Madrid

On September 7, the International Olympic Committee had their final vote to determine the host city of the 2020 Summer
Olympics, and Madrid -- along with Istanbul and Tokyo -- was a finalist. The streets in central Madrid were shut down for the announcement, and this stage set up in front of the Puerta de Alcala in the Plaza de la Independencia. By the time we showed up, Madrid had already been eliminated by a first-round vote (Tokyo would go on to win) and a crew was at work taking down the stage, but the streets were still shut down and a large crowd still milling around.

The Palacio de Cibeles, taken from the street in the middle of the Plaza de Cibeles. It can be hard to get a
good look at the Plaza during the day because it is one of the busiest traffic thoroughfares in Madrid,
so the street closures made for some cool photo opportunities.

Then they cleared the streets. This is looking north up Paseo de Recoletos, one of the
busiest streets in central Madrid. Kind of eerie.

Toledo

A view of the Royal City taken on the walk from the train station. The Alcantara bridge on the left, originally built by the Romans, is our entrance into the city. You can see the Alcazar fortress just over the bridge at the highest point in the city. Also check out the topography; the hill is really steep. Toledo really isn't very far from Madrid -- about 70 km or a 30-minute ride on the commuter train from Atocha station. We went to Toledo on a Friday morning, and spent about 3 hours walking around the city. It's quite small relatively, and we were able to see almost everything in that much time.

Northern view from the Alcantara bridge. The modern city is on the left at the foot of the hill and the train station just out of view on the right.

A random street in the Royal City. With a few exceptions, the streets are this narrow, though the locals still manage to drive cars on many of them. Notice the steep grade; the city is essentially built into a hill. You can also see the Cathedral tower in the upper background.

A closer view of the Cathedral tower.

The main facade of the Toledo Cathedral. I thought this was a lot more impressive than the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid.

A Panoramic shot I took looking west over the countryside. The rolling hills around Toledo are gorgeous (get it, gorgeous), and a welcome break from the cramped cityscape of Madrid.

Preface (or My First and Only Apology for Making a Study Abroad Blog)

That I have decided to make a study abroad photoblog may come as a surprise to some of you, and that's perfectly reasonable. I don't like study-abroad blogs, and have remarked to many of you in the past that they are cliche and presumptuous. I also hardly ever take photos, and when I do they are with my iPhone. I don't own a proper camera. I know flat-zero about photography, and I have snarky opinions about photo filters. Beyond logistics, too, I generally consider people with cameras to be obnoxious. It's because I think they are disconnected (no pun intended), concerned more for how they will be able to recapture or relive a situation in the future than for how they are actually orchestrating it in the present.

Last May author Jonathan Safran Foer gave a commencement address at Middlebury College that did a lot to shape my current thinking on -- among other things -- everyday photo-taking (his speech can be seen here or read in a much-condensed version via The New York Times). If you haven't seen the speech, and have better things to do than watch it now, here is the portion that I want to talk about:

"On the other hand, a cell-phone photo of a someone crossing a stage is a meaningful symbol of the graduate's achievement and the photographer's pride and support, but it cannot capture the experience of the day. And more, it detracts from the experience of the day. Just as one cannot capture a visual experience without a camera, one cannot fully capture an emotional experience with a camera...Humans have the ability to do many things at once, but we don't have the ability to do many things at once as well as we do one thing at a time."

To be sure, I agree that we should all try a bit harder to be present in our everyday lives. As an American tourist, too, I am hyper-conscious that the "archivist" (as Safran Foer calls these habitual photo-takers) tendency is one that is typically ascribed to our culture and viewed as an appendage of American materialism. I think that this view is both valid and worthy of my concern, and mean for the blog title to serve as a recognition of the fact that -- at the end of the day -- I am still an American in a foreign country taking pictures with an iPhone.

As this concern applies to my blogging, though, I have a few counterpoints and some hard-wrought compromises:

1. I will not be taking photos every day, and I will make a sincere effort not to post photos that demean, trivialize or stereotype the cultures of which I am a guest. No men in kilts. No cars driving on the wrong side of the road. Instead, I want to use this space to share some of the beautiful, cool and otherwise interesting things that they have over here. If you think I am falling short on this pledge (or just want to talk about fantasy football), shoot me an email (dpparker at middlebury dot edu).
2. I am without a functioning cell phone. I feel like that fact at least partially exempts me from concerns about disconnectedness and the other ludditical anxieties that I am prone to.
3. I am taking three classes, one of which is about bagpipes.
4. I am free of my usual journalistic obligations, and thus full of pent-up expressive energy.
5. I realize that there are people out there that are concerned about my well-being. I hope this blog will help convince them that I am alive, in good health and have not been arrested.
6. I am in a country where I know no one, with most of the people I care to talk to very far away. At the end of the day, this seems like a great platform for mass communication.

If everything goes according to plan, this will be the only post which is not primarily a photo. I suspect that my posting frequency will decrease as I become more acclimated to life here and when I begin to run out of readily-available pretty things to take photos of.

Thanks for tuning in. Enjoy!