How is this for pretty much my first conversation in Spain, and in Spanish what’s more?

“Pardon sir, in order for ´something´ street?”
“Oh , umm, wait. I think…there“
“Here?“
“Yes“
“Thanks so much“
“That´s ok“

You know the funny part about that? I was the one being asked for directions. So a Spanish guy asked me, a kiwi who had been in the country for 2 hours, for directions in his own country. Priceless. There´s probably a middle aged man lost wandering the streets of Madrid right about now but hey it felt good to speak Spanish and give someone directions.

Madrid itself was grand, especially the palace. And so much more since that particular day entry was free for EU citizens so I was Dutch that day again.

I was staying in a hostel and met a guy called Eli. He was pseudo Jewish Israeli Canadian American. How’s that for a combination! Almost more mixed up than Dutch, Polish, and Irish. Anyway, he was heading to Seville the next day so I said hey jump on in. Provided I picked up the Renault OK the next morning, which actually went swimmingly.

I wasn’t planning on spending any time in Seville on the way down but we heard there was a festival on. Boy am I glad I did stay for the evening! After Flamenco dancing, a horse parade, and hundreds of Spanish in traditional dress, I was travelling south. You just had to be in the atmosphere to appreciate it. The whole town had turned out for this festival and it was amazing to see.

On the way to Seville I had a Flight of the Conchords moment with Eli. I was telling him about possums for some reason and I said

“Yeah they´re pests“
And he was like “what?“
“They´re pests“
“You mean like they´re angry?“
“No, pests“
“Ok so they´re pissed you say“
“Oh, ha ha, no pests“ in a more international accent.

He finally got the idea although I do watch the way I sound my vowels now.

For lunch we stopped at a supermarket for bread and some sort of filling. I picked out some pate and since he´s Jewish he asked if there´s any pork in it. Of course everything was in Spanish and I said “I can´t read most of it but I´m pretty sure it won´t“. He was a bit hesitant but in the end decided to risk it. On the way to the counter he asked someone if they could translate the ingredients. “Sure, it has pork, bacon, umm some sort of other pig meat…“ OK OK I got the idea. Suffice to say it didn´t go in our shopping trolley. Looks like I picked out the worst one possible for him.

That night after Seville I drove until about 1.30 am then slept in the car before catching the ferry to Morocco.