Madrid is loud, noisy, (currently) hot and dirty. She is also rich in history and culture, open 24/7, and has an anything goes attitude. It isn’t the kind of city where one might say, well this could be anywhere. Madrid is unique and very much in your face about her strong personality. She makes no excuses or apologies about who she is or how she rolls.
Don’t want to party until 6am like the rest of us? Fine, go home, but good luck sleeping. It’s too hot for you? Take a siesta. Have a cold beer under a cool mist in a cafe in the plaza (as I am doing at the moment). Hungry? Eat at one of the 10,000 restaurants, market stalls, or cafes in the city. Want to experience a thousand years of history? Walk the streets. Want to see some of the greatest art collections in the world? Visit the numerous museums.
Madrid has something for everyone, even for a surf bum like me. I’ve walked the neighborhoods, visited the museums, eaten at restaurants (although I haven’t made a scratch in the surface of the culinary world), and partied in the streets. One thing I have not done much of is sleep. Between the jet lag, partying and living on a super busy street, sleep has been put on the back burner. Maybe it’s something in the water but I feel surprisingly great about it. Madrid has an infectious, frenetic energy that keeps even a surf bum up until the wee hours of the morning.
A note on why Spaniards stay up so late (per Edward): apparently Franco was best buds with Hitler, and wanted Spaniards to be on the same schedule as Germany, so he made a rule that Spaniards eat dinner at 10pm. Because the sun currently sets around 9pm, eating at 10 and going to bed at 2 feels normal, but I could see it being tedious when the sun sets at 4pm in the winter. Plus, I’m not an admirer or follower of fascist fucks, but when in Rome… or Madrid in this case. I have not fact checked Edward’s story but will go with it until I hear otherwise.
Additionally, Madrid is impressively tolerant, open and accepting. Maybe they’re making up for the fact that once upon a time they burned Jews and other heretics right here in the plaza where I’m writing this post, but there are rainbow and trans pride flags everywhere. Nobody looks twice at gay people holding hands or kissing on the streets. I’m not sure what Spain’s immigration policies are these days, but there are people of every color mixing and mingling, and nobody pays anyone else much attention. I find it all very refreshing.
I don’t know if it is a uniquely Madrileño, Spanish or European thing, but people seem to care a lot less what other people think here. Skinheads and rastas mix with drag queens and dolled up party girls. People dress in all garb. I see short men with tall women (gasp!), women with shaved heads dating masculine men… these aren’t great examples but my point is that everybody lets their freak flag fly and everybody else is cool with it. Needless to say, I fit right in. As does everyone.
So… I wrote this post in the Plaza Mayor while drinking a beer, as writers are apt to do, as I walked home I began to question my writing, as writers are apt to do. Was I imagining the all accepting culture? Was I just hanging in the “cool” part of town? Do I actually have a very superficial understanding of who Madrid is?!
And then, on my way to the train station, I saw this sign in the window of a shop. It says, “Madrid is the refuge for black sheep.” It gave me goosebumps.
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