Madrid - the morning Dena and I left for Turkey, we walked out to the street to catch a cab around 5am. We saw hardly any taxis and a bunch of people on the street (ready to go home after hours of late-night partying). The cabs we did see did not have their Cab light on. Dena did flag one cab down and the ensuing conversation:
Dena: Can you take us to the airport?
Cabbie: How much will you pay me?
Dena: Whatever the meter says.
Cabbie: (Silence)
Then Dena walks back.
We see a cab drop off a girl and Dena asks him for a ride and he says all the cabbies are on strike because a cabbie was murdered the night before. But he will take us to the airport as a favor and we have to pay 30 euros. We thought it would cost between 25-30 euros, so that was not too bad. Plus, there was NO other way to get to the airport because the Metro does not start running until 6 or 7am.
So, the GOOD thing about strikes (bandhs) here is that we are given advance notice! We always know when there is going to be a strike. It gives everyone a chance to load up on food. The 1st strike while I was here lasted 12 hours, the next one (on Oct 31st) lasted 24 hours. This one is supposed to last anywhere from 12hrs to indefinitely. It is being called by several political parties to protest violence in a part of our state where a cadre of the current political party allegedly fired shots into a peaceful demonstration where 2 were killed and several others injured.
So, if you support the parties calling the strike, you stay at home. And even if you do not support the parties, you stay at home because the strikers will block main thoroughfares and if you do venture out, people might stone you for doing so. If you take the bus, you may find that your bus will be torched. I think that has happened to at least 3 buses so far today. Yikes!
After we determined that it was pretty calm outside, Jerry and I decided to take a walk around our area. It was quite pleasant! Since there are hardly any cars on the road, it is very peaceful right now. Plus, the temps are slowly going down. Instead of high 90s, we now have temps in the 80s. So we walked for about an hour and a half, exploring our "neighborhood." We were able to walk slowly, not fearing getting in anyone's way. I even had some street food today - a plain dosa and some sugarcane juice. The dosa was 15 cents and yummy and the cane juice was 12.5 cents. Of course, no businesses are open so the few street vendors were the only way to eat out. Well, we are about to eat leftovers from last night. If the strike lasts a long time, we will have to break into our ramen stash.
Here is a pic of my dosa chef:
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