I’m staying in Lavapiés, a very central area of Madrid. In front of the quaint but heavily remodeled apartment building where I’m staying, a group of Latin American men has been standing in the street all day. I arrived at 1:30 pm, and they were standing there drinking beer and talking. I accessed my apartment and unpacked, went out to find a grocery store, returned with the groceries, cooked, ate, rested, went back out to buy mineral water, returned, went back out to go to the bookstore, but the men were still there, standing in the street in front of the building.
These are nice men, very polite, not in the least threatening, if maybe a bit too friendly for the state of exhaustion in which I find myself. Why are they standing there, though? I understand that they are not exactly Nordic and don’t mind the heat the way I do. But it’s several hours standing there and talking. They’re not selling anything. They don’t want anything from the passersby, aside from paying an occasional compliment to a lady. It’s a mystery, and I only wish I had the energy to strike up a conversation and find out.
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