SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29
Chloe lost it this morning, sending Hazel and me on a walk without her. The funny thing is that I missed her in a matter of minutes and can’t imagine ever traveling without her, (which makes me seriously rethink leaving Milan for Lisbon soon after we settle in Milan, among other reasons).
MADRID SUBURB (CITY?) WALK
This strange suburb where we are staying has four- to eight-lane streets with wide sidewalks, making it a very anachronistic commuting community. We passed large empty areas where buildings will be erected or where they are being built, some barricaded from entry by concrete blocks and wire fences. The only explanation I can come up with for the closure of certain areas were the black taped wires poking through the dusty, hard ground; they must be live. One building complex situated around a courtyard and pool appeared to be mostly occupied. If this suburb city is ever finished, it will be a city unto itself.
PRINCIPLE PIO MALL
After the calming walk, we left for downtown Madrid to see the Christmas markets. But first there was more shopping to be done in the Principle Pio mall’s Levi store, where the jeans fit Chloe. But it seems that in all of Spain, there are no Levi jeans her size; her legs are too long, her waist too tiny.
Not all was lost, though, we left the mall with a beautiful grey, wool coat. Lunch, across the street outside under a plastic awning at a traditional Spanish restaurant, unfortunate wasn’t very good because Chloe told us she has been hungry every day because she can’t get enough vegan food at lunchtime.
SUNSET AND CHRISTMAS SCENES
Much to our disappointment, the sun was setting when we left the restaurant. All this shopping has made us tense. It’s hard to shop, when we would rather be exploring the city.
From near the opera, we passed by a lovely little garden with a rectangular pond and three fountains. Three young men street danced by it. Then we joined the crushingly crowded pedestrian streets on the way to Sol de Major, passing a man dressed as a tree, another balancing on one hand, painted gold and white, holding his body in the air over a motorcycle.
Next, a girls’ choir sang Christmas carols, a man spray painting psychedelic paintings at high speed with acid rock music blaring from his boom box , and a cellist and two violinists accompanied the performance of a woman moving and balancing a ball on her head, her leg, and her torso without ever letting the ball touch the ground. It was a bit like going to the circus. Like everyone else, we clutched our backpacks close to our bodies.
HEADING BACK TO COSLADA
We turned toward Atocha, also loaded with people, and cut over to a side street, hoping to avoid the crowds, that ran parallel to Atocha. Relief. It was still bustling but for different reasons, people waited outside a cinema, and others filled tables of a trendy neighborhood outdoor restaurants and bars.
The little market in front of Reine Sofia on the way to the train station felt quaint by comparison to Sol de. Major. Arriving back in Coslada at 9:30, we ate a salad, watched some Netflix, and Chloe and I fought. So much stress with Milan impending. Chloe is not only dealing with her trepidation about the next phase of our trip, but all transitions are destabilizing for her. Chloe needs a lot of support.
Yet again, we’ve become accustomed to our living situation –no kitchen sink or light fixtures, nocturnal kitties, a large screen TV and located in a weirdly remote construction site — but when we arrive here at the end of a day, it feels like home.
