Platform Zero: Madrid's Ghost Metro Station

As I was searching for a bookstore in the Chamberí district, I happened to run across a modern, steel-and-glass structure on the corner of the street that read Chamberí museum. Always keen for an adventure, I stepped into the spiral staircase never suspecting that it led down to Madrid's ghost metro station. The Chamberí metro stop was one of eight original stations that opened in Madrid in 1919, on a line running from Cuatro Caminos to Puerta del Sol. The station closed in 1966 due to the fact that it could not be adapted to take the new longer trains as the metro station was built on a curve. 

Four years ago the station was reopened as a museum after being restored to its past glory still featuring the original decoration, gorgeous tiled adverts and furniture from that era. What makes this museum special besides being free is that it makes you feel like if you stepped back in time. Of course, there are all sorts of ghosts stories surrounding this place. I didn't see any, but the station does retains a ghostly vibe as you might expect. While in the midst of letting your mind wander to a bygone era, all of a sudden you can get a glimpse of a modern train whizzing by in front of your eyes bringing you back to the present. Such emotions can only happen in a place like Madrid!

 

 

Metro People Watching

The year doesn't begin in January. If you think it does, it's because you don't live in Spain. The year really begins the first Monday of September. It's when most Spanish people face reality and go back to work as their long vacations become distant memories. Most people feel a sense of doom or what we call post-vacation blues. So is it weird that I wasn't feeling them as I rode on the Metro (subway) that first Monday morning? Maybe it's because I was too busy looking at the mix of people that ride this famous public transport system. It's funny how people's attire change as stations change. And since around three million people ride it daily, you can bet that it will be a new adventure every time you ride it.

Mid way through the year

Holy Cow! How did we already get to June? Wasn't I only just making New Year resolutions? But the seasons change by nature’s own design. And I know I haven't been posting as regularly as I should, but that will change shortly after the summer has come and gone. As for now, have a great summer!, Ta Ta...

Another Holiday?



Don Quixote of La Mancha

Today is the day of the region in Castilla La Mancha and it's a holiday. Each region in Spain has it own day, thus it's not a holiday anywhere else. So what happens during this day? Absolutely nothing, at least not in the town where I live. All shops and businesses are closed.

Public holidays in this country are a dime a dozen. Spain has one of the highest number of bank holidays in Europe. (This is without counting "puenting", which I'll leave for another blog entry.) Spanish people are all for taking off as many days as possible from work. It always amused me when I used to work in the Spanish public school system how my peers were eager to see the published school calendar for the upcoming year, count how many holidays there were and if they were on a week day. If a holiday falls on a Sunday it isn't moved to a Monday like in the US.

My question is, how can Spain ever come out of the economic crisis we are facing when it seems like at least once a month there is a holiday?

15 M, A Year After

So today is the first anniversary of 15 M, a movement created here in Spain by people who call themselves "indignados". At first I was excited by this movement who seemed to act in pacifistic ways to acknowledge there is something wrong going on in this country. But then there were government elections and I thought something would happen in the urns, but lo and behold, the PP (right wing, conservatist group) won. WTF?? So it seems this movement had no effect in the voting and is once again gathering in Sol (Madrid) and other important Spanish cities, but what for? I don't get it...

Spain's Forecast: No Work in the Horizon

My once unconditional love for Spain is slowly dying. As I read the newspaper headlines saying that 5,640 million Spaniards are now out of work, I can't help but feel disgust. Today and tomorrow Spain is on a long holiday or puente celebrating Labor Day. Isn't it ironic?

Unemployment rises 6.9% to 5.6 million in first quarter of 2012

Spain's Version of Valentine's Day

As I had stated in an earlier post, Valentine’s Day is not a traditional Spanish celebration, but in my opinion, Spain actually has a better version of lovers’ day. Today is Sant Jordi (Saint George), the patron saint of Catalonia. Legend says that after Sant Jordi killed the dragon in a town called Montblanc, a red rose grew up from the ground where the dragon’s blood was spilt. Thus the tradition of giving your loved one a red rose began in medieval times. In the 20^th century a bookseller decided to add giving a book in exchange for a rose since both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes shared this day as their death date. This tradition inspired UNESCO to declare April 23rd the International Day of the Book. Eventhough this started in Catalonia, most of Spain’s cities and towns carry on with the tradition and you can spot book shop stalls on the main streets or squares filled with books and roses of any color. So today if you're lucky, you get roses, or books or both. Just my kind of day!

