El Rastro

El Rastro is a huge flea market that is held every Sunday morning in a section of La Latina barrio in Madrid.  It's only open until three o'clock in the afternoon, keeping to the tradition that after that, most people will have had their lunch and will be headed back home for a siesta.

H and I headed into the area a little after ten, on the back of his moto (motorcycle).  It was absolutely freezing, and one of the first things I did at the market was buy a pair of gloves to cram on my hands in my pockets.  El Rastro is a great place to find some of the typical tourist and clothes stuff for sure, but it also had a lot of odds and ends as well.  One of the stalls had a lot of random old knobs and fixtures, where you could maybe find a part you needed for an old lamp.  Another had a lot of old postcards from random places, and old photographs, such as some from people's weddings long ago that they were selling.  I had to wonder how they came across such things.

In addition to the stalls, there are a lot of antique shops lining the streets that are open Sunday as well.  A lot of them have some pretty cool old things, and H pointed out another smaller golden sphere like the one we saw the other weekend at El Escorial in the library.  I'm definitely going to have to get me one of those when I live in a place big enough to have a library.  They also had a lot of old books in Spanish for sale, as well as Spanish comic books.

They also had a couple of food stands, one which sold some sweet roots which just look like little tree branches.  And you don't actually eat them, just chew on them.  I didn't buy any.  But I did have another traditional snack, which looked like a flat waffle cone dipped in a bit of chocolate.  The consistency was a little different, but it tasted pretty good.  I had crumbs all down my jacket and scarf anyway, so it definitely seemed like I was enjoying it, apparently.

H also told me that El Rastro used to be famous for how they would sell animals on the street as well, though that's no longer allowed.  And how a lot of the stall owners are gypsies, who are people from India, who are louder than most Spaniards with darker skin.  At least, that's how he tells it.

After we explored for a while, we took part in another Rastro tradition of stopping for drinks and tapas before lunch.  The Rastro is held in one of the older parts of Madrid, and we went to El Madroño, one of the older bars in the city and had a lively debate about the tradition of tapas and having drinks so early in the day which morphed into a discussion of restaurants, chefs and Michelin stars.  I had a delicious cider, and H related that most bars in Madrid don't actually serve cider any longer, because it's too old school.  So here's to the celebration of tradition, even when it's no longer in style.