Favorite Places: Madrid

A few weeks ago, as part of my 2010 European adventure, I left my temporary Parisian home to visit my good friend Anthony in Madrid. Temporary tour guide Anthony took us on a walking tour of the city, and, not expecting to like the city as much as I did, I was pleasantly surprised by how clean, well-manicured, and architecturally beautiful Madrid is. Here are my favorite destinations from the trip.

Mercado San Miguel

Located right next to Plaza Mayor in the center of Madrid, this market is, as I understand, the largest open-air food market in Europe. If you've ever been to Les Halles in France or anywhere comparable, you will understand just how much of a claim to fame that title is -- there were SO many vendors. I experienced a delicious Spanish cuisine overload just from looking at all the food.

There were plenty of dishes that Americans would consider exotic cuisine, including these giant fish. The fact that their pupils were still fully intact made them look a little too animated for me...needless to say, I didn't bring any of these guys back to the hostel to cook up.

But I did try caviar for the first time, in two different forms. Here's the caviar-topped pincho I tried. I also had a caviar-filled Basque-style pincho, of which I unfortunately didn't get a picture before I devoured it in two bites. Both were delicious!

PhotoEspaña Exhibition

Photo by David Jimenéz

We spent our Saturday evening at one of the many galleries around Madrid featuring entries from the 2010 PhotoEspaña photo contest. The location we went to featured collections from Latin America. All of the artists' collections had strong points of view and seemed to take their photography a few steps beyond just taking pretty pictures. I could easily spend hours looking through the portfolios on the PhotoEspaña website.

From Harold Edgerton's collection What You Miss When You Blink

Mercado de la Reina

This was my favorite tapas outing of the trip, which is definitely saying something, considering the amount of tapas I ate in Madrid. My favorite dish was the pincho con jamon: sliced bread topped with ham and goat cheese. I also really liked the decor of Mercado de la Reina; the best part of the bar/restaurant was the full-sized, live tree growing through the middle of the indoor dining room.

The price was another up-side. We paid about 9 Euros per person for five plates of tapas and three rounds of drinks. Madrid is so cheap! It was really refreshing to pay so little for food and drinks after having been in Paris.

Madrid was the last leg of my journey. I'm already nostalgic for the two weeks I spent traveling, but it's good to be home! More posts about Rochester to come!

Guide de Paris

Like all good travel guides, this post will start off with an obscure analogy: Paris is just like a Kinder Surprise Ball. It has a sweet, chocolate-y exterior, but, when you least expect it, you accidentally bite into a rubber bouncy ball that you may or may not choke on. But somehow you figure out how to get to the candy inside, and it is SO good.

Oscar Wilde's grave, Père Lachaise, Paris

I hope that made sense to someone other than me...In any case, Paris is really an amazing and vibrant city once you get past the holier-than-thou nature of a lot of its inhabitants and the *unfortunate* anti-American sentiment that I've encountered from time to time. After all, there are both kind and inconsiderate people everywhere, and Paris is no exception. After accepting this fact, I had a great stay there with a lot of wonderful friends, both old and new. And for those planning a trip in the future or just curious as to my findings, here are some of my favorite places in Paris.

Art Galleries:

L'oeil Ouvert, St. Paul, Paris

photo by Valérie Archeno

Gallerie Christian Berst, St. Paul, Paris

photo by Loïc Lucas

Galerie Nomade, République, Paris

photo courtesy of artsfactory.net

Shopping:

Senou, St. Paul, Paris

The perfect place to find decently-priced gifts and housewares (including a tapestry of Obama with a green teeth?)

Depot Vente Createurs, Monmartre, Paris

Great selection of well-priced vintage and handmade clothing and jewelry

L'art de Rien, Monmartre, Paris

Very creepy, slightly morbid. The display window features doll heads in jars with formaldehyde and vampire children...so cool! You can find French comic books and freaky gifts of all sorts here.

Favorite Bar:

La Belle Hortence, 10 rue de Trésor, Paris

Laid-back atmosphere with mostly young professionals, a reasonably priced drink/food menu, exceptionally nice wait staff (at least by Parisian standards...) They also sell French children's books!

Favorite Hostel:

The Regent Hostel, Monmartre, Paris

To be fair, I've only ever stayed at two hostels in Paris, but I loved this one. The staff is extremely nice and willing to speak either English or French (even with clearly non-native speakers). The rooms were clean, quiet, comfortable, and traditionally French without being outdated. Monmartre is kind of far away from the center of the city, but the neighborhood itself is nice, relatively cheap, safe, and this hostel is located just across the street from the metro. I HIGHLY recommend the Regent.

Favorite Rainy Day Activity:

Window shopping the pet stores in Châtelet

Heartbreakingly adorable purebred puppies and kittens...no further explanation needed.

