#mappingmadrid

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 8

I KNOW it's been a while and i'm so so sorry. but look. Carabanchel! peace and love on planet earth <3. so... i had to get a book from carabanchel's public library and i was like... hey let's do a mapping madrid while we're at it! coincidentally the roulette has now twice in a row landed on carabanchel so. i had no other option. as you can see, however, the station featured in this post is Carabanchel Alto ('High Carabanchel'), which was the result of me walking around not really knowing where i was going and realising i was 50 mins away from Carabanchel and only 30 from Carabanchel Alto once i wanted to go back home. the bad thing is... Carabanchel is in my beloved line 5, whereas carabanchel alto is in the dreaded line 11. let me talk about line 11 for a minute, cause it made my trip back home twice as long (it almost took me 2 hours lol) and it's now my archnemesis. it is the shortest metro line in the city (with the exception of Ramal i guess. also they're now expanding it i think but still) and it only has one entry point through line 6, so it's basically a bottleneck. i hate it so much. en fin. Carabanchel is one of the 21 districts of Madrid, and it used to be an independent town back in the day before being annexed by Madrid. In fact, it was two towns, Carabanchel and Carabanchel Alto, that's why there's that distinction. It is a very working class area of the city, with lots of immigrants and diversity, and for me Carabanchel is the beating heart of Madrid, as here is where the biggest festivities and traditions take place, and the people here are the proudest and the bestest honestly <3 As I said previously, I mainly wandered around after going to the library (which didn't have the book I wanted rip) listening to a new podcast I just found (I really recommend it, it's called 'No hay negros en el Tíbet') and sitting for a bit to read some Catullus (<3). Most of the time I was in this kinda new-ish area, it reminded me a lot of Loranca, part of Fuenlabrada which is one of the big southern cities (here's a post about Madrid's peripheria I made a few years ago in case you wanna know more about that), where my cousin and uncles live. Only at the end I got to the traditional 'old town', but by then my phone was dying so i didn't take many pictures unfortunately. Also I am pretty sure I passed by possibly the most important place in Carabanchel, the old Carabanchel Prison, which was established during the Francoist era and was the largest and harshest prison in the country, torturing thousands political prisoners (NEVERMIND I JUST READ ON WIKIPEDIA THAT IT WAS DEMOLISHED IN 2008. NO IDEA WHAT I SAW THEN).

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 10

As in the day I'm writing this, tomorrow I'm leaving for Italy for 2/3 months, so I thought it would be nice to say goodbye to the city with a Mapping Madrid, this time in Bilbao :). Named after the Basque city, it is actually one of the oldest metro stations in Madrid, being opened in 1919 (you can see the number above the metro sign). It has been very renovated, but they kept original parts in the station which is pretty cool (as you can see in pic 4 for example). It has both line 1 and line 4 connections, and I actually got to use both today lol, cause I had to go to the library in Pacífico (line 1), and then in order to get home I had to change trains in Argüelles (line 4). Once I got to Bilbao the only real objective I had was going to the bank, as my grandma had given me some money for the trip I wanted to have in the bank and not in cash. This was particularly funny to me cause my bank is BBVA, which not only is a Basque bank that originated in Bilbao, but older people like my grandma still call it the 'Bilbao bank', so it was a funny coincidence. Regardless, for some reason it wouldn't let me add money, only withdraw, so I couldn't do it. After that, I had to call my other grandma to tell her about the trip (she told me she'll be praying for me everyday) and by then I was hungry so I dropped by the nearest café I found, this fancy place called El Horno in Luchana Street, one of the main ones around Bilbao, where I had a croissant and an orange juice <3. After that I just wandered around while listening to this very cool podcast episode about queer folklore artist Rodrigo Cuevas. The thing about Bilbao station, it is it's very interesting location. It sits right in the border between the districts of Centro (Centre, the literal center of the city) and Chamberí. I mostly walked around Chamberí, which is considered a fancy district of Madrid, but not in the same way as Salamanca, which is the wealthiest area of the country. I'd say Chamberí is fancy / elegant, whereas Salamanca is just posh and wealthy. Chamberí doesn't feel like a hostile place, while Salamanca definitely does. Anyways. The funny thing about Bilbao. It is located right at the end of Fuencarral Street, and directly north of the famous barrio of Malasaña. Fuencarral St is one of the most popular shopping streets in the city, with tons of gentrified quirky / modern shops, as well as second-hand clothing stores and antique places, you get the vibe. And of course, Malasaña is the artsy / hipstery / young quartier of the city: everyone who wants to be someone wants to live in Malasaña, and everything happens here. It is a pretty cool place honestly, tho getting exceedingly gentrified. Again, I mostly wandered around Chamberí, mostly around nearby Olavide Square, center of the Trafalgar barrio, which I normally love but that was full of construction work :(. However, I also walked a bit through Fuencarral St (pic 3) and even ended up in the Dos de Mayo Square, the centrer of Malasaña named after the revolts that started the Spanish Independence War against France, before turning back.

