My fifth day

 Sunday, March 29, 2026

The weather today was unusually cold and bitter, despite the sun, and with warnings for strong winds later in the morning. 

I had my first breakfast out in a cozy café down the street - hot chocolate and a croissant - and then set out on my quest to find El Rastro, the famed flea market. On my way I captured the light on these buildings, looking like a Di Quirico painting. It was the only picture I'd take all day, due to warnings of active pickpockets 😱

The flea market was arranged on both sides of a warren of old criscrossisng streets with booths selling anything you could imagine, clothes, leather goods, jewelry, scarves... I went through everything, holding on to my bag, and picked up a couple of things. I even found 2 dog toys in a store run by two Chinese ladies bickering loudly. After a while the wind picked up and blew down some awnings and I decided to head home, where I could talk to dad and then to my sister. 

Then I received a lunch invitation to meet Gracielita, the daughter of my friend Graciela, and her family. I had to get ready in a jiffy and go hail a taxi - not so easy in my part of the town, where many areas have been cordoned off for Easter processions, causing the traffic to move at a snails pace.

The lunch was at the fancy Arzabál restaurant, located on the side of the El Retiro park, where the wind today shook the new flowers, and flattened the fur of the little faces of the dogs being walked by their owners, bent against the wind. 

The food was divine, starters of sauteed mushrooms, baked leeks, steamed shrimp, roasted artichokes, and thinly sliced tomatoes with slivers of fresh tuna. Main dish merluza - not that I could finish mine! After that feast I took another cab back to my place, again suffering through the traffic and having to walk the last bit, when the cab got totally stuck.  

I came back to rest, but then received a message from a friend of Karen's, so off I went in another cab and met her, Madita, in an interesting neighborhood which I hadn't visited yet, and where we chatted about everything, the way women, who hardly know each other can 😂 over two cups of tea. When we parted ways it as 8pm, the time having moved an hour forward due to summer time, and I flagged another cab to go home. I got stuck in an even worse traffic jam and had to exit the car. When I turned the corner to my street I saw the procession was going down past my door, rows of silent masked men wearing tall pointed black hats and bearing swords, followed by other groups and men supporting a large sarcophagi (sp?). I managed to dash across to my entrance door, and could then follow the rest of the procession from my corner windows on the first floor.