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18th July 2025: In the University of Saragossa {Dinosaur Eggs Loarre & Zaragoza, July 2025}

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I woke up and for the first time in days I put on “person clothes” (for the city) instead of “scarecrow clothes” (for hiking & working in the field). Before setting off on the trip, I went to the sales to buy some jeans that would work for sitting on rock or walking through thistles and dry grass, and while they are not particularly nice, they are comfortable and resistant. Saragossa / Zaragoza was still waking up as I headed for breakfast to a bakery close to the hotel, Pannitelli Original Bakery, which I had chosen for two reasons. One, they opened at 7:30, which gave me plenty of time to walk to the university afterwards and two, they had waffles, I had seen them online. I wanted waffles, and a big coffee. I had both (and some orange juice, just because I could).

It turned out that not driving to the university Universidad de Zaragoza had been a great idea. Though it had been my first thought (dump the car there, then walk to my accommodation), I was lucky that in the end I was able to reserve my parking spot with the hotel. It happens that access to campus is restricted to working staff. Students can drive into the parking lot ten times in the school year. And on top of that, there was a farmers’ market for some reason.

Having 20 minutes to walk, I was the first one there, and I sat down in the rock garden of the Earth Sciences building to wait for everyone else for the last day of the course Técnicas de restauración en paleontología a través de la preparación de los huevos de dinosaurio de Loarre: Palaeontological Restoration Techniques through the preparation of Loarre dinosaur eggs. By 9:00, when class was to start, I was the only one besides the teachers who had managed to arrive. Everyone else had either got lost, left Loarre late, or was taking forever trying to park. So yay me being lucky for once (and for the 20 € which the hotel parking cost for the whole stay).

The first chunk of the morning was a tour through the Rock and Hard Material Preparations, 3D Printing and Scanning Service (Servicio de preparación de rocas y materiales duros, impresión y escaneado en 3D) in the university. They have two main lines of work. One is to make thin translucent sections out of specimens so they can be studied under the microscope, and the other is digitalising and making 3D models and copies of items so they can be lent or studied through a computer. The inner works of the department were explained by Raquel Moya Costa, who not only described in detail all her complex machinery, she also gave each of us a 3D printed T-Rex charm from the Dino Run Game!

We then moved onto the Petrology lab to look at thin sections on the transmitted-light microscopes – preparations of a sauropod eggshell, a crocodilian eggshell and an iguanodon eggshell. There were other preparations we could snoop around if we promised not to take pictures and publish them. We also got to play with the 3D copy of one of the first eggs recovered from Loarre. Much less heavy than the real thing, for sure.

Microscope used in geological studies

Microscope preparations and how they look under the microscope. There are three egg specimens: one from Loarre (sauropod), a crocodile and an iguanodon, The crocodile is the thinnest, and the sauropod is the brightest and more complex

Then a bit of chaos ensued as we got distracted by the shiny exhibits of the Palaeontology department, and a couple of post-docs offered to show us their lab and what they were working on. Having finished all the activities of the course, the coordinators had organised an extra visit to the Natural Science Museum Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad de Zaragoza (which might have actually been my fault as I asked how come that would not happen, considering that most of the region’s fossils are officially deposited there). A few people left first, but some of us got delayed looking at the lab specimens, and then we had to hurry to the museum…

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: Exhibits in the Geological science building. Replicas of dinosaurs and invertebrate fossils

Once we were at the site of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, we were taken on an express visit of the palaeontology ward by Ester Díaz Berenguer, curator of the collections. The museum is located in one of the historical buildings of the Zaragoza campus. Designed by Ricardo Magdalena in 1886, it was erected with academicist criteria, in brick, with large windows and striking symmetry. It opened in 1893, and during the 20th century, it served as Faculty of Medicine. When the university moved to the newer campus, the building was refurbished as cultural spot and seat of the government body. The basement was turned into the exhibition site of the Science Museum, which has three main areas – palaeontology, natural science, and mineralogy.

The palaeontology ward of the museum comprises nine rooms. The first one is an introduction to the science and the concept of fossilisation, and the following ones run through the Earth’s history, from the Precambrian to the Quaternary. The Precambrian is the earliest “calculated” period in geological time, and spanned from 4567 to 539 million years ago (give or take). Though we cannot pinpoint when life actually originated, it was already there when this “supereon” gave way to the Cambrian. During the Ediacara Period, at the end of the last Eon of the Precambrian, the Proterozoic, the earliest complex multicellular organisms that we know about thrived in a state that has been called “The Garden of Ediacara”. The word “garden” tries to evoke the idea of the “Garden of Eden” as there was no active predation and life just… existed.

The next rooms focus on the “Cambrian Explosion”, a term used to refer to the point in geological time when living things took over the planet. At first, this brand-new life was comprised of ocean-dwelling invertebrates. In the room there are impressive trilobites from the Murero Palaeontological Site, which I had actually planned to drive through on my way back. But not only animals appeared, so did plants – organisms which produced a new toxic gas that would change the planet forever: oxygen. To the side of this area there is a curtained room, the “aquarium”.

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: Two trilobites from the same species showing slightly different shapes, thought to be a male and a female

Here you can see the cranium of Carolowilhelmina geognostica, a fish which lived around 392 million years ago, during the Devonian period. It was a placoderm, a group whose main characteristics were being covered in armoured plates, and having developed an actual jaw and true teeth. The specimen is not just the holotype, it is the only known fossil of the animal. The cranium alone measures almost 45 cm, and by its shape, palaeontologist speculate that the animal was probably a predator of invertebrates. A first fragment of the fossil was found in Southern Aragón in 1971 by palaeontologist Peter Carls. Carls kept returning to the site to search for the rest of it every summer, until in 1986 he unearthed the rest of the skull, which was finally extracted in 1993.

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: skull of an ancient armoured fish

The following room is devoted to the Mesozoic, and it hosts another of the museum treasures, the skull of the holotype and only specimen of Maledictosuchus riclaensis, the “Cursed Crocodile from Ricla”. This crocodilian lived in saltwater around 163 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic. It had flippers instead of legs, and probably ate fish. The fossil was found during the construction of the high-speed railway between Madrid and Barcelona in 1994. It earned the name of “cursed crocodile” because despite the fact that it was the oldest crocodilian found in Spain, exceptionally preserved on top of that, it took 20 years until someone could tackle its study and description. The “curse-breaking” researcher was Jara Parrilla Bel, one of the post-docs who shown us her lab work at the university.

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: Skull of an ancient crocodile

Of course, the “stars” of any palaeontological exhibit are dinosaurs. The museum hosts several iconic pieces, amongst them replica of the feet of the first dinosaur ever described by researchers belonging to the local university Universidad de Zaragoza, Tastavinsaurus sanzi (a titanosaur), a whole specimen of the Mongolian Psittacosaurus (a small ceratopsian), and a good part of an Arenysaurus ardevoli, a hadrosaur which lived in the Pyrenees area around 66 million years ago, during the early Maastrichtian; the rest of the specimen is located in Arén, where it was located, and which is one of the museum’s satellite centres, just like Loarre’s museum-lab. In the same room there were trunks of fossilised wood that could be touched, and a skull of the extinct crocodile Allodaposuchus subjuniperus.

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: Skeleton of a small Mongolian dinosaur

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: some bones from a hadrosaur, including the tale, hind hip and some ribs

After a small room with an audiovisual representing the impact of the meteorite and the K-Pg mass extinction (which we skipped due to time constraints), there was an exhibit of the spread of mammals. The specimen of honour in this exhibit is the ancient sirenian Sobrarbesiren cardieli (holotype, and the topic of our guide’s thesis). This species lived during the Eocene, around 45 million years ago. Sirenians (manatees and dugongs) are a type of marine mammals whose closest relatives are elephants – and not other ocean-dwelling mammals. After life spread through land, a number of mammals went back to water, and it looks like this species is a snapshot on the readaptation process: it was already completely aquatic, but it still had four functional limbs. Its hind legs had started reducing and its tail was getting flat. It was a strict herbivore, eating sea grass, but less efficiently than current sirenians.

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: Skull of an ancient sirenian.

There was also an impressive aquatic turtle of the genus Chelonia, several remains of Gomphotherium angustidens, an elephantimorph, and smaller pieces including crabs, sea urchins, gastropods and even insects. Several of these specimens are holotypes, too.

The final area was almost contemporary considering when we had started. It hosted remains of cave bears (Ursus spelaeus, 40,000 years ago), the skull of an aurochs (Bos primigenius, a species that actually lived until the 1600s), evidence ancient hyena nests, micro-invertebrate bones, mammoth defences… These animals coexisted with human beings, whose skulls comprise the ending room before moving onto the “nature collections” which we did not visit because a) the course had after all to do with palaeontology and b) it was closing time – quite literally, museum security was turning off lights behind us since the museum shut down at 14:00.

