Local Expert
Sean McLachlan
I'm a freelance writer specializing in history and travel. Besides that, my interests include film, hiking, archaeology (did it professionally for ten years), real ale, and good books. I have a travel…
I'm a freelance writer specializing in history and travel. Besides that, my interests include film, hiking, archaeology (did it professionally for ten years), real ale, and good books. I have a travel blog at grizzledoldtraveler.blogspot.com and a blog on life as a professional writer at midlistwriter.blogspot.com. Drop me a line at seansontheweb (at) yahoo (dot) com.
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Well, in a city that gets exhibitions on every subject under the sun, it had to happen. Madrid is hosting a show on the world's most famous badly designed ship, namely the Titanic. Apparently there were some Spaniards on board so they get to be part of the whole mystique.
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition features thousands of objects from the doomed ship, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, retrieved from the bottom of the sea and carefully restored. They range from ornate benches to dinnerware, from ship's equipment to personal possessions. The exhibit also has imitation rooms made in such meticulous detail that you feel you're actually on the ship, but for God's sake please don't start singing that awful theme song.
The story of how the Titanic was discovered and how the artifacts were retrieved is as interesting as the sinking of the ship itself. It's a modern adventure tale involving a mixture of wide-eyed enthusiasm, technical genius, and crass commercialism. Videos and displays in Spanish and English explain the ongoing process to maintain the memory and preservation of the Titanic.
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition is on now, with no set end date but running until at least the end of February. Open-ended dates is a common feature of many of the blockbuster shows that come to the exhibition hall at Calle Goya 5, Plaza de Colón (Metro: Colón or Serrano). Open every day from 10am to 8:30pm. Tickets cost €14.50 on weekdays, €16.50 on weekends and can be purchased online at www.titanicmadrid.com. There's an additional €1 fee for buying at the box office. Discounts for students, seniors, children, and groups. See website for details.
As I said in my last post, barrio Lavapiés is the most multicultural barrio in central Madrid, and has some great nightlife because of this. My most recent discovery is Tetería el Faroen, "Teahouse of the Pharoah." When I was an archaeologist I spent a lot of time in the Middle East and got jazzed on caffeine in a lot of Arab teahouses. This one was just like the ones over there--smoky, a bit cramped, with loud music and a friendly owner.
You descend a few steps into a two-room basement lined with cushioned benches and a few intricately carved wooden tables. The walls and corners are decorated with a mixture of tourist kitch (plaster statues) and legitimate handicrafts (brasswork). The front room has a TV showing Egyptian music videos, the sound system thumping loud enough to dominate but not obliterate conversation. Every now and then this channel slips in an American rap video that ruins the atmosphere, but mostly it's a lesson in the Egyptian Top 40.
If you're not sold on the ambience (it's really fun, trust me) you'll love the tea. I recommend the Arabic red tea. All the teas are served in your own brass kettle, served untouchably hot, along with generous heaps of sugar. There's also a small selection of Arabic desserts and the usual alcoholic drinks.
If you like to smoke, try the sheshah. This is a water pipe, called a nargileh in some countries. You've probably seen them in smoke shops back home. They have a brazier on top for the tobacco, and the air is drawn through a glass container of water and up a tube. The tobacco comes in various flavors such as peach and apple, and the especially brave mix whiskey with their water. I was with my three year-old son so I didn't try this, but the owner assured me it gives an added kick. I'm planning to go back on New Year's Eve, minus the kid, and will try it then. Wish me luck.
Barrio Lavapiés is famous in Madrid for its mix of cultures. Many groups of immigrants call it home, including Arabs, West Africans, and South Asians from dozens of different countries. Like many such neighborhoods around the world, this means there's great nightlife and great shopping. But with the barrio's many winding side streets, some of the better shops can easily be missed.
Local shopkeepers have solved this problem by staging a multicultural fair in Plaza Lavapiés, at the center of the barrio and right next to the exit for Metro Lavapiés. Stalls from many of the barrio's stores are open seven days a week, and show a cross section of what the area has to offer. We went there last Sunday, on a cold and overcast evening, and there was still a decent amount of activity. I managed to snag some chai mix from an Indian store specializing in Indian products, and checked out the products of another Indian shop, an Asian tea shop (owned by a Spaniard), and a couple of African stalls. During the day there are a lot more open, so I suggest going then. The fair is open seven days a week through January 5.
