El Rastro - your local buzzing street market

Apologies for the tardiness of this next post to those who do follow this journal. I have been preoccupied with work and Spanish bureaucracy to write much here. I have also been quite ill too. Mother is here this week, so will also not be updating this frequently.

However a week or so ago I met up with some friends for breakfast near my house, their house and El Rastro! So after a heavy brunch of two mixto con huevos (Spanish toasted sandwich with ham, cheese and egg - yum yum) and lots of cofffee we headed off to the Rastro. El Rastro is a famous Madrid street market in the district of La Latina and held every Sunday in the morning. It dates back some time, to medieval times I believe when the leather tanners would sell their goods, its all there in my Madrid guidebook all the way on the other side of my newly cleaned bedroom, however due to laziness I will not reach over and check. So I cannot guarantee my accuracy. Anyways it has been running a long time, and is now more famed as an antique market and a market where anything goes.

Want a new hippy table cloth? A tacky woodcraft thing which you have no idea what it does? Posters? Painting? Creepy Antiques that only your dead great grandmother would love? You can get it here. However I like to sometimes come for the atmosphere. I am one of these masochistic people who loves to get crushed in a crowd of sweaty strangers on a hot summers day (probably why I like carnivals, if you see my German entry on Cologne). If you dont like crowded places - avoid the Rastro.

Its a vibrant place of life with interesting sites and lots of crap you would never buy as well as lots of crap you buy for friends for presents and even for home. Sometimes you might even find something that is useful. It has some old bohemian romance to it, the old time street market. I think its one of the reasons I love it. Anyway if you are looking for some souvenirs in Madrid come here, or want some random hippy stuff or some nasty smelly antiques (I dont hate antiques, I like them, but the stuff here is flakey as hell!). Or if you like me and want a sensory overload of colours, sounds and people then I highly recommend it.

Only - look after your wallet. Thieves thrive in the Rastro! Dont feed the thieves thank you!