Bikes, Dentists and Immigration

Of course, after the post about the metro a couple of weeks ago, I have been, or very nearly been, late several times... although I am definately to blame and not the metro.

I've been looking for a second hand racing bike (bicicleta carretera), which you can easily pick up for £50-£60 in the UK on ebay. After searching ebay.es and various other sites and looking for second hand shops, things weren't looking so easy here. The few that there were were very expensive (or in Bilbao). I was beginning to think that I'd have to get a cheap one from Decathlon or something. Bikes are pretty expensive over here and in the shops I went to there was nothing for under €250 at the very lowest. A man in the shop also told me that it was very difficult to get second hand bikes in Madrid, let alone second hand racing bikes. I couldn't really believe this, as I've seen lots of people (although not nearly as many as in the UK) cycling around on knackered old bikes. They must be coming from somewhere! Finally though, someone pointed me in the direction of segundomano.es (secondhand.es) where there are absolutely loads, although still slightly pricier than expected. In the end I picked up a 90's Peugeot racer (without pedals) for €90.

€90 - pedals not included

I also had a friend over from England last weekend which was a lot of fun, one night going out to Pacha in Tribunal (fun, young crowd, but very expensive drinks) and playing a 'what's behind this door?' kind of game round bars in Malasana the next, during which we found a great little 70s funk/blaxploitation themed bar tucked away on Calle Vincente San Ferrer (I think). My friend is of Chinese ethnicity and he was quite shocked at the difference in social background of the immigrant population here. I say immigrant, because that is one big difference, most people of other ethnic backgrounds in Spain are first generation immigrants (Spain's immigrant population went from 2.28% in 2000 to 12.2% in 2009), and unlike Britain and other countries, most didn't come for, or haven't found, training or job opportunities. They make up a large part of the 20% unemployment rate at the moment, with 67%) unemployed. As my friend noted he was the only Chinese person on the street not trying to (illegally) sell us cans of beer. Similarly, I think I'm yet to see a non-white person in a suit in Madrid. This is quite shocking, but you've got to remember that Spain's modern history is quite different from the rest of western Europe, and that it only came out of a facist dictatorship in 1976, a fact that leaves a major underlying cultural mark on the country today, in many different ways. If Angela Merkel and David Cameron think that multiculturalism has failed in Germany and the UK, it doesn't even feel like it's arrived as a concept yet in Spain.

Annoyingly, I've developed a problem with a tooth and am currently looking for an English speaking dentist (I've had to go to a French dentist before and it is not a nice feeling when you can't understand what's going on/what they're about to do to your mouth). There are some about but I think they may be pricier (you pay for the full cost of dental care here, social security or no) than non-anglophone ones. I've found this website quite handy for finding them though. This problem actually stems from a bike accident when I was 17. Let's hope cycling on the right hand side isn't too hard to get used to...