I have decided to do a slight changeup on my usual raucous posts recounting wild Spanish nights to expand upon other sides of Spanish life and to share with you some hidden gems within the great city of Madrid. Each morning I go on a 30-45-minute run to a place of my choosing to acclimate myself with the neighborhood, as well as to keep in shape and not be known as “that girl who gained weight abroad.” That’s always awkward.
Sometimes my friend Taylor and I run together, as we are each other’s primary motivators around 8 in the morning. For a period of time, Taylor and I created a route down Fuencarral, the main street in our neighborhood which leads to Gran Via, Plaza del Sol, etc. Fuencarral is home to a wide variety of boutiques and restaurants, although I am never tempted to get something to eat with the amount of smoke drifting out of each restaurant into my virginal lungs. [Side note: I don’t think Spaniards (or any Europeans for that matter) received the Surgeon General’s warning that smoking kills.]
Anyway, back to my run. One of Taylor’s personal favorite stores is called 3D You, a store that creates a three dimensional models of a person from a photograph. Essentially, they are personalized Barbie dolls and certainly a dream come true for any self-absorbed person like myself. Further down and closer to Gran Via are the more upscale clothing boutiques (Mango, Blanco, Mossimo Dutti, Tommy Hilfiger, etc.) which distract me with their autumnal window displays, mannequins modeling pieces together that are adventurously Euro-chic.
Crossing Gran Via is by far the most entertaining part of our run. The strip that connects Gran Via to the Plaza del Sol is flanked by prostitutes. Yes, I said it, prostitutes. Black, white, skinny, fat, transgender. You name it, he/she is there waiting, dressed in fishnets and mesh and ready for morning quickies from businessmen en route to work. I don’t say this because I assume, I say this because I have seen it with my own eyes. After passing those gems, it’s a downhill breeze to the center of Sol where we rest for a bit and stretch out. We get a lot of stares during this phase, not because the locals are turned on by our flexibility or our t-shirts and high sock combinations, but because the Spaniards are not a culture of obsessive exercisers like Americans, and they are perplexed as to why we are up so early doing something so obviously distressing. The run back is monotonous as we wave goodbye to the strippers and head back home to begin our day.
While I love the inspiration and motivation that Taylor brings me, sometimes I truly enjoy the ease and tranquility of exercising alone. This morning I went on a run by myself and decided to find a new route to explore my city more fully. After running for a good while, I found myself near a Corte Ingles (Spain’s version of Belk, Best Buy and Rooms to Go combined) on Calle Princesa and near the Argüelles Metro station. My friend Quinn lives on this street … not a good sign. Quinn lives pretty dang far away from me.
I decided to take a right and see if that might get me back home. Wrong. I ended up at the cave bar, El Chapandaz, one of the Wake crowd’s hot spots located in the Moncloa neighborhood. While this would have been great if I had wanted to pregame my school day, I was still nowhere near my house. So I pulled a Forrest Gump and just kept on running. Finally I came to a main street called San Bernardo. Alas, I knew where I was! The San Bernardo Metro station is one stop after my station, Quevedo. I asked a Euro-chic local for some directions and then I was on my way. When I got home I was so proud of myself. I even got to snag the shower first, as Javier, my host dad, is always a huge diva and hogging the shower every morning at nine when I have explicitly told him that is when I need the shower. It is a constant battle of the divas.
Overall, my morning runs enable me to see the city from a new perspective, allowing me to appreciate the people and the sites before any stressors from school or city life set in. I truly believe that the city is most clear to me at these times and I long for the same appreciation throughout each day.