After days of calling Telefónica on a daily basis and bothering anyone I could get ahold of (in the nicest way possible, of course) (no, really) at their service-outage help line, my landline telephone was brought back from the dead two evenings ago and has remained nicely, er, undead since then. I still have no ‘net access at home, but between internet joints in the city center and wi-fi access points strewn around the neighborhood here, I'm getting by. An aspect of the whole hoo-ha that I appreciated: it gave me a chance to see how Telefónica has changed its way of dealing with people like me. When I first arrived in the summer of 2000, the company was essentially a monopoly and acted like it. Meaning the attitudes I encountered when dealing with company representatives generally fell somewhere between disinterest and piss off.
When I say ‘wi-fi access points strewn around the neighborhood here,' that mostly means the occasional in-home network left open and accessible. Understandably, there aren't many of those around, so opportunities to plug into one are few and far between. On the other hand, traipsing through local streets with my hotspot finder led me to an access point a few blocks from here, created by unknown good cyber-samaritans and intended for lost souls like me (wandering the city in search of ‘net connections). Networks around here mostly bear names like WLAN_92 and WLAN_DE. This one is named INTERNET GRATIS AQUÍ CONECTA (FREE INTERNET CONNECT HERE). The hitch: it can only be accessed at the very end of a small park -- la Plaza del Rey -- tucked away between multi-story buildings and narrow city streets, and when I say the very end, I mean the very freakin' extreme end, either standing on the sidewalk or sitting at the end of a concrete bench abutting the sidewalk.
Which is where I parked myself yesterday as late afternoon gave way to evening, daylight fading, streetlights coming on. People were out enjoying what had been a beautiful afternoon -- couples mostly, of all ages, from laughing teenagers to elderly folks in their 70's (short, portly, with faces bearing the imprint of long lives that have witnessed amazing changes, from dictatorship to terrorist bombings to membership in the European Union). No one else worked at a computer, though. Conversations paused as they moved by, individuals tried for a curious, discrete look at my laptop screen. But none stopped to talk, all continued on their way.
I spent an hour there, my adorable booty keeping the bench warm -- checking mail, posting to this page. Daylight melted away, darkness softly fell (my laptop screen glowing brightly enough to attract an insect or two). When true nighttime began to take hold, I packed up, got to my feet, took my time wandering home.
Another day past, city life continuing beneath the overarching night sky of Spain.
España, te quiero.
rws 6:10 AM [+]
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