What to do in Madrid
My offer to help Julia Stöpel on the mobile photo sharing community Instagram with some tips and recommendations on sights, clubs, bars and…
My offer to help Julia Stöpel on the mobile photo sharing community Instagram with some tips and recommendations on sights, clubs, bars and nice places to visit when spending some time in the capital of Spain made me think about writing a long overdue blog post about that matter for reference and to eventually help more people at once. I spent an entire year in Madrid during my studies which was the reason for the offer in the first place. Now that’s me turning the thought into some written words about a pleasant stay in Madrid in no particular order, just like it came to my mind, so please skim through so you won’t miss the gems on the bottom:
Yambala
Yambala is a little Mexican/intercultural flavored bar close to Plaza Mayor or Sol, the centre of Madrid. You usually expect the centre of a big city to be the tourist meeting point which it definitely is but walk down Calle Mayor, THE tourist street, pass Joy, THE tourist club, and just right after you passed it turn left into a little alley which leads to THE Churros place Chocolatería San Ginés where you should have at least one churro at 6am after clubbing and on another night turn left again around the corner to have some amazing cocktails or a Michelada before going out, at Yambala, owned by a dear friend of mine, Conrado who still should remember my name.
Chueca
Chueca is one of my two favorite hoods or barrios in Madrid. It’s well known for being the gay centre of Madrid which makes it open, colorful and tempting especially for the younger generation (Disclaimer: I’m not gay but I loved it there :). There are so many cultural institutions, bars and places which I can’t mention here entirely but I’ll tell you a few in a bit. Oh, and there’s a festival (Gay Pride, e.g.) once in a while.
El Tigre
El Tigre is a really small and always crowded (due to the tourists) tapas bar in Chueca where the young and quirky waiters (they l.o.v.e the ladies) serve you one plate of tapas with every glass of your 1€ beer. The clue: You usually can’t choose which kind of tapas you get and you get e.g. 5 entirely stuffed plates if you order 5 beers. Believe me. It’s not the most hygienically sterile place in Madrid but who would ask for that when you get your stomach filled tastily on a single 5€-bill.
The Roof of Hotel Oscar
The Hotel Room Mate Oscar is a thoughtfully and neatly designed hotel on Plaza Vázquez de Mella in the heart of Chueca, not far from El Tigre neither. It has a kind of a posh appearance but as far as I know it’s not the most expensive hotel in town. I don’t want to recommend you the hotel itself though because of a lack of experience but the freely accesible terrace which you reach by entering the hotel lobby and a turn to the elevators on the left. The portier will lift you up to the terrace then where the drinks are exclusive (read: expensive) but so is the view over the rooftops of central Madrid. I spent some cozy and happy moments with friends in the evenings there.
Malasaña (Metro Tribunal)
Not far away from Chueca is my second (second as in equally great) favorite barrio called Malasaña. It’s the artisan hood where a lot of artists and hedonists live and spend their time. You can find a lot of small shops (second hand, handicraft, etc.), cafés and bars there and I’m going to introduce you to 1,2,3 of them but you should definitely take a stroll through the small alleys and discover it on your own. It’s totally worth it and you’ll forget time in a snap.
La Lolina, the forgotten Café & Ojalá
Gotta confess the Madrileños still pretty much fancied the whole Retro schtick when I was there, particularly in Malasaña (see: second hand), and I’m usually not quite a fan of all things retro but that little spot La Lolina at Calle del Espíritu Santo is just sweet (and the waitresses are Amélie-like cute
There’s also a nice outdoor café right across the street and on the left of Lolina where they serve deliciously good homemade Vermouth but unfortunately I can’t remember the name which sucks.
Right next to that one is Ojalá, a bar/restaurant (chain?) with chalkboard walls in the bathrooms so you can protocol your stay. They serve a good alround breakfast for a moderate price but it’s not that madrileño in particular.
Nasti, Tupperware, La Via Lactea
Okay, you spent a wonderful afternoon and evening in the barrio of Malasaña so what’s up next? Maybe going out in one of the uncountable clubs in the same area. Most of them have to close at around 3–4am as a governmental restriction but from time to time they give a sh*t about that and leave the doors open until 6 o’ clock. Equally random is the entrance fee of some of those clubs but never high up to 10€ like in the bigger clubs around Gran Via or Sol.
Nasti (Oh, you gotta hear the Spanish pronounciation…) is a little venue in a dark cellar floor where the musical variety is pretty vast — I experienced everything from Indie Rock by DJs to Live Gameboy-8bit-Electro.
Tupperware is a quirky small club on two floors with mixed music also spanning Alternative, Classic Rock and Electro, nice guests, cheap drinks and I always had a fun time dancing inside.
