Book Stalls - Calle de Claudio Moyano

On Sunday I went to visit a flat and then it was such a lovely day I thought I'd walk to Retiro and take a few photos. I'd passed by the Calle de Claudio Moyano book stalls the day before with Kasia my flatmate but hadn't had my camera with me so decided to go again. The weather was beautiful! After walking for a while I ended up with my jacket, cardigan, and scarf under my arm as it was so warm.

 

 

The Calle de Claudio Moyano has been likened to the area full of book stalls that lines the Seine in Paris with its many trestle tables and wooden sheds bursting with books. The street leads up in a diagonal line at the south west corner of Retiro park and is just a little way along from Atocha metro station so it's easy to find.

 

 

 

 

 

The books are mostly secondhand and in Spanish but many stalls have a small foreign languages section with English, French, German and Italian titles. There's a good mix of modern and older titles and there are definitely some gems to be found if you do a bit of digging; I even came across a Spanish copy of Richmal Crompton's Just William along with plenty of other children's books. Amongst piles of Spanish classics I found translations of the Lord of the Rings, Twilight and Bridget Jones' Diary. There are boxes and racks of film posters, old post cards, maps and newspapers though I would definitely say that this is a place for people that mainly have books in mind. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a Sunday when I visited so some of the stalls weren't open; I'll certainly be visiting again to pick up my next Spanish book to read. The prices are pretty reasonable with an average book being around 3-5 euros, though there are plenty to be found at less than that, and stall holders are often happy to offer you a deal if there are a few that you can't bear to be parted with. I'm so happy I've found this place; it's become one of my favourite spots in Madrid and the fact that it's right next to Retiro park doesn't hurt. I've also been hearing about a potential Book Fair that might take place in the city in the summer time so am definitely looking forward to that!

Navibus!

The Christmas lights in Madrid were all aglow and I was desperate to go on a photography spree when somebody at work told me about the Navibus. An open topped bus weaves its way in a big loop around the city passing all the main landmarks like Gran Vía, La Puerta de Alcala and Plaza de Cibeles. This being Madrid the tickets for a 50 minute round trip only cost 2 euros each! If it had been London I know we would have paid at least £10. Cat and I hopped up to the top deck all wrapped up in scarves and hats against the cold and I had my camera at the ready.

 

 

 I thought I'd try something a bit different and make a video this time so here goes:

 

 



 

 Afterwards we wanted to go for a hot chocolate to warm up and ended up walking past this lovely little book shop.

 

 

We were searching for a particular coffee shop that Cat had walked past before and thought looked really cool (apparently people were drinking out of glass jars...). But try as we might we couldn't find it and after getting turfed out of another café as it was closing time we started back towards the metro. After a few minutes, however, we found another place that was thankfully open and managed to order two cups of hot chocolate. In Spain when you ask for hot chocolate you are given a cup of melted chocolate (if you want the stuff we have in England you have to ask for Colacao) but that's exactly what we wanted after such a cold evening.

 

 

I apologise for the lateness of this post, we're already nearly into February, but I was having technical issues regarding the video...and I didn't want to leave it out :)

 

If any of you are in Madrid in December definitely make sure you take a ride on the Navibus! 

Nativity Scene (Belén)

Antonio the lovely portero, or door man, at work had built an incredible nativity scene in the building's foyer which I just had to show you.

 

 

 

It was enormous and covered in green moss which he spritzed with water every morning to keep it fresh. Along with the obligatory Jesus, Mary and Joseph there were lots and lots of tiny figures dotted around the landscape he had created.

 



 

 

 

 

 

Antonio had even added a river along with a tiny bridge, farms with hayricks and all the animals and birds he could cram in; the three wise men were depicted riding their camels under a starry sky

 

 

 

 

 



African Drumming Concert - Etnopercusión

I've now been back in Madrid for over two weeks and am back into the swing of things. What with flying home and meeting friends and family over the holidays I completely forgot about my blog so there are a couple of things I'll be uploading that may seem a bit out of date. The first is the African drumming concert that my friend Cat performed in. Both Annies and I met at the metro station and set off to find what we thought was going to be a concert hall but turned out to be a kind of bar/pub/club underground.

