#derive
Got out in #Vallodolid last night having a #derive and a bi' of #psycho-geography :D
Didn't take pics. googlemaps 2018 makes the place look almost up-market but in the local-authority-owned? areas it looks more like Hulme 1986. These older sections of the barrio [between the rail tracks and Cigueña] aren't being re-let, so falling apart in a kind of last-man-standing scenario, whilst some are now steel shuttered up and/or squatted. Friendly neighbourhood, and the only one I passed through with any life at 2 a:m. One of shuttered houses even had a official warning cartel in English stating that "all valuable contents have already been removed from this property" :D Many of the local side-street businesses seem to have closed since the pandemic began.
Valladolid is a stale place with many traffic lights which do not react to traffic flow, so at night just fucking annoying. Too many wide boulevards which are basically dual carriageways. After leaving Madrid earlier that day through Villalba [shithole] I went past Valle De Los Caidos on my way over the Alto del León. The area in general seems to be like a tribute to Hitler. Weird vibe. From the north, the flat plains from south of Palencia suddenly give way to one single line of altitude and one ascends into an apparently permanent fog and pine forest. From the Villalba side [2nd photo] a massive edifice appears out of the fog. Turns out to be the Sanitorio Militar. . Medina Del Campo was shit too. Madrid was pretty shit. Too much traffic. Just fucking chaos really. I think I'll go back in 20 years because it'll be really odd to see all that traffic and just some electric humming. It won't be better: just quieter.