Malasaña

Sometimes if we’re not travelling, it’s easy for our minds to relax and do absolutely nothing. However, Erica had an innovative idea for us to get out and roam on a photo safari. Something I had never experienced, but now highly recommend no matter where you live. There is always something to explore. And it’s, wait for it… FREE. With all of that said, we trekked over to the mysterious, Malasaña area in Madrid.

Our list of things to find:

• Geometrical shape
• Something sexy that’s not human (myself would’ve been to easy)
• A person doing their job
• Nature in the urban setting
• A representation of Spain
• An emotion
• A pattern
• Symmetry
• Something that will not be around in five years
• “Lazy Sunday”

Pattern

Besides the big piece of graffiti planted right on my pattern.. it’s not too shabby.

Symmetry

Thank you to the child that had a birthday party or the person that believes Valentine’s Day is an all weekend affair.

An Emotion

If this does not produce emotion in this country, I don’t know what does. To live, breathe, eat, and fútbol are the emotions of every Spaniard.

Geometrical Shape

OK. So, it’s just a nice picture. WRONG. I see rectangles, squares, prisms and triangles all over this. Ay-oh.

Something Sexy

I could not take a shot of a person and dub it “sexy”, so I settled for the next best thing. Just embrace that pose.

Nature In the Urban Setting

While there is a great amount of trees and parks around, I thought this concept did Madrid justice. Just look up at any balcony. You’ll see that flower pots are what make every piso in Madrid, “nature friendly”

Someone Doing Their Job

Being a waitress in Malasaña.. where there are no dress requirements. Just come looking fresh.

“Lazy Sunday”

Ahhh. A lazy Sunday in Madrid is all of this, and then some. Enjoying a caña on the terrace with no worries in sight. As long as there is sunshine on a Sunday afternoon, you are sure to find the people filling the restaurant’s tables outside.

At the end of the day, I found eight of the ten items on our safari. It’s crazy to see what you can find when your not thinking about everything else.

Cheers to Sundays.

And the sweltering hot weather of Madrid has now arrived... that kind of hot air that makes it impossible to sleep at night! We need to find places with water where we can cool off!

I'm thinking of places where I can be comfortable in 38 degrees!

One of these places is the San Juan Reservoir, which can be found in the community of Madrid bordering Ávila. In the direction of Navas del Rey, from Principe Pio you can take a bus which drops you off at Pelayos de la Presa (the village of the reservoir). The journey takes around one hour and thirty minutes and costs about €5-10 one way, so maybe it would be cheaper and more comfortable to rent a car between five people. Even so, if you can't go by car I'll explain how to get to a cool spot where I was...

When on the bus, once you pass Navas del Rey, you will pass a long stretch of many curves and forest. The stop you want to get off at is just straight past this area. Get off the bus at the Embalse Bridge, you should see a restaurant at this stop.

Continue along a dirt path for about 20 minutes until you climb the whole hill and see the reservoir.

Once you cross the flat area, on the left there is a parking area and a path where the cars can no longer pass.

If you go walk down this direction for around 10 minutes you will reach a great area, The San Juan reservoir beach!

In the rock in the photo you can see that many people climb out there. So if you're interested, get informed and you can go and see what goes on out there!

Regarding the beach, there is a rock painted blue out there for reference!

I was there in March and it was already full of little flowers!

Well I hope you enjoy the place!

Ciao, Ciao!

Madrid has many interesting districts, such as: Chueca, Las Letras, La Latina... where each of those has its own character. And out of all of them, Malasaña is my favorite. Generally, amazing place with its own atmosphere where you can be yourself and see others doing the same, where you can eat and drink in really cool places, where nightlife reminds you to the one 30 years ago. I am going to describe four of the main reasons why I love this place so much.

People

It is located between Chueca and Argüelles. They also call it the hipster neighborhood as you can see hipster style on every corner of this neighborhood. Also, you can see rock and metal fans looking like they came from the 80s wearing leather jackets riding their motorbikes. Really, you can see all kinds of styles and that is one thing that makes Malasaña so special as you know: what really makes the city are people living there and their vibrant conversations. Really, nothing is too strange in this district so you may see some really odd things going on.

Living it up: Source

Street art

This is a place where many artists left their signature on the walls. Regardless of being recognized painters or just putting a cat spray picture on the wall after a long night partying, it gives the place a really hipster atmosphere. You will find so many graffiti or other kinds of art on every street. Besides, it works so well with characteristic restaurants, bars and other stores or pharmacy decorated with ''azulejos'' (white and blue cheramic tiles) as it connects the whole place changing it from separate hipster bars to the whole alternative district. Artists often use graffiti as a method of protesting against current situation, like illegal smoking of weed. And it represents a nice connection of a walking tour around coming from Chueca (gay-friendly neighborhood) and then rounding around Malasaña.

The weedie. Source

Second hand shops

When you are walking around, you will notice that there are many second hand shops located in the district. Possibly, you will not even recognize all of them as such. By buying used things you contribute to recycling those products giving them another chance to really come alive plus you can save some money by not buying the new ones. You can come there looking for a specific one, such as Templo de Susu, which is one of the most known. Inside they have different clothes, jewelery, bags, belts and handbags. If you decide to stay a while listening to the good old rock, you might find something really interesting, such as silver necklace I bought. This one is a bit more expensive on the account of being so famous so you can look for one a bit less known where you can also find a hidden treasure.

They are also selling other used things in Malasaña, such as books. In the store in the picture below you can get any book for 3€ or two for 5€. It surely was a good bargain for my spanish class where I had to read a book in spanish language and by buying one I was able to write notes in the book while reading. And the second one is still waiting for a good time to be read.

Book store: Source

Bars with a character

Around all the district there are many bars. Not just places you go to get drunk: there the alternative vibe really comes out. Bars are really inviting already from the outside and inside of most of them is no less peculiar. Music on the radios is a bit different than in the typical clubs in Madrid so you will not hear much of reggaeton but rather old music from the 70s and 80s. So yeah, if you are more into Guns N' Roses (like me) it is where you will find your music playing. Often, you can find live music playing. There are of course also differences between different bars.

Because of this atmosphere it is not strange that many young people choose to go out there, often drinking outside in the streets first making sure there is no police around. It used to be a place where one could easily get drugs but lately police is making sure that it is not ongoing in as big scale as before.

One of many alternative bars: Source