This is a big place. We thought Lisbon was big, and it is, but Madrid, together with its outlying metropolitan areas has roughly 6.5 million people, making it the 3rd largest city in the EU behind London and Paris. It’s nice here though, hustle and bustle with great energy.
We arrived here last week after a 5-hour train ride from Santiago (we had to get up at 4am) and walked straight into market day. Our airBNB is in the La Latina area, an older neighborhood with the usual narrow streets, antique stores, and bars, cafes, and tapas joints everywhere. It’s also in the middle of El Rastro. According to the Madrid tourist site, it’s the most popular (and probably largest) open air flea market in Spain. I think it covered about 2 square km. We did not know this. Every street between the train station and where we needed to go was part of the market. Have you ever tried to drag luggage through wall to wall people and have no F****G idea where you are? People are gawking at trinkets and they ain’t moving. I almost assaulted several people who wouldn’t get the F*** outta muh way!!!
We were a bit late obviously, getting to the airBNB, but it sure was nice once we got there. The hosts were awesome. They had stocked the fridge with food including two of my favourite food groups, beer and chocolate! So, we managed to de-stress in short order, take a nap, drink a cold one, and listen to the sounds of market day fade away.
