54 days in

central spanish incidents

Back on the road and we’ve hit a few places in quick succession.

Hearing it was a buzzing place, we took a 5 hour bus from Asturias to Salamanca and decided to spend a couple of nights in a decent hotel. The place was nice, but we didn’t meet anyone there - you never do in hotels. Salamanca was in full Christmas swing and full of swinging tourists. Had a nice vibe but I thought it was a little touristic.

Next we travelled by bus to Madrid. The hostel we tried for was “completo” so we trudged with our equipment for a while until we got to a nice hotel we’d heard about right near the central plaza. We stayed two days; cleaned our clothes, watched Surrealist art and even took in a movie one night. Apart from that Madrid was uneventful and really just a big city. But I like big cities.

We decide to make for Toledo next. My brother had told me it was pretty cool - historically known for its steel manufacturing - and man what a place! We stayed in this crazy old castle that’d been converted into a hostel. But the inside looked more like a hospital to me, all sterile and it had that bleached hospital smell to boot.

Day 2 of Toledo gave us a shock. I opened the windows to find snow coming down in great white chunks. What a sight to see in the semi-desert of central Spain! For me all the more as I’ve only ever once before seen snow, when I lived in London. Bewildered by the beauty we wandered into the little town and made a snowman in a central square. This caused a bit of a stir, I guess because people in the desert don’t often make snowmen. We even got a TV news crew stroll up and start asking us questions. They were disappointed when we couldn’t speak Spanish for them. At least they got a good backdrop for their story though.

The photography and writing is coming easier now too. I feel more in tune with the road and I think it must be helping my creativity somewhat. But the project isn’t going according to plan, so I’m just shooting what I feel like at the moment. Afterwards I’ll make sense of it all because everything is way too frenetic for me to conjure while I’m in it.

Next we’re to a place called Carceres. Kind of out of the way for tourists, which suits me fine – I hate being in places where everyone goes. I am starting to miss people though; I have the sort of mind that enjoys meeting people and it’s been just me and Sian for a week now. Cabin fever is setting in.