15/4/25, On My Way

Well, one purpose of this 5 week trip to Spain is to write. Another is to speak Spanish more fluently because I am on my own.Sounded a great idea. And here I am at Dubai Airport Gate C10 waiting for my connecting flight to Madrid.So no going back.

So shall I disclose the underlying purpose of lone travel? Just to recover some independence in my late seventies as well as to physically lift myself out of a family life that has become out of kilter, a slow creep through the years. I don’t think I’m the only older woman who finds herself in a finely woven web. It’s great. I love my family, my home, and I am thankful.The joys and sadnesses of families are shared ; I need to find rediscover a slither of possibilities in the midst of that belonging. Being alone is a part of the human condition. Creativity goes hand in hand with aloneness , doesn’t it ?

17/4/25 Madrid 7am

I am sitting in a not really great cafe with the unlikely name of Santa Gloria in Calle Atocha, Madrid at 7am on a 6C rainy morning. I wonder. Having just had the usual Spanish key battle at my accommodation, the usual wondering about phones ( am I off roaming? Do I dare to use anything on it?). I wonder if I even care about writing, being creative, or even Spain. Fremantle is warming up now, sea’s great, room’s warm. No locks to locks get into my room.I wonder briefly if the martyrs of which Santa Gloria must have been one, felt this too ? A hard road when the conviction goes.

And it’s Semana Santa in Madrid and reminders everywhere of perseverance and conviction. On a much more intense level than mine, of course. I’m making for the Cathedral this afternoon to see the huge statue of Maria Santisima de la Esperanza Macarena Holy Mary of Hope) carried by the Hermandades ( Brotherhoods) They are each responsible for the procession from their parish and the procession that follows.

Two cups of coffee may be enough to set one on course again. And the martyrs only had a prayer or two and a glimmer of light to put them back on their way. This cafe is filled up now as people go about their day, mostly happily it looks like. So I’m off, sola, into the still chilly air to fiddle around opening 3 doors before reaching my room in Hostal Rivera. I’ll pick up my newly charged phone and my tourist “Madrid” to head off to Reina Sofia and then the Catedral de Santa Maria la Real de la Almudena.

Hasta Luego