So what’s one of the first things I noticed here in Madrid?

The cramped quarters. Fitting all the people in Madrid into this little city is roughly equivalent to the elevator rush hours in the high rises on a macro scale. Madrilenians have elevated the bottleneck to an art.

This extends to parking. Naturally, much like Philadelphia, street parking dominates. We’re used to seeing cars parked (and double- and triple-parked) on the streets as students grasp at prime spaces for their vehicles.

However, nothing compares to last Friday night. I was coming back from an outing with my homestay señora in her car. It was perhaps 11 or 11:30 p.m., at which time normal Spaniards don’t even begin getting ready for their nights out. (That starts around one a.m.)

And do you know how long it took to find a parking space?

An hour and a half.

That’s right. Ninety minutes of my life went down the drain circling the same blocks over and over, searching for a ray of hope (or space, as it were).

Since the cars are smaller, you would imagine that the parking situation wouldn’t be as bad as Philly’s.

But how wrong you would be. Madrid has at least two million more people than Philadelphia, depending on which measure of population you choose.

In Madrid, drivers can fit a round peg in a square hole when it comes to street parking. And even with those much-coveted parallel parking skills, every meter of space is gone.

Drivers in Philly, stop complaining. You have it good. It takes you under 20 minutes to find yourself some parking.

Furthermore, you can stop griping altogether if you take public transit. I’m a big proponent of the trolley, and I’m quite certain that there are still seniors at Penn who have to this day never taken the trolley.

Go ahead and help your stress levels as well as the environment. Take public transit. People complain about SEPTA, but it exists and it’s gotten me just about everywhere I want to go.

Meanwhile, savor the sweetness of finding parking for your Suburban… while I circle the block one more time.

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