... back to Riga!!!

So... continuing with my adventures in Riga...
At the veeeeeery last day of my stay in Latvia (of course!) I had my flight back to Paris on Friday the 24th at 7 am. So... because I didn't have to work at all that Friday, I accepted the invitation of a consultant to go to have dinner and have a drink in Riga. The restaurant was very original: a medieval restaurant. All dishes were served on wood platters, the bread was served hot and in the old way, there was a trobador singing poems with his guitar, candles everywhere in the restaruant (which was actually huge and 2 floors down). The food was great, the Rioja bottle of wine exquisite, and the 4 gin tonics we had afterwards until 4 a.m. made the Latvian night less cold!
But at 4:30 a.m. the bell rang for me (as if I were in the Cinderella tale) to come back to my hotel... have a refreshing shower with a deep industrial and precised teeth cleaning!!! (you know what I mean...). I took my cab at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at Riga's airport at 6:00 a.m. Perfect time to do the check-in. I say hello gently to the girl at the desk and I kindly say to her: "I've got my flight back to Paris at 7:00 a.m. doing a scale in Copenhaguen, and here's my luggage to check". The nice girl took a look at me (at that moment she knew I hadn't slept at all... and he felt my mixed mentha-alcohol flavoured breath) and looked for the flight.... 5 secs... 30 secs ... 60 secs... "euh... excuse me, maybe you should look for my second family name, as I'm Spanish bla bla bla..." 300 secs... 50000 secs... "Sorry sir, I cannot find you". The girl gently wakes up and talks to her boss. 100000000 secs... (and toti just looking for a bed or a seat to sleep).:
- sorry sir, but you have your flight back to Paris on Friday the 24th... of March
- ....
- ....
- ........................ ??????????
(by the time I'm writing this... I should be still in Riga... think about that)

Finally they managed to find another flight, 7 hours later for the same day (on Friday the 24th of February). So because of my state I called back the hotel begging to have my room back for those 5 hours left... and thet allowed me to come back!
Finally I arrived to Paris with all my body parts, nothing broken...

Back to Riga ...

So well... after almost a month later, I was back to Latvia's capital, ready for new freeeeezing snots adventures and more =)
(for those who don't know what a snot is (I didn't know it either): moco in Spanish "this little (green) thing" that (sometimes) falls sloooowly from your nose at the wooooorst time. I actually looked the word up in an internet dictionary... so maybe I'm not using the right word, sorry Andresito).

Well... let's continue with other stuff and let's put all our green snots back (or not) at their place.

This time the surprise when I arrived to Riga was good: a white and melded snowed country was waiting for me.
It had been a loooong time since I had last seen such a beautiful white picture. So the hole way from the airport to my hotel I was astonished by that white movie I had in front of me. And this astonishment made me not even realise that the hotel that I booked had more than 25 floors!!! That's why when the girl at the reception told me that I was in floor number 23 I looked at her like if she was some kind of jerk (maybe you'll find this is too strong language, but you have to know that that day I woke up at 4 am and I had spent more than 5 hours in planes/airports). But... it was really true!!! So after I realised the poor receptionist was telling me the truth, I said goodbye with a shy "ohhh, ok, thanks!", and I went up to my room with the panoramic lift (my God! it was impressive!).

During the afternoon I stayed at the hotel because there was a snow storm. But I had a quiet and short walk in between two snow storms.

Riga is a small village with huge squares and spaces. All buildings reminded me of those movies showing comunist countries: grey, dark, with no decoration outside... sober. Even though Latvia is independent from the old URSS for the last 15 years, you can see that capitalism has already done the first incomes to the city: stores like Zara, Energie, Starbuck's Coffee... and the most contundent example: McDonald's everywhere!!!
Downtown all "the main" buildings (Opera House, Mayor, the Dôme, ...) are in great shape and very beautifully shown (euh... I have some lack of English expressions here). But speaking with some of the prospect's guys in Riga, they told me that social classes are really different in Latvia: either there are high classes or low classes. The middle one that is the most common in our Spain or France doesn't exist at all in Latvia...

And I bet my my soul (do I already have any?!?!?!) that you were already thinking: "that's weird, toti hasn't still talked about anything "funny" that has happened during this trip"... or "he's still alive, what is he hiding from us?" Don't worry... the best is yet to come!!! So don't miss the second part of this post!!! ;)

Visita relampago a Madrid!!!

