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I'm a little sad. Today is their last day. My favorite neighborhood bar, Restaurante Las Damas on Calle Fortuna, 5, in Madrid, the one where I have lunch once a week, has sold to foreigners. WHY to foreigners? Because the bar's owners have been wanting to retire for years and, until now, there have been no buyers in these difficult economic times.

I've only been going since discovering it just one year ago but it has become like my home away from home, where every time I walk through the door María and Daniel look up from what they're doing, smile widely, and greet me warmly as if I'm their son coming home from college - albeit without the hug.

So after 32 years of serving weekday breakfasts, lunches, and tapas until 6pm in this humble, blue-collar neighborhood, the married couple, both in their 60s, have sold their businesses and will soon be enjoying retirement away from the bar. They won't be going TOO far away, however, because they live in the same streets as the bar and have no plans to move to "el pueblo" to live out their "Golden Years".

Fewer and fewer Spaniards are taking on jobs as new bar and restaurant owners or even workers, not to mention stores of any kind. This is true particularly in working class neighborhoods where the numbers of foreigners is beginning to overcome the number of Spaniards. Spaniards are more frequently moving to the suburbs and villages outside of the City of Madrid.

Who are the new owners of Restaurante Las Damas? They're a pair of men originating from Ecuador, one of which has been working off and on in the restaurant's kitchen for the past 20 years, I was told by María just yesterday as we were chatting about the future of the bar, possibly trying to calm my nerves about HOW the bar may change. And change it will, she said, but the food won't.

The bar-restaurant will close for a short period of time in order to make renovations and modernizations. This, deep in my heart, is both good and bad to me. One of the grandest elements of this place is its kitsch-ness, hole-in-the-wall charm with worn floor tiles, poorly hung pieces of "art" on its walls, outdated toilets, and hand-written menus stuck in plastic sleeves.

At least as long as I've been going, without fail, I always see the same people day after day, everyone usually seated at the same tables. I usually only go on Thursdays but have visited on other days of the week as well. The clients are like family to María, the short, stout, and "blond" waitress/wife, who is the friendliest waitress I've ever encountered. She takes and brings the orders, makes commentary about the food (although everyone seems to know the multi-item daily menus by heart), asks about family, and chats about current events.

The lunch regulars include a table of two old ladies, one of whom proudly wears her dated and somewhat disheveled fur coat on winter days. Her companion, equally as old, seems to suffer from Parkinson's disease but her quivering voice doesn't force her to quiet its loudness - I can hear every word from 5 tables away. It was this same woman whom just yesterday spilled some water on the floor, got up and went to the bathroom, and returned with the mop to clean it up. Everyone joked about how she should be paid for "working" or at least get a free meal and she simply said, "No pasa nada", "No big deal."

Another couple of men, also both retired, meet there every day and chat about politics, a little about sports, and whatever's going on in the world. They sit at the table next to me and I sometimes like to eavesdrop on their opinions of American politics.

There are more regulars, somewhat less colorful, but include a couple mechanics, some kind of middle-aged office worker, and a old man which does nothing more than occupy one of the eight tables with his glass of water in a beer mug. He likes to talk a lot with the other tables. I always sit at the same table, near the entrance to the bar section as the "comedor" (dining room) is in the back of the bar-restaurant. Upon entering and leaving, everyone greets everyone else with a smile and a "Buenas tardes. Que aproveche," which means, "Good afternoon. Enjoy your meal." Isn't that nice?!?! We don't have such a friendly custom in the USA. Too bad.

Daniel Gil, owner with his wife-waitress María, is also the cook and works behind the bar. He's of average height and weight, bald, and has a genuine human quality about him, not worn-out or overworked as are lot of people his age in the restaurant business. I guess some people are just like that inherently. He always has a kind word and a smile, taking a moment to chat as you pay, never rushed, never distracted by the bar's activity to be "with you" for those 45 seconds. That means a lot to customers.

María was telling me yesterday about the interview done and subsequent article written about the bar by El Mundo newspaper (see photo/article below) in 2008. TeleMadrid saw the article and came to interview them on television too. They were so proud - and have reason to be.

Restaurante-Bar Las Damas has the best and the cheapest "Menú del Día", just 6 Euros for the complete meal of the first course, second course, side salad, bread, red table wine and accompanying carbonated Casera water, seasonal fruit and home made desserts, and coffee at the end. How do they do it???!! ONLY 6 Euros! I know I sound cheap but when you weigh the quality-price ratio you really cannot beat that.