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 7

The roulette landed on Campus de Somosaguas, my first Metro Ligero station in this series! Metro Ligero (the official English translation is 'Light Rail') is basically a tram system, with 4 lines in total. I had not ride this line, the ML2 before, and with this one I've been on 3 out of 4 of them, so this seemed like a milestone of some sorts (the 4th line is really far off in the middle of nowhere, I'm praying I never have to go there during this series tbh). Anyways, the Campus de Somosaguas station is in the town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, just west of Madrid, and, just as the name suggests, it is a university campus; it is the second campus of the UCM (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), the largest in the city (and maybe in the country?). I had only briefly been here once before, cause my sister had her university entrance exams in one of the buildings and we visited it a few days early to figure out how to get there and stuff. I like how it's less secluded than my own campus (Cantoblanco), but it's still pretty green and not in the middle of the city. My plan for today was to visit the Political Sciences building cause I've heard it's pretty cool and it's also the building where my sister had her exams (also in this building the ex-vicepresident and president of left wing party Pablo Iglesias is currently a professor!) and then walk around the green spaces and read, and I more or less got to do that. Kinda. Turns out, in order to get to the Political Sciences building, I had to go through the Economics Buildings. Yes, buildings. I kid you not, 90% of the buildings I came across on that campus were part of the Economics school. I am still confused, THEY EVEN HAD INDIVIDUAL BUILDINGS FOR EACH OF THE YEARS???

Anyways, apart from the Economics and the Political Sciences buildings I only came across the Psychology building; I don't know if there are other schools but it seems to be a fairly small campus so that could be it. After fumbling around for a while I got to the Political Sciences building, bought a book from a flea book market inside of the building in which you could pay whatever you had and the money would go to the development of African nations (the book I got is 'La Población Castellana', from Amando de Miguel & Félix Moral), and afterwards realized I didn't have enough money to get something in a vending machine so I had to walk all the way back to the other side of campus and buy something to eat in an Aldi. It was a bit chilly so I didn't read much, but it was a nice change of pace :)

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 9

The wheel chose Barajas this week! Just as Carabanchel, Barajas started as a town before becoming one of Madrid's district and, even now, it still feels like a town and not like Madrid city. It is kinda separated from the main city, you can tell it going by metro in the line 8; the Barajas stop is between the two stops in the airport (one is for terminals 1 to 3, and another for terminal 4). Speaking of the airport, its full name is Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, but everyone just calls it Barajas, so this district becomes synonymous with the airport. I had never been in the district center, tho, and it really really felt like any small town you can find in rural Madrid and other parts of central Iberia. Proof of it is the fact that it is full of one-story houses like the one seen in pic 3, that we call 'casas de pueblo' ('town houses), which are the most common ones (alongside apartment blocks) in rural areas. Barajas is quite far from where I live, so I didn't have time for much, I just wandered around while listening to a podcast (La Pija y la Quinqui with Emilia cause slay) before sitting down for a bit to read The Kamogawa Food Detectives for book club next week (it's definitely a comfort and easy read, I recommend it especially for people who don't often read!). So yeah, quite a nice little morning :)

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 8

For this one, I went to a place I didn't even know existed, Ríos Rosas, named after the politician Antonio de los Ríos Rosas, which is a very fun name to have honestly (in English it translates to Anthony of the Pink Rivers). It is located in Santa Engracia Street, in the Chamberí district. It is one of the oldest stations in the city, built in 1919, which makes it be in the Line 1. It is right next to the Canal de Isabel II. One of the stereotypes of people from Madrid is that we think our tap water is the best in the world. Although objectively that is just false, I will still defend it cause I think it's fun. Anyways, what is true is that Madrid's tap water is a good one, thanks to the previously mentioned Canal de Isabel II, the business who regulates the water supply to the city, through a channel built by Isabel II (Elizabeth II or Isabella II) in 1851 that gets water from the Lozoya River, in the mountains north of the city, into Madrid. Next to Ríos Rosas, in the Ríos Rosas Park, stands the oldest water supply tower in the city, built in 1911, and refurbished into an exhibition hall in 1985. I visited it, as it had a free exhibition on the photographer Joana Biarnés, considered the first Spanish woman photojournalist. It was focused on her work with fashion, and there were even some dresses on display like the dress Karina used in Eurovision 1971!!! (of course I recognized it immediately) Speaking of Eurovision, she photographied Massiel, Spanish representative and winner of Eurovision 1968, as well as the aforementioned Karina. She also photographied icons like Pilar Bardem (Javier Bardem's mother), or Marisol [center right pic]. As I was watching the exhibition I got this feeling that she could've known my grandpa, who was a photographer in the same years as her and also dabbled into photojournalism. And, just as I suspected, once I asked my mum later in the day she confirmed they knew each other and worked together. My grandpa passed away last November, so this hit hard. Anyways, I couldn't do much more in Ríos Rosas cause I was running a bit late (I had to do so many stops on the way there to do some errands you don't even know), but before going into the water supply tower I did what I always do around Book Day (April 23rd) and bought myself a book! This time I went to an English-only library, so I bought a classic English-speaking book, The Old Man and the Sea, by Hemingway! I was gonna get The Great Gatsby at first, but Hemingway's was way cheaper and I needed every cent I could save lol.

