I have just arrived to where my friend Heidi is living, I guess she is partying all night so is not available. I have no idea and really am not keen on the idea of hunting for her.
There is WIRELESS FREE connection here at the bus stop.
I leave at 8:15 for a city in Spain by the name Algericiras // I hope I spelled close. It is close to Gibraltor. It is the place where the ferries cross to Morroco as best I can determine. I will publish this before I lose a connection.
MTV THE RULER OF YOUNG MINDS
Madrid Cat Hostel Breakfast 8:47 am Saturday 6, 2004
Nothing like a croissant and MTV to wake the kids up in the morning. I am in the Cats Hostel Flophouse bar for morning free Breakfast. It is more or less OK, the normal Bread and Coffee, he has cereal but seems to ignore the cereal for everyone unless you press the issue. But the croissant is excellent, but this universal small Hostel breakfast is missing the jelly, unless I have not found it but for sure the jelly is not within throwing distance.
The bartenders is Poland and speaks moderate Spanish, but this is ok, because none of the travelers appear to speak Spanish except for the Argentina travelers or the Spain people that are staying here. Mostly German and British travelers, The place has a lot of German on a weekend trip to the city to shop or drink. With the invent of the cheap airlines like Easyjet.com there is now a new class of traveler.
WEEKENDERS - The jet traveler.
This is a new phenomena for me, although I noticed this type of traveler in Amsterdam as lots of Irish were in the Naught Nellie Hostel for the weekend and partying the night away. I suspected they was not the normal 2-3 month European Backpacker tour person, but I was not sure and really did not care as they were slappers and Lager heads.
Note: The whole breakfast crowd is watching MTV and not talking. The loss of a good mind is not a pretty thing.
The weekend travel person is a new type of traveler, as they are not trying to save money, plus they
PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE NEXT ROOM
Here is this guy in the next room clattering or making noise trying to enter the room. Finally, I hopped out of bed thinking it was my room, and might as well help the person to enter. There was and older gentleman and not in any way typical type person for a Hostel taking a tripod camera into the room. I did not think much about that as there are lot of people with these camera and who cares, but when he set up to take a photo of the bed. I realized as I walked to the bathroom that this was not normal. I take a photo of the beds, but I do not set up a tripod to do this, I just point and shoot. But he was so intense and full of himself doing this; I had to go and get my camera and take his photo. I asked him in Spanish and in English what he was doing and he answered in English and in part in Spanish what he was doing. I am not clear on what the language problem was, but nonetheless I finally figured out he was taking photos for a web site about Madrid or for Madrid.
He is not living in this room; I have no idea why the management did not help him into the room better. There are these very obnoxious and makes me glad I do not drink electronic locks that are difficult to open, so everyone is meeting everyone as the ones that have learned how to use the lock are helping the new people that enter the hostel to learn. They are a pain and to the tune of 10 Euros, the deposit on the plastic card they use them. I suppose they are ok, but I thought these plastic cards in hotel were to get rid of the cost of losing a key? This is probably a moneymaker, the 10 Euro deposit.
Well the old person in the room was nice, and I told him. I have a web page also, but he seem oblivious to learning about anything other than his job, so even though I think he was discovering travel information me telling him that I have a travel web page did not phase him.
I will tell you why, 99.99 percent of travel web pages are crap, and in many ways so is mine, so why would anyone care what happens with a web page. They are for the most part worthless so who would care. I do because I am making very good hobo money now, but that is a different thing than someone that wants help from a Webpage. I am constantly frustrated with the over abundance of worthless travel sites. No efforts empathize with the tourist or traveler and provide anything more than pictures, and not too many at that. I take hundreds of photos because for sure, a photo is worth a million words, and 100 are worth 100 times more than one. I suspect this person will only put up a few pictures of the Cats Hostel and not enough to truly understand this place….aagh, I did not want to take photos of this clean and sterile place, but for sure now, I have talked my way into a corner, where I should take photos.
When you enter a hotel or hostel they often have a line that ask,
“What is your profession?”
I am always filling it out now as “Writer.” I would go into a panic if I was a hotel, but that has only go attention of the Blanca and White something Hotel in Banos Ecuador and everyone else on the planet seems to ignore the answer. Fun and more fun on things like that, but who listens anymore as everyone is so busy, they have no time to listen or read the answers.