What I Bought: European Edition

I got home last night from my adventure abroad and wanted to share a few goodies I got during my trip. I visited Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Madrid, and I picked up souvenirs in each place. Here are my favorites:

Broach from Depot Vente Creatures, Monmartre, Paris

I tried on three dresses in this store, and when none of them worked quite right, I felt badly for wasting the shopkeeper's time. Luckily, I spotted this on the way out. It's made almost entirely of zippers!

Shoes from Jonak, Galleries de Lafayette, Paris

I got these at the beginning of my trip, and wore them nonstop for the rest of the two weeks I was away. Parisians seems to love wearing low-rise sneakers, but I never really feel like myself in them. This combination boot/sandal/sneaker is a good compromise, I think.

Cotton scarf from a flea market in Amsterdam, Rabbit fur scarf from duty-free shop in Reykjavik

One of the highlights of my trip (apart from Amsterdam) was my layover in Iceland. I'm really interested in Iceland for some reason; it's so strange and foreign that it's intriguing. And after the two quick stops I made at the Reykjavik airport and flying Icelandair, I'm even more interested in going back for a vacation. Maybe next year!

Wool sweater, Duty-free, Reykjavik

Since wool is one of Iceland's main exports, I had to buy this. I'm already ready for it to be winter so I can wear it.

I'd like to post a kind of travel guide/diary for each of the cities I visited, and I'm planning to write about Paris first and in the very near future. Thanks for reading and expect more to come!

Tea & Thorazine

I started looking through the archives of some of my favorite style blogs today and stumbled upon the very talented fashion/editorial photographer Marcin Tyszka from Poland. Her work has been featured in Vogue Portugesa as well as a handful of galleries around the world. It seems that the French are particularly smitten with her, and I can understand why...

I like that Marcin obviously takes more pride in the composition of her photos as opposed to their quality. I feel hypocritical for saying this, but the technology used in photography has advanced SO much in the last ten years or so, and it seems like photographers are starting to care more about how fancy and expensive their equipment is than the work itself. Marcin Tyszka seems not to worry too much about Photoshopping and the resolution of her images. Her photos just kind of are, and they come out so beautifully.

Since I've found myself with quite a lot of spare time the last few weeks, I've pulled out the Nine Heads book that I checked out from the library a while ago. Nancy Riegelman's guide to figure and garment drawing is the fashion designer's bible. While I definitely have no aspirations to become a fashion designer, I've been having fun learning how to draw croquis and about the intricacies of the human figure. If nothing else, it's a good exercise in learning how to shade colors properly and simply draw a straight line.

The book is ultra-detailed; it walks the reader through how to draw everything from children wearing couture to mohawks.

Here's my first croquis! Not the greatest, but I'm getting better...

Enchanted

Upon moving to the Park Ave. neighborhood in Rochester, NY, my parents discovered by far the coolest private garden I've ever seen. I took a break from my new study/run/repeat schedule to take photos of this gem just half a block away from our house on Brunswick.

There were some amazing sculptures! These guys are my favorites.

I don't think I've ever seen flowers quite like these before. It's amazing how much vegetation can change from state to state and even region to region.

It was obvious that the gardeners pay crazy attention to detail. Every single rock and pebble was carefully placed.

Maybe this is weird, but I think tree bark could make a cool textile pattern...

I've been wearing these thrifted Juicy flats nonstop since I've been here. I got them at Buffalo Exchange just before I left Austin, and they were only $2 after I sold my clothes back :) I have a feeling they will be trusty back-ups for years to come.

I have a lot more to post about Rochester than I expected. Stay tuned :D

Au Revoir Les Enfants

The time has finally come for me to break my long stint of non-blogging! I'm officially done with my junior year of college and nearly set to move away from Austin for the summer. Goodbye, Lonestars (I actually don't even like beer, but I do like this picture...) and warm summer nights! Maybe we will meet again next year.

I just bought a little pet carrier for Maggie, and in a couple of days we are flying to upstate New York to spend a couple of months with my parents at their new house. I'm planning to write lots of posts on local record stores, diners, silent film showings, black and white cookies, and everything else Rochester, NY has to offer young college students.

And, to break up the monotony that will inevitably occur, I'm traveling en Europe for two weeks in June. So also expect news from my trips to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Madrid. I'm really looking forward to checking out some flea markets, tiny boutiques, and thrift shops while I'm there. Cross your fingers that I make it to Charles de Gaul, though! I booked my flight through Reykjavik literally days before the volcano erupted: probably the smartest thing I've ever done...

Photo by Shannon Kintner, Provence, France, 2009

I can't wait for my jet-setting to begin. In preparation, I'm making a super-long vacation playlist. These songs have defined my summer so far:

"Cold Hearted" - Blu and Exile

"Rill Rill" - Sleigh Bells

and an old favorite: "Peacebone" - Animal Collective (the video is a must, must-see)

Au revoir pour maintenant, mes enfants!