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 6

It's been a while, but I'll still be able to do a few of them before all my classes resume! Recently the government made all short and medium distance trains free from September to December, so I decided to choose a train station instead of a metro one for this week (I couldn't quite work out how the free thing works so I'm just using my normal transport card, which is half the price during these months so at least it's something). Anyways, funnily enough the roulette landed on Atocha, the largest and most important train station in the country, connecting trains from all Spain. All short distance / commuting trains in Madrid also pass through here, so it's an extremely frequented place. As you might've imagined, it's close to a lot of sights; its corresponding metro station (separated from the train one) is even called Estación del Arte (Art Station), because the main art museums of the city (Reina Sofía, Prado, and Thyssen) are all super close to the station. I thought about visiting the Thyssen Museum, as I have never been there, but in the end I decided to just walk through the city with Atocha as my starting point. It was pretty nice, I ended up in Lavapiés (the multicultural hub of the city) and read a bit there before heading home :)

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 1

For this first week the random roulette I have set up placed me on Suanzes, a stop in the Metro Line 5. It is located on Alcalá Street, in Salvador, part of the San Blas-Canillejas district, and right by it you can find the Quinta de los Molinos park, a historical garden that was once the propierty of the Torre Arias count and that is known for its blooming almond trees. Sadly, I just missed them, as they bloom in March, but there was nevertheless a lot of peace and beautiful scenery throughout the park, along with the set of one of some of the most iconic clips in Skam España season 2, which was a very pleasant surprise!

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 5

Two weeks ago This week the roulette chose Banco de España, a station in the Metro line 2, named after the Bank of Spain, a building you can see in the central pic! It is under Alcalá Street, between the Justicia and Cortes barrios (part of the Centro district). This stop is right in the center of the city, with a lot of famous places in walking distance. I decided to walk through the Gran Vía, the biggest and most famous street in Madrid, that ends precisely here, in Banco de España. Gran Vía translates to "Broad Way" and it's exactly like the NYC one, with a lot of theaters either in the street or nearby, bustling activity and tall and beautiful buildings! It was very nice, I went all the way to the other end of the street, in Plaza de España, and back, and had a bocata calamares (Calamari Sandwich), one of the signature dishes of Madrid, on my way back. Despite being pretty hot (37 ºC) there was some wind so it made everything more bearable :)

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 3

This week I got Palos de la Frontera, a station in the Metro line 3. It is situated between the Batalla del Salado Street and the Delicias Boulevard, in the Palos de Moguer barrio (Arganzuela district). Right at the end of the Delicias Boulevard is the old Delicias Station, which features the Ferroviary Museum, full of old trains and it even acts as the starting point of a historical train called El Tren de la Fresa (the Strawberry Train) that goes all the way to Aranjuez! I had only been here once as a school trip when I was a kid, so I got to re-discovered it and it was pretty cool! I also really loved going up and down Delicias Boulevard, it's a really nice place with a lot of life and a barrio feeling.

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 4

This week I went to Lista, a station in the Metro line 4 named after the poet and educationalist Alberto Lista. It is situated under Conde de Peñalver Street, in the eponymous barrio (part of the Salamanca district). Salamanca is the wealthiest area of not only Madrid but of the whole country, and I could tell just by the people I came across, all severly overdressed for a casual Friday morning walk. Near the stop there's the Fundación Juan March, a cultural center with art expositions and concerts I decided to visit. Just before entering the building I came across an old family friend I hadn't seen since the pandemic started who doesn't even live in the city, so we visited the art exposition - on the Italian designer Bruno Munari - together while we updated each other on life and family matters, so that was nice.

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

Mapping Madrid: Week 2

This week I actually had some company; my friend who lives in Maastricht and his girlfriend were visiting the city, and so they agreed on going with me around Tribunal, the stop the roulette chose for me. It is on both lines 1 and 10, and it lies under Fuencarral Street, in the Universidad barrio (Central district). As you could imagine, it is a very frequented stop and I had been there a few times. Fuencarral Street is one of the main shopping streets of the city, and it is also close to the museums we visited; the Romanticism Museum (pics 1-3 and 7-8), an old noble house from the 19th century with paintings and other wares that depict how was the Romanticism era in Spain; and the Madrid History Museum (pics 4-6 and 9-10), a museum that depicts Madrid's history through paintings, maps, and other artifacts from the 16th century onwards with a really incredible baroque façade. I had already visited them once, but it had been a while and it was cool to rediscovered them!

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

hint for where i'm gonna go next week in my mappingmadrid thingie: 🚂

[jackredfieldwasmyjacob]

i wasn't aware tomorrow we were going to my dad's hometown (i thought it was gonna be on saturday) so i'll have to delay mappingmadrid until next week, i have way too much uni stuff to do