Zaragoza Natural Science Museum: Skull of an ancient bull, curved mammoth defence, a pile of bones from a hyena nest and several human-ancestor skulls

We had a mini closure “ceremony” in the hall of the building – coordinators Miguel Moreno Azanza and Lope Ezquerro Ruiz thanked us for attending, we clapped and thanked them back. Then we all went off to have a drink, a snack and a chat. A bit after 16:00, when most students had already left and the professors had been joined by university staff, I took my leave.

Palaeontological Restoration Techniques through the preparation of Loarre dinosaur eggs

Hopping from shadow to shadow to avoid the sun and the heat as much as I could, I headed downtown. On my way I made an exception regarding the walking in the shade when I found the only remaining gate of the original Medieval Wall, today called Puerta del Carmen. Calling it “original” is a bit of a stretch though. While it is in the same place as the first gate, it actually dates from the early 1790s, and it follows Neoclassical patterns.

I also stopped at Starbucks for a Vanilla Frappuccino – I’m on a bit of a matcha remorse trip due to the alleged shortage, so I’ve reverted to my old drink of choice. With a temperature of around 38 ºC, I reached the most important square in town, Plaza de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, where the namesake basilica is. I kid you not, what was running through my head was “I’ve got a 0.5 zoom on my phone now, I’ll be able to take a nice picture of the whole building with its towers…”. Only to find said towers covered in scaffolding. I was able to take the picture, but it could have been nicer. I entered the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar Catedral-Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, a Baroque / Neomudejar catholic temple which is considered the first-ever church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. I sat at the chapel for a little bit, but when I was ready to have a walk around the church, there was a call for mass, so I did not do it out of respect.

Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar, a baroque chapel for the workshop of a small figurine of the Virgin Mary carrying a child and standing on a pillar

Instead, I strolled to the former exchange building Lonja de Zaragoza, which has been turned into a free exhibition centre. The building is Renaissance with a touch of Neomudejar, and it is considered the most important civil architecture construction erected in the whole area of Aragón during the 16th century.

I had read that there was an exhibition on Asian culture called Tesoros. Colecciones de arte asiático del Museo de Zaragoza – Treasures: Asian art collections from the Zaragoza Museum. At the moment, the Zaragoza Museum is closed and has loaned a few of its artifacts to be displayed elsewhere. This one exhibition displays items that were originally part of personal collections and were donated to the museum. The Colección Federico Torralba, comprises religious items and art pieces from China and items from Japan. The Colección Víctor Pasamar Gracia and Colección Miguel Ángel Gutierrez Pascual have woodblock prints – landscapes, noh [能], kabuki [歌舞伎], even modern ones. The. Finally, the Colección Kotoge displays lacquered tea bowls (chawan [茶碗]). There are also modern calligraphies, paintings, and the compulsory samurai armour. The regional government has undertaken buying artefacts to engross the Asian collections. Though they looked a bit out of place in the historical building, the items were fantastic – and you could even make your very own “woodblock print” at the end.

Zaragoza exchange ceiling, decorated with architectural flower-like patterns

Though the exhibition was the reason I had wanted to go downtown, after I left the (nicely air-conditioned) Lonja, I still had some time to do stuff. I wandered back into the cathedral for a bit – between the 17:00 mass and the 18:00 mass, and left before the second one started.

I continued towards the Roman Walls Murallas Romanas de Zaragoza, which sadly have had to be fenced off because people have no respect (I vividly remember a mum letting her toddlers to climb all over them one time I visited). At the end of that square stands the marketplace Mercado Central de Zaragoza, a wrought iron architecture building designed in 1895 by Félix Navarro Pérez. Being a Friday evening, in the middle of summer, many of the stands were closed, so it was not crowded.

Zaragoza Roman ruins

Iron and glass architecture market

I continued towards the Fire and Fireforce Museum Museo del Fuego y de los Bomberos, where a nice gentleman wanted to give me a guided visit which I declined. Honestly, I just wanted to look at the old fire trucks (and actually, support any initiative by firefighters if it helps fund firefighting). It is a little quaint museum located in part of a former convent, the other half is an actual fire station. The exhibition covers documentation of historical Zaragoza fires, firefighting equipment, a collection of helmets, miniatures, and quite an impressive collection of vehicles used to fight fire. There were two immersive rooms, one which showed damage to a house and another about forest fires. I really enjoyed it, though I only had a quick visit – they closed in an hour, and I was the only guest along a family.

Firefighting museum: collection of vintage vehicles in a brick cloister

On my way back towards the hotel I walked by CaixaForum Zaragoza, where they were running the Patagonian dinosaurs Dinosaurios de la Patagonia. Seeing the Patagotitan on the balcony made me want to go in, but I had already seen it, and I knew I was just on a palaeontology high.

Patagotitan installation on a balcony

I headed back to the hotel – crossing a couple of quite unsavoury neighbourhoods – and bought some fast food dinner again. It was stupidly early, but after eating I could have a shower and relax on the bed while I studied the route for the following day. Furthermore, it was so hot I really needed that shower, and I knew I would not be going anywhere after taking it. Thus, I showered and plopped down to watch the Natural Science Museum’s YouTube Channel after I had learnt how to get out of the city.

27th August 2024: Arganzuela Greenhouse, British Cemetery and a ‘palaeontological site’, Madrid (Spain)

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I have been feeling dizzy on and off these last few months, so I’m avoiding long drives – that has left me dependent on public transport, which is not too reliable. Thus, instead of all the hikes I wanted to take, I’ve been doing day trips to Madrid.

My first stop was in the district of Arganzuela. Although I’ve been to Matadero a few times before, I had never wandered to the side, where a boring-looking metal roof peeked over some trees. I recently discovered that I should have ventured beyond the brick walls that close the Matadero area. This building is called Arganzuela Crystal Palace Palacio de Cristal de la Arganzuela, and is an example of the wrought iron functional architecture of the early 20th century.

Invernadero de Arganzuela - structure

The building was designed by Luis Bellido y González and erected between 1908 and 1928 as a vegetable warehouse. In 1992, the building was remodelled – the wrought iron structure was consolidated and the original fibre cement panels were substituted by glass ones. The warehouse, 7,100 square metres, was divided into different sections, each one transformed into a different greenhouse: two for tropical plants, one for subtropical species, and the last one for desert plats and cacti. The centre has four long fountains with tiny sprouts and waterfalls. I expected a few plants to be in second bloom, but apparently that does not work for tropical or desert species?

Invernadero de Arganzuela - inside

I then hopped onto the underground towards the district of Carabanchel, where I could visit an unusual place – the British Cemetery Cementerio Británico de Madrid. Around 1854, the British government bought the terrain with the intention to turn it into a cemetery, since during that time Catholic cemeteries did not accept interments from other denominations.

The burial ground hosts about 600 graves and about 1,000 tombs, most of them British citizens – but there are also Americans, Germans, Swiss and French, even some Spanish. Though it is now closed to new burials, in the 20th century it was open to non-Christians. Inscriptions on the markers are in Latin, English, French, German, Hebrew, Cyrillic and Spanish. Some of the people buried here include part of the Georgian royal family, historian Alice Bache Gould y Quincy, members of the fashion family Loewe, photographer Charles Clifford… There is also a memorial to the American soldiers who died in a plane accident. There is only one pantheon, belonging to the Bauer family – owners of an important commercial emporium in the 19th century.

British Cemetery Madrid

I have to say that the charm of a Victorian cemetery fades more than a little in the middle of the Spanish plateau’s scorching summer. Though there are several artistic markers – ever-present angels, a couple of tree trunks, and a very gothic grave – most of them are simple headstones with a cross or just a name. One of the graves asked a good question: If good things lasted forever, would we appreciate how precious they are? All in all, it was a quaint little cemetery that felt slightly out of place in the middle of Madrid.

Afterwards, I went back into the underground. The cemetery is a couple of stops away from Carpetana. On the connection, I got checked for a ticket, sort of – they were controlling that passengers had a valid ticket, and just as the train was arriving they waved me through, maybe not complaining about it and just looking for the card made me trustworthy or something? (For the record, I did have a ticket). Anyway, I reached my destination in about 10 minutes or so. When they were working on the Carpetana underground station, they found a few fossilised bones and jaws, and they have turned it into another of the spots of Museos de Metro de Madrid – palaeontological site Yacimiento Paleontológico de Carpetana. I saw reproductions a few mammal jaws and took a picture. Good thing I was close, this would not have warranted a trip from further away.

Reproduction of the prehistorical habitat of Carpetana

I had a reservation for late lunch, but I decided to cancel it. I wanted to check a shop for something I needed, and that would take me in the complete opposite direction from the restaurant. Instead, after the shop, I grabbed a Matcha Frappuchino and headed back to the train station to return home.

Starbucks Matcha Frapuccino with a lot of whipped cream

11th August 2024: A road trip with three stops around Madrid (Spain)

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Just like I kept trying to book a visit to the hall at Pacífico, I had been after a Burrolandia timeslot for a while. Burrolandia reservations are free, and the “tickets” are released around 9:00 on Monday mornings. I did not want to go in the middle of the winter as it is an open place, but when the weather became nicer, I was never around to book a spot before they ran out. Nevertheless, the Madrid area gets rather empty in August, so I could finally secure a visit. Once that was taken care of, I found myself facing another issue – after the pandemic, I developed a literal hay-fever, and straw makes me feel rather miserable. I’ve got tablets for that, but I should not drive after taking one.