Holy Schmoly Week

Forget about decorating eggs and egg hunts for Easter. We are in Spain and Easter is not celebrated like this. As a matter of fact, the week before Easter is more important than Easter itself.

Holy Week or "Semana Santa" is a really big deal in Spain. It is so popular that hotels are sold out months or some as much as a year in advance. People that own a balcony from which to view the processions, rent them out in exorbitant amounts. It is an outdoor event, so people take to the streets.

The scene is very difficult to describe. You have to actually experience one. During the week, a series of parades or processions take place. In these processions there is always a band performing a march that adds to the solemn mood in the air. The cities or town's various religious fraternities and brotherhoods "costaleros" carry ornate floats or "pasos" through the "barrios" or neighborhoods, and back to its originating church. These massive platforms are topped with scenes from the life of Jesus. The "nazarenos" who march in front wear a "capirote", a tall conical hood which conceals the face reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan.

At the end of the procession, which can last hours, people go out for an "aperitivo" or snack (remember this is Spain!)

Of course there are no Easter baskets full of chocolate covered bunnies and eggs (although some are slowly making their way into the supermarkets), but it seems something more captivating and meaningful takes over the Spanish streets.

Happy Easter! 

Finding Goya in Madrid

One of the true joys of living in Spain is the opportunity to see some of the world’s greatest works of art in their original settings. On a day like today, Francisco de Goya, one of Spain's greatest painters, was born. Most tourists who come to Spain, visit El Prado Museum where you can find a whole section dedicated to Goya, but few decide to trace his footsteps through Madrid.
Every time I go to Madrid, I try to find something I haven't visited before. So on this trip I decided to find Goya in other places besides El Prado.

I took a train to Principe Pio Station and walked down an avenue called Paseo de la Florida. There on the right were two identical chapels or hermitages called "Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida" (Royal Chapel of St. Anthony of la Florida). Goya's tomb is inside one of them, now a museum. This hermitage not only houses Goya's remains, but one of his least known masterpieces. The dome and ceiling are painted with his frescoes sometimes referred to as "Goya's Sistine Chapel".

I was surprised to see that there were very few tourists, eventhough the admission was free. They were probably all standing in line at El Prado.


Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida & Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen

Don’t Cast a Clout ‘till May is Out

The English saying: "Don't cast a clout till May is out" means do not take off your winter coat untill the May flowers are out. In the past people in autumn sewed themselves into their heavy winter underwear and wore it until the following spring when the flowers appeared on the May bushes (Yuck!)
Well, there is a similar Spanish proverb that says: "Hasta el cuarenta de mayo, no te quites el sayo", which means "Until the 40th of may, don't take your coat off". Last week we went straight from winter weather to summer weather, no spring weather in between. Yesterday was the beginning of spring, but it snowed, back to the winter weather, showing that the people who invented the proverb were right, you can’t bet on non-stop good weather in Spain until June.

The rain in Spain stays mainly NOT in the plain

I’m sure most of us remember Professor Higgins teaching Eliza Doolittle the lyrics: "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain". Of course it was a language exercise for Eliza to learn how to pronounce correctly, but do the lyrics hold true? Certainly not. I can assure you that the rain in Spain stays mainly NOT in the plain. I happen to live in the plain and it hardly rains here. As a matter of fact, Spain has faced its driest winter ever recorded. Is it because of climate change? Probably… As a result, Spain is in the grip of facing its worst drought this summer. As water reserves start to shrink, "Water Wars" (Cities or whole regions import water from other areas in Spain) from past years will soon unfold again. This week we have gone straight from winter to summer, no spring weather in between and it makes me wonder when will the water cuts begin?