We waited for the show to start on a raised platform to the side of the dance floor, watching the crowd below us. The audience was made up of people of all ages and nationalities and judging by the eclectic nature of the show the organisers seemed to want to cater for everybody. There were crazy international folk dances (one involving a rather dodgy looking Israeli sequence with everyone in Jewish wigs and rubbing their fingers together indicating money...), an impromptu line dancing class that everyone was invited to take part in and at the end a chorus of the theme tune to the Lion King accompanied by ukuleles. Cat's drumming group took to the stage and I made sure I filmed it as I'd promised to try so that her family back home could watch too. I'm not sure about the quality of the video but I'll post it below so that you can all see as well:

We all had a great time and when I arrived back in Madrid after Christmas Annabel and I went to a free drumming class that each audience member was entitled to. After an hour and a half of frantic drum bashing we left feeling pretty dazed but happy and with the beats still reverberating in our heads.

Expocómic 2014

This last week has been jam packed with all sorts of interesting outings but I'll start off where it all began; last Sunday when I went to my first ever comic convention. Aurora from the creative group invited me along with her boyfriend and we arrived to stand in the drizzle to buy tickets. Inside the enormous space was filled with stall after stall selling comics and other merchandise. There was a videogame section with lots of consoles to play with and stands where people could pay to be made up into their favourite comic or manga character.

 

There were graphic artists doing demonstrations on stalls selling their work and other authors signing books and prints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a cosplay competition going on in one corner of the convention with a crowd of people dressed up in fantastical costumes. Ironman won 2nd place in the individual competition:

 

 

 

While a manga character that I didn't recognise won first place:

 

 

There were a couple of Elsas and Annas from Disney's Frozen:

 

 



 

My favourites were the overall winners; a group dressed in brilliant oriental inspired outfits:

 

 

 

 

There were plenty of people wandering around in their costumes too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed it but was a little disappointed in some things. It's true that many different types of comic and graphic novel were represented in some way or another; from superheroes to manga and beyond, but I was shocked at the general oversexualisation of women. From the leaflet advertising the convention to the souvenir mugs and towels some stalls were selling, images of semi-naked, grossly exaggerated cartoon women were plastered everywhere. I've since learned that in Japan pornography in banned and that as a result many people resort to manga and other comics. Erotic images have their place but most of the time it just seemed totally gratuitous; the first pages of the convention guide begin with a cartoon strip of a girl getting up and getting ready to go out to visit the convention...fair enough. Except that the first page is devoted to 3 large cartoons of her bum, crotch and cleavage as she puts on her thong, tight leather trousers and crop top. There were plenty of families with young children dotted around the convention, what kind of message are we sending them if the most common images of women they see in comic books are all either minutely slim, totally naked japanese girls in sexually naive poses or Jessica Rabbit style manga sex objects? Of course not all comics or graphic novels portray women in this way but it seems sad that some artists seem to think that the only way to make a story interesting is to add some random naked girls.

 



 

All in all though I really enjoyed the convention; something's got to be said for a place where you can just sit and eat your lunch with a tail and nobody bats an eyelid...

 

 





Panteón de Hombres Ilustres

Yesterday morning I was enjoying my cornflakes at the dining table and staring out of the window... when I noticed the building opposite our flat. On my first day here Marisa had told me that it was some sort of cemetery and that I ought to visit it as it has a beautiful garden. It was one of those gloriously sunny winter days we get here in Madrid and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, so I decided to have a look.

 

 

 

A sign on the gate said that it was called the Panteón de Hombres Ilustres and didn't mention anything about an entrance fee so I hopped up the steps and went in. The building itself is surrounded by an ornamental rose garden with lots of lovely trees and benches to enjoy the sunshine. It being December there weren't many roses still in flower but I managed to find this lovely one:

 

 

 

 

There were also swathes of these white flowers all along the boundary walls:

 

 

 

 

The architecture was interesting with lots of moorish looking touches





 

 

 

 

Inside were the funeral monuments of several famous Spaniards from the Victorian era. I recognised some of the names from streets or areas in Madrid; Calle Sagasta or Ríos Rosas etc.

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

The sculptures were at times a little dodgy and at others quite impressive; I liked the detail in this foot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside there were lots of little sparrows skipping about and while I was watching them I heard a squawking from above. It turned out to be a green parrot or parakeet! I'm not sure what species it is exactly as it doesn't have a ring round its neck or a red beak like a ring-necked parakeet, it also looks a bit like a quaker parrot but I really have no idea. If anyone knows and could leave it in the comments below that would be really helpful.

 

 



 

 

 

The Panteón de Hombres Ilustres can be found in Paseo de la Reina Cristina and is open to the public on weekdays and weekends for free.

 

A Marathon??

I was woken up this morning by shouts and cheers from the street outside. I pulled up my blinds to find thousands of red t-shirted runners braving the fog and cloudy skies.

 

 

I found out after a quick google search that they were taking part in the San Sebastian half marathon 2014.

 

Apologies for the shakiness of the video - I had just woken up!