On Friday night I went to a birthday party in this occupied lot a few blocks down from my house. I am still no sure whose birthday it was, but it was nice. The space is really pleasant – it’s behind this wall with sheets of metal on top to make it taller, but then you get inside and there are trees and it’s quieter and it almost works like a portal. Anyhow, from there we rode bikes to Vallecas. This is about a 40-minute ride and we didn’t even leave the party until about midnight. Then, of course, we got lost. But in the end it was fun – big outdoor stage and 2 bands. The first we saw was a ska group from Argentina. Just to vacillate a little more on the saxophone topic, it didn’t mind it in this case. They were fun, and then a group played from here. Names you ask? I have no idea. In the fashion of the Madrileno, I didn’t make it to bed until at least 5:30.
So. Needless to say, I wasn’t in shape to do very much on Saturday. I decided that going to the park sounded nice and set off towards Madrid’s famous Parque El Buen Retiro. As someone in class said, it’s kind of like the Central Park of Madrid. Very nice and tidy. There is also a botanical gardens there that is supposed to be super great, but I haven’t made it yet. So I went and sat around and read and drew and watched
people and without really choosing to I listened to this guy next to me huff and whoosh his way through a calisthenics routine. There were a lot of people playing with their poi (I just want to add that while I was looking for a photo of this I came across a website called “feraltech”. for serious.) And, they were taking it really seriously – it was as though I was in the ‘private poi lessons’ sections of the park.
Then I left.
Then I accidentally walked past this nice used book market. While there were only a few stalls open on Saturday, there are a lot and the variety and quality of the books seemed pretty good.
But most exciting was this:
Which, I guess, is so that when your 5 year old gets to work and there’s no where to put their bike they can fold it and put it under their desk. Right?