Every day the "Menú del Día" varies but you find the same "standards" throughout the week. There are typically 6 items to choose from for the first course and 6 for the second course but these items change from day to day. For example, paella is always served as one of the available first course items on Thursdays. They have light meal selections as well as "hungry man" meal selections. I most often choose their "Sopa Castellana" (hot bread soup with egg) for the first course and, yes, most often, something "manly" for the second course. Yesterday I had the steak and potatoes with grilled green peppers but today for the second course I ordered the 2 fried eggs, fried potatoes, and grilled green peppers with 6 "croquetas de jamón". Mmm.. Mmm... MMMM!!! Good Gravy!! Man-oh-man do you eat well there WITHOUT FAIL.

Their statement has always been, "Comida Casera de Mercado" which means, "Homemade food from the market." What market, you ask? The Mercado Jesuitas, just around the corner from the bar. The meats, fish, eggs, fruits, and nearly everything is bought at the market.

Again, the food is top quality, or at least the top quality available from the working-class neighborhood's market which, I'd guess, is typical/average quality. Daniel, the cook, really is a master at cooking the basics, always nicely salted (but not over-salted) are those delicious fried potatoes, steaks, and grilled chicken. Really, it's like eating at your grandmother's house in Kentucky (or Southern Ohio in my case). And the desserts are always homemade too. My favorite is the "pudín" - which is nothing like "pudding", but more like a pie. Theirs has a healthy dose of orange-peel with a coffee flavor. To look behind the curtain to the broom-closet-sized kitchen (see photo of Daniel cooking in article below) you'd wonder how anyone could cook for more than one person, let alone for 8 tables!, but Daniel does it masterfully. Or rather, he DID IT masterfully - since today's his last day.

I'm tempted to simply end this article here, leaving "the old" behind, carefully encapsulated in the blog's archive and not taint it with "the new" of what-will-be after the new owners take over and change things. Suffice it to say that Juan Carlos, the new owner from Ecuador, the one who has been making much the food I've been eating (when Daniel's not available) , assures me that the prices will not change, nor will the food. They will, however, modernize the place a bit, stay open evenings and weekends, and put up a big-screen TV in the dining room (oh, gawd) for when there are fútbol games to be watched. I just hope it's not turned on during the lunch hour but I suspect it will. Juan Carlos, the new proud owner, seems to be quite careful and mindful of the fragile clientèle which has been built up by Daniel and María over the years. The last thing you want to do is disenchant the regulars.

But it's hard to believe the new owners can be as charming as Daniel and María. With them, you always felt like you were at home eating Mom's home cooking - although it was really Dad in the kitchen.

(pausing to reflect.....)

Isn't it silly that right now, after writing and re-reading this previous paragraph, I suddenly find myself emotional? I guess because I feel I've lost part of my family.

Upon paying the 6 Euros at the bar, I announced that today there would be no 1 Euro tip - as I've made a habit of doing. I told both María (who was waiting for the next order) and Daniel (who was cooking just behind the curtain) that today, instead, I brought them a gift. Leaning down, I whispered to María that it was a bottle of champagne to help them celebrate their retirement. At that moment I was sure María was going to cry - but she didn't, thankfully, because I may have broken out as well. She instead spread her arms, put her hands around my head, and kissed me tenderly on the left cheek, and then on the right, thanking me for the gift. I thanked them for all the wonderful meals, the good prices, and the friendly service.

Saying goodbye was sad and I didn't get the chance to shake Daniel's hand as he was busy cooking. Instead, I wished them well and turned to leave, pulling the door open and shouted an "¡Hasta luego! ¡Nos Vemos!" with a smile to the new owner, Juan Carlos. He returned the gesture, surely wondering if he'd ever see me again.

Walking out onto the street I felt odd and a little emotional, like something was missing. Something was already very different in my little world.


Previous Blog Entries about my meal experiences at Restaurante Las Damas include (although I'd changed he names to protect the innocent):

"Another GREAT Menú del Día in Madrid" &
"Menu del Dia - Menu of the Day for Cheap Lunches"

The below photo and article, published by El Mundo newspaper October 17th, 2008, can be viewed in its larger (2.2mb), more legible size (in Spanish) HERE.