Thus, I roped my sibling into driving for the day, because they are a fan of everything equine.

The non-profit Burrolandia – “Donkeyland” – is an animal protection organisation. It was founded in 1996 as a sanctuary / rescue for retired donkeys, mules (offspring of a donkey stallion and a horse mare) and hinnies (offspring of a horse stallion and a donkey mare, or jenny). Donkeys (Equus asinus) were domesticated from the African wild ass some 6, 000 years ago. There are millions of donkeys in the world, most of them kept as working animals in developing countries – however, as machinery substituted them, the number of donkeys in Europe plummeted. Burrolandia is involved in maintaining the species and the different Spanish sub-breeds.

The rescue is located at the end of a pretty run-down road in Tres Cantos, a municipality so close to Madrid that it could be a neighbourhood. The venue itself is mostly an open area where the resident animals get to interact with visitors, many of them freely. Besides the donkeys, mules and hinnies that the association has taken in, there are horses, a pony, goats, sheep, pot-bellied pigs, hens, geese, ducks, peafowl, helmeted guinea fowl, a deer doe, an ankole-watusi cow, a few dogs and a cat. Burrolandia is open to the public on Sundays, usually in two two-hour turns, one at 10:00 and the other at 12:30. Visitors can buy a bag of goodies to feed the animals for a nominal price to support the non-profit, get merchandise, or directly donate.

Donkey, goat, hinneys and mules, horse

Cow, black rooster, cat, sheep, hinney, deer

There are fewer visitors in August and it was easier to get tickets and for the day, there was only one long timeslot from 10:00 to 14:00. We arrived a few minutes after opening time, and I was surprised at how high “low demand” actually was. There were maybe twenty to thirty cars already there, with a ton of families with toddlers and kids going nuts about… the dogs, in most cases. Most kids were terrified of donkeys, though they were smaller than I had imagined. I would have expected them to be closer to a horse size, so I think that most of what I grew up considering “donkeys” were mules. Live and learn…

Burrolandia bans bringing food for the animals – both to control what the animals are fed, and as fundraising tool. We bought a bag of veggies, which contained mostly carrot, celery, some lettuce and a piece of dry bread. The donkeys, goats and sheep were all ambling outside, but most the mules, hinnies and horses were in “donkey jail” behind the fences. You could still feed them though, but they are bigger and possibly less docile than the smaller donkeys which roamed free. They were all very acquainted with the brown paper bags with the treats though, which made them very friendly. In general, I was reminded more of the Okunoshima bunnies than the Nara deer, even if one of the mules did get a bite out of my finger, and the baby goats kept trying to climb onto us. My sibling had the great idea to use some of their riding gloves to pet and feed the animals.

Feeding donkeys and goats

We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then moved on to Las Rozas de Madrid, another village in the area known for nothing except for the high-end “open shopping mall”, a street full of outlet brand-fashion boutiques selling discounted items. I had heard on and on how fantastic Las Rozas Village was. There are specific bus tours from Madrid that take tourists to the mall and back.

We parked the car in another shopping centre, Heron City Las Rozas, where we changed clothes and shoes because… we did not trust ourselves with the barn smell. We walked into the Village, and I don’t know what I was expecting, but for sure something with a big more… grandiose I guess. To my surprise, the shops were almost empty (both of produce, and customers) and every second shop was a Scalpers… I have to say I was quite underwhelmed. We did not even find a nice place to grab a bite to eat. Furthermore, I heard at least three other people commenting the same thing – they had heard a lot about the mall and it was disappointed.

Entrance to Las Rozas Village

We ended up having lunch back in Heron City Las Rozas. We found a Japanese chain restaurant named Sumo, a sort of buffet with a flat rate for a number of dishes. Since it was still quite early – and again, August – the place was mostly empty – we had sushi, takoyaki, wakame salad, and some gyoza. As dessert was not included, afterwards we went to Starbucks to have a matcha drink, named after a House of Dragon character for some publicity stunt – Dracarys Matcha Frappuccino. It was a cold matcha latte with white chocolate cream on top, to which I added some vanilla, just because I could, and it was a great idea. I think the matcha with strawberry cream on top was a better combination, but apparently that one was only available in spring. I guess I’ll have to try the standard Matcha Frappuccino at some point.

We went on to our last stop for the day. Xanadú is a shopping mall in Arroyomolinos, home to Atlantis Aquarium Madrid, a smallish oceanarium. Upon entering, you go down some stairs, and the first area are Rivers and Mangroves, with some mudskippers, and cute shiny fish. Actually, the first tank the visitor encounters hosts a shoal of red-bellied piranhas (Pygocentrus nattereri). Of course, there are a few axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) too.

Piranhas, discfish, axolotl, mangrove fish

Then come the Mediterranean anemones, jellyfish, starfish… Afterwards are the Tropical Reefs with the usual suspects – who does not try to find Nemo among the clownfish? There are also butterflyfish, surgeonfish, and of course all the corals. The Open Sea area, a typical central tank, has few species of sharks – blacktip sharks, grey reef sharks, bonnetheads, longtail carpet sharks… There are also rays and loggerhead sea turtles. In between the different views of the central tank are the penguins, which were pretty photogenic! The last area had a few small tanks with Coastal Ecosystems – anemones, sea cucumbers and hermit crabs mostly. Staff had put out some glass shells for the latter to move into, which was fun.

Anemones, clownfish, shark and penguins

Atlantis: hermit crab and sharks

The gift shop had a lot of cute souvenirs, and afterwards we walked around the rest of the mall for a while, had a smoothie, and eventually drove off. It was a good day, with lots of cute animals, some of which I even got to pat. Not the sharks, sadly, but I made a lot of donkey friends, even if they only liked me for my vegetables and stale bread.

21st July 2024: From the Sea to the Butterfly (Madrid, Spain)

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When planning for the day, the one thing I did not count on was the heat wave. I did take into account problems with trains, but apparently a half-hour delay is a non-issue by now and not worth mentioning. I reached Madrid around 12:30, and I had a reservation at 13:00 for a themed restaurant which had caught my eye when I saw it online. It was honestly a big disappointment, though I refused to let it ruin my day.

The restaurant is called Bestial, and it is ocean-themed. The pictures were awesome, it looked super cool, and I was pretty excited to go there. However, the experience was mediocre at best – I guess solo travellers are not their target audience, and it showed. As I was mainly ignored, I could watch how the restaurant worked. The waiters got the tables mixed up a few times, and they allowed others to take pictures with cocktails that were not theirs – that was weird, and I am pretty sure that against health code. I ordered a lemonade – the best thing – a tuna tartar and a crab bao without coriander, after checking that the coriander could be taken out. The tuna was tasteless, and the bao did have taste… coriander. All in all, I was not impressed by the food, even less by the service. Between the two dishes there were about 35 minutes waiting, and after an hour I just gave up and asked for the check, which was brought in a little book… and dropped halfway, then picked up from the floor… I just paid – the meal was not cheap – and left without dessert. A pity, really, but I really did not care any more.

Restaurante Bestial by Rosi La Loca

It was ridiculously early for my 16:00 visit, but I wanted to try my luck. I had chosen that day because CaixaForum Madrid was running two exhibitions that I wanted to see – Patagonian dinosaurs (which had just opened) and The Science of Pixar (which would end soon). The exhibition centre was booked out, so I could not sneak in before my time slot, but I managed to get my most burning question answered – how on earth were they going to fit a Patagotitan inside CaixaForum? Answer: they did not. They placed it outside, which was a fun surprise!

Patagotitan skeleton in front of CaixaForum Madrid

Since I had about an hour and a half, I decided to trot over to the painting museum Museo del Prado, part of the national network of museums, which I can access with my one-year card. I thought I might be luckier and the queue to enter without a reservation would work better. Indeed, I did not have to wait indeed, and I could have a look at a few of the masterpieces the collection holds (though not take photographs) – Francisco de Goya, Joaquín Sorolla, Diego Velázquez, Esteban Murillo, Fra Angelico, Hieronymus Bosch… Of course, not all the masters, because El Prado is enormous. It is also air-conditioned, and surprisingly, not as full as I half-expected. There was a queue when I came out, so I guess it worked out well!