11 M - Never forget

Today is the eighth anniversary of Madrid's train bombings. On that day, 191 innocent commuters were killed and 1858 injured when 10 bombs were detonated on four trains at three train stations: Atocha, El Pozo and  Santa Eugenia during morning rush hour. Why? Nobody knows, another terrorist act of cowardice. Just the thought of it, still gives me the chills.

Atocha Station

Call it coincidence, but I have to travel to Madrid around this time of the year. I have to go through the three train stations that were bombed on my route. I happened to be in Madrid a couple of days before the attack in 2004 and on this date the "what if's" start running around my head. To this day, I haven't been able to visit or look at the permanent monuments to the victims. As I prepare to ride the train one more time, I can't help feel numb and wonder, "What if it happens again?"

Out with the old, in with the new?

Continuing with the subject of education, there is another thing that I don't understand about this country. Every time there is a change of government, the education system gets changed. How smart is that? Since I've been here, I think there have been 4 education policies: (LOE, LOCE, LOPEG, LOGSE) and there were a couple before that. The majority of parents don't have a clue what education system their child is studying under. And the teachers pretend they do, at least on paper, but then you go into their classrooms and the majority of them still teach like in the 1900s.

Do all these changes help improve students performance? Certainly not. Now that Rajoy's government is in power, the education system will once again be changed to a new one. Why? because that is Spain's philosophy: they don't like second-hand anything. (Remember that in one of my posts I said there were no second-hand shops, although now you can see that a few have sprung up due to the crisis.)

But is it so new? At the beginning of this month, future teachers complained that the topics for the test to get a position in the public education system had been changed last minute to topics from 1993. Why would the government change them at the last minute? It boils down to money. The less people know when they show up to the test, the few will pass the exams. Castilla la Mancha has already suspended their tests and next up in line will be Andalucia. Spain keeps thinking that cuts in education will make the system better and it's the opposite what needs to be done. They need to invest in the future generations. Is that too difficult to understand?

Carnaval, a bizarre Spanish festival

In all the years I've been living here, this is probably the festival I like the least. Carnaval is a difficult thing to describe. The best I can come up with is a mixture of a weird Halloween and a blah Mardi Gras. Why? because it usually takes place during the cold winter months. Watching people parade without the excitement of Brazilian Carnaval in the cold is not my idea of a good time.
To mark the end of Carnaval, on Ash Wednesday (today) there is a strange parade called Burial of the Sardine (Entierro de la Sardina). People dress in black as mourners and walk behind a huge paper mache fish wailing and crying. Then depending on the city, they throw it in the sea or burn it. There are several stories as to the origin of this parade, but in a nutshell it has to do with what goes on in Lent (fasting and abstinence) winning over the carnal desires.
What is hard to understand and Spaniards aren't able to justify is why schools are on vacation due to this festival, some up to a week. Things that make you go hmm...

Saint Valentine in Madrid?

St. Valentine’s is a very popular day for friends and lovers around the world. When I was a little girl, I remember writing Valentine cards for all my school mates, placing them in a brown bag and taking them to school to exchange on a day like today. However, this scenario doesn’t repeat itself here in Spain. St. Valentine's day is not a traditional Spanish celebration and most people don’t really celebrate it (there are no Hallmark card shops anywhere). It is noticed only by incurable romantics and superstores wanting to make a buck.

I’m sure you know the story of Saint Valentine (or should I say Valentines since there were several) and for those that don’t, a quick look on Internet will probably do the work. But what most people don’t know, including Spaniards and this is curious since Spain is a country that is renowned for its affection and devotion to saints, is that Saint Valentine’s last resting place is in Madrid. Of course there are other cities that claim St. Valentine's relics and it makes sense since there were so many of them. "The patron saint of lovers" is not found in any of the beautiful and romantic places around the city. On the contrary, his bones are on display in a small, hidden church in the Chueca neighborhood (Hortaleza Street 63) called "Royal Church and Pious School of San Anton" (Saint Anthony) in a small glass urn. Not very romantic, huh?