Librería Hernández Religious Bookstore in Madrid will close this year after 158 years of service. Incredible, isn't it, that any business, let alone a RELIGIOUS bookstore, could survive so long. Religious stores, at least for me, have always been a curiosity which I've always associated with Spain as well as Italy since we don't have them - to my knowledge - in Ohio, USA.

Upon visiting Madrid the first time in 1995 and in subsequent strolls through Madrid's downtown, these religious stores always turn up, causing me to ask myself, "How can these places stay in business? Do they receive some funding from the church?" I doubt the latter but where else in the world is - read: "was" - religion so profound in the makeup and history of the culture?

Upon entering nearly any older-person's house in Spain you'll usually find the following: a wall-mounted crucifix, a painting/portrait of Jesus Christ on the cross, and oftentimes other ceramic angelic figurines. You don't find these religious items so openly displayed in younger peoples' homes although they may be religious.

Religion in Spain, according to WikiPedia:

Roman Catholicism has long been the main religion of Spain, though it no longer has official status. According to a July 2009 study by the Spanish Center of Sociological Research about 76% of Spaniards self-identify as Catholics, 2% other faith, and about 20% identify with no religion. Most Spaniards do not participate regularly in religious services. This same study shows that of the Spaniards who identify themselves as religious, 58% hardly ever or never go to church, 17% go to church some times a year, 9% some time per month and 15% every Sunday or multiple times per week. But according to a December 2006 study, 48% of the population declared a belief in a supreme being, while 41% described themselves as atheist or agnostic. Altogether, about 22% of the entire Spanish population attends religious services at least once per month. Though Spanish society has become considerably more secular in recent decades, the influx of Latin American immigrants, who tend to be strong Catholic practitioners, has helped the Catholic Church to recover.

But lack in interest is not the reason, nor the world economic crisis, for closing the historical religious bookstore which has spanned 4 generations. The reason is clear and all too common in longtime family businesses; the children no longer want to keep it going. Librería Religiosa Hernández is attempting to sell or rent the shop but as the service and items sold is so specific, detailed, personalized, and studied, there's little realistic hope it can stay open as it is. It's not simply the sale of religious items, either. Certified artisans work for the shop, creating and painting dolls and portraits, among many others things.


I've walked past this shop several times as it is just off Madrid's Puerta del Sol, nearly across from the also-now-closed Teatro Albéniz on the Calle de la Paz, 4. When tourists stray from the Puerta del Sol to explore Madrid's quaint, narrow streets, they'd inevitably pass this old book store and pause to examine the window dressing of cherubs, baby Jesus dolls and statues, books, and crucifixes. But while this historic Madrid bookstore closes, others remain open and can be found throughout the city, but undoubtedly their numbers will dwindle with time.

If you have an opportunity to visit the Librería Religiosa Hernández, do so quickly, at least before May, to see what a 158 year old shop looks like.

Librería Hernández
Calle de la Paz, 4

Article (in Spanish):
Somos Centro: "Librería Hernández, otro comercio centenario que se va"

It's so nice to have a GOOD excuse to sleep until noon (or almost) and surviving a New Year's Eve in Madrid is a good one. Last night all of Spain celebrated the changing to the new year of 2010 and all television channels were fervently covering the event.

On TVE, the festivities started around 10pm with a 1-hour montage comedy hour by José Mota (watch 1-hour video via link) with dozens of short skits parodying countless politicians, stars, public figures, and news events of 2009. We laughed a lot.


About 20 minutes before midnight, the formally-dressed TVE countdown team of Anne Igartiburu, Spain's "Mira Quien Baila" host, and dancer-actor Manuel Bandera stood on their Puerta del Sol-facing balcony, with their breath perfectly visible in the freezing cold windy weather, constantly wrung their hands. Ms. Igartiburu was bare-shouldered but, from time to time, pulled her wrap more tightly around her to break the wind momentarily and Mr. Bandera frequently stuck his hands in his pockets. Poor things, freezing to death. Hope they were paid well.




The principal player on television is/was TVE (Televisión Española), Spain's National Channel 1 whom, beginning today, January 1, 2010, will no longer have commercial advertisements and no interruptions during its specials, series, and movies. At least that's what they say. I have to admit I don't see how it's possible to survive without advertising income. But then again, it is a State-run entity. So does that mean our tax Euros are going towards its maintenance? I predict within a year's time they'll have commercials again. Besides, how are we going to decide at what point in the movie we're going to go to the bathroom?