I walked back to CaixaForum Madrid to see the two exhibitions I had booked. It was a bit before 16:00, but this time I did not ask, and just walked into the first exhibition – “Patagonian Dinosaurs”: Dinosaurios de la Patagonia, which had very little new information, and even fewer actual fossils, but a lot of dinosaur reconstructions. Those were cool. Aside from the Patagotitan mayorum placed outside, there were full skeleton replicas of Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis, Eoabelisaurus mefi, Leonerasaurus taquetrensis, Eoraptor lunensis, Condorraptor currumili, Brachytrachelopan mesai, Amargasaurus cazaui, Tyrannotitan chubutensis, Neuquensaurus australis, Carnotaurus sastrei, Gasparinisaura cincosaltensis and Manidens condorensis. There was also a Giganotosaurus carolinii skull. As for the real thing, a femur, a shoulder plate and a forelimb of Patagotitan, some teeth and vertebrae and a few invertebrates and leaves. It was really cool, and not extremely crowded for a dinosaur exhibit in summer. It was only the third day of the exhibit, so maybe it was not that well publicised yet? Out of the new species I discovered, Amargasaurus was my favourite – with the neck spikes it looked exactly like I would have imagined a dragon.

Patagonian Dinosaurs

Patagotitan front and back legs, along with a huge shoulderblade

The other exhibition that ran at the time was “The Science of Pixar”: La Ciencia de Pixar. It felt like a nerdy companion to Mundo Pixar, focusing on the maths and the process to create a Pixar film. Unfortunately, it was bustling with kids who – understandably – just wanted to smash buttons and make things light up. The exhibition had a lot of cool machines which simulate the different steps of creating a computer-animated film – rigging, modelling, lighting, rendering… The most interesting was an analysis called “What colour is this pixel?” taking into account movement, lights, shadows… It must be amazing to be able to visit the exhibit alone and be able to play with all the computers. I did find one where you get to simulate crowds using shoals of fish (from Finding Nemo) and I played with that for a while. There were also a few life-sized models from several films, miniatures and 3D mini-sculptures.

La Ciencia de Pixar

I left the venue after browsing the shop, and I walked down towards the theatre. It was still early, and I wanted to hit a couple of shops. Actually, I wanted to go to what is commonly known as the Primark flagship shop. The building Edificio Gran Vía 32 was originally erected in the 1920s to host the first department store in Madrid, Almacenes Madrid-París. It was designed by architect Teodoro de Anasagasti and used the most modern technology and materials at the time – reinforced concrete in the avant-garde style. The whole interior is built around an octagonal lightwell with a central staircase, and today the lowest four floors have been turned into the Primark shop, which has fitted screens and lightings while keeping the previous structures and railings. The modernisation project was undertaken by architectural studio RCCyP and it took three years until the shop opened in 2015.

Interior of Edificio Gran Vía 32

I continued off towards the theatre Teatro Real. I had a bit of time and some unspent calorie budget, so I decided to splurge at Starbucks with a whipped-cream Frappe for my pre-show snack. For the same price I had awesome third floor for Carmina Burana, I had a fifth-floor-in-the-back paradise ticket now. However, it was a lone seat with a great view, so I am not going to complain. I was going to watch the opera Madama Butterfly by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini – and sometimes I think that the better the singers are, the worse time I have with this show.

Madama Butterfly Promo

The main character is Cio-cio, a name that when pronounced in Italian sounds similar to 蝶々, [Choucho], butterfly in Japanese. When she is 15 years old, in 1904, Cio-cio marries an American navy man, Pinkerton, who intends to leave her and find a ‘decent’ American wife. Cio-cio is repudiated by her whole family when she converts to Christianity for her marriage. Three years later, she is alone, almost bankrupt, the mother of Pinkerton’s child, and a marriage broker is trying to sell her off to another prospective husband. Pinkerton returns to Japan with his American wife, who agrees to raise the child, but he cannot face Cio-cio because he is a coward. She (spoiler alert) prepares their son to go with him, then commits seppuku.

And even a bigger spoiler alert, I hate Pinkerton. Viscerally. My parents tried to start me into opera way too young to understand plots, I feel, and I did not want to do anything to do with it for a long time. However, at one point I wanted to see Madama Butterfly due to it taking place in Japan – being older helps, and I slowly learnt to appreciate the musical genre. Basically, by hating on Pinkerton.

Apparently, Teatro Real is known for its alternative settings and takes on classical operas. In this case, they let go of the old Japanese cottage in order to use… a modern-ish undisclosed Asian country. There was an overpass with Chinese signage, a billboard with McDonald’s and Bailey’s spoofs in Japanese (that did not make any sense), and the traditional cottage was exchanged for a greenhouse of sorts. There is a scene in the traditional opera in which the characters fill the house with flowers. In this case, they coloured the glass panes with hand paint. It was a great show.

Cast:

  • Cio-Cio-san: Ailyn Pérez
  • Suzuki: Nino Surguladze
  • F.B. Pinkerton: Charles Castronovo
  • Sharpless: Lucas Meachem
  • Goro: Moisés Marín

Artistic team:

  • Musical conductor: Nicola Luisotti
  • Stage direction: Damiano Michieletto
  • Set design: Paolo Fantin

Madama Butterfly Teatro Real

The show finished around 22:20. I walked up Arenal Street towards Sol. While I missed my first train because some people love to take up space while walking slowly, I made it for a good connection at Atocha, and I was actually home before midnight.

6th July 2024: O fortuna! (Madrid, Spain)

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A couple of days before going to London to see Kamijo, I found out that a local music non-profit was staging Carmina Burana by Carl Orff in Madrid. Buying tickets (for that, and the upcoming opera Madama Butterfly) broke havoc with my credit cards, but everything was eventually fixed – I think. It had me stressed at the beginning of that trip, but it seems to be finally fixed. Again. I did have to miss Swan Lake in London because the credit cards would not go through.

Anyway, I had my ticket and though I would have loved to spend the day out, I was too ridiculously tired to take a whole day of sightseeing. Furthermore, the place I wanted to have lunch out was not taking reservations since they broadcast sports, and there was some big match or another. Yes, I want to go somewhere that defines itself as a sports bar, but that’s a story for another day (like the time I thought I could go to a sports bar during the Olympics because “Oh, well, there’s nothing sporty going on, right?”).

I thus decided to head off with a small pre-show plan, which turned out to be a great idea. When I alighted from the train station, the streets were clear for the Pride parade – I do not think I have ever seen the area surrounding Estación de Atocha so empty. I walked towards the theatre Teatro Real, but my first stop was the underground station of Opera, home to one of the Underground museums Museos de Metro de Madrid. Unlike the others, this is only tangentially related to the underground system itself – it is an archaeological museum, hosting an ancient fountain, part of an aqueduct, and the remains of a sewer.

King Felipe II made Madrid the capital of Spain in 1561, and aside of some brief periods of strife, it remains so to the present day. That has implied a lot of changes through history – among them, the destruction of the city walls, and the construction of an aqueduct to provide the city with water. When the court moved there, the villa of Madrid was little more than a village whose population skyrocketed in a couple of years. The new city needed services as it grew.

One of these was the fountain called Caños del Peral (literally something like “Peartree faucets”). The fountain was 34 metres long and it channelled water from the stream that ran down what is now Arenal Street. It was built in local limestone, had six faucets, and it probably was the largest fountain in the area where it was built in the late 1500s – the outskirts. Ironically, today it is quite close to the centre of the city, even the middle of Spain, the so-called “Zero Kilometre” in the square Puerta del Sol.

Fountain Caños del Peral

The fountain was destroyed during the reign of José I (Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, who was installed as king of Spain between 1808 and 1813). Caños del Peral, along with the buildings around the square, were demolished and used to fill the gorge that until then had separated Madrid in two. And in that filled gorge it was discovered in the early 2000s during works to refurbish the underground station of Ópera. Further works uncovered the sewer from the same period, a structure that channelled black waters away from the drinking streams for sanitation.

Sewer at el Arenal

The aqueduct Viaje de Amaniel was built around 1615 century to bring clean water to the Royal Palace, and with time it also supplied other properties. The infrastructure was heavily remodelled in the 18th century, after the Royal Palace was rebuilt into its current form after the fire that destroyed the original alcázar.

Section: Viaje de Amaniel

As I was coming out from the little museum and the underground system, I noticed a display reading that the underground / train station that I needed after the show was closed “until end of service”. Which was good to know beforehand, since I had time to replan my route – the trains were a mess in the evening due to Pride, and a few stations being closed off for crowd control. I grabbed a snack at the local Starbucks and headed into the theatre.

The Royal Opera of Madrid Teatro Real opened in 1850. It was originally designed by José Manuel González-Valcárcel, though it has been widely renovated, with the latest iteration dating from 1997. It is considered the most important venue for performing and musical arts in Spain – despite having been closed for decades at a time. Curiously, the theatre has the shape of a coffin – at first, I really thought that was my imagination, but apparently it is not only real but intentional.

Teatro Real: stairs and interior

I had found really good tickets, first floor next to the Royal Booth – for the same price, I would later get a fifth / sixth floor ticket for Madama Butterfly. The repertory had been put together by Fundación Excelentia, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promote and divulge lyrical heritage and musical values.

