Linares, España is a unique hamlet located just three hours south of Madrid and two hours north of Granada in the heart of the middle of nowhere in the province of Jaén.
The 60.000 habitants might seem small compared to bustling Andalucian metropolises like Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada and Málaga, but don't let the small size fool you. This town is fully of seedy connections from the mob-owned Italian restaurant to the Porn Palace Zahara which offers the deal of free WiFi for the small price of allowing them to film you having sex and posting it on their web site, fernandosculptsnudespuntocompuntoespuntonet. The women of Linares will do their best not to make you feel at home but to help you understand that YOU ARE A PARIAH and do not belong. The men here will do their best to make you feel creeped out at all times.
Although the last mine here closed in 1993, Linares has a ton of things to see and do like the Gypsy Market every Tuesday and Friday, the Calle de Comercio which features the exact same stores found in every Spanish city, minus all the cool ones, Café Jambalaya where you can have a cup of coffee and browse the Internet while listening to Christmas music in April or the same three Beyonce and Rihanna songs until you understand exactly why Van Gogh cut off his ear, and the NOT-TO-BE-MISSED,TOO-SHOCKING TO BE TRUE ONLY FLAT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION THAT IS UNABLE TO HAVE INTERNET!!! Located on C/ Menéndez Pelayo, also known as C/ Tinte, this flat also boasts features like mold, no heat, a kid next door that screams all night long and a magnificent view of a pool that hasn't been used since the Second Republic. New for summer 2009 is an ant infestation!
Just around the corner is another landmark you can't afford to miss, Il Caffe di Cappricio. This café makes its own coffee and has the worst service in all of Spain. (Have you seen the customer service in Spain? This is quite the feat!) The WiFi here will only work if you repair the connection at least 37 times, and then only for exactly 16 minutes and 37 seconds.
(I kid. Not all the waiters are bad. One is so friendly he'll stop you in the streets to show you his new laptop.)
Still not convinced? Why not accompany 2ºESO students on a field trip to Córdoba so you can see the exciting Media Market electronics store and stand around for an hour doing absolutely nothing?
Linares is a short 3,5 hour bus ride from Madride that allows you the experience of being scared to death as the bus barely creeps up and down the 99% incline. The train will leave you six kilometres from the city.
So why haven't you booked your ticket yet?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
mi busqueda por habatacion
Finding a place to live in September in Madrid is not fun. All the university and Eramus students are doing the same thing. And like anywhere else, you have to see more than a few bad ones before finding the one you'll call home.
The first one I saw, I actually liked and got along with the roommates, a gay Spanish Boy and a not sure what sexuality Spanish girl. It was cheap, in a good location for my commute to school. But someone had told me not to take the first place I saw. So I said I would call them the next day.
The next day, I saw a few more. The first was about the size of a closet and had a random guy who came once a week or so to crash on the sofa. No view, nothing. And a pretty bad commute to work. Plus, we'd have to move out at the end of December. No thanks.
The second place was pretty far out there with an amazing view of the mountains north of Madrid but in another closet with a light that didn't work and with a roommate in his 40s who was definitely creepy. Um. No.
So I called the first place back about five minutes too late to get the original room. I wanted to cry. La noche en blanco started out depressing for me as a result.
However, that night, I decided to see another place at 1 a.m., which is the equivalent of 9 p.m. anywhere else. They were looking for a gay-friendly English speaker, and they had a nice room right near Tribunal metro for dirt cheap. Direct metro to school and stuff. I buzzed to come in, and they let me in. I climbed two flights of stairs and saw an extremely beautiful guy walk out of a dimly lit room, bleeding profusely but smiling. I knocked. I heard a American southern accent drawl "Eric, honey, wahld you mahnd gatthing that for mah?" "No problem, Bill, dear." A blonde Swedish man...well, man is the wrong word here...opened the door with blood dripping from his mouth.
Despite my fascination with vampires, I kindly retreated as quick as possible.
Sunday I went to a place where the landlord was channeling an early 90's power builder and chewed gum obnoxiously. One of the rooms was inhabited by a kid, and I have to wonder...did this guy recently leave his wife because he realised he was gay? What's the story here?
Another flat...the roommates were too quiet to talk, to say a word.
And they're all blurring together now to the point I can't really remember them. I found a place to stay until the 1, but I'm actually wanting to be back in the hostel. I feel somewhat uncomfortable, can't explain it.
Monday was another 40 year old creepy guy who didn't speak and let the landlord do all the doing (him I got along with).
And Tuesday...Tuesday I got a random email from an auxiliar who knew two teachers looking for a roommate. The place is a bit out there, but I fell in love with it. And my future roommates seem awesome, which I think is important. If you're going to live with someone, there should be friendship and you should be able to get along with them. It makes life a lot easier. It's a bit more than I wanted to pay, but I'm going to live well with things like internet and heat and in a flat without mold...my room is almost as big as my flat was last year, and it's for as much as a closet goes for in centro Madrid.
So...now that's done. This week? Orientation and my first day of work...then a three day weekend.
Current Music: Paparazzi by Lady GaGa
Note: One of these flats was made up. I'll let you guess which one.
The first one I saw, I actually liked and got along with the roommates, a gay Spanish Boy and a not sure what sexuality Spanish girl. It was cheap, in a good location for my commute to school. But someone had told me not to take the first place I saw. So I said I would call them the next day.
The next day, I saw a few more. The first was about the size of a closet and had a random guy who came once a week or so to crash on the sofa. No view, nothing. And a pretty bad commute to work. Plus, we'd have to move out at the end of December. No thanks.
