Kind of familiar
Sep. 11th, 2004 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jayMy flight in went well, the rental car is modest but acceptable (except for some weird automatic shift points), and the hotel is in an unremarkable suburb but nicely furnished. Kind of like staying in Novato or Los Gatos if one were visiting SF.
Today... after check-in to the hotel, I spent an hour getting the in-house network to worki with my computer (manual, not DHCP). By then it was early afternoon, so I tried to ping Sarah and Dawn (about rooms and reservations) and I called Pat (I left my International Driver's Permit in my desk drawer at work). After a shower... off to work. I stopped at, alas, a McDonalds drive-through for my first meal in Spain this year, eating as I navigated Madrid's freeway system ;).
Today's objectives were: get the SIM cards for the work cellphones, as the dealer leaves tomorrow on a week-long vacation; look for somewhere to buy a sun awning and folding table and some chairs and some large 12V batteries; and to not fall asleep while staying active. My team member SS had taken my phone to Spain ahead of me, so I went by his hotel across from the Prado to pick it up. Since I was parked, SS and I walked to Puerto del Sol to pick up the SIM cards. One of my phones has a broken "call" key, turns out, so we also bought another phone there. Then visited El Corte Ingles (the English Cut), Madrid's huge department store chain, off of Sol. No tents or chairs or batteries, but I got a reference to a suburban big-box store that would probably have them. And we walked around... I found myself thinking a couple of times that it should have beenhopeforyou with us... sigh. Not to mention geekchick, originally...
Driving in Madrid is now much less stressful for me than a year ago, even solo... and I know the basic central-city streets well enough to recover from missed turns. It seems kind of familiar, now... SS and I walked back and then had cheap-but-pretty-good paella at a bar, along with tinto del verrano (sort of a wine cooler). Then found churros and chocolate before heading back to our hotels.
Pat, Dawn and Sarah should all have landed in NYC by now, and be waiting for their flights... time for bed before I meet them in the morning.
Disembarking this morning... down stairs to waiting buses. Reminds me of CDG... or San Jose airport.
Today... after check-in to the hotel, I spent an hour getting the in-house network to worki with my computer (manual, not DHCP). By then it was early afternoon, so I tried to ping Sarah and Dawn (about rooms and reservations) and I called Pat (I left my International Driver's Permit in my desk drawer at work). After a shower... off to work. I stopped at, alas, a McDonalds drive-through for my first meal in Spain this year, eating as I navigated Madrid's freeway system ;).
Today's objectives were: get the SIM cards for the work cellphones, as the dealer leaves tomorrow on a week-long vacation; look for somewhere to buy a sun awning and folding table and some chairs and some large 12V batteries; and to not fall asleep while staying active. My team member SS had taken my phone to Spain ahead of me, so I went by his hotel across from the Prado to pick it up. Since I was parked, SS and I walked to Puerto del Sol to pick up the SIM cards. One of my phones has a broken "call" key, turns out, so we also bought another phone there. Then visited El Corte Ingles (the English Cut), Madrid's huge department store chain, off of Sol. No tents or chairs or batteries, but I got a reference to a suburban big-box store that would probably have them. And we walked around... I found myself thinking a couple of times that it should have been
hopeforyou with us... sigh. Not to mention geekchick, originally...Driving in Madrid is now much less stressful for me than a year ago, even solo... and I know the basic central-city streets well enough to recover from missed turns. It seems kind of familiar, now... SS and I walked back and then had cheap-but-pretty-good paella at a bar, along with tinto del verrano (sort of a wine cooler). Then found churros and chocolate before heading back to our hotels.
Pat, Dawn and Sarah should all have landed in NYC by now, and be waiting for their flights... time for bed before I meet them in the morning.
Disembarking this morning... down stairs to waiting buses. Reminds me of CDG... or San Jose airport.
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Madrid
Date: 2004-09-12 12:30 am (UTC)how your time in madris famular
Date: 2004-09-12 03:40 am (UTC)