WITH A NEW PASSPORT AND FREE AGAIN
I am very glad to leave Madrid, although it is clean, bright, and friendly it is too cold for my blood, and in the end just another big city. The culture is European and very close to the USA culture so Mas or Menos the same. Europe is just a hair different in most way than the USA, and on the cultural continuum they are so so close that hardly worth talking about. The biggest differences are in the buildings and the hour their work habits. For sure the Americans work more hours and have a better quality of life, while there is a lot more small cultural differences in Europe. I guess they are getting invaded by Africa, India, and Asia more than the USA, and this is big cultural change. If you listen to people complain about the country of Turkey trying to join the European Union you will see that nobody things the Muslim countries are the same as Europe. I do not see them as a big difference, or enough of a difference to say they should not be allow to enter. But then again I am in favor of merging all the countries of North America under one umbrella union and getting rid of the border all together. Why not share our wealth and make the whole North American continent richer at the expense of the USA worker. Why does one a person in Mexico or Guatemala need to be that poor? There as some slightly poor people in other countries that need a job and food. Not a lot, and nothing tragic, but for sure America is fat and need to share the food.
Bottom line, I think the world need to Create more Michael Moores that worked for Auto Factories and lost their job, so that poorer countries could be elevated out of the stone ages. Plus he is way to fat and represents the worst of the USA, and nothing of the best.
OPENED THE MADRID USA EMBASSY
# 3 OPENED in my life.
I have gone to a few USA Embassies in my travels. Twice to the Embassy in Quito, Ecuador to see about helping a couple of Ecuador girls to enter the USA to no avail. Twice in Bangkok in different years to get extra pages in my passport and now to the USA Madrid Embassy.
I have successful got them to open the embassy and service my needs, probably because I am the 1 in 200 that is really from the USA. The only reason I have had to do this is the asinine hours they keep.
Today I had the most trouble, as they made me walk across the street from the Embassy to use the pay telephone to call the Embassy to say I wished to enter. Luckily, I speak Spanish because the front entrance people spoke zero English. I still hollered at them in English to let them know they were dealing with some homegrown and they were Pendejos in their language.
Nevertheless, they tried their best to make me leave, but I stuck them out and kept talking English until the woman was frazzled and in typical third world fashion probably thought I was someone important and told the guard to let me in.
She proceed to tell me I was to get a 3 month temporary passport and I started to give her a hard time and a REAL American jumped in to help, and he finally was a great guy and listened. He was from Bloomington, Indiana and told me he could give me a one year temporary Passport. The lady was bitch and never let up, so I never let up, but my theory is punish anyone from your own country, (She is not from my country, she is from Spain trying to work for the USA.) that does not act like a good citizen. I was on USA ground and a safe haven in the middle of the desert. Nobody spoke English except for the last person I got to, and this is extremely ridiculous. But for the sake of safety, I will admit if they bomb the embassy as I have said before they will only get foreigners, or screwed their way to citizenship, citizens.
On walking back, I met a nice guy from Bolivia that was politely commented that when the USA people leave the USA they become like the locals. This is sadly extremely true, and in Mexico they used to complain that the USA people not only learned how to be corrupt, they also learned how to do it better.
ONE-DAY PASSPORT
I have now met two people that needed to get a USA passport outside the country. Both the girl in Bolivia I met and I, and both of us got it in one day. Hehehe So good job USA in a stupid way. Got the job done, but I am tired of the people working not speaking English. Contrary to any excuse, there are many people in Spain that also have learned English.
I BLOGGED HERE - AND NOW THIS IS OUT OF SEQUENCE
NOT IN NO-MANS LAND
Airport in Amsterdam
No mans land is when you have left a country but have not entered the next country. This is a place where the laws of the world are vague. Places where the smuggler set up stands to sell goods, or occasionally a Casino pops up.
I am in the Amsterdam Airport, but not in No-man land, as I am traveling inside the European Union. I do not understand Europe and the passport controls to enter Europe are almost nil, I just handed the man my passport and entered, I do not think he even stamped the thing… Does that mean I can stay forever? The custom are almost non-existent, and my belt buckle, billfold, and two flash drive hidden in my secret pockets have been clearing the metal detectors or people that would pad me down for weapons very easily, although the did stop the Arab looking people more than the white people, but that makes sense.
I suppose there are some Russian Islamic crazies that would blow themselves up to make their point also, although I am still amiss of the point.
But here I am typing away on this permanent recline chair. I was going to use the internet but the cost here is about the same as room, so I will save up the blog and blog you later.
President Bush is now the President of the USA. I am wanting to know or hoping that Arafat has met his maker and the world can be safer place. Castro and Arafat would do the world a favor by kicking off, and liberating their people from the mindset of fight. The both love to fight, and this makes their regions or countries in constant turmoil.
I will fly to Madrid in about 5 hours, and maybe I will sleep in the airport, or if the place feels easy, I will go to a Hostel, who knows I may just get on a bus or train for somewhere else. Only thing that hits my hot spot about Madrid is Bullfights or maybe girls, although big cities are not places to find nice girls.
