My toast obediently jumps out of the toaster and lies politely horizontal on top of the toaster. A new designer kitchen full of European appliances is an impressive experience.
Supermarkets in general match Australian ones with roughly 2/3rds different brands. One exception is milk. It feels like in Australia you can buy milk everywhere including the petrol station. Here the milk must be reserved for the Harris Farm/Marks and Spencer type stores, and everyone else survives on UHT or goes out for coffee.
We stepped down the wooden staircase to our apartment and out the front door.
Outside at 7:30 in the morning, it is dark like 8 o’clock at night in Sydney. Everyone sleeping late in this part of the world suddenly makes more sense.
It is too early, at 7.45, even for the coffee shops to be open.
We walked past the Italian embassy. It is covered in red and green frogs.
We walk past the cathedral of Santa Maria.
We climb onto a tour bus and I hitch my narrative wagon to that of the tour guide.
In celebration of European standards, (and the disgust of Californian tech companies) the bus has usb ports to charge your phone with a dangling cable.
The tour guide pointed out the Egyptian monument was aligned to the compass the same way as it was in Egypt without the snakes and crocodile.
The tool guide points at different streets where the left and right wing parties for the election have their bases.
We go past an arch from the dictator Francisco Franco and a sky view tower. (Built in 1956, it commemorates the Victory of Nationalist forces during the Spanish civil war)
We go past the president’s house (their White House).
There are 17 states in Spain.
We drive for an hour through traffic, commercial areas, and misty hills.
I ponder for a moment being in this place 500 years ago, riding a galloping Spanish horse across this plain. One of my favourite movies, the original Gladiator with Russell Crowe, features a house on the Spanish plains. I feel like I can see it out the window.
The Carthaginians when crossing Spain found lots of rabbits – calling it I-shphanyia (land of rabbits). The Romans adapted this to “Espanola”.