Holla, holla gay Madrid: a very pleasant scene and crowd

Reconnected with a good old friend – portrait of the artist as a young and not so young man

By Suzy Size, shedding new light on gay Madrid

Suzy Size often feels a bit like an idiot when travelling again in Europe. There are so many obstacles, so many firsts. She flies the first time with Easyjet. (Basel – Madrid for 76.95 Swiss Francs, about par to the US $.) The very first time she departs from Basel airport which is much smaller than Zurich. So in Basel at the train station she first has to find out which bus goes to the airport and from where? Then your nearly gaga heroine first has to find out which button to press at the ticket vending machine (button 2), the bus already approaching, that makes her nervous. Then she has to insert 3.80 Swiss Francs, yes, those smart machines give change. And then she can board that bus and is well on the way to Madrid.

In Madrid she has taken a taxi straight to gay Hostal Pizarro where she will spend the first night. It is located walking distance from Chueca Metro station and square which is more or less the gay epicenter of Madrid, most gay bars are nearby, the rainbow flag is omnipresent in that neighborhood. The room is clean and has a safe, the reception friendly and at the rate of 45 Euros one cannot complain at all. (You can book it right through the Pink Pages of Sticky Rice Gay Guide Asia and Gay Guide World.) They hand a Gay Madrid Map to your heroine (that is a convenience if you, gay sex tourist, stay at a gay hotel). Suzy has been to grand Madrid several times in her long and so far very beautiful life, but the last time was at least twenty years ago, so things must have changed. She fondly remembers her very first time in Madrid (about 25 years ago) when she went to infamous “Cine Carretas” where nobody watched the silly movie, but everybody engaged in wild male-male sex. Suzy then was not little surprised when she saw two octogenarians (or so) fucking each others (certainly without condoms since AIDS had not come out yet). She got engaged into sexual activities there with a young Gypsy hustler with an enormous cock. Fond memories of grand Madrid, indeed. That “Cine Carretas” does not exist any longer and might house such clean fast food joints as Burger King or Pizza Hut nowadays.

In no time your restless heroine has checked out Chueca and most relevant bars. Gay and straight nightlife starts late in Madrid, but Suzy does not want to get up too late next morning when she will travel by train to Toledo to meet a long lost friend, found again just recently through the internet. That is why she opts right away for Black and White which is the relevant hustler bar in Madrid, but also has a disco downstairs late and on weekends. There are some fellows around, but all a bit too hairy, a bit too macho. It is interesting to watch the toilet from the bar. You can see the silhouettes of the users while sipping a beer. There are clear and present signs of action. A young man befriends your heroine and gets a Mahou beer from her. Mahou is spoken like mau which means drunk in Thai. He says he is Indonesian, but is really from East Timor, and logically looks a bit Brazilian, but in a rather thin version. Suzy has been in East Timor when it was still slightly dangerous under Indonesian government, has met Nobel Peace Price Winner Bishop Belo (she interviewed now president Ramos Horta years before that in Bangkok when he was hardly known). So she has to explain that young man that he is not from Indonesia, but he is not so interested in the history lesson of your heroine in that gay Madrid hustler bar. Naturally Carlo would really like to do business, being such a diligent young man! The proposed massage would be 60 Euros (which sounds reasonable) and Suzy is friendly invited to feel that enormous cock through the pants. “You can suck my big cock”, Carlo - in an apparently altruistic manner - proposes. But Suzy opts out, she hardly ever does it the first night in a “new” place, she is always a bit careful, a bit superstitious as well: The many years in Thailand, you know. You see ghosts everywhere.

Renfe is the Spanish train company and Suzy has tried from Zurich to book a train ticket through their website from Madrid to Toledo, but has had no success. So she goes to Atocha Renfe, the train station, and stands in line. When she reaches the ticket window after maybe 20 minutes she is told this was the wrong line. The right line then takes an hour and twenty minutes. The train Suzy intended to take is long gone, she gets one that will leave two hours later, so another hour to kill time at beautiful Atocha Renfe with its tropical garden in the old hall. She tries to call Daniel and tell him her arrival time in Toledo. But her Mobile with the Swiss prepaid sim card does not work here in Spain. She tries a public phone at the station, but gets connected with the Emergency. She asks several people how she can call a Spanish cell phone from a public phone? Dial 0 first? Or dial 00 first? Or dial 9 first? Her Spanish is nearly non existent any longer. Nobody knows. Maybe nobody understands the desperate questions of your sorry Suzy? How is she ever going to connect with Daniel in darn Toldeo?