The second place was pretty far out there with an amazing view of the mountains north of Madrid but in another closet with a light that didn't work and with a roommate in his 40s who was definitely creepy. Um. No.
So I called the first place back about five minutes too late to get the original room. I wanted to cry. La noche en blanco started out depressing for me as a result.
However, that night, I decided to see another place at 1 a.m., which is the equivalent of 9 p.m. anywhere else. They were looking for a gay-friendly English speaker, and they had a nice room right near Tribunal metro for dirt cheap. Direct metro to school and stuff. I buzzed to come in, and they let me in. I climbed two flights of stairs and saw an extremely beautiful guy walk out of a dimly lit room, bleeding profusely but smiling. I knocked. I heard a American southern accent drawl "Eric, honey, wahld you mahnd gatthing that for mah?" "No problem, Bill, dear." A blonde Swedish man...well, man is the wrong word here...opened the door with blood dripping from his mouth.
Despite my fascination with vampires, I kindly retreated as quick as possible.
Sunday I went to a place where the landlord was channeling an early 90's power builder and chewed gum obnoxiously. One of the rooms was inhabited by a kid, and I have to wonder...did this guy recently leave his wife because he realised he was gay? What's the story here?
Another flat...the roommates were too quiet to talk, to say a word.
And they're all blurring together now to the point I can't really remember them. I found a place to stay until the 1, but I'm actually wanting to be back in the hostel. I feel somewhat uncomfortable, can't explain it.
Monday was another 40 year old creepy guy who didn't speak and let the landlord do all the doing (him I got along with).
And Tuesday...Tuesday I got a random email from an auxiliar who knew two teachers looking for a roommate. The place is a bit out there, but I fell in love with it. And my future roommates seem awesome, which I think is important. If you're going to live with someone, there should be friendship and you should be able to get along with them. It makes life a lot easier. It's a bit more than I wanted to pay, but I'm going to live well with things like internet and heat and in a flat without mold...my room is almost as big as my flat was last year, and it's for as much as a closet goes for in centro Madrid.
So...now that's done. This week? Orientation and my first day of work...then a three day weekend.
Current Music: Paparazzi by Lady GaGa
Note: One of these flats was made up. I'll let you guess which one.
Monday, September 14, 2009
mi adios
Here we go again.
In September 2003, I boarded a plane to spend a semester in Toledo, Spain. I fell in love with the country, culture, language and people.
In September 2008, after five years of thinking of nothing but how I would return, five years of bad jobs and a return to university for a second degree, after a failed attempt at trying to get into grad school, I boarded a plane to board the Atlantic a second time after securing a job as an auxiliar de conversación. My job was in a pueblo (small town) in Andalucía.
My heart and soul were captured by Spain a second time. However, the location left a lot to be desired. I may have grown up in a small town, but I am a city boy at heart. I knew I had to stay in Spain.
So now it's September 2009, and I'm getting ready to board a plane back to Spain. This time, however, I won't be boarding a train to take me to the province of Jaén. I'll be staying in Madrid. On Wednesday, I'll cross the Atlantic for a fourth time (as I went to London in 2000) and perhaps a final time as I may stay in Spain permanently.
And now I'm in that awkward goodbye phase. This summer has not been kind to me, but I still feel weird saying goodbye to my puppy (a golden retriever) and my coffee house, Common Grounds. I have to say goodbye to most of my possessions as I can only take two 50 pound suitcases and a 40 pound carry on. And this time around, it seems more final. I'm gone until June, and I won't be coming back to Lexington if I do return to the States. Why am I sad about saying goodbye to a place I've never been happy? I'm nostalgic if anything.
So now it's on to the future and what awaits in Madrid.
Maybe a vampire? No. There are no vampires in Madrid...are there?
(I don't think I believe in vampires, but I do find something intriguing about the ones that don't sparkle. I was stuck at thinking of a title for the blog, so it might change.)
At any rate, I have a feeling that the best is yet to come.
Current Song: Want You by Mariah Carey f. Eric Benet
In September 2003, I boarded a plane to spend a semester in Toledo, Spain. I fell in love with the country, culture, language and people.
In September 2008, after five years of thinking of nothing but how I would return, five years of bad jobs and a return to university for a second degree, after a failed attempt at trying to get into grad school, I boarded a plane to board the Atlantic a second time after securing a job as an auxiliar de conversación. My job was in a pueblo (small town) in Andalucía.
My heart and soul were captured by Spain a second time. However, the location left a lot to be desired. I may have grown up in a small town, but I am a city boy at heart. I knew I had to stay in Spain.
So now it's September 2009, and I'm getting ready to board a plane back to Spain. This time, however, I won't be boarding a train to take me to the province of Jaén. I'll be staying in Madrid. On Wednesday, I'll cross the Atlantic for a fourth time (as I went to London in 2000) and perhaps a final time as I may stay in Spain permanently.
And now I'm in that awkward goodbye phase. This summer has not been kind to me, but I still feel weird saying goodbye to my puppy (a golden retriever) and my coffee house, Common Grounds. I have to say goodbye to most of my possessions as I can only take two 50 pound suitcases and a 40 pound carry on. And this time around, it seems more final. I'm gone until June, and I won't be coming back to Lexington if I do return to the States. Why am I sad about saying goodbye to a place I've never been happy? I'm nostalgic if anything.
So now it's on to the future and what awaits in Madrid.
Maybe a vampire? No. There are no vampires in Madrid...are there?
(I don't think I believe in vampires, but I do find something intriguing about the ones that don't sparkle. I was stuck at thinking of a title for the blog, so it might change.)
At any rate, I have a feeling that the best is yet to come.
Current Song: Want You by Mariah Carey f. Eric Benet
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