Madrid — Part Uno
May 29th, 2010
Just over a week ago I left Madrid after a lovely week’s holiday in the sun. Cheap and tasty alcohol, interesting food (when you know what you’re ordering), lovely people and sunny sun.
I owe a massive thank you to James and Valérie-Anne — and of course Squishy, who persevered, even if we did take over his space — for letting myself and Chris crash at their place, for taking time out to show us around and join us for few drinks (though that didn’t take too much persuasion) . I also owe thanks to Eyjafjallajökull for extending our stay by 3 days.
I enjoyed a lot about Madrid, and it has certainly made me want to travel more, so it wasn’t long after getting back that I started arranging another holiday – but more on that in time.
From what I gathered, there isn’t a lot for the average tourist to do, but that didn’t bother me as I generally prefer to stay away from the tourist traps and take in the real city. A beer and lunch on a café terrace. Or just a beer. Watching people.
Out timing couldn’t have been much better either, while there we saw Atlético de Madrid, Spanish football club who the night before won the Europa League, pass through the street on their open-top bus, the celebration of 100 years of Gran Via (Madrid’s most prominent street) — complete with awesome fireworks display at midnight, we paid a visit to the huge Rastro flea-market at La Latina, two photography exhibitions, a turtle sanctuary in a train station, a lot of graffiti, being accosted by drug-dealers in the street, much drinking, and eating, on terraces in the sun. Not to mention the quick stop to the Irish pub at 2am…
Quite a list, and far far too many photographs. So I will attempt to depict my view of the city where the English-language is hard to find, written or spoken, over the next few days.
I’ll start with a small selection of street images that don’t quite fit anywhere else.