Oh sure, we changed channels for a couple minutes before midnight to TeleCinco to see Belén Estéban's new face after serious (and much needed) plastic surgery but that's all. She and some other guy were the official presenters standing in front of the open windows facing Puerta del Sol's Casa de Correos and its enigmatic bell tower from where the ball will drop to ring in the new year.

After the fireworks and ending statements were made, Televisión Española began a montage of scenes of the previous decade's festivities and personalities. The Spaniards with whom I was sharing the experience sang along to the songs, old commercials, and commented about how young they all looked in their day.

We shared a bottle of wine, sidra, and a simple selection of embutidos, cheeses, and patés. It was a good evening and I finally found my way home and to bed by 3am, sleeping this morning until 11am. It was a good, deep sleep in a new year.

Happy 2010, World! Be kind to one another, please. May we pull ourselves out of this "Crisis" and begin protecting the environment. We all have a part in this.

I've never won anything before. But last Tuesday it happened. I ACTUALLY won Spain's Christmas Lottery! Overwhelmed, jubilant, and in denial, I checked my numbers online once, twice, even a third time to be sure I wasn't mistaken. Nope. The numbers all checked out.  I had just won the freakin' lottery!!!!

Word spread fast (by me). And before I knew it friends were calling, text messages and emails were received to congratulate me on my luck. Surprisingly to me and everyone, I even kept my dental appointment that day and, upon making the announcement, the entire staff was quickly hugging and kissing me with congratulations.

When I realized I held the winning numbers my mind started to wander. I started to daydream. "Hmm... What do other people do when they win the lottery?" I asked myself. I guess some buy new houses or renovate old ones, new cars for sure, wall-mounted state-of-the-art televisions in every room is a given, a new wardrobe, fancy meals at upscale restaurants, and, of course, "sharing the wealth" with family and those friends in need.

But I had to be careful. One shouldn't squander good fortune. I must be wise with my winnings. Maybe I should invest it. Maybe I should give it all to charity. Maybe I should put it under the mattress until I figure out what to do with this "found money".

Suddenly, I feel I'm walking among those whom I always thought were better than me simply because they had more money, faster, shinier cars, or trophy girlfriends. Suddenly, I feel they're no better than me at all. No, really, they never were better than me but the perception is always there when you don't have enough cash to buy exactly what you want and when you want it.

Now, after two days passing since Spain's Christmas Lottery, with nerves finally calming and mind more at ease with the realization, I've finally decided what to do with my lottery winnings so now I can relax. NOW the fun begins.









Oh, HOW MUCH did I win, you ask? My one décimo lottery ticket won 120 Euros!!!!!! But..... since I'm sharing that with 4 other people, my part comes to 24 Euros, just enough to buy me one really good lunch. And how much did I spend on lottery tickets to win those 24 Euros? Answer: 200 Euros. Oh well. Winning is winning, right?

Didn't I mention that thousands of people won something in Spain's Christmas Lottery?? Only a small few win big prizes, the largest (incredibly) being only 3 million and 1 million Euros. Amounts go down from there.

It's that time of year again. In some cases, people have lined up for hours to select their numbers for the 2009 edition of Spain's Christmas Lottery, all hoping to win "El Gordo", the largest of all prizes. A few will win, but most will lose, all enjoying the days of discussion leading up to the drawing as well as a few anxious hours in front of the TV on Tuesday morning as the tiny wooden balls are selected and their numbers sung in monotonous repetition by uniformed school children.

At 8am, December 22nd, Spain's lottery commission will host its annual Christmas lottery, "Lotería de Navidad de España", whose largest pay-outs go to the winners of "El Gordo" (1 chance in 85,000 to win "El Gordo"). Lesser numbers selected bring lesser winnings. Interestingly enough (at least to me), any number selected has a 15% chance of winning SOMETHING. 2.3 BILLION Euros is the total, overall payout of the combined winning numbers. Wow. The lottery usually lasts about 3 to 3.5 hours and can be watched locally on TVE (nearly all local channels cover it) or online at RTV.es.
 
Explanation of "How it works": Lottery tickets contain 5 numbers and there are 10 tickets for each number. The ten tickets of the same number are called "a series". So, for example, I could buy one ticket with the number 12345 or I could buy 3 tickets with the number of 123455. Or, if I chose, I could buy the entire 10-ticket series of 12345. Each individual ticket costs 20 Euros and is called "un décimo", or "one tenth" of the series. The entire series of any given number would then cost 200 Euros. So when a winning number comes up you would either win 1-tenth of the total winnings if you held ONE ticket or you would win 100% of the winnings if you held the entire series of 10-tickets.

