This is a yet another rant. If you don’t like rants, don’t read. ;)

Fresh Madrid experiences:

• I’m incompatible with Spanish work hours. For some reason, my credit card doesn’t work on ALSA website, so I went to the bus station to buy a ticket to Barcelona. Guess what: ticket offices observe siesta too! Working hours for this specific ticket office were 8-13 + 15-20. Ooh, you’re in a hurry? Too bad.
• More incompatibility: because of the closed ticket office I had plenty of free time, so I decided to visit Matadero. Guess what? Opening hours: 16-22. I used to think Poland was a crazy place, but it seems every country has its own peculiarities.
• Madrid is so big I use Google Maps as a GPS all the time. One time I decided to just consult the map once and then just walk and admire the architecture*. Even though it was just one long straight street, I took the wrong turn** and ended up in a wrong place.
• Even though it’s Spain, it can rain cats and dogs here. And it does.
• I found a perfect place: English cafe & bookstore. Too bad I’m leaving tomorrow, so I could only drink one coffee there.
• A few days ago a young black guy selling glasses on the beach recommended McDonalds and KFC to me. I didn’t understand it back then; I do now: they’re the cheapest ways to eat, especially for a foreigner.

Enough rants. Going to Barcelona tomorrow; I’m so awaiting that eight hour bus trip. If only I was a drinking person I could get myself totally hammered like any self-respecting Polish tourist; alas, this is not an option.

*A joke. Madrid is about as beautiful as Warsaw: a few monumental historic buildings here or there and the usual shit everywhere else.
**I kid you not. Wrong turn. On a straight street. On an intersection bigger than a football stadium.

Creative output balance during this trip:

• Photography: fantastic. I carry the camera on my shoulder at all times, shooting roll after roll. Actually, I exceeded my own expectations – I’m running out of film; hopefully I’ll get some more HP5+ in London.
• Writing: surprisingly good. Although I’ve been writing for years now, only recently I started publishing anything in the form of a blog. I get about 10 visits a day and I like the idea that people enjoy reading it – and they keep coming back for more.
• Programming: Nada. No, wait – I think I pushed some changes to my dotfiles repository because OS X was choking on Linux-only constructs in .bashrc. I need a quiet, comfortable place and at least some good tea/coffee to write code; hostels provide neither. My friend’s house in Valencia could provide both, but he kept kicking me in the butt every time I tried to open the editor instead of going sightseeing. ;)

TL;DR: I’m a hacker, writing a blog titled Hacker Ideals, who doesn’t hack. However, I shoot tons of black-and-white photos with a film camera and pretend to be a writer.

Not sure if hipster or just an awakening artist.