Chris and I were on the platform of a metro station the other day when he noticed a condom machine on the wall. I've seen them in men's restrooms before, but never in public, next to some one's grandma waiting for the train to arrive! Iwas kind of creepy and a bit embarrassing, but I waited for everyone to clear out and took my photo with it. In retrospect, we should have backed up the camera a bit for context ...
The old Atocha train station with its glass arched roof (where the trains used to pull through years ago) has been converted into a very nice botanical garden and shopping area. But the air is so dry in Madrid, that they have to have constant misters on the tropical foliage to keep it from drying out. My skin itches just thinking about how low the humidity is here. And across the street, the Ministry of Agriculture building is yet another entrant in competition of who has the most outrageous bronze sculpture on top.
There is a famous Chocolatería that is always packed with people which serves (exclusively) the Spanish tradition of churros and warm chocolate. Churros in Spain are like the Latino churros you can get at street fairs in the U.S., but without the sugar sprinkled on top. The chocolate is used for dipping the churros and is served as a thick, warm liquid in coffee cups. Hmmm. I love dark chocolate, but wasn't so sure about this one. No doubt if we had been ten years old we would have wolfed down this rich sugar bomb, but a few bites were enough for us. Walking away, we agreed that we were glad that we tried it, but didn't want to do it again.
Chris has discovered "Havana 7", a Cuban rum that he really likes. But once we leave, he's going to have to say "adios" to his new find, because we can't bring back any products from Cuba thanks to the U.S. trade embargo. We've also have our favorite pub which serves tapas on a slice of baguette, and are topped with either thin sliced cured ham, Spanish tortilla, chicken, salmon, cheese and apple, or pork. Portions of food are served lighter here in general than the U.S. and they're really good.
And lastly, I had to take a photo of Chris and Héctor's (at least) nightly smoking time on the balcony of the apartment. If getting bundled up and standing out in the freezing windy air isn't incentive enough to stop smoking, I don't know what is ... Oh wait! Maybe it would be the huge letters on the front of packages of cigarettes that says "FUMAR MATA" (smoking kills), or the photo on the back of the package that shows the physical results on the human body of smoking.