Explanation of "The Drawing": Two big tumblers, one bigger than the other, contains thousands of tiny wooden balls. The child collecting the ball from the big tumbler calls out the lottery number in its entirety while the child collecting the ball from the small tumbler calls out the kind of prize associated with it which, in the vast majority of the cases, is "Mil Euros". When one of the larger prizes is won, anything larger than "Mil Euros", the children carry the balls over to the table of officials to verify the number and the associated prize. See video below of 2008's lottery when "El Gordo" is selected as well as the "normal chant" of "Mil Euros".





Funny (or stupid) story about how I bought my Christmas lottery tickets this year:
As I've now done for  the last 2 years, I bought a number of tickets for me and some friends, all of which would share in any of the winnings. This year I went to the local lottery shop, where there was absolutely no line, and asked for 5 tickets all ending in the same number. (here's where my mistake was made) Obviously, unless two humans can read each others minds mistakes are often made in communication. So the woman at the counter did indeed give me 5 tickets which ended in my chosen number - but ALL 5 tickets were identical! My intention, understandably misunderstood by the clerk, was to have 5 tickets with distinct numbers but all ending in the same number. I'd already left and walked 50 meters before realizing my mistake. HMPH! Sure, if we win, we'll win 50% of the total sum for that series but it also lowers our chance of winning anything. 100 Euros down the drain? Probably, in whichever case. So I went back the next day and got 5 MORE tickets, ending in 5 different numbers, assuring that I'd get tickets from 5 different series and thereby INCREASING my chances of winning SOMETHING. So I spent 200 Euros for gifts to my friends on Christmas, none of which are likely to amount to anything but it's a nice, fun gift. And, as I'm told, it's "very Spanish" to gift Christmas lottery tickets to friends and family.

If you've bought your "décimos" for this years' Spanish Christmas Lottery, I wish you the best of luck. If not, enjoy watching it live for awhile. Sure, the repetition can get boring - I understand that - but the most fun comes NOT from watching the actual numbers chosen but the celebrations of the winners which usually takes place towards the end of the lottery or just afterwards. Then, you see people in bars with COPIES of their winning tickets, being showered with bottles of (cheap?) champagne, dancing among their (new) best friends or (now) close relatives. I also like the interviews during the lottery of people in the street telling what they would do should they win. The answers are almost identical every year; they'd buy a new house or pay off the old one, they'd quit their jobs, they'd pay bills, they'd help family and those less fortunate, and on and on. What I'd like to see are stories about past winners and how their lives actually changed with their new-found wealth. Did they really pay off the house? Did they really give money to poorer family members? Did the money make them crazy? Did they become cocaine addicts? Did they squander it all? Or did they start companies or invest it wisely for their future and the future generations?

Be sure to check back here on Tuesday for an UPDATE of the day's lottery drawings!

Useful/Interesting Links regarding Spain's Christmas Lottery:

"Spain's Christmas Lottery is still 'El Gordo'", 2009 article, in English, by Cristina Mateo-Yanguas.
"Asi es el Sorteo de "El Gordo": Graphical step-by-step procedure, IN SPANISH, of lottery number selection.
LOTTERY NUMBER CHECK and Christmas Lottery articles at ElPais.com (in Spanish).
elGordo.com: Check lottery ticket numbers (in Spanish) as well as BUY lottery tickets online.

MadridMan's 2008 Blog Entry about Spain's Christmas Lottery
MadridMan's 2007 Blog Entry about Spain's Christmas Lottery

On Friday, 11 December 2009, I attended the day-long Madrid Travelthink 2009 conference in one of the upstairs theater rooms at the Reina Sofia Museum, across from Madrid's Atocha train station. The new addition to old museum is very nice, modern, and the outward portions are full of light via its glass & steel exterior.

Madrid Travelthink is an annual conference, its third, to help educate travel professionals in how to better promote Madrid as a tourism destination using, mainly, the Internet and all that which is now available to "get the word out". Google Spain, esMadrid, and the City of Madrid sponsored the event.