La Via Láctea,The Milky Way or The Woodstock Bar is a old pub with a billard table which is weirdly often occupied by young people who dig the Classic Rock music they play inside. Cheap drinks, an occasional game and friendly people.
At the end of this section about the neighborhood of Malasaña I mustn’t forget to tell you about the now forbidden Botellónes which still take place here and there e.g. on the two most prominent places in this barrio Plaza Dos de Mayo and Plaza San Ildefonso. You huddle with some of your best friends, BYOB or buy beer illegally for 1€/can from the cruising street vendors (despicably called Chinos) and just hang out sitting on the ground of one of those places talking, laughing and having a good time till the police crashes your party and you gotta fan out. No worries, in one year I got caught not once.
Gran Via & Calle Fuencarral
When you hear/read about Madrid or played the Europe Edition of Monopoly once you probably know the main boulevard of Gran Via. It’s the 5th Avenue, Champs-Élysées or Olgastraße (excuse the little local pun) of Spain so you and all the other tourists can find every imaginable famous fashion, fast food or coffee brand along the lines of this street. Demonstrations and festivals also take place there. If you fancy some swag besides the usual path have a look on the Gran Via of Chueca, namely Calle Fuencarral which leads you orthogonally from Gran Via to the barrio of Chueca. You’ll find clothes, kitsch and brands probably not known to you before.
Plaza de España & Templo de Debod
Gran Via on its lower end leads you straight to Plaza de España, a rather large square with gardens and a monument surrounded by the cities largest skyscrapers. A nice place to rest some time and enjoy your fresh brewed Starbucks coffee from around the corner. After your rest you should take your time to fully enjoy the area around the pyramid of Templo de Debod, rebuilt a long time ago as a gift from Egypt and surrounded by even more beautiful gardens which give you a stunning view over huge parts of Madrid. It’s a 5min walk from Plaza de España and also a preferable place to meet friends in the evenings and chill in the green grass. (Picture Source)
Low Club
So now that you’re close to Plaza de España and it’s late evening to midnight why not head up a little further to the West and get a glimpse of my favorite electro club in Madrid called Low? I had my longest, most joyous and intense nights there with a lot of booze and sweat. You got expensive entry fees (when you don’t enter at ridiculous times where nobody’s in there yet), grumpy bouncers and cheap girls behind the bars but the musical choice is one of the best in the city. I saw Steve Aoki, the Bloody Beetroots, some Ed Bangers and alike, shared Vodka and a smoke with them. Sidenote: I met a girl at 3am on her last night in Madrid there who made me fly to Amsterdam days after. So that’s that.
La Latina
La Latina is, how you could guess by its name, the Latin quarter of Madrid with the majority of immigrants living there in not the greatest wealth and therefore not in the most exquisite homes. But this barrio has its own sweet charme with foreign restaurants, small shops (especially one good old photo shop for all your mostly analogue needs), drugs unfortunately (so it’s not that cozy there in the night) but most importantly one huge flea market every Sunday called Rastro which is worth a stroll one time at least despite of the large amount of people.
Notice btw. the shop sign on the right of the picture above — that’s where you get the best tapas to strengthen yourself for the long walks but prepare for a long queue.
Other cultural stuff (Parks, Gardens & Museums)
If you are in Madrid once in your lifetime you have to pay a visit to the huge park of Retiro, just because it really IS huge and relaxing, next to the wonderful antigue train station of Atocha with its looooooong botanical garden right in the middle of the station with palms, cute turtles swimming in little ponds. A comparibly small oasis in the heart of that gigantic metropolitan city.
And then when you want to take a wider view on the Royal Palace from a green spot in the hills go to the Campo del Moro but beware: it’s also the usual spot where the hookers serve their clients. In the bushes on wide fields, you see?
There are — of course — also three big museums in the city for those rainy days or longer stays with contemporary and historical art and permanent and temporary exhibitions, better have a look on their websites before: Museo Nacional del Prado, Museo Reina Sofía and Museo Thyssen — Bornemisza.
As a special little treat you should definitely check out the cultural centre La Casa Encendida, supported and funded by the bank Caja Madrid in Lavapies, where independent concerts and other cultural events take place for a small fee or even for free. The terrace is also a fine spot inbetween breaks where you can also BYOB.
These are of course not all the wonderful things to discover in this great city but the ones I could remember after roundabout two/three years of absence. I also plan to edit this article regularly when new places pop up in my memory or if friends from back then would like to contribute.
More pictures by friends and me are available here:
My Flickr — There are more sets from my time in different Spanish cities, too.
So hang on and hopefully enjoy your stay when you plan to spend a really unique time in my temporary hometown where I definitely had one of the most intense and character changing experiences of my life.
Overall and most importantly: Have fun!
Originally published at werkshow.squarespace.com on October 30, 2011.