Madrid, Espana
April 4, 2004 - April 12, 2004
Madrid. This is the city I didn't like at all last time I came. This time around, I was going to skip it all together in favor of Seville and the south. However, you may
recall the tragic bombings in Madrid's Atoche train station; I was passing through Atoche a few weeks after the bombings, when another bomb was found... on my train tracks. Well, I can't say I was terribly upset that all the trains were cancelled for the day. It beats the alternative. Unfortunately, in all the
commotion, pickpockets were having a field day, and I was one of their unlucky
victims. I got my $700 rail pass stolen only minutes after arriving in the station. This begins my story of 3 unexpected weeks spent in Madrid.
I checked into the Puesada Hostel and immediately made some
friends. Marc (Germany) was a Graduate student of Anthropology in
Munchen. Ariana (Brazil) was an undergrad in Brazil. And Victor
(Mexico) was a 16 year old skipping his high school exchange program in
Belgium in favor of hanging out in Spain. Right on. So the 4 of us
became known as "The Fellowship" for some forgotten reason, and
spent the next week exploring Madrid and the surrounding towns, and gather
more friends to travel with.
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The Puesada Hostel
The kitchen
Upstairs hallways outside bedrooms
Our first outing as "The Fellowship" was to the Sunday Market in
Plaza Mayor
The old men have been trading stamps and coins in this square on Sundays for ages
That's Marc with the camera looking back, and Victor is on the right with the
red shirt.
Next we headed down to the "biggest flea market in the
world".
I'll be the first to admit, I never got accustomed to Spanish food...
A street side locksmith. Guarantees to fix any lock. He's gotta
have a key for it anyway...
...and the market keeps going and going...
"The Fellowship's" favorite park
We came here one a day or so. On at least one occasion we just spent
the whole day here chatting about life.
Victor, Marc, and Ariane
Atoche train station, and the memorials
Back at the park near the Crystal Palace
Holy Week
I was lucky to be around for Holy Week. The precessions lasted all week,
and often marched
right in front of my hostel. Lots of fun, though the music is
depressing... Which may explain the occasional
old woman sobbing uncontrollably. the normal thing to do as an audience
member is shout to let the men
under the floats out, or to let them rest. But the historical roll of
those men is that of purgery of sins. Sins
grave enough to have landed them in jail often. So this is a sort of
religious punishment and forgiveness.
Also, the crowd would erupt into clapping every few minutes. I guess
for the float carriers?
You can see how slow the march was. These 4 pics were taken about 2
minutes apart from each other!
I don't think anyone was meant to be comfortable in this parade...
Plenty of people march barefoot... shoes are too comfortable for these sinners!
The Bear in Plaza del Sol
I have no idea what this bear is so famous. It seems to be the mascot
of Madrid, but why, I don't know.
This kid looks pretty comfortable... she must not be a sinner like the rest.
The jazz bar across from the hostel was pretty good, but kind of too crowded
Yuk. You can still see the blood from the bull... or maybe the matador
Peacocks were so pass for me by now...
This park was funny. It seemed kind of devoid of people. My friend
Stephanie (France) and I couldn't figure it out until we got to the main road.
Well, Madrid doesn't have an official red-light district, so the prostitutes
are left to work the streets. And work, they do. We walked past
women with no shirt on, and even no skirt on! They were doing the whole
"hey baby" thing in Spanish to every car that drove by. And
most cars seemed interested. After all, this park road didn't go
anywhere, so there was only one reason to be driving on it anyway...
I tried to take an incognito picture, but one of the women saw me, and I worried
about their boss misunderstanding.
One of the prostitutes was kind enough to tell us not to continue up the road
because of "bad men", and to take this other path off the road.
Pretty soon, we started to suspect that by "bad men" she meant peeping
Tom's, not muggers. And that she had mistook Stephanie for another prostitute
and wanted us to have some privacy. Well, this path was sketchy with
guys coming out of bushes and stuff, so we headed back to the hostel without
seeing to much of the park.