Last year I wrote a somewhat steamy blog entry about Madrid Travelthink 2008 event entitled, "Conference: Time of Crisis in the Tourism Sector". There, I detailed the aim of the conference while obviously upset that the organizers, the City of Madrid, would dare charge 75 Euros to those wanting to learn how to better promote it. Sure, they included a large meal, coffee breaks with snacks, and who-knows-what treasures in their "goody bag" to those attending. But come on. That's just wrong. I registered but never attended & didn't pay the 75 Euros. I even wrote a detailed comment on their website, in Spanish, that it should be open to the public as well as be broadcast live on the Internet. Afterall, we whom promote Madrid are doing THE CITY a favor, not the other way around. We travel professionals take a small percentage of that which is gained in tourism Euros and the rest goes to city businesses. Madrid should be sending us Christmas baskets, for crying out loud.
<end rant>

This year, smartly, they charged nothing to the approximately 440 people whom were lucky enough to get passes to the quickly "sold-out" event - although about half the seats were empty. And also, wonderfully and for the first time, they offered the event to the public via live Internet broadcast through their website. Unfortunately, it seems they haven't (yet?) posted videos. Comparing this year's Madrid Travelthink to last year's, it seems this year's was a greatly scaled-back conference in a smaller venue, maybe for the economic crisis or maybe because of demand. Who knows.

It is my presumption that Madrid Travelthink is aimed mainly towards traditional travel agents and not those already using the Internet to any great degree. I say this because everything discussed as useful promotional tools (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google AdWords) were already known & utilized by me. No secrets were divulged by the success-story speakers of TripAdvisor, Google/YouTube, Air Berlin & Vueling whom all mainly shared their business models & showed corporate growth charts. I was hoping for more details about web design, visitor demographics, and maybe some other insightful, cutting-edge nuggets of tourism gold. If only there existed something for those of us in "The Next Stage" of tourism, for those of us further along.

Many of you will read the above paragraph and say, "But MadridMan! If you're already doing all of the above, why aren't you even one-millionth as successful as those companies you mention above?" That's a fair question. The only answer I can give is that, by contrast, MadridMan is a one-man-show and doesn't have a staff of ten thousand or even five hundred as do those corporations. I do what I can as time allows it.

I was very impressed with the efforts made to make the conference very "technological", passing out headphones for translated versions, remote control voting devices, big-screen projection, and a nice split-stage setting with a common seating area, interview area, and podium. All very nice. Oddly though, at least one or two of the heads in the common seating area (see photo above) were only visible from the back while they were discussing topics among themselves. Unfortunately for the translating device they only worked for English portions translated into Spanish and not for Spanish portions translated into English so I never used mine. As for the remote control voting devices for polling the audience, these were cool for real-time voting but didn't work for the second session and these devices were constantly being dropped with an loud, interruptive "THONK!" at least 30 times during the before-lunch break at 2:30pm. And many times the microphones didn't work or were under-volumed, causing the audience to shout, "We can hear you!"

I was, however, impressed with the people in attendance! Wow. At least 90% of the men were in suits and ties. The women were stylishly & professionally dressed. There were also a small few, like me, casually dressed in jeans, button-down shirt, and old leather shoes. Only the camera and audio guys were dressed worse than me. Men-to-women ratio was about 50/50 and the average age may have been about 45 years old.

To sum-up, Madrid Travelthink is a useful conference to answer questions, address doubts, educate traditional travel professionals, and to confirm the importance of the Internet to convey information to the public. The book they gave us about the history of Gran Vía during the years of 1910-1935 is very interesting.

Perhaps I seem to be too harsh on Madrid TravelThink but I don't mean to be. One should always express the positives while carefully mentioning the negatives without appearing critical. It's just that we all have different expectations & view things from different perspectives. Surely many of those in attendance were better educated with every breath. I'm looking forward to the possibility of a "next level" of travel & tourism promotion.

It was an odd morning this Saturday morning. I got up late, had breakfast, showered, and went out to do the morning shopping at around noon. I first went to the pollería (chicken shop) and found it oddly closed. They're always open on Saturday mornings until 2pm but maybe they closed for summer vacation as so many shops do.

Next, went to Juteco, a shop which sells toiletries, perfumes, kitchen items, etcetera. It was closed too and with the protective metal blinds pulled to the bottom. HUH! They are usually open until 2pm. Vacation? A chain store like this?

So I went to one of the markets. Closed. Vacation? The other market was closed too. Also on vacation? Shouldn't they coordinate their closings to accommodate the neighborhood people?? Hmmm.. I even went to TWO supermarkets and found them closed as well, shuttered and fortified. This is getting weird.

