Seeing the sea would cost me 30 euros more per night. It's also not about losing your salary on seafaring luxuries. The hotels are in the clouds and the thing is not for the sake of sight; we people who travel for work are no different from tourism, and we have serious problems to accommodate ourselves in a reasonable way. Shouldn't there be legislation on this matter? If you travel for work to Madrid or Barcelona, for example, you are dead, let us ask the actors. But he said that, in the small coastal town where I am willing to spend 36 hours, a room with a sea view would cost me 30 euros more. And it's beautiful, really, funny and silvery, with a brutal horizon. I spied him for a moment, from the neighbors' room, when they were making their beds with a view. Where they must have gone so early, happy and floating.
Returning from work, I have lunch in an area of the hotel cafeteria from where I can see a piece of the sea. I think And I witness a marriage breakdown live. The couple who sit next to me have gray hair and reflect on 30 years of their lives in a devastating dialogue, with all the clichés. A professional screenwriter would dismiss it as predictable. The husband wants to continue watching football on the TV in the living room and not alone on the computer. The woman does not want to continue watching football or taking care of the housework because she needs time to start studying. In a dry, very sad tone, he throws out harsh sentences that he can't avoid closing with a Chuqui, the affectionate nickname he has called him all his life. We don't love each other anymore, Chuqui, he repeats. I go up to my dry room with my soul at my feet.
This morning I saw him again: excited, bright, hopeful. The cleaners could have a little empathy with the dark side lodgers who roam the corridor like ferrets, and not leave those doors wide open. But they must have enough headaches. The stolen vision of the lush sea sky leaves me restless. Should I have paid that 30 euros per night? Have I calibrated the cost/benefit ratio correctly? What does the sea do to me? What do I spend my money on? How much did the laminated train snack menu cost me? Was he really hungry? Wouldn't it have been better to save for the sea views? We don't know what we're doing, Chuqui.
