{"id":325,"date":"2015-07-29T16:17:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T16:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.wordpress.com\/?p=325"},"modified":"2015-07-29T16:17:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T16:17:00","slug":"el-rastro-de-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicaeblack.org\/everythingelse\/2015\/07\/29\/el-rastro-de-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"El Rastro de Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>
The statue of Eloy Gonzalo en Plaza Cascorro provides a convenient meeting point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe Mercadillo of la Pobla de Farnals is tiny compared with El Rastro<\/a><\/i> of Madrid. \u00a0“El Rastro” refers to both a street (or collection of streets) in La Latina–an old Madrid neighborhood–and to the street market that takes place there every Sunday, year-round.
\nI cannot recall the first time I pushed my way through the crowds of tourists and\u00a0madrile\u00f1os\u00a0<\/em> that push their way up and down the streets below La Latina. \u00a0Maybe someone took me there that first year I spent in Spain, during a weekend trip from Palencia. \u00a0I know I spent many Sunday mornings there during my Junior Year abroad, when I could easily walk from my flat below Embajadores to the stands at the bottom-most part of the Rastro. \u00a0I took visitors there, warning them to keep a firm grasp of their bags and not to get lost (and to head up towards Plaza de Carrasco if they did).
\nI bought gifts there for family and friends back home. \u00a0I poked through old, dusty shops that looked more like hoarders’ home than stores. \u00a0I searched for pocket knives and cheap kitchenware, cords and Italian coffee pots.
\nI spoke of the night before in hushed tones with my friends while squiring family through the maze of streets. \u00a0I haggled with vendors (not very succesfully–el Rastro<\/em> is not cheap, and the vendors are no fools) and generally came away with about 25% of what I tried to buy.
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\"I'd<\/a>
I’d love to take a Spanish saddle home with me… but the good ones cost well over 1000 euros.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nLater, when I was living in Madrid after graduating, training, galloping, and racing Thoroughbreds at the\u00a0Hip\u00f3dromo de La Zarzuela<\/a>, I’d visit the lower part of the Rastro, dedicated to tack shops and leather goods in general. \u00a0I’d buy thick foam pads and pretty fabric to cinch on with an over-girth, so I could gallop “bareback” (without a saddle), a skill that would come in handy when I rode racehorses in Panama, where they only put saddles on for the fastest workouts (and sometimes not even then). Yesterday we browsed in la tienda hipica el valenciano<\/a>, but I bought a few things at the tienda hipica David<\/a>.
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\"Typical<\/a>
Typical Spanish doma bridles at the Tienda Hipica El valenciano. I’ve bought one for my mare.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nYou can find just about anything in the Rastro. \u00a0Clothing, antiques, hardware, books, collectibles… anything. \u00a0And when you’re tired of the crowd, you can get coffee or a beer and tapas in any number of bars along the way. \u00a0What you cannot find (and is available in most mercadillos, including others in Madrid), is food such as fruit, vegetables, bread, etc.
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