Madrid is famous for its "Golden Triangle" of art museums--El Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza, and Reina Sofia--but there's another, smaller museum that art lovers shouldn't miss. Museo Sorolla (General Martínez Campos 37, Metro: Iglesia) celebrates the life and work of Joaquín Sorolla Bastida (1863-1923), a leading painter of the luminist school.
What makes this museum interesting is that it isn't just a collection of his work, it's also the preserved home of the painter. Walking around, your eye is drawn not only to the paintings filling the walls, but the period furniture in the home itself. In some rooms it feels like Sorolla just left. His easel is set up in one corner of the main gallery, his palette resting before it and a drawer full of half-used paints sits partially open nearby. You feel like he'll return any moment and get back to work.
The paintings go through a couple of major phases. His early landscapes, displayed upstairs, is realist in conception but shows a lot of early promise in his use of light and shading. As he gained confidence, he developed an immediately recognizable luminist style, focusing on the play of light on water, skin, and ground. He was especially fond of beach scenes, and these make up his more famous works.
Museo Sorolla is open Tues.-Sat. 9:30am-8pm, Sun. 10am-3pm. Entry is €2.40, free on Sundays.
OK, I admit it. I'm a big fan of shrunken heads, but then again who isn't? Sadly, the only place to see the little darlings in Madrid is the National Museum of Anthropology (calle Alfonso XII 68, Metro: Atocha or Atocha Renfe).
The collection is mostly centered on the cultures of Spain's former colonies, with pieces from Central and South America, the Philippines, and Equatorial Guinea (the Empire's only foothold in sub-Saharan Africa). My favorite displays, besides the trophy heads from the Amazon, were the artistic and shamanistic objects from the Amazon River region. Movies tend to depict Amazonians as an undifferentiated mass of primitive tribesmen, living an Eden untouched by modern man. In fact, Amazonia is home to dozens of unique cultures who have had a cultural give-and-take with Spanish colonialists and modern South Americans for centuries. The museum does a good job describing these different groups, although sadly the vast majority of the text is only in Spanish. From an aesthetic point of view, the capes made from the feathers of rainforest birds are as beautiful as anything you'll see in the Prado, so even if you can't read Spanish you will enjoy a visit here.
There are also some items from other regions, including religious objects from Tibetan Buddhism and evocative Inuit soapstone sculptures.
Don't go expecting a collection rivaling the Pitt-Rivers in Oxford (which has the best collection of shrunken heads I've seen) or the stunning Anthropology Museum in Mexico City. This is one of the smaller museums in town. But if you want to spend an interesting hour or two seeing a museum most tourists miss, give it a shot. Hey, at least you'll see some shrunken heads.
The Museo Nacional de Antropología is open Tues.-Sat. 9:30am-8pm, Sun. 10am-3pm. Tickets are €2.40, entry free after 2:30pm on Saturdays and all day Sunday.
One of my favorite lunchtime spots when I'm in Malasaña is El Burgado (c/ Espiritu Santo 40, Metro: Noviciado). This informal sandwich shop is run by three cute Spanish girls who cook up hot sandwiches on the grill right behind the counter. The lime green interior and furnishings and the large see-and-be-seen windows fit well with Malasaña's gregarious and offbeat atmosphere. Snails seem to be the motif here, with one wall taken up by a mural full of them, along with smaller pictures of the artsy molluscs. The restaurant's name itself refers to a type of edible snail.
But people come to restaurants for the food, and how is it? Good and cheap. The main draw is the sandwiches, freshly made with a combination of ingredients. Most cost five or six euros. My favorite is El Secreto, with grilled Iberian beef and gouda cheese smothered in a rich secret sauce that includes a fair amount of mustard, as well as other ingredients I couldn't identify. Another good choice is the Margen Izquierda, veal with green and red pepper and gouda. A lighter option are the tostas, toast with a topping. Try the Vikinga (€3.90), salmon on garlic bread. They also offer salads and a small range of desserts, as well as the usual drinks.
The crowd is a mixture of locals, Malasaña partiers (at night) and foreigners filtering from J & J's, an English bookshop just down the street. El Burgado is not worth trekking across town for, but if you need a quick, affordable, and flavorful pick-me-up while you're in Malasaña, this is a top place to go.