Carmina Burana Promo

Programme:
  First part:
  1. Beethoven: Egmont. Overture: Sostenuto, ma non troppo – Allegro
  2. Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
  Second Part:
  3. Carl Orff: Carmina Burana

The show was conducted by Juan Pablo Valencia and interpreted by the orchestra Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, the choir Sociedad Coral Excelentia de Madrid, soprano Rocío Martínez, baritone Manuel Mas and countertenor David Miranda.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770? – 1827) is considered one of the most important figures in Western music. Born in Germany, his works bridged the classical and romantic periods in classical music. His works are amongst the most performed in the world, even though he began losing his hearing halfway through his career. He composed Egmont around 1810 for a full symphonic orchestra, and Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93 in 1812. The Symphony has four movements: Allegro vivace e con brio (F major), Allegretto scherzando (B flat major), Tempo di menuetto (F major), and Allegro vivace (F major). I am not the biggest Beethoven fan, to be honest, but it was good. The conductor had a great time.

My main reason to be there was the second part of the show: Carmina Burana (Officially Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis which translates from Latin as “Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images”, quite a mouthful). German author Carl Orff (1895 – 1982) composed the cantata between 1935 and 1936. Most of the lyrics are in Latin, though there is a bit of old German and even old French. The cantata has 25 movements based on 24 Medieval poems, with the first and last movements being the same: O fortuna, which happens to be one of my favourite choir pieces ever. There is one instrumental-only piece, and all the others have vocals – for choir, soprano, baritone and countertenor.

The twenty-five movements are organised in sections, which are officially five, but divided as:

  • Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, empress of the world): 1. O fortuna (Oh, fortune), as I mentioned, I love this choir; 2. Fortune plango vulnera (Regret for the wounds of fortune).
  • I. Primo vere (In spring): 3. Veris leta facies (The joyous face of Spring); 4. Omnia Sol temperat (All the things are warmed by the sun); 5. Ecce gratum (Behold the welcome)
  • Uf dem anger (In the meadow): 6. Tanz (Dance), the only instrumental movement in the cantata; 7. Floret silva nobilis (The noble woods bloom); 8. Chramer, gip die varwe mir (Monger, give me a coloured paint); 9a Reie (Round dance); 9b Swaz hie gat umbe (Those who dance around); 9c Chume, chum, geselle min (Come my dear companion); 9d: Swaz hie gat umbe reprise; 10. Were diu werlt alle min (If the whole world were mine)
  • II. In taberna (In the tavern): 11. Estuans interius (Seething internally); 12. Olim lacus colueram (I once swam in lakes) – this is the piece the countertenor sang, and I am not completely sure the guy was drunk, or playing drunk. 13. Ego sum abbas (I am the abbot); 14. In taberna quando sumus (When we are in the tavern)
  • III. Cour d’amour: 15. Amor volat undique (Love flies everywhere) I have to admit that I did not love the soprano, who sang for the first time at this piece – she sang well, but too low, it was difficult to hear her at times; 16. Dies, nox et omnia (Day, night and everything); 17. Stetit puella (There stood a girl); 18. Circa mea pectora (Inside my chest). 19. Si puer cum puellula (If a boy with a girl). 20. Veni, veni, venias (Come, come, please come) – these are the same lyrics that Final Fantasy VII’s theme for Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel has, and looking at the translation, now I understand why it was never intended to be the psychotic mass-murderer theme… 21. In trutina (On the scales); 22. Tempus est iocundum (Time to jest); 23. Dulcissime (Sweetest lad)
  • Blanziflor et Helena (Blancheflour and Helen); this refers to the romance story of Blancheflour and to Helen of Troy. 24. Ave formosissima (Hail to the loveliest)
  • Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: 25. O fortuna (Oh, fortune)

All in all, it was a great experience, and I had a privileged seat. I really enjoyed the show, as it was expected from something at the Teatro Real. The gentleman next to me slept through the first part and hummed along the second, which was weird. The soprano’s voice was too faint and she tended to sing towards the other side of the theatre, making it hard to hear her, but the baritone was good. The choir was fantastic, and the percussion musicians had a perfectly choreographed exchange of positions to play all the small parts which was really amusing to watch. Especially one who hugged the gong to quiet down the reverberations.

Artists after the Carmina Burana Show

When I came out the theatre, I headed off towards the underground system and reached the train station, which took over 20 minutes – normally, I would have just walked to Sol and take the first train there to connect faster, and stay within the same system. As Sol was closed, this was not an option. When I arrived at Atocha, the platform was almost overflowing as the trains were running with long delays. I think I took a train that should have passed through around 22:30… at 23:00. I was not sure everyone would fit in the train, to be honest. Good thing that they announced a second one for a few minutes later. I made it home past midnight, took a shower and crashed because it was hot – Spain in July. What else is new?

5th August 2023: Prints, Sharks, Mice and Neon (Madrid, Spain)

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I won’t say that the Southern Italy trip was a bad one, but due to the planning blunder, the heatwave and the general not-so-relaxing atmosphere, I kind of needed a low-stakes day out. And what can be lower-stakes than a silly giant shark film? I got myself a ticket to watch Meg 2: The Trench at noon – I’ve found out that my non-dubbed cinema has started doing matinée shows at a reduced price – and planned my day in Madrid around that.

I took the train and arrived in Madrid on time for my ideal connection. Unfortunately the local public transport is chaotic this summer, with both the train system and the underground going through construction, outages and closed stations. As fortunately the city was between heat waves, I decided to walk for 20 minutes instead of waiting for 17 for a train that might or might not come to take me to where I wanted to go.

My first stop was Imprenta Municipal – Artes del Libro, a local free museum dedicated to the history of book printing and binding. The exhibition is hosted in a dedicated building with two levels. The ground floor focuses on the invention and development of the print, both for text and images, and the art of binding and decorating books. There are printing “machines” from the 16th century on, for copying books and texts, and the whole thing gives off a retro feeling – a video actually shows how the machines work even today.

Collage Imprenta Municipal Artes del Libro

The second floor held an exhibition about “Asian Writings” Trazos de Oriente: imágenes, objetos y caligrafías de Asia. It hosts Arabic documents, Mongolian drawings, Chinese writing instruments and Myanma and Hindu praying books, along with items like ex libris and schoolbooks. All very cool.

Exhibition about writing in Asia

I had a little bit of time before the film, so I got a snack, then headed to the nearby Yelmo Cines Ideal to watch my film. Something I’ve learnt is that matinées attract a weird crowd – when I went to watch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, I sat next to someone who narrated the whole film, and this time there was a lady who would tut whenever any of the sharks was on screen. I read the Meg: a novel of deep terror by Steve Alten a lifetime ago, and I enjoyed its albeit-very-liberal adaptation to film, especially because it did have a self-parody tone. It was fun because it was implausible, and it knew it was so. The second and current film, Meg 2: The Trench, has tried to become more of an action-like blockbuster and it takes itself way too seriously in my opinion. But there are three giant prehistoric sharks on screen at times, and I’m simple in that regard. Bigger and more teeth, I’m all for that.

The film finished around 14:00. I was not hungry, so I just grabbed myself a drink at Starbucks. I had a ticket at 15:00 at the Nomad Museo Inmersivo (and it was bad timing I guess, because just a couple of days later they opened a new exhibit). When I first read about it, the idea reminded me of Mori TeamLab Museum, since the art is all digital. The museum is staged in two floors. The lower one hosts the immersive projection ward and the shop. The upper one hosts the entrance and the “activities”. I thought that I’d ask if I could come in early, and they had absolutely no problem with that, so I entered around 14:35.

As you climb down the stairs, you have a very cool corridor with mirrors and lights that lead to the projection area. I had a ticket with entrance and “iris picture”, so an employee took me to get that one (I guess because the photographer was about to go on a break). We had to try a couple of times as it was hard to force my eyelid open under the bright light of the flash. The photographer was very patient with me and we were done in a few minutes.

Interactive Museum Nomad access corridor

I found my way back to the beginning – the museum is surprisingly small. The immersive projection is shown on the four walls and the floor. The projection I watched was called Utopia 1.0, where millions of digital blocks work as a tridimensional Lego set that sort of “build” a surreal world with dragons, deer, sculptures, whales, high rises, dinosaurs… The whole thing takes around 20 minutes and you can watch sprawled on the floor, or sitting up on a pouf – I chose this last option as it allowed me to turn around.

Interative Museum Nomad: Utopia projection

Following the projection, I went upstairs to do the activities. There’s a virtual reality experience where you get to travel the cosmos and see a lot of “space cetaceans”. I wonder why digital artists are so keen on whales… Another of the activities consists on “painting” planets with a giant brush as they float on a wall, and when you colour them all, you get to see penguins on a rocket or something… I did not catch it well because a bunch of kids burst in and took over. On another wall, there is a bunch of neons that you can play with using an app that you download on your phone, and blast music so they pulsate with that. Finally, the nice attendant is at the ready to take your picture at some stairs photo call (I think it is the glorified emergency exit), and you can go back down using a spiral slide.

There is finally a last corridor with lights and you end up at the shop, where you can start all over again, as there is no limit about how long you can stay in the museum. I really liked the first corridor, so I went back there for a while. Then I walked into the projection area again just in time to watch the dinosaurs roam once more. A fun detail is that even the toilets are “in character” with neon and messages.

