A sunday morning on the Paseo del Prado

It was a lovely sunday morning this weekend and I decided I was in the mood for some art that morning. I had wanted to go to the Reina Sofia, but it was closed due to the day of "los reyes", so walked a bit further up the Paseo del Prado to the Thyssen-Bornemissza art gallery - one of the big three in the Madrid's artistic repetoir.



Out of the three galleries this is my personal favourite. It has a vast collection spanning a 700 years time frame up to and including 20th Century art. It also caters to the art lovers of Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugauin and all the major art movements of the 19th Century which the other two galleries do not have. If you have only time in Madrid to visit only one gallery, and are not too specific on what art you are interested in looking at then go to this one - it has the largest variety and you will not be dissapointed in the collection. I didn't do the whole gallery this sunday as I have been to this museum about 3-4 times, but you do need a whole day really or at least most of the afternoon to see the entire collection. I mainly stuck to the first and ground floor where the 19th-20th century art is located.
Here you will find your fauvists, impressionists, romanticists, post-impressionists, expressionists, surrealists, cubists - you name it! Certainly proves to be interesting if you want to learn some art history as the art is catogorised by it's genre, and also provides a good cultural education as well as an aesthetic stimulation.

After my time in the gallery I was feeling oh so pretentious and wanted a coffee to follow suite. Not satisfied with the idea of going to the Starbucks next door, even with its chai soy lattes and its view of the Neptune fountain. I wanted grand, yet antique and flakey. Somewhere with character and history, a truely bohemian place to take my cup of black coffee. Where else better than the famous Café Gijón, ten minutes walking distance situated on the Paseo de Recoletos.



It's a deliciously wonderful old world place, built at the end of the 19th century and has been home and inspiration to the Spanish literati and artistic community in the 20th century; as well as being a historical iconic figure in Madrid cafe life. The place has a decaying grandeur atmosphere to it with its threadbare velvet seats and its chipped gold leaf framed mirrors. It smells musty, and has the ambience of an antique shop. The coffee was nice, but over priced but I supposed it is the price to pay when you are sitting in the seat where the Mata Hari or one of the Spanish literary giants may have sat herself so its excusable. The service is fast, but cold and impersonal - but fast service in Spain is a rarity so think of this as bonus. I guess in hindsight I would probably pay the same in Starbucks for a coffee or just shy of it so maybe not such a bad trade off then. Plus you cant get atmosphere in Starbuck no matter how nice a place it is situated in. I would go back there, and I would recommend going if you are a person who values atmosphere, ambience and history. It's a peaceful place away from the frantic bars of the more familiar Madrid and is a good locale to go to drink a coffee, discuss philosophy with your bohemian friends, write your journal or a novel or read one.

Eating vegetarian in Spain

Its so hard being vegetarian in continental Europe, meat is such a dominant part of the cuisine that a lot of people (until recently anyway) would see vegetarianism as being something alien and wierd. Some countries are easier than others, most northern european countries despite having a very meat based local cuisine are accepting of vegetarianism, in Germany, Holland and the UK its easy to find places that cater to vegetarians. Eastern Europe I found to be the worst as my Hungarian family believe a chicken counts as vegetarian!

Southern Europe too is pretty hard, however Italy and Greece do have some lovely vegetarian local dishes. Spain most of the food is centric around meat and fish. I have made my life easier by being a pescatrian (I have a reaction to pork and just dont like meat), but 90% of my diet is vegetarian since I only really like fish in form of sushi.

Asides from cooking vegetarian for myself I have made an effort to try to find good eateries in Madrid that cater to vegetarians.

My first and favourite place, is also my only excuse for a fast food venture is the chain restaurant knowns as Maoz Vegetarian, specialising in the falafel. This place does not just cater to fast food for veggies, but also healthy fast food for anyone wanting a more nutritious option than Maccy D's. They are originally a Dutch chain, however you can find a couple of branches in Madrid and Barcelona. For under 4€ you can get either a falafel salad (consisting of 3 falafel balls and salad from their delicious salad bar) or a pitta bread with falafel and salad. The best bit is you can go back to the salad bar as much as you want and you get a delicious, healthy and 100% vegetarian (or vegan meal even depending on your salad bar choice) meal really cheaply. There is one located in Calle Mayor just off the Puerta del Sol and another in Calle Horteleza just of Gran Via. Maybe others exist but this I do not know about this.

Looking for some spanish tapas but daunted by the amount of meat and non vegetarian dishes to offer? Well I have some help for you. Near Cuatro Caminos there is a lovely new tapas bar called Cueva de Bandoleros which has been recently opened. And by tapas I mean the traditional buy a glass of wine or a beer and get a free little tapa. To make matters better you can chose your tapas when you order a drink. Now before my vegetarians had some problems there since none of the food included was previously veggie. However after pursuading the chef (a really lovely guy!) to include more of the herbivore market in his establishment he will now do vegetarian tapas on request. And it is fabulous. He really made an effort at creating new dishes to cater for us: garlic mushrooms, vegetable stews with wonderful spices, vegetarian revueltos (scrambled egg dishes with other stuff included in it). So if you ever go in there and order a drink, mention you are vegetarian and you will get something tasty and spanish and veggie. Also with 3 glasses of beer you will no longer be hungry and have spent about 6€! Not a bad deal eh?

Finally I want to talk about some fine vegetarian dining. The other day me and friend wanted to find a good vegetarian restaurant to do some elegant dining at. Well just off Recoletos we found a lovely place called La Galette II (there is another near calle Serrano). This is a lovely elegant yet homely restaurant with a wonderful vegetarian menu at good prices. Sure some things made us laugh as a one of their veggie dishes included bacon and another tuna, but asides from that it was above board. The cooking was great and we had a lovely dinner. Nothing was to be complained about. They do a menu in English so can double check it. They also do a non vegetarian menu so its a good place to go with any carnivorous friends of yours. The atmosphere was lovely, elegant and classy without being snooty. Could take a date, your parents, friend or more than one friend there and it would still be great. Highly recommended.

Memories of my first Night in Madrid

I am not entirely sure where to start with this, so I guess its obvious to start with my first night I arrived here last Summer.


I arrived at Barajas airport where my friends had met me to give me a lift to my new flat. When I greeted them I offered the very British handshake to which they replied "no no no, you are in Spain now you will greet as the Spanish do". So I was introduced to the traditional Spanish greeting of the two kisses on each cheek. Its not so uncommon and unusual for me, in Hungary they do the same, but only to friends you already know - not to people you meet for the first time. But I like it, I think it helps overcome a lot of awkwardness between new people when they meet and everything feels more open.



We dropped my stuff off at the apartment and drove downtown to a street Fiesta. Coming from the North of Madrid, you have to pass the Castellana which is a long main road running from the north to down-town as far as the Prado and Atocha station. Madrid at night is really when the city is at its best. All the buildings are lit up beautifully and gives more detail to the delicate intricacies of the architecture, it has a more glamourous feel to it. I love Recoletos and the Paseo del Prado with its tree lined boulevards and its elegant prominades. Recoletos is filled with elegant, classy cafès which look like something out of the 1920s.











Then continued down to the Paseo del Prado passing Plaza Cibeles, until we came to the district of Lavapiès. This is an old part of the city, with old flakey townhouses (but I love this type of flakeyness - so much character!) It really has such a bohemian feel to it, I absolutely loved it. The street was filled with stalls to buy food and drink. The streets filled with people either sitting outside cafès or bars taking a beer or in the square making "botellòn" (taking their own drink and just drinkinig together one the square). The air was warm and musty, I love the feeling of the warm air in the summer's nights.