Well, it’s been a while but life has somewhat settled down here in Sunny Madrid. It’s been quite an adjustment from pastoral Sweden.  We’re still in a temporary apartment but have secured a lease on a nice place just down the street from the Reina Sofia and move in at the beginning of October. I’ve already done some reconnoitering of our future neighborhood and feel pretty excited so far.  Some highlights:

The aforementioned Reina Sofia is Spain’s answer to the Tate Modern. It is of course home to Picasso’s Guernica but also holds 2 permanent collections of art, one section covering the years 1900-1945, and one covering 1945-1968, in addition to various rotating contemporary art exhibitions. I am looking forward to just spending afternoons wandering about inside.   I’m most excited about the community center La Tabacalera located inside an old tobacco factory procured by the community Lavapies from the city of Madrid. The community center houses artists’s studios, childcare, adult education classes ranging from how to pimp your clothes to salsa dancing to learning Russian, a permanant DIY bicycle repair and maintanance shop, a movie theatre, a community garden, a skate park, and a cafe among myriad other activities. The awesome sewing cafe Cafe Costuras is not precisely in my new neighborhood, but it’s a very close walk. You can purchase sewing machine use by the hour and offer many sewing related classes including embroidery and crochet. This concept was first started in Paris and I have been itching to try it since first reading about it six or so months ago. Of course no list of what I’m looking forward to doing anywhere would be complete without me mention the local junk-fest/flea market. Madrid’s El Rastro market on Sunday mornings is allegedly the largest outdoor market in Europe. I’ve been holding off on going because we’re still not permanently settled but I’m really getting itchy to check out what this market has to offer. It stretches from just a few blocks away from our apartment all the way to Plaza Mayor, 1.2 kilometers (3/4 mile) away! What a change from the wilds of the Swedish forest!