The train ride to Toledo takes only 30 minutes, a fraction of the time you need to buy a ticket. Another public phone is tried there, this time without 0, without 9 at all and immediately Daniel answers. Bingo. Life is beautiful.

Daniel Garbade is an openly gay Swiss painter who has lived in Spain for many, many years. His last great single exhibit was in 2006 and showed mainly male nudes, reflecting the revolutionary introduction of gay marriage and far reaching civic rights laws in deeply catholic Spain a year earlier. His nude of the Pope triggered a little local scandal, the narrow minded (catholic) then Swiss ambassador prevented its showing. (If you want to see some of his works and his beautiful, subtle Giacometti like drawings just go to Pink Pages of Sticky Rice Gay Guide Asia and Gay Guide World and click from Madrid through to his Website.) Suzy Size got to know Daniel through one of his gay brothers, this must have been about 30 years ago. Of course they all had their little affairs here and there then, such was the time then. When he moved to Spain Suzy went to visit him at least one time in Madrid. Now she is waiting for him in the Bar of Toledo train station, a bit anxious, and wondered if a complete stranger – maybe an asshole or even a monster? - would arrive to pick her up?

But it was like a miracle, the two friends picked up their conversation as if they just had stopped talking to each other yesterday and not 20 years ago. While Suzy was driven in that old Alpha Romeo Convertible to the house of Daniel in Mascaraque so many memories came back whilst conversing about the old times and the blank years in between without contact. Daniel has married his lover Miguel Angel who joined them in the evening coming from Madrid. They have this nice house with a little pool and a friendly dog not far from Toledo in a small village. Daniel spends more time in Mascaraque than his husband, but often also joins Miguel Angel in their nice and residential flat (extremely high ceilings) in Madrid. They are both delightful people. So after two nights in the countryside Suzy returned with them to Madrid, enjoyed the pleasant gay scene and festive gay crowd of Chueca again. She thought of checking out some gay saunas for you, but then decided it was just to hot for saunas, to hot for sex. (Besides: There was no money at all committed this week to the Suzy Size World Friendship Tour by the stingy readers of this blog and the UBS shares of your heroine hit an all time low. So, urgent: send some dough right now!) Suzy Size preferred to sit with Daniel in some of those open air Chueca bars and drink and talk away the night, watching an unsuccessful pickpocket passing by several times, till some energetic lesbians chased him away by shouting. It was most enjoyable and Daniel has promised to visit Suzy Size in Castelgandolfo, her residence just slightly outside gay Pattaya. Read his lips: “It will not be another twenty years.” Suzy hopes for December.

Next week Suzy Size will proceed to gay Portugal for you, mainly to gay Porto and gay Lisbon. Read this exclusively on Stick Rice Gay Guide Asia and Gay Guide World.

Support the Suzy Size World Friendship Tour - pay on-line now – it feels so good to do good

Suzy Size likes her tour through five Asian countries so much, she now plans to go on an eternal World Friendship Tour for Sticky Rice Gay Guide Asia and Gay Guide World. Well, eternal is a long time – contrary to short time – and our heroine needs some funds for this unique venture, the boys are costly, you know. Support your heroine and pay on-line with your credit card. Any amount of 20 US $ and above welcome. If you commit 100 US $ or above you will get a dinner invitation at Castelgandolfo, the Suzy Size residence slightly outside Pattaya. It feels so good to do good! For payment just go to this link on the internet:

http://www.sparkleserver.net/payment.php

There will be a field with 4 lines.

1. Company: Your name

2. Billing contact E-mail: Supporter has to give in his E-mail address

3: Paying for: Supporter gives in: Place or country Suzy should visit next

4: Amount and currency: Any

And then you can make your payment right there. Suzy Size thanks thee an awful lot and is proud of you.