The Game of Thrones in Caceres
Writing in the local paper. Local issues with a global take. I never translate literally and the editor trims at will to make it fit. Here’s my version, then theirs.
The other morning
as I was walking my two daughters to school, we were surprised by something you
don’t see every day, even if you do live in Europe’s third largest preserved
medieval city. As we crossed Santa Maria square and headed towards the Arco de la Estrella,
twenty five men dressed in armor suddenly emerged out of the seasonal fog. The sound of their
swords rattling along the paving stones added a new twist to the sonic landscape of our morning routine. One of calm that usually consists of the calls of
storks, a distant harmonica played by a local girl or the click clack of the high heels of a civil servant rushing to work. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that my girls
didn’t seem to find the foggy apparition out of the ordinary in the least. After all, we do
live in a walled fortress and the pretend warriors did seem to be more
congruous with our surroundings than the delivery trucks that we usually have to slalom around. In
fact they didn’t even react until one of the soldiers stopped, clicked his heels and saluted them.
Their lack of surprise is likely due to the fact that they have grown
accustomed to the film set atmosphere that our medieval gem has taken on this
year. I have to admit that the break in the morning rush also jolted me out of
automatic pilot and reminded this Canadian of the very different surroundings
that I found myself in. Some surprises are welcome and this apparition indeed
put a needed positive spin on what was going to be a long day. That said, some
surprises come as less welcome. It’s a good thing that I am a faithful reader
of this paper because if I wasn’t, more surprises would catch me off guard. Hot
on the heels of these saluting soldiers, the next invader to siege the old town for a few days will be the Game of Thrones. It’s a good thing the consortium has begun its well greased information campaign to let us all know when the streets will be cut and
exactly what options will be available to us when trying to get our groceries around Jamie Lanister. Problem is, in the spirit of the
staging, I think their carrier pidgeon got lost along the way.
