Alejandro from Transylvania, Romania

Carolyn and I spent the morning walking the streets of Madrid. After a small breakfast of tea and a chocolate croissant that came warm out of the oven we headed out to scour the city. We wandered along the cobblestone streets until we came to Plaza Mayor. Since our schedules are still off we were wide awake at 7 a.m. and found that many of Madrid's residents were still fast asleep. I met Alejandro in the plaza. He was awake while his neighbors around him slept soundly on cardboard. He is from Transylvania, Romania and came here to Madrid looking for work. In his country he worked as a veterinarian but ended up trying to improve his life by coming to Spain. The job he intended on getting here fell through and now he begs until he can return to Romania. The police arrived and began waking up the sleepy street people while I spoke with Alejandro.