People, people.... everywhere there's people

(new pictures soon to come- we have a very slow internet connection right now)

I have yet to walk down a street in Spain and be the only person within sight. In fact, I have yet to be among just 2 or 3 others to pass by as I weave my way through the narrow twists and turns. Here in the center of Madrid, there are people everywhere- massive amounts of people, at all times of the day. On the subways, in the markets, in the plazas, on the café terraces, but mostly just walking on the streets. But there’s something odd about this crowd- they don’t overwhelm or just “get to you.” In America, being in a huge crowd of people (what I’d compare to the streets of New York, a full metro train, or being at a crowded football game) would tend to make me feel claustrophobic or even annoyed. But here, the feeling is different and Travis and I have both noticed it. Maybe it’s the fact that the language we’re hearing is not familiar, so the sound of voices is not obnoxious. Or maybe it’s because Europeans in general are a little quieter in public (except at 3am here in Madrid!) and tend to keep more to themselves. We’re not sure what it is, but being around this many people, at all times, is quite exhilarating. It’s like you feel like you must be in “the place” because everyone else is here too. My only complaint would be that the people get in the way of good photography. Sometimes it’s just too difficult to crop them out!

A perfect illustration of the crowds is an experience we had on Saturday night, at 11:30pm. A huge annual event called “La Noche en Blanca” took place here in the city of Madrid from 9:00pm Saturday to 7:00am Sunday. It’s purpose was to spread cultural appreciation and awareness by having all of the museums, theatres, music halls and other cultural places free and open to the public for the duration of that time. Also, many outdoor artistic and musical exhibitions were staged in the many plazas, including huge light displays, giant movie screens and theatrical arts. From what my Spanish teacher shared with us in class, Spaniards LOVE free things. She said whether it be a free sample of toothpaste to a free poster of a politician to the free days at the museums- they WILL come. Wow, was she right.

Travis and I had to peal ourselves off of the bed Saturday night at 11:30pm after our long day of walking the streets in Segovia to head out and take a look at the goings-on outside. Actually, we were pretty much experiencing it in our apartment before the fact because of the massive amounts of sound below. So, despite our weary legs, we headed out to the main street here, “Gran Via,” which was closed down for the evening to provide a good walking route for the people and multiple spaces for the exhibits. Stepping onto the street, we instantly felt like we were in Times Square on New Years Eve. People everywhere- all ages, families, groups of teens and many older adults as well. They all looked mostly local, this was not about tourists. To walk down the road, we had to first observe the scene and plan a route. We noticed the massive amounts of humanity had nicely formed an invisible two-lane road, so we stayed on the right and made our way with the flow of traffic. We had hoped to visit the Royal Palace (since the admission price on typical days is high), but the line for entry was so long we decided spending the money would be more worth it! The actual visual and music displays were semi-impressive, but mostly just bizarre. Take a look at the picture I posted of the odd balloon/bubble like thing coming out of the side of a skyscraper. Everyone has a different perspective on art, right?

Overall, it was an interesting experience. To sleep that night, we had to shut our windows or we never would have rested. But, we came through it okay. Sunday morning lead to yet another experience with more people present than I could have dreamed of. I wonder how many of these people were up last night as well? Maybe they never went to bed, or maybe this was just another group of the population? We took the streets again after a slow, leisurely morning and headed down to the La Latina district, which is the home to Sunday’s famous Raestro flea market. I’d say up to 20 city blocks worth of streets were closed down and packed tight with vendors selling everything from antiques, stamps and coins, old and new clothing, textiles and leather from India and Morocco, books, hardware, music, "tourististy" souvenir stuff, and also just a lot of plain old junk. They had everything you could name, some things expensive, but some things at decent prices. We were looking for nothing particular, just there to absorb the environment. Knowing this was the biggest flea market in Europe, we weren’t sure what to expect. Well, it was well worth the trip, and now we know where to go if we have any needs for some of these odd items for sale. The only difficulty of the experience was again figuring out how to maneuver our way through the crowds. It was almost impossible to see the items because it would take several minutes of saying “Pardone, pardone…” to at least 4-5 people to get up to the front. We hung on for about 2 hours, but then Travis said, “I think I’ve had enough of crowds for today.” It didn’t take much to convince me that it was time to head home.

So there are some typical examples of the “mucho gente” (many people) on-the-go in this city. We’re not quite sure what we’d do with ourselves if we move next to a smaller town- it would be a change of our pace for sure! -Trish