A Day Out (Bullfighting, Prostitutes, Priests and Tiny Sandwiches)

There has been a much-needed run of perfectly clear days in Madrid, with brilliant blue skies and temperatures pushing 17 degrees in the afternoons (according to the bus stops, which aren't very reliable for any type of information in my experience). So when me and my flatmate found ourselves with nothing to do yesterday, we decided to go for a day out in Madrid. But what to do? Boating in Retiro? A bit cold maybe. The cable car into the forest west of the city? My flatmate's not good with heights so that was out. Well, if you search 'day out in Madrid' you mainly get ideas for trips out of the city to Toledo or Segovia and so on, and when I finally found some pages about things to do in Madrid, they mainly recommend walking around, eating and drinking, along with this intriguing but unexplained entry on www.madrid-guide-spain.com:

"Madrid Adventure! Experience the wilder side of the city! Do and see some of the more controvertial (sic) aspects of Madrid. Perhaps one that you will not be taking the kids along on!" Hmm?

We wanted to go somewhere we'd not been before anyway so we thought we'd set off for the bull ring at Ventas, the second biggest in the world don'tcha know, and have a wonder round that area in the east and see what there was to see. After a bizarre encounter with a Brasilian woman at a petrol station which ended with her claiming to be a doctor and grabbing my flatmates crotch (!) we got the Metro. On the way there we saw this brilliant advert (left) which reads 'The man in your life out of your life? Sell it!'

We emerged from the Metro into warm sunshine at the Plaza del Toros, with the surprisingly Arabian style bull ring partly obscured by a circus that someone had decided to plonk in front of it. There's a veritable crowd of statues to be found around the Plaza del Toros of various bullfighters and bulls. It does make you realise quite how much of a tradition it is, matadors are held in some awe here. The idea of bullfighting doesn't exactly fill me with glee but I've been won round a bit to the idea that it's a cultural art form and I feel better about it after finding out that they actually eat the bull afterwards. I think I will go and see one, it feels like something you should see while you're here (and apparently it's only €3 a ticket). The statues didn't quite have the same effect on my flatmate, who commented "Look how gay his shoes are!"

We had a wonder back towards the centre and found nothing of interest (lot of banks), although we did find out that El Corte Ingles (Spanish M&S) has a section of books in English. We ended up in Plaza Colon, with a strange stone monument, the biggest flag I've ever seen and a statue of Cristobal Colon, or Christopher Columbus to you and me (http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishlanguageculture/a/columbus.htm). If you say Christopher Columbus to a Spanish person, they have absolutely no idea who you're on about.

The famous Tio Pepe sign in Sol

With the sun setting and no other ideas, we decided to get a drink outside on the roundabout round the Puerta de Alcala near Retiro park. This is essentially the thing to do on a day out in Madrid, sit on the street and soak it up. I can't wait til spring when its a bit warmer. When I arrived in October the terraces were packed and the atmosphere was great. We decided to stay out and with money still being a bit tight, we settled on the idea of going on a 100 Montaditos crawl (a chain of bars where a beer and tiny sandwich is €2, see previous posts). There were six we could think of in the centre: Gran Via, Calle Mayor, Alonso Martinez, La Latina, Atocha and Puerta de Toledo, and we wanted to do them all so off we set to the one in between Gran Via and Sol which is on a street we know as prostitute street because, despite being a major shopping street right in the centre of town with a police station on it, it's heavily frequented by ladies of the night, early evening and afternoon. You'll see them hanging around outside McDonald's from about 4pm, agressively chewing gum and waving at the police cars that as far as I can tell, turn a blind eye.

Anyway, a beer and a tiny sandwich and we set off for the Alonso Martinez branch via a quick stop at El Tigre in Chueca with its massive plates of tapas, ticked that one off and then on to the Calle Mayor branch. I'd been wanting to go around here with my camera for ages because opposite the 100 Montaditos, down a little side street is the extrodinary 'pope shop' as I like to call it, that sells everything you could possibly want or need as a priest. I really want to know how much the robes cost, they'd make the best fancy dress costume ever! Theres another one just round the corner as well that has near life-size figure of Jesus on the cross with some very severely grazed knees, perfect for the living room. I wonder why they keep the windows un-shuttered and lights on all night? Just in case any bishops happen to be wondering past? Getting a bit tired of tiny sandwiches now, we headed off to the Atocha branch to meet some friends who persuaded us give up our Montadito quest and go with them to a bar on Calle Pez in Malasana before heading to a bar/club in Chueca before nipping home on the last Metro at 1.30am for an early(ish) night.

Make like Cruzcampo man and hit the streets

All in all I'd call that a very sucessful day(/night) out. Conclusion? I think Madrid is a city you've got to make the most of for yourself. There's no Eiffel Tower or Big Ben to see on a day out, the best thing is just to pick an area, wonder the streets and see what there is to see, regularly stopping off for food and drink on the way. You'll see some sights, find random little places, see some wierd stuff, probably meet some dubious characters on the way and have a great time!