couldn’t take the cab because I only have four euros cash left.

Since the last good long sleep I got was Saturday, after walking so many miles (not sure how many; Apple Watch died) I was so exhausted I had to nap before I could even finish this post. I hope the salad I bought is still good in the morning. Maybe I’ll risk it in the communal fridge.

I went to Reception and got a towel. (“Toalla” pronounced “toe-Ahd-ja.”) Now I’m going to go wash off some grime, brush my teeth, and take my medicine so I can sleep. I’ve had all the adventures I can afford today.

Hostel Napoles

They don’t speak much English here and don’t quite know what to do with me. But until I get the money from the house (which finally rented!) I don’t have a lot to spare. And pennilessness is the stuff from which adventures are made!