Interactive Museum Nomad exhibits

On my way out, I bought myself a shark glass at the shop. There was also a very fun pufferfish cocktail glass, but I thought it would be awful to clean after use – not that the shark one is going to be much easier though… I left and headed off to a place I’ve always tangentially felt curious about, even if I’m not really the target public for it – it’s called Casita-Museo del Ratón Pérez.

Ratón Pérez or Mouse Pérez (also called Ratoncito Pérez, Little Mouse Pérez) is the equivalent of the Tooth Fairy in Spanish-speaking tradition. In 1894, writer Luis Coloma was commissioned with writing a tale for the future King Alfonso XIII, who had lost his first tooth. This tale penned the folklore mouse into print. According to the story, Mouse Pérez lived in central Madrid, in a biscuit box in the patisserie Prast, situated in number 8 of Madrid’s Calle Arenal. The town hall installed a plaque to commemorate the place and when the shopping centre in that building became almost empty, someone came up with the idea of building a “museum-house” dedicated to the mouse.

Museum-House of Mouse Pérez

The kids had a blast for sure, the visit is a forty-minute activity 100% dedicated to them . The guide has them running round looking for stuff and going into small doors. I snooped around and found it an interesting business model – though it falters when you pay a bit of attention to detail: books like 1984 or anatomy guides may very well be interesting, but a bit out of place in a children’s museum. At the end of the visit, the guided asked me what I was doing there and I told him I… wanted to see what the fuss was about, what kind of things they did in such “alternative” museums. We chatted away for a bit before I left.

To end the day, I did some shopping and I headed back home – the trains were delayed, but I eventually made it home and had a pizza dinner, because I suck at staying fed on day trips. Truth be told, I wanted to step by a famous bar to eat a calamari sandwich, but it… was complicated, with lots of signage on where to stand and wait to be seated, but there was nobody around, so in the end I decided I did not care enough for the calamari. Some other day – I’ve been saying that for months now though…

8th September 2021: Impromptu Madrid Run! (Spain)

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This was oh my god so unplanned that I kept improvising throughout the whole day! It all started because a Spanish publisher decided to translate a non-fiction book I’ve loved for ages – Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. The publisher flew the author in for interviews, and I guess I was disappointed that no signing event was organised. I asked the author once and the publisher another time, then shrugged it off when I got no answer. There were some interviews scheduled for him, and a book fair coming up. I guessed it was just not meant to be, but I did feel disappointed.

And then, on the 7th, Mr Adelstein shot me a message that he would sign my book if I could go to Madrid and meet him at one of his breaks. As you can imagine I just… said yes (I could not meet him that very same evening because of travel times, but I could make it on the 8th. And there I went).

It was the first time taking the train since the whole pandemic thing (hell, I had not even been on a train since Paris 2020), and a weekday so I chose the times carefully to hopefully get close to as few people as possible – it worked, as both rides nobody sat next to me.

I arrived in Madrid and transferred easily, then got out at a new station in the area of Gran Vía. The Tokyo Vice book came out that day, so I wanted to go to a big book store that would hopefully have it already. My first stop, FNAC, failed miserably, so I went to La Casa del Libro, where they told me I would find the book in a completely different section where I actually did. But at least I had it in my hands, even if I had apparently not used my credit card for so long, I got the right PIN for the wrong card (≧▽≦).

After I had the book in Spanish – I’ve owned a first edition copy in English since 2010 – I had thought that I should get a small detail for the author as he was making time for me. As he had to continue on his travelling, I decided to do something small and “consumable”, so I came up with buying some typical Madrid candy – violet sweets from La Violeta. I’d never been inside the shop, but it’s an adorable little place dating back to 1915.

It was still early for my appointment at 14:00, so I decided to head towards a square that hosts an Egyptian temple of all things. On the way I made a stop at a Starbucks for a Vanilla Frappucino, I figured out that the amount of calories would get me going and I would not have to eat until I was back – looking back it was a weird thing, but it made sense in my head at the time. I strolled around the park next to the palace Palacio Real.

The way to the temple was completely blocked off due to construction, so I decided to backtrack. I walked up the great avenue in the middle of the city Gran Vía. As I walked around, minding my business and listening to music, I kept remembering a comic by Sarah Sanders, in which she makes fun of how people won’t leave you alone when you’re wearing headphones and, well, minding your own business.

I reached the square with the fountain to the goddess Cybele Fuente de la Cibeles and the related Palace Palacio de Comunicaciones (by Antonio Palacios). The fountain dates back to the 18th century, when king Carlos III revamped a lot of Madrid trying to make it more beautiful and similar to other European capitals.

Carlos III is also responsible for the design of the modern version of one of the former wall gates, called the gate to Alcalá, the nearby town, Puerta de Alcalá. This area was declared Unesco World Heritage Site in summer 2021 as Paisaje de la Luz, so Madrid was in a celebratory mood.

I headed into the park Parque del Retiro, which is also included in the Heritage declaration. The park was initially built in the first half of the 17th century, as part of the royal recreational areas. Carlos III opened it up as public park a hundred years later. Aside from the obvious green areas, the park features fountains, palaces and sculptures. I walked past some of them. First I came across the fountain “of the turtles” Fuente de los Galápagos.

There is also a large pond, aptly called the big pond Estanque Grande del Retiro populated by carps, to whose side stands the monument to Alfonso XII – Monumento a Alfonso XII.

Nearby the pond stands the fountain called the artichoke fountain, Fuente de la alcachofa.

I walked to the fountain that depicts the fall of Lucifer from Heaven, Fuente del Ángel Caído. The fountain itself was built in order to exhibit the sculpture by Ricardo Bellve, who originally created it in plaster. The figure would then be cast in iron for the World Exhibit of 1878 in Paris, and eventually placed in the Retiro.

I strolled back towards one of my favourite points in the park, but that’s because I like iron-and-glass architecture – a little building called Palacio de Cristal, which has a small pond around.

Finally I headed over the little café where I had arranged to meet with Mr Adelstein. He arrived shortly after. He signed my book, but truth be told, I had also brought my first-edition copy, which happens to be full of post-its from the first time I read it. He was happy to sign that one too, and to my eternal mortification… he went over all the notes. I almost died right then and there. We chatted for a little, I gave him the violet candy and he had some umeboshi sweets for me too. I babbled that I was very happy that he had made some time for me, and he told me “but you were so polite on twitter and the publisher said no signatures!” and I kind of died again.

In the end, our meeting was only 15 minutes, but I have not felt so happy in a very long time – that he specifically took time felt amazing. We took pictures and even had a safe mask-hug. Afterwards I headed towards the nearest train station so I could be on my way before the afternoon rush came through, so that was it for the day.

Walking distance: 12.39 km

4th September 2018: また今度 with a red rose petal (HYDE LIVE 2018, Strike 3) {Japan, summer 2018}

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First thing in the morning, after D****e left for work, I got packed (hoping that my suitcase did not get lost again). Later, I went to Odaiba [お台場] on my own as she was working. It was my last HYDE live for the season, and my last day in Japan, too. It was windy and it rained on and off, but it was not bad especially considering that there was a super typhoon in Osaka that had slammed a ship against a bridge and cut down communications to the airport… I mean, compared to that I won’t even complain that my hairdo went to hell because woah there. I just had to not worry about my own flight a few hours later.

I checked out the Venus Fort to check if there were any new goods, but as there were not, I moved on. There are two exhibit rooms about cars in the area. One deals with newer and racing cars – MegaWeb Toyota City Showcase [メガウェブ トヨタ シティ ショウケース].

A collage with some cool and futuristic-looking car. The logo reads MegaWeb Toyota City Showcase

The other one is quite the opposite, and focuses on classic and historical cars – History Garage [ヒストリーガレージ].

History Garage classic cars.

It was at this time 12:55, so I hurried to the giant Gundam that stands in front of the Diver City. I wanted to check whether it moved at 13:00 and I was lucky. It changed its helmet and all (≧∇≦).

Gundam robot looking up to the sky. it is white and taller than the two-story shopping centre behind it.

After that, I went to eat get some food. The food court in the shopping centre was not too busy as it was a weekday, so I decided to sit down and have some ramen. I really love the way they prepare eggs for ramen, so I wanted ramen with egg. Unfortunately, could not read the super long name of the ramen to save my life, so I just asked for it using the number. The girl just turned to the kitchen and ordered ‘tamago’ (egg), which was pretty frustrating.

Ramen bowl with algae, chasuu (pork), spring onions and noodles

Once I had eaten, I went to see the waves, because even if the typhoon was making its effect known, and I am still fascinated by hot storms. Odaiba is, in the end, an artificial island in the middle of the bay, so it makes strange patterns sometimes.

A cargo harbour with unsettled sea

And I got a drink at Starbucks.

Starbucks plastic cup. It says thank you and it has a smiley face and a heart

I joined the people wait for HYDE to come in, waved hi at him, and thought that he did not look too awake. Afterwards, I decided that I had not spent enough in this trip (sarcasm). Thus, I went to buy something else: since I liked HYDE’s opening act STARSET, I wanted to get their CD and M&G experience, which included a handshake and an autograph. I felt that they had done an awesome job and deserved the credit and the cheering.