What am I going to have for lunch? My idea to make chicken flew out the window like a wounded duck. And how am I going to shower? I don't have enough shower gel to get me through the weekend and the stores are all closed tomorrow too. Will I die here sweaty and starved? What gives?

Answer: Today, Saturday 15 August is Madrid's Virgen's Day, la Virgen de la Paloma, and so everything is closed. DUH! I knew that but, as I've mentioned before, many Spanish holidays don't dawn on me until something like today happens.

Everything is closed except: Chinese food restaurants, Kebop Restaurants, and Chinese convenience stores. So I got Chinese food for lunch - and will likely have the same thing tomorrow unless I decide on a TelePizza.

54 year old American Robert Todd W. attempted to smuggle more than 4 Kilos of cocaine through Madrid Barajas Airport today but was detained by police. The American arrived at Barajas from a flight originating from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Apparently he had several packs of cocaine wrapped under his belt as well as attached to his legs and thighs under several layers of woman's girdles.

The economic crisis will make smart people do stupid things - or maybe they are simply stupid. Who knows, maybe this guy had lost much of his retirement savings in the last year, lost his job and had a mortgage to pay, was a drug addict himself, or was simply tricked into thinking it would be easy to get past those dope-sniffing dogs at a major airport like Barajas. I suppose a percentage of drugs do get through security, possibly a high enough percentage to urge drug dealers to continue. But what do they care? It's not (usually) the drug dealers who get caught wearing woman's girdles and forced to a full-body (and cavity) strip search by overzealous, latex-glove wearing sadist.

I'm not forgiving stupidity, that's for sure, but really. These guys should know better. I could almost understand if they were young, late teens, or even 20-somethings. But past that, well, come on.

There's a very interesting program on the National Geographic Channel that I love to catch called "Locked Up Abroad". It's all about this topic - and one episode was just about this. Two 20-something American girls were offered a free trip to exotic Latin America. There, they were promised a week near the beach, fun, dancing, and would later be contacted by the drug dealers. Well, the house was actually in the jungle somewhere, cut off from everyone. They were basically held prisoner, had no car, no phone, and were left alone the entire week until their contacts arrived. The dealers/kidnappers forced the girls to put on two sets of girdles into which they stuffed full of drugs, causing them to walk funny. To make a long story short, the girls were about to board a plane to Bangladesh (or somewhere) when they were indeed caught and sent to a local prison for a number of years, barely surviving some very raw conditions in the overcrowded prison, everyone sleeping on the floor, nothing but rice to eat, and on and on. I don't usually care for re-enactment-type programs but this one is very well done and you almost believe you're watching a television movie-of-the-week. Throughout the re-enactment the actual (and naive) smuggler recounts his/her emotional experiences.

Anyway, very little of this Madrid blog posting has anything to do with Madrid, Spain but the boldness of this presumably mature American man caught my attention. I don't think the prisons in Madrid are particularly known for their roughness. It's my impression that their conditions are much better & safer than at most American prisons, in fact. And food HAS to be better. Who couldn't eat tortilla de patata everyday? Okay, maybe not EVERY day.

Shortly after arriving to live in Madrid I discovered J & J Books and Coffee, a English-language book store on Calle Espiritu Santo, 47, just off the Calle San Bernardo & near the Noviciado metro station. I was thrilled when I "found" this goldmine. Buying (and finding) English-language books in bookstores are both scarce and expensive. J & J's has an immense collection of cheap secondhand English-language books for sale!

Not only do they offer free Wi-Fi internet to their guests/clients, but they also have a small bar and seating area to read books, have a coffee, or chat with friends. They sell a small selection of American goods like pancake syrup and pancake & muffin mix - when in stock. They probably even sell Budweiser beer - but I wouldn't recommend ordering that at the bar. The bartenders and staff are all friendly and speak English and, for someone who may be new to Madrid, this can be a saving grace to get that "back home" feeling if you're having trouble assimilating yourself into the Spanish culture.

The used books, most of which are paperback books, are shelved by the hundreds downstairs in an extensive basement. Really, it's a BIG space! The books are mainly arranged by genre and then by author (if I remember correctly) and all books are roughly half-price their original retail price, but oftentimes they're much cheaper. They even offer a store credit when customers bring books in for "exchange". I have stacks of books I've brought from the USA, read, and ready to turn in - to get more books! Apparently, the even offer cash-for-books if they're books they want to buy.

