El Rastro

The book/ movie confessions of a shopaholic came out and I laughed. I saw it mostly because I was skeptical that it wasn’t someone writing my biography! Alas, it was not, but let’s just saw that I am a close second to Ms. Rebecca Bloomwood.

I didn’t know what paradise looked like, but I think I may have found it! When I first got to Madrid, I didn’t understand how none of the stores open on Sundays. Somehow I missed that Madrid was home to the world’s largest open air market, and I think the whole city is there! Every Sunday in what is essentially midtown, a few thousand stalls open their stalls to several thousands of people—many locals and even more foreigners, all in search of something from a new pair of shoes to a antique collectable urn. This market has it all.

People yelling in languages that I kind of understand. Fearing for the safety of my purse. Making a fool out of myself trying to haggle in a language over which I have very little command. It’s all very disconcerting, though entirely exhilarating at the same time. The only thing I have previously experience that I can liken to this adventure is going to the bazaars and trying to shop in India.

The street fairs in New York aren’t nearly comparable to the ridiculousness that is el rastro. People are screaming, things are going on all sides of you, you’re clutching onto your purse for dear life for fear of getting pick pocketed (which everyone will warn you about—several times). It is mayhem, and you don’t know where to look first. I tried to start from the northernmost point and work my way south. That worked for a while, until more stalls began to open up on side streets going every –which-way. And since Madrid isn’t, like New York, set up on a grid there was no way I could keep track of everything.

I finally gave up trying to maintain my narrow minded route and tried to just go with the flow. At the end of my four hour journey I came home with many a treasure: a shirt, three pairs of earrings, a pin, a scarf, a bookmark, and even a really cool looking purse hook. It was, without a doubt, more than I have ever accomplished before one in the afternoon!