Madrid, Spain

I have to admit, I was a little sceptical about Spain, seeing as it´s such a fad "in" travel destination right now, but I am really enjoying it. I realized in Barcelona that it was Semana Santa, something I totally had not factored into my travel plans. Last night in Zaragoza I started seeing people walking all over the city in those weird robes and carrying the wizard hoods and realized that they were assembling for some kind of function. Then later I heard a bunch of noise so went towards it to investigate, and ran right into a fucking procession of one of the brotherhoods (even though at least half were women) that carry the saints through the streets. I was thrilled since I thought they only do this in Sevilla. What always shocks American tourists is that the outfits and hoods they wear are identical to those used by the Ku Klux Klan. Of course, the KKK stole this from them and they´ve been doing it for hundreds of years before them, so it´s not fair to associate this Spanish custom with racism. Still, I think it´s hilarious and since I don´t know what these people are actually called, I will just be the ignorant American that I am and call them Klansmen. It lasted a long time with a lot of drumming, then at the end a bunch of people jumped in the streets to follow the procession. I jumped right in with them. They moved very slowly through the streets and then stopped in one place where they got out microphones and started giving some kind of a speech. This got kind of boring so I left and got a donner kebab. Going back the way I came I ran right into another procession, and this one was a hell of a lot bigger. I think they´re different brotherhoods that represent different neighborhoods of the city. Of course wikipedia would have the answer, I just don´t actually care. In this one they were all wearing purple Klansmen outfits. At this point the crowds gathered were massive. Once they passed I tried to get out of there, but the police had blocked off most of the major streets even to pedestrian traffic, because more processions were coming. The sea of people brought me to another street where yet another procession was going down, and this one was the longest so far, with a huge float of some saint at the end iluminated by at least 100 electric candles. Before the saint there was a line of Klansmen carrying staffs that at the top had a big orb with the words "Lágrima I", followed by "Lágrima II", "Lágrima III" and so on until I think "Lágrima VII." Lágrima means teardrop, but I don´t really know what this represents. Did Jesus shed seven tears on the cross or something? I am amazed by the number of Chinese immigrants here. It´s just kind of strange to hear Chinese people speaking Spanish. There are also a lot of immigrants from Latin America. In an internet cafe yesterday in Zaragoza I could tell that the woman at the counter was from Latin America by her accent. Then I had to print something and she had some difficulty getting the printer to work, so we ended up talking for a little bit. She was from Venezuela. I didn´t even ask her why she lived in Spain, she volunteered the information: because of Chavez. She told me that right now there are a lot of Venezuelans living in Spain because of Chavez. I once heard that Madrid is considered ugly, but I highly disagree. I think it´s very nice. And being here has actually made me wonder just what IS the big deal with Barcelona?

One month ago I was in Moscow.
Two months ago I was in Doha.