J& J Books and Coffee organizes parties, language exchanges, happy hours, and other events so take a look at their website if interested. The husband-and-wife owners, (Spaniard) Javi and (American) Jamie, opened the store together in 2003. I have to wonder how hard their establishment is taking the economic crisis. Oftentimes secondhand shops do very well in this environment as people search for cheaper alternatives to buying retail.

MadridMan gives J & J Books and Coffee a big THUMBS UP for a HUGE selection of used English books at great prices in downtown Madrid, Spain.

And by the way, MadridMan has not been compensated for this blog entry - nor did J & J know I was going to write it. I'm sure they don't even know who I am! (can you believe that??) I like their bookshop and want to spread the word. Oftentimes such jems are hidden away, only learning about them by word-of-mouth.

I have a dream to someday own a flat here in Madrid City. It wouldn't have to be in the Old downtown - although that'd be nice in concept. But where would you park if you own a car? Nor would my would-be house have to be within the M30 inner circular city highway loop. But it would be in the city of Madrid itself and not in the suburbs. Afterall, HOW could I maintain my MadridMan persona if I didn't live IN the city of Madrid?? (okay, now's not the time to ask me now about BarcelonaMan or GranadaMan, okay?)

First, let me clarify for those not familiar to what "houses" are in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Athens, and the like because it causes a lot of confusion with Americans with whom I talk on this topic. Because when they hear "house", they think a single structure home with four sides, one to three floors, a driveway & garage, maybe a porch or deck, and a yard. In these big European cities - much like in New York City - THESE kinds of "houses" don't really exist except for the richest of the rich.

"Houses" in European cities are "flats" or as called by many of my American friends back home, these are "apartments". But the word "apartments", to me, is deceiving because they're not always rental properties which, to me, are what apartments are. "Houses" here are one unit within a multi-level, multi-unit building where residents enter their residences through one door on a floor where there may be several other doors leading to neighbors' residences. These residences may have 1, 2, 3, or more bedrooms, 1 or 2 or more bathrooms, sometimes a basement garage (but they're rare, except in the newly built buildings), sometimes a balcony or suspended terrace, sometimes there are elevators but not always, and oftentimes your out-the-window view is that of the wall of the building from across the street. THIS is a "house" here in Europe. Stand-alone "houses" as we know them in America are called "Chalets", a word in many parts of the world refer to a kind of "Swiss Chalet" or a house in the country.

So anyway, for the last year or so I've been following the posted flats on Idealista.com, bookmarking flats which fall into my amenity and price range. Each month I check on those bookmarked flats to see if they're still available and/or if their prices has changed.

In about half of the cases, the prices fall monthly as owners find their homes are not selling at all or the market value is dropping below the asking price for the house. Sometimes prices fall only 5,000 Euros but in some cases they fall by 10 or 20,000 Euros! That's incredible!!

This is the result of the housing crisis in Madrid, in Spain, in Europe, and throughout the world. I love finding a house online, bookmarking it, and then, 6 months later, seeing that its price has dropped by 50,000 Euros!! And the prices keep dropping. Sure, there's a bottom to this economic crisis. But "the end" will not likely parallel the recovery of the housing market. There will be significant delay. So even if the economy hits bottom and beings to improve tomorrow, the house price will likely continue to drop for a considerable period of time. Am I too optimistic? If so, please do tell me so.

Just today I toured a house for sale, a very nice house, but clearly out of my price range. I wanted to know how the house looked now and will ask the owner in 6 months time if they have dropped their price. I am nearly sure they won't be able to sell it at their asking price but some people still think they're living "in times of old" where you could ask nearly any price in Madrid and get it because the prices were rising so fast and a lot of people made a lot of money. Now the opposite is true. The house prices are dropping like stones and no one is buying because A) potential buyers have lost their jobs, B) banks won't lend the necessary amounts, C) buyers are waiting for the prices to drop even lower, and D) potential buyers can buy a new house until they sell their old house - which they can't do unless they drop the asking price below what THEY paid for the same house just a few years before, and no one wants to do this.

So is the end in sight? Not yet, I don't think. Those who have cash ready to spend - and/or those who have banks ready to lend - are going to get some real bargains. But are they really "bargains" or are they merely a stabilization to fair pricing within the market itself? For years house prices were so unnaturally inflated and houses were still being snatched up by speculators and investors. Not anymore. Now those speculators are stuck, filing for bankruptcy, or just waiting for the next housing boom.

Are you ready to buy? What's stopping you?