Pues después de mas de 9 meses sin haber ido a Madrid... surgio la oportunidad de ir por cuestiones del trabajo y como no... acepté sin duda alguna!
Solo pensar en volver a ver a todo el mundo (Eve y Feda , MariaNico el sordo, Oscar el Lanzador, JaviRodriguez Jr. alias "pollas" y Susana, Eugenia la quita etiquetas de botellas, Alberto (Victor... tranquilo, esta bien y sobrevive sin ti), Alvaro el desaparecio, Anna, ... Nano y Lisa... tendremos que esperar a otro momento) se me ilumino una sonrisa a la cara... y hasta mi jefe se dio cuenta, porque enseguida me pregunto si me queria quedar el fin de semana ahi. Pero cosas de la vida, Pedrito celebraba ese mismo fin de semana su 1000esima despedida de Paris para ir a hacer las Américas (eso me recordaba a cierta pseudo-despedida de cabezon numero 2).

Al llegar a Barajas y ver el cielo azul y en el centro un sol resplandeciente, pude desconectar de la niebla y el frio parisinos al momento. De camino para la filial y dentro del taxi de la Comunidad de Madrid, me dejé llevar por los comentarios de la radio en castellano, la vida en las calles de Madrid, el ruido de las obras que nunca terminan, los bouchons de la M-30... Pero me daba igual. Yo ya estaba en Madrid y era lo que me apetecia en ese momento (no os penséis que no me acuerdo de Barcelona... que por favor!!!! si empezara ahora no terminaba el blog ni en 10 horas ;o) ).

Pues después de una jornada no muy dura (reunion de 3 horas con mega-comida con cliente de también 3 horas), me fui para casa de Eve y Feda, mis mentores en Madrid. Y a continuacion nos fuimos a cenar con el resto de erasmitos parisinos.
La verdad es que al veros a todos de tapas por Malasaña me entro una especie de melancolia de teneros a todos en Paris... reunidos en una vitrina para no soltaros y guardaros. Pero la vida sigue y (dios! y yo que no queria entrar en melancolias) aun nos quedan muchos momentos por vivir... Larios...

Sittin' in the mooooorning sun
I'll be sittin' when the evening cooooomee
watcin' the ships roll iiiiiin
and I'll watch 'em roll away again, yeeeaaaaah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the baaaaay
watching the tiiiiiiiide rooooooll away
ouh, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the baaaay
waaaaaasting tiiiiime...

tuuuurup du durup tuuuurururup durup ...

Aun me sorprendo al pensar que hace unos 5 meses estaba viajando todas las semanas de avion en avion, de hotel en hotel y todo esto encadenando con fines de semana de locura desenfrenada en Paris (supuestamente los fines de semana son para descansar y tomar fuerzas para la semana que se presenta... juas!).

Bueno, pues que solo queria agradecer a todos los que estuvisteis en Malasaña cenando de tapeo, tomando una copa de charla tranquila... sin olvidarme de los que hubieran querido estar ahi (que no son pocos).
Un besote a tod@s y nos vemos pronto en la boda de Pumuka!!!!

Cuando Casablanca... quedara en mis sueños

Bueno bueno bueno...
Pues mis 3 dias y medio en Casablanca que tendrian que haber sido exoticos como un cuento de las mil y una noches... se volvieron una de las peores pesadillas que he vivido con mi empresa! Pero no una cualquiera, no... sino una de esas que se tienen cuando se es niño y se sueña que el coco saldra de debajo de la cama para comerselo!


Asi que, esta update de mi blog que queria que estuviera llena de fotos que transmitieran colores, olores, sensaciones, sol, magia... se vera reducida a fotos sacadas de interné y rabia contenida contra el cliente al que fui a "visitar". No voy a entrar en detalles, porque no hace falta hablar del trabajo, pero me quedé con ganas de recordar el pais con tanta mezcla de sensaciones que visité el año pasado cuando estuve en Rabat. (y la compra de fringues falsas! juas!)

Siempre nos quedara Paris.... y la vista de Casablanca desde el avion!

PS: Stay tunned... next stop in Riga! woooow!!!! The come-back!!! lol