Madrid

A giant, busy city, Madrid feels at once like New York City on New Year's Eve and your neighborhood pub. The streets are busy 24/7, but the stores and restaurants aren't overcrowded. The people are friendly, stepping in and out of your way and the way of hustling cars and buses like seasoned diva ballerinas - they all know the dance, and you're the one who knows "Jazz Hands." 

The best thing about it is that you fall easily into the rhythm, and before you know it you're sashaying around the tourists who are new in town.

But before we hit the streets this morning, we had laundry day. We've been traveling for nine days (impossible, I know), and it was time to dig out the laundry bag and get busy. I booked this VRBO specifically because it had a washer and dryer. That amenity allowed us to pack a bit lighter and replenish our wardrobe every ten days or so.

Last night when we checked in, I saw the washer/dryer (a single unit like I'd seen before in Europe) and simply glossed over it in our tour of the apartment. This morning, when I opened the cabinet, I was faced with so many choices - none of them clear, none of them obvious, none of them like anything I might have recognized.

Now, I'm a smart girl. I've been doing laundry for 45+ years. But I was stumped this morning. Joe and I both started searching the web for answers - we HAVE to figure this out! Sure, we could always hand wash, but goddammit, I wanna wash my clothes! The machines I have at home are 20 years old. They have dials: on/off, hot/cold, dry/damp...it's not hard. This? This...I need the Rosetta Stone to translate. There aren't this many emojis in my text lexicon.

The first load cleaned, by only steamed dried (all our underwear are spread out on the table - sort of an homage to Dali and The Persistence of Memory - as in I have this memory of taking my clothes out of a dryer and they're actually dry). Stay tuned.

Anyway, with our clothes drying on every available surface, we took another trip to the grocery. Joe uses a CPAP machine when he sleeps - it helps him breath better (although last night his mask slipped away from his face, and it was like sleeping next to an Electrolux, or maybe Lord Vader). Said machine needs distilled water to help with humidity levels. He brought a couple of small bottles with him on the trip, but we needed to hit up a pharmacy for a new supply, so we went shopping this morning. Europe is weird in that pharmacies here are not just for prescriptions, they're for all your beauty, personal, and health needs. I mean, sure, CVS does the same thing, but the weird thing is you CANT find that stuff in a grocery store. Grocers are for food and only SOME personal products...and you never know what's where. So, we're shopping.

Then it was time for lunch and a pizza place/craft beer bar we found on Untappd. It did not disappoint - nice beer selection, really good pizza.

The pizza demolished, we walked a bit further to Plaza Puerto del Sol - lovely and lively.

And Plaza Mayor - a huge palace/plaza with tons of restaurants, bars, and people watching.

Time to head back to the hacienda and try another load of laundry. Fingers crossed.