We got back to Madrid Saturday morning and have continued our non-stop adventure. Since we had already visited most of the sites, we spent our first day back walking through "new Madrid" and the more residential areas of the city. We left the city that evening and met up with my dad's cousins in Majadahonda, a small community on the out skirts of Madrid.
Two of his cousins own a bar out there called Malamaluca, a modern local hotspot with live music and amazing drinks. We spent the night hanging out with the locals and listening to live music, it was way more fun than we had expected and it's definitely a bar I recommend venturing out to.
The next day we forced ourselves to get out of the hotel early and made our way to the weekly artisan market locally known as El Rastro. Having been before, I was expecting my memories of gypsies and crowded streets to hold true, but it was so much more. I remembered the market as being much smaller, covering only a plaza and a few neighboring streets. What we went to spanned at least a square kilometer and went from the Plaza de Cascorro to the Plaza Mayor. Although it was definitely crowded, it was filled mostly with tourists and local shoppers, very few gypsies made up the crowd. Walking through the jam packed streets of art, clothes, and other goods was interesting to say the least. The people watching was worth every bit of the sometimes frustrating walk through the crowds.
We stopped and had lunch around the Plaza Mayor and made our way back to the hotel to meet up with our friends arriving from London. We let them freshen up a bit and headed straight toward the Plaza de Colón and walked towards Cibeles. The Paseo de Recoletos is a beautiful tree-lined walk through old Madrid filled with architecture. We met up with my dad's cousins (and their families) at Cafe Espejo and had a few tapas. It was great to see family and enjoy the afternoon outside. We sat on the terrace for about 2 hours before heading towards Plaza de Santa Ana.
It was so crowded there that we just kept walking until we ended up at the Mercado de San Miguel. We decided to sample food and wine from several different stations, and just as we were about to leave it started to rain. Not just rain but thunder, lightening, and torrential down pour. We decided to camp out in the market till it let up a bit. Just as we were getting our second round of drinks a huge bolt of lightening stuck nearby. It sounded like a gunshot, and the large crowd that had congregated in the market completely freaked out, making it was quite the spectacle.
About half hour later the rain let up and we made our way back to the streets, walking through the Puerta del Sol and back to the Plaza de Santa Ana. It started to rain again so we jumped into the next bar we saw, Villa Rosa. I'm not one to go back to the same restaurant on the same trip, but since it was raining and our friends had never been (or seen flamenco) we decided to give it another go.
We enjoyed paella and more wine before the flamenco started. It was a slightly different group than before and much more intense. The male performer had the solo this time around and not only did he change consumes, he took flamenco to a whole new level. His foot work was amazing and his intensity was both noteworthy and hilarious. All in all it was a great day. We made our way back to the hotel around 1am and made plans to go to Toledo the next day.
We just got off the bus in Toledo, more to come on this spiritual capital.
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