After a few rough days, I finally feel "back" to normal and ready to conquer the city. The meds and close call with the toothpaste have left me feeling great and I spent the weekend taking walks around old Madrid, the neighborhood surrounding the Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor, as well as the neighborhood directly south called La Latina. Sunday is the famous flea market called El Rastro, in which entire streets are shut down to accommodate vendors' stalls. It's the largest flea market in Europe and truly a sight to behold.
On Saturday evening I befriended some Morracans at a cafe and we spent the evening discussing Morocco and its new constitution. On Sunday afternoon I met a really nice British couple at the Museo de Jamón and we discussed life in Northern England and their many trips to the USA, including an incident in which they visited a Wendy's that had a bar complete with pool table inside it (???!!!) at the Grand Canyon. Who knew??
I also found a bar in my neighborhood of Malasaña that I have staked out as my own. A bar in Spain, remember, is not a place just for alcohol, but also a restaurant and a café where you can eat tapas and sip coffee from early morning until late at night, if you want. They have free WIFI, so I predict many of my blog posts will be written there from here on out. :)
Enjoy my pics from the weekend!
The Plaza Mayor- Madrid's main square:
Un bocadillo de calamaris - fried calamari sandwich, it was AWESOME!
Two pictures from the Rastro. Was kind of hard to take pictures because people want you to buy their stuff, not photograph it and move on...
The San Isidro Church, looming over the La Latina neighborhood.
La Cervecería Alemana, famous bar in the Plaza de Santa Ana, a favorite hangout of Ernest Hemingway!
During my walk on Sunday I decided to duck into the newly renovated Mercado de San Miguel, right off the Plaza Mayor. It is a very OLD public market that has been remade as a posh, fancy market with all sorts of expensive products. Bleh. Kind of sterile and boring. But a really pretty building!
Interior of the famous "Museum of Ham," a chain of combination deli, bar, and restaurants that specialize in... Well you get the picture. I need to return and get some better pictures of this place... From this angle you can't see the hundreds of pig legs hanging from the ceiling. This is where I met the Brits. It's totally touristy, but like most tourist spots in Madrid, there are plenty of Spaniards there as well.
Last but not least, a typical free tapa with a drink. This happens to be a plate of fried sardines. Delicious! Free tapas can range from this, which is fairly generous, to a piece of bread with meat, to a spoonful of potato salad, or to nothing at all. Depends entirely on the whim of the waiter or bartender.
