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Published: February 18th 2010
It wasn’t our original intention to go to Madrid but given that ferries no longer travel between the Canary Islands and Morocco we had little choice than to head back towards Europe before heading south to Morocco. So we decided to take a detour and head to Marrakesh via a cheap Ryanair flight from Tenerife to Madrid.
We quickly discovered that Madrid, the not so quiet second cousin to Barcelona was intoxicating and intense both in terms of art and night life. We were surprised by beautiful facades on buildings and galleries filled to the brim with Dali and Picasso set against (and alongside) constant partying and within a populace committed to occupying the streets. Madrid at midnight (every night) is like most cities on New Years’ eve. Grandmas in fur coats (Clarissa harbored desires to add chewing gum to that outfit) walked arm in arm to cafes serving only churros (deep fried pastry then dipped in hot chocolate). They travelled on the same train as lovers seeking out dinner, and boys with their sights set on hanging out in Metro plazas drinking beer from plastic bags. Madrid went into a deep sleep between 2pm and 9pm, then slowly awoke,
stretched and came to life. We aren’t quite sure what happened before noon but are very sure about what happened after midnight.
In a town that never sleeps we spent much of our four days (and nights) in Madrid wandering the streets in search of galleries and vegetarian restaurants (courtesy of the ‘Happy Cow’ vegetarian website we access). So we happily ate our way around town as day and night began to blur. This blur was not helped by the disco below the window in our pension advertised as being situated ‘in a nice quiet street in Cheuca’ (the gay and night on the town barrio). We soon learned that most streets in Cheuca were neither nice nor quiet.
On our last night we went to a fabulous Flamenco dancing show - it was colourful, camp and loud. True to the nature of city life in Madrid the first show was at 9.30pm and continued until 2am. People came and went, some eating 3 course meals at all hours with others simply watching the show over a sangria or two. The show really captured the playful but serious spirit of the people of Madrid and highlighted their commitment
to going out and enjoying their lives with each other. We tapped and clapped our way back to the Pension by 1am knowing that the few hours between our impending wake up at 4am (note to self … avoid flights before 9am) would be punctuated by the disco hotting up below, friends laughing along the streets, and car horns arguing over scant parking spots. Madrid - the city with peak hour at 11pm was stirring as we lay down to nap for 3 hours and had it not been for my backpack I think I may well have lingered and bought that beer from the Asian woman on the corner when we caught the cab at 4.30am
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Pop & Dawn
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What an adventure!
Great to hear all the news. You seem to be having a fantastic time. Could be the "Leyland Sisters." or "I've Been Every Where, Man". Have a great time. Always thinking of you.