Breakfast in Madrid is a Steal… Almost literally. ..

“Beware of snatch thieves!” That’s what almost everyone told me when they heard I’ll be in Madrid after completing the Camino de Santiago up north of the country. Well, it’s my third day in the Spanish capital and seriously it has to be one of the most convenient cities that a tourist can find themselves in. As a new travel friend said, the city is big but necessities and amenities are extremely conveniently within reach. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, most of the locals especially service staff speak brilliant English. And if you keep your things tightly around you, especially in crowded areas, the city is relatively safe…

However an amazing incident this morning proved that you have to be on your guard at all times, even INDOORS. Before making my way to a tour of the Santiago Bernabau (home of Real Madrid), I opted to have a leisurely breakfast at a nice cafe a few doors down from my hotel on Gran Via called Le Pain Quotidien. I chose a table by the glass door entrance, seated facing it, meaning technically I can see everyone coming in. I ordered the nice set of items you see in the picture at the top. Ok, that huge baguette was an overkill as I didn’t know the Huevo Ecologico (soft 2-minute egg) came with 3 different pieces of lovely bread. The delicious Cortado coffee was served in a bowl and I drank it like I would Chinese tea. All these for just €6.50. Without the baguette, it wld have been only €4.40… Anyway, as any Singaporean would, I took a picture of the delightful sight with my mobile and placed it right next to my plate, as I usually do…

As I was whipping my egg – sorry, I’m not uppity enough to eat a soft egg in an egg cup – suddenly a young lad came over my table shoving a brochure of what seems to be baby strollers into my plate. He was pointing frantically at it and as I couldn’t understand a word he said, I said a firm no and just pushed his hand away cos frankly what annoyed me most was that the brochure was getting into my egg! I simply though he just wanted money cos there are well dressed beggers, mostly the elderly, who do that but here’s where a Madrid citizen hero, or rather heroine, sprung to my rescue. Before you could say Holy Batgirl!, the punkish waitress rushed out from behind the counter, grabbed the kid’s hand, snatched the brochure and voila – my handphone was right beneath it! With her fellow waiter, they both proceeded to throw the cad out of the cafe. She came back to me saying, “Don’t fall for the brochure ruse, that’s how they take things from the table.”

Ay Carumba, but I was inside a cafe! You’d think you would be safe! Well, that goes to show you need to be on your guard all the time in Madrid. Just want to thank the good Lord for protecting me, keeping me cool and calm throughout the whole proceedings – I actually continued eating my breakfast as if nothing happened as did the rest of the diners – and most of all, that there was a super duper alert and plunky waitress around to save the day for me. God knows what I’d do without my phone….

So lesson learnt: be alert at all times and don’t leave your valuables lying around as easy bait! In Madrid or anywhere else in the world for that matter!

The Camino: God Speed & Compeed

And on the 7th day, we won’t rest till we reached Santiago de Compostela to complete our 100km trek on The Way of St James. And that’s tomorrow if anyone’s counting…

With four blisters the size of Jupiter and a right knee that threaten to snap on every step, my camino hasn’t been a walk in the park to say the very least. But then I’m reminded by the Word that “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps…” – Proverbs 16:9.

In the past two days, despite the pain and agony of trekking with the blisters rubbing against my open-faced Teva sandals – my feet are now way too swollen to fit into my Merrell hiking boots or my Nike Airmax – the long stretches of moments where I was simply walking on my own on the camino has been liberating. Instead of focusing groundwards on every step I made, I started to admire and give thanks for God’s handiworks in the beautiful Spanish northern countryside; enjoy great moments of peace and quiet, broken only by birds chirping; and taking the opportunity of capturing great postcardsque shots along the camino like the one above.

And then again, you are never alone for long on the Camino. Cos there are thousands of people on it at the same time and not necessarily on a religious mission but simply for the love of walking. There are genuine smiles and greetings on every turn, great hospitality and good food/wine/beer at every village that you pass through, and needless to say, the great number of interesting people you meet on The Way. In addition to the people I mentioned in my previous blog, would like to give a shoutout to the following:

– Joanna fr London, the first Englishwoman I met on the camino – the rest are practically Irish! There’s a Lucky 13 bunch in my tour group alone! – and who is on a self guided trek albeit with my same tour agency;
– Graham and Penny, the Red Cross couple from London, who sweetly walked at my snail pace this afternoon and helped me get over a painful stint by chatting about everything about Singapore;
– and last but not least, to that Caucasian chap who upon hearing my accent when I was crying blue murder over the intense pain of my severely traumatised little toe on Day 4 just before Melide, exclaimed as he passed me by, “Good to see you! I’m from Singapore too!”

So glad I’m not alone on the Camino de Santiago….