Once D****e made it, we went inside. By now, I had figured out what I had found amiss on Saturday and Sunday regarding HYDE’s live 2018 and made peace with it. Or maybe it was just my last day, and I really wanted to enjoy myself. I found a good spot in Zepp Tokyo – one thing I really like about going to converts there is that they keep the barriers up to separate the areas of the floor. That allows me to lean onto something and I don’t need to stay back to have something to hold on to, so I can get rather close even when I’m tired or sore. This time it was even better – since I was closer than usually, I managed to find a petal from one of the roses HYDE threw as goodbye at the end.

STARSET’s setlist:
1. Frequency
2. Carnivore
3. Gravity Of You
4. Telescope
5. Monster feat. HYDE
6. Ricochet
7. Bringing It Down
8. My Demons

HYDE’s setlist:
1. Fake Divine
2. After light
4. Out
5. Set in Stone
6. Don’t hold back
7. Zipang
8. Who’s gonna save us
9. 監獄ロック [Kangoku Rock]
10. Rise or Die
11. Lion
12. Two Face
13. Devil’s side
14. Midnight Celebration II
(pause)
15. Kiss of Death
16. Ahead
17. Rise up
18. Ordinary World (Duran Duran cover)

After HYDE’s concert was over, I put my rose petal away, and I found my way towards the STARSET M&G. They were were extremely nice. We were around ten people, and they paid attention to each of us and they shook our hands (whoops, I forgot to take my wristband off). They were pretty patient and nice to everybody. Even after they left the venue, they were willing to sign items for people who had not purchased their merchandise (even though 3,500 ¥ for CD and signature is almost a gift).

Zepp Tokyo Venue from above

Starset CD with the band's autographs

A red rose petal

Finally we got home and D****e helped me so I got my trains sorted out to go to the airport the following day.

Night view of Tokyo, with Tokyo Tower lit up

30th August 2018: Loud Head {Japan, summer 2018}

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I took the train to Shinjuku [新宿] and I walked from there to Shibuya [渋谷] to have a thought or two at life. In my walk I crossed Yoyogi Kōen [代々木公園] and visited Meiji Jingu [明治神宮].

Then I strolled down Harajuku [原宿] – I had recently found out that the station is going to be torn down, so I had to say goodbye before heading over to the shops.

I finally made it to Shibuya [渋谷]. I had some Starbucks chocolate drink with around ten million kilocalories (≧∇≦). I went into Tower Records, Mandarake, and then Tsutaya.

Ironically, I finally took a train back to Shinjuku [新宿] to meet D****e for dinner (guess what?! In the Shinjuku MyLord!), and we saw the lights on the Tōkyō Tochō [東京都庁] (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building).

28th August 2018: Easy-peasy {Japan, summer 2018}

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Having felt so lousy the previous day I decided to take an easy day with friends. I took another Nakano Broadway [中野ブロードウェイ] trip, although I did not find anything interesting – actually I did but I decided to leave buying for later and the next time I came it would be gone. Not the item, the whole shop (≧∇≦).

I met B**** for Chinese food in Shibuya [渋谷], drinks (because we had free Starbucks!) and then I got a haircut! Not that my hair was long but it had started losing shape and it did not look neat. My hair saloon was called Number 76 and it was in Omotesando [表参道].

This was a bit of a weird experience – I got my hair dry-cut, then washed, then styled, and then I got a massage – and B**** treated me to it because she’s awesome and generous ♥

Afterwards we met with D****e and had dinner at a very weird meat place in Shinjuku [新宿] (once again in MyLord because we decided it is very convenient and it has nice places). I mean, this is a salad…

23rd & 24th September 2017: San Sebastián Film Festival (Spain)

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23rd September 2017: Let’s go!

Overnight, I headed off to San Sebastián as a Weekend Escapade to the Festival de Cine de San Sebastián International Film Festival that is held over there because they were projecting a Japanese film and the main actor and the director were coming over to present it. The film was “Sandome no Satsujin” [三度目の殺人], the director is Hirozaku Kore-eda and the actor in question was Fukuyama Masaharu, of whom I am a big fan.

I started off at 22:00 on Friday as I had to take a bus to go to Intercambiador de Avenida de América, which is one of the bus hubs in Madrid. My bus to San Sebastián left at 00:30, so in the end I had to wait for almost two hours until I could board. I was dozing for most of the trip so it did not feel too long. I arrived in San Sebastián bus station at around 6:50 in the morning and I had decided that I would go to the so-called Shell Beach, Playa de la Concha, to watch sunrise. I had been told that cafeterias would be open at that time, but not even the one in the bus station was ready.

A beach at night. The sea is calm and it reflects the city lights

My plan of watching a sea sunrise was trumped by the fact that the sea is towards the west, but I still could take a couple of nice pictures.

The sun rising, tinting the sky and the sea blue and orange

Among them were the beach itself, the “skyline” and the Catedral del Buen Pastor (Good Shepherd Cathedral).

A gothic or neogothic church clock tower, spiky with pointy arches

I wandered around, found the theatre where the film was going to be projected and as the sun started warming up, I started feeling less like a homeless dog.

The sun rising along a promenade

I found the local Starbucks at around 9:00 to get some rest, a coffee, and a cookie before I went to the Aquarium, which opened at 10:00. The Aquarium de San Sebastián is a bit more of a museum than anything else. The first part (second floor) is dedicated to the history of ocean commerce, with different types of ships, and rooms focused on the local harbour, companies, traditional boat racing and whaling. This includes an actual right whale skeleton and several sperm whale teeth and some baleens. The second part (first floor) is dedicated to general fishing and the local oceanography society, including machinery and live specimens.

Finally, after all this, you get to the actual aquarium (yay). There are several small tanks and then a big tank with a walk-through tunnels. The inhabitants are pretty standard, with lots of small fish and several magnifying-glass tanks to make the animals look bigger than they are. The third floor hosts the tropical fish including the piranha and the clown fish. All in all it is a nice place, however, it was under construction and some tanks were covered by dark plastic. After that I left the aquarium and I decided to go up Mount Urquil, which hosts a castle and quite nice views of the city and the ocean.

A small building entrance which yields to the aquarium. Collage showing different exhibits inside: a whale skeleton, a seven-grilled shark in alcohol, a trilobites fossil, a shark jaw, a starfish, a shark swimming above through an aquarium tunnel, a lionfish, sarks swimming in the aquarium

I walked by John Malkovich while heading there, but he did not look like he was in the mood (or the clothes) to be recognised, so I did not bug him. Then I started my climb up the mount towards the the local castle, Castillo de La Mota, along the batteries of cannons. The castle has a small history museum, and a look-out balcony, and the top has been transformed into a church, with a giant Christ overlooking. The truth is I was mostly improvising on my visits as the week was hell between work and the death of a family member.

Views from and of the ruins of the castle - the sea, the wall, and the old cannons

After that I had lunch and headed off to the theatre to check out the coming out of people. At this point I planned to wait for the actor and the director to come into the theatre, but for some reason I checked out the schedule, and the name of the actor had been taken out of the presentation! That made me sad for a little while, but I decided that I was okay with it, that it would not be a drama. I had taken my chance, and at least I had gotten some air after all the pain and drama throughout the week. I guess that helped relativise the sadness. I went to a park near the beach to get some sun and enjoy the last days of summer.

A 19th century building with large windows. A banner on the façade reads Festival de San Sebastián 65

A banner for the cinema festival, showing posters for different films. The third murder is on the bottom left

Around 15:00 I returned to the theatre, Teatro Victoria Eugenia to start lining as I wanted a seat close enough to see the subtitles- and I found a place on sixth row which was pretty good. As this was a special people’s vote session, we got a ballot to give our opinions. Then I settled to wait, and eventually at 16:00 the presenter came in, and to my surprise, she announced Kore-eda and Fukuyama. That made me so happy I could have died right there and then, and the best was still to come. Kore-eda told us about the film. Apparently several people consider that he has changed genre, but he told us that he disagrees and that he still tried to make a human drama. However, he thought that we should judge. Then Fukuyama told us that he enjoyed San Sebastián and that they had been having pinchos and that he was happy to have returned. I was shaking so hard I could barely hold the phone as I recorded.

The stage inside the theatre

Director Kore-eda and actor Fukuyama Masaharu on stage

Promo of the film The Third Murder from the Festival Webpage

All this would have made me very happy already, but there is more. “Sandome no Satsujin”, or “The third murder” tells the story of a lawyer whose job is to defend a man accused of murder. As this would be the defendant’s third murder, if found guilty he will be handed the death penalty. The film is a complex story, completely unpredictable – or I was too enthralled to see the ending coming – but when everything fell into place I felt like gawking.