I hate football

I don’t know a lot about football or soccer, how we call it where I come from. There are four things I remember about soccer before I moved to Spain. First, I remember playing soccer in elementary school and the game consisted of kicking boys in the shins so the girls could get the ball and score. Second, I don’t remember going to a soccer game until I was in college. My roommate’s boyfriend played and we went to watch him or actually watch cute guys in shorts. Third, I remember soccer was a girl’s sport at the high school I taught. There were no boy teams. And fourth, I remember one of my students telling me I was moving to the country that had the best soccer player in the world. I asked who that was and he said, Zidine Zidane. Huh? Who? I had no idea who he was, the team he played for or anything related to the subject. Big mistake!

If you don’t know, Spanish people LOVE soccer. They live, eat, and breathe it. Every school year my Spanish students ask me: "Which is your favorite soccer team?" My answer is: "None, I hate football." Their faces look in shock. Of course most of them do not believe me. They think I am just being politically correct to not subscribe to one team. In Spain, you have to belong to a team or people look at you weird. So a sport I initially didn't care for, started becoming a hated subject.

It’s now been two days since the aftermath of "el clasico" (Barcelona vs. Real Madrid) and everywhere you look, people, TV, press are talking about it. I can’t for the life of me understand why this is an important issue when the whole country is going to the gutter due to the crisis. (El Pais newspaper published today that there are 5.3 million people unemployed.) And I’m not even going to acknowledge the fact that these "clasicos" bring out the worst in team members and set bad examples for kids.

Did I mention I hate football?


Unemployment hits record high of over 5 million at end of 2011

Pan Tumaca, a meal to die for

I remember my first trip to Spain. My boyfriend, now hubby, took me on a romantic trip to the south, which I’ll never forget. I remember wandering through the streets of Sevilla at nine o’ clock in the morning starving! No restaurants or cafeterias or bars were open. Question: Why o why is nothing open if breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Answer: The Spanish are not the earliest risers in the world. They like to eat late and they like to keep their first meal small since pre-lunch tapas are around the corner and pretty soon two o’ clock will creep up on you, time for lunch.

We finally discovered a small bar on a narrow street going up to the Cathedral that was open for breakfast and their menu was orange juice or coffee with pan tumaca. Huh? Come again…

Well it turns out that pan tumaca or "tostada con tomate" is an all natural and classic Spanish breakfast. It consists of ripe, red tomatoes picked fresh. They are blended with olive oil, fresh garlic, a touch of salt, and nothing else. You spread this mixture on a toast or toasted baguette and that’s it. Fresh, zesty and healthy!

Now, don’t get me wrong. This dish is not found throughout Spain. As a matter of fact, I went to Burgos this summer and when I asked for pan tumaca, they frowned and said all they had was a "tostada con aceite", a toast with olive oil, not the same. It was blah, no taste whatsoever.

I remember reading a news article about a year ago of a top Spanish chef dying while showing his new restaurant to food critics. He had shared with them a dish of pan tumaca as an appetizer. Wouldn’t mind having this as my last supper.

Santi Santamaria's last supper: pan tumaca

Enchufados, the saga begins…

A Spanish concept that really boggles my mind is the "enchufe". You see, "enchufe" literally refers to an electrical plug or socket. However, in Spain it is also used to refer to someone "on the inside" who pulls a few strings for you to get whatever you want: a job, a bank loan, a deal on a car, you name it. This concept of having friends in the right places seems to be the norm here and I truly believe this country is a mess because of "enchufes" among other things which I will leave for another post.

I haven't looked for a job in twenty years. My only job in this country seemed to creep up on me before I even started looking for one. Looking for a job in Spain with no "enchufe" is trying to plug in a lamp directly into the wall with no outlet, and we all know the results of that. No outlet, no light. No "enchufe", no job. And although I disagree with it on every ethical level, I can’t help but wonder if I will become like the locals and end up being an "enchufado". Only time will tell…