Furthermore, there was more to come – at the end of the film both Kore-eda and Fukuyama had stayed behind. as I was coming out I looked up and told them “otsukaresama deshita”, and both of them bowed and replied “arigatou”. Then we waited for them to come down from the second floor, from where they had taken the ovation. I dropped my vote and rushed through the red carpet. As other people talked to the director I made a beedive towards Fukuyama. It was then or never, and it turned out to be then.

Director Kore-eda and actor Fukuyama Masaharu waving for a picture on the street after the film

I was shaking inside but I managed to tell them that I had been a fan of his since Galileo times and I asked for his autograph. He told me thank you (at some point the interpreter tried to help, but I was busy dying and trying to get my meaning across). He signed my Galileo booklet and I asked him to take a picture with me, to which he also agreed. And thus I fulfilled my wildest dreams (and look horrible in the picture). After Fukuyama had continued on the red carpet I managed to sit down on a curb and I was on the phone with my friend C*****, who prevented me from going completely hysterical in fanby bliss.

After I told her everything, I was pretty dead so I headed off to he hotel (pension) that I had booked for the night, and pretty much giggled and crashed, and uncrashed and giggled some more. At 23:00 I was completely zonked out, not without realising that I had headed to get some rest without grabbing my freebies and some merchandising I wanted from the festival.

Fukuyama Masaharu's autograph on a DVD booklet

24th September 2017: And back

I left the hotel early, around 8:30 to head towards the cinema area and buy the short Festival guide (not the big one for 22€ but the little one for 1.5€) and get the free newspaper. I bought a coffee to go and headed back to the bus station, when my bus was at 10:00. I could not sleep and the Wi-Fi was not working, but I could watch Youtube videos on the seat screen. I managed to get home around 17:00 after a couple of buses, and I was pretty much dead. However, it was totally worth it. I think this is why I was hyper enough to decide to go to Vienna next month…

31st July 2017: Little Korea and Tsukishima {Japan, summer 2017}

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I met up with B**** in Shin Okubo [新大久保] to walk around Korean Town make-up shops. Afterwards we headed off to Iidabashi [飯田橋] because I needed to drop by the school I had been at the previous year and B**** was nice enough to come with me. we took the chance to have a great sushi lunch at a bit of a more refined sushi place than our usual sushi lines. It was so very amazing!

Then I wanted to go to Ikebukuro [池袋] again because I had not found something I wanted in the Shibuya [渋谷] Tokyu Hands on Saturday, and we found ourselves a nice place to sit down and have something to drink (aka, Starbucks) because it was our chance to try whatever lemon beverage they were selling at the moment.

Then I headed off to Tsukishima [月島] to have okonomiyaki and monja with Ms-san and D****e. And then there was a parfait / icecream / whatever.

28th July 2017: Shopping at Ikebukuro {Japan, summer 2017}

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This is something I had never thought I would have done, but it was strangely fun – I went shopping along Ikebukuro [池袋]. And not fandom shopping – well, yes, there was fandom shopping, but… It was weird. I was in the Book Off as always that I’m around. I was also in the Sanryo Gift Gate but there was no Yoshikitty to be found.

The original intent was going to the Sunshine City Aquarium [サンシャイン水族館] but when I arrived there was a very long line, so I decided to wander around for a while. I accidentally ran into a T-shirt that I loved and had to buy – full of sciency formulae, and a bag I really liked. I found it a bit expensive, so “decided” not to buy it.

After some conbini lunch I went back to the Aquarium and decided to wait as the line did not seem to be about to be longer than 15 minutes (much better than the 45 before).

The Aquarium was full and it never fails to surprise me how Japanese kids are this wild in aquariums in general- but this time I got pushed around by grannies too! XD I also found a new appreciation for pelicans and ended up with a lot of pelicanbutt pictures.

After the aquarium I headed to the Closet Child on my way to the station and bought a very cool T-shirt from a group I don’t really listen to, but very cool, and 1000¥. And then, because I had not really gotten myself anything too expensive in Closet Child, I gave into temptation and went back for the handbag. Many people have complimented me for it, and I really love it.

Afterwards I met up with B**** for sushi and Starbucks while D****e was in a fancy dinner on a boat, with my camera (yay phone pictures). After I got into the train, I was messaging with D****e and we realised that we were on the same train. What are the chances? Very, very small XD

13th July 2017: Shinkai (Deep Ocean) {Japan, summer 2017}

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I headed off to Ueno Kōen [野公園]. The first thing I did was exchanging my JR Pass. Then I hit the Natural History Museum Kokuritsu Kagaku Hakubutsukan [国立科学博物館] because I had seen on Tuesday that they were running a temporary exhibition on Deep Ocean. Since last year’s Hunters of the Sea was good, I had decided to check it out.

The exhibition, called Shinkai [深海] ran several parts. The first of them (bioluminescence and Hadal zone) had a bunch of interesting specimens both kept in formol, along with there being big screen showing the creatures in their natural habitat. Of course, Japan, being Japan, was much more fascinated by the screens rather than the actual fish. Some of the most interesting things that they had exhibited included: a giant Antarctic octopus ( Megaleledone setebos), a Pacific footballfish (Himantolophus sagamius, those that have a little light on an antenna on their head), a huge chimera and a lepidion (Lepidion schmidti). However the central pieces of the exhibition were the Pacific sleeper shark (Somniosus pacificus) and the Atlantic giant squid (Architeuthis dux).

Another part focused on geology and ocean floor exploiting, alongside some earthquake research, especially on the Great Tohoku Earthquake. The most interesting part here were the chimneys and the Manganese nodules.

There was a bit on augmented microbiology but that is not that key XD

After I left the exhibition I headed off to Yushima Tenmangu [湯島天満宮], which is associated with plum trees, but none of them were blooming at the time. It also enshrines the Kami of Learning, so I hope it helps with my Japanese.

Afterwards, I took the Ginza line to Shibuya [渋谷] to meet up with B**** for some Starbucks and sushi. Sushi is always good!

2nd April 2016: Círculo de Bellas Artes & Tsugaru-shamisen music (Madrid, Spain)

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Círculo de Bellas Artes (CBA) is a Spanish cultural and artistic association founded in 1880, and they had partnered with The Japan Foundation to hold a concert by Kenichi Yoshida [吉田 健一], a famous Tsugaru-shamisen [津軽三味線] player / artist.

I got to Madrid in the late afternoon, with enough time to get to one of the most hidden Starbucks in the city, which was rather crowded as it was Saturday. Fortunately I found myself a table to spend the extra time (public transport transport paranoia, maybe. But it’s not paranoia if they’re really after you and you have been stuck in Spain commuter trains for hours already). And well, a Starbucks a year and all that… And I mean, I was planning to skip dinner so a Vanilla Frappuccino would keep me going.

The concert was to be held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes building, located in downright in the middle of Madrid. It was designed by the Spanish architect Antonio Palacios and erected in the early 1920s. From the outside, I had always thought it looked pretty weird.

Inside, however, it was a different feeling. I had never imagined the inside of the building was going to be this neat! The CBA Headquarters has a neat staircase, an impressive ballroom, and a reportedly-cool observatory at the top. Unfortunately, getting to the observatory required lining and I was not willing to do so either before or after the concert. However, I did get some views from the second-floor windows!

The concert was in the inner theatre Teatro Fernando de Rojas, a fully-functioning theatre on that second floor, with about 400 chairs, and I had got a fairly good seat so I was happy and could sneak up a couple of pictures.

The concert in itself was amazing. Kenichi Yoshida, the younger brother in the Yoshida Brothers band, comes regularly to Spain to teach shamisen – a classical Japanese string instrument – in Barcelona. Oftentimes he makes the most out of his time and organises recitals and other activities. The concert was a mixture of old and new melodies, played along some drumming. The concert lasted for about an hour, and it felt very short. As Yoshida is a frequent visitor, he can speak a tiny bit of Spanish, too, and he tried that. It was a lovely touch.

23rd August 2014: Tea Ceremony, Imperial Gardens and Sushi! {Japan, summer 2014}

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For my last day I had thought about trying to go to see Gackt as Uesugi Kenshin in Joetsu, but (un)fortunately I realised late Friday evening that he would not be there. Good that at least I noticed before I was there and had spent four hours on the train XD

Thus I talked my friend into coming to a tea ceremony with me near Tokyo Station in Chiyoda [千代田]. This was very fun because the tea-lady (Tea master? Tea mistress??) allowed us to participate and actually bat the matcha to make it bubble up. There are no photographs of that, but I have one of the delicious takoyaki we snacked on as we were waiting for our timeslot, along the guy making them.

Then we headed off for the Imperial Palace East Gardens, Kōkyo Higashi Gyoen [皇居東御苑], which I had not been able to visit last year. The gardens run alongisde the Imperial Palace and hold the ruins of what used to be the Edo Castle, Edo-jo [江戸城].

Then she indulged me in a very stupid desire I had, and that was having something sitting down in the Shibuya Starbucks, and taking a few pics from there. It was silly but it made me intensely happy.

As we headed back we rode by surprise fireworks.

The day ended with sushi, and the trip too. It was over for this year, and I don’t know when I’ll come back, but I know I will. Somehow.

It has to happen.