Guiri Guide to Madrid

I live in the Goya barrio, which is part of the district of Salamanca, here in Madrid. More specifically, it’s basically a giant square bordered by Principe de Vergara, Calle O’Donnell, Calle del Doctor Esquerdo, and Calle de Don Ramon de la Cruz.

When we first moved to Madrid and were thinking about where to live we were admittedly a bit overwhelmed. Do we want the hustle and bustle of Sol? The twisty streets of La Latina? The gritty yet cool area of Chueca? Or do we head out of the center altogether? We decided on Goya for a variety of reasons. It’s very close to Retiro, a quick one-line ride into Sol on the red line, is rather upscale without being pretentious, and is pretty close to IE, my husband’s university.

I’d say one of the most awesome things about Goya is living near the Palacio de Deportes. I’ve never actually seen a concert here, but I’ve been entertained on many evenings by the happens in Plaza San Felipe II, right next to the venue. People lined up for concerts, food stalls, sometimes even music that’s being played outside of the Palacio de Deportes makes for an entertaining evening. If Shakira comes back to Madrid I will certainly have to secure a ticket and see her from a proper seat. On the other side of the Palacio is the Real Casa de la Moneda, which is basically a big money museum.

For food shopping there are plenty of options in Goya. There is a large supermarket at one of the two giant Corte Ingles buildings at the Goya/Alcala intersection. The other Corte Ingles building houses a level dedicated to luxury and gourmet goods, along with a stocked papeleria with a small greeting card section. A decent-sized Carrefour is located on Calle Conde de Penalver, not far from the Correos, and a KFC (hey, you might be hungry after waiting 45 minutes to post something). There is also a row of fantastic local shops (a butcher, fruit/veggies, and a fish guy) located on Hermosilla, if you’d like some local flavor instead of the big brands.

Just outside of the technical Goya zone, on the southern side, is a great little movie theater that plays English films, Renoir Retiro. Mondays are discount days. The theater only shows 4 movies at a time, and the theaters themselves are rather small, creating an intimate and friendly atmosphere. They even have a book swap book shelf on the second floor. Take a book, bring a book!

Other useful places to know: there is a hospital and a dentist’s office (a Sanitas office) on Calle del Doctor Esquerdo, and two Chinese “bazaar” shops (which are full of cheap but often useful items), one on Hermosilla, and the other on Alcantara.

Overall I really like living in Goya. It’s close to everything in Madrid, but isn’t smack in the middle of the party. Beautiful balconies, quaint European side streets, and proximity to the park and main center makes Goya a great barrio to live in. If you’d like help finding an apartment in this area, try checking in with Madrid Rent Flat or Madrid Home Stay!

Friend of the Guiri Guide, Kathleen Hershner, has lived in Madrid now for nearly 8 years and has experienced living in many barrios. She shares with us attributes of each, with her own personal flare. This segment will have multiple installations in order to provide you with the greatest of detail as you work to select your ideal home.

I tallied up the places I’ve lived (while bored, on a flight back from Menorca), and was surprised to find that I’ve averaged one move per year during my extended ‘visit’. Some have been short-lived and some long enough to feel like a real home.  In order:

• Tetuan – 4 months
• Ibiza/Estrella area – 1.5 years
• Las Musas – 8 months
• Principe Pio – 3 months
• Chueca – 2 years
• Opera, 1st flat – 1 year
• Plaza Mayor – 3 months
• Opera, 2nd flat – 1 year

TETUAN

Let’s start with Tetuan.  My tourist sojourn in Spain began by living with the two amazing Romanian guys Mihai and Silviu who had been living in a 4-floor, no elevator butones-only flat for a couple of years.  These two charmers spoke 5 languages, had friends from every corner of the planet, were musicians and hosted incredible, bohème-style parties that gave me that full-on-we’re-not-in-Kansas-anymore feeling. It’s an old-fashioned barrio but when I was there several years ago, it was in the process of rejuvenation. Gentrification, a word San Franciscans love to hate kind of applies,  but I think the old ways (and people) were generally dying out and young Madrilenos lucky enough to escape living with their parents until their mid-30s were hitting the streets in search of undiscovered fixer-uppers and gems.  Tetuan is not exactly a posh area, but you can find a fixer-upper or a flat that’s less than 700 a month.  There’s a very good Polideportivo in the district (I used to swim there), is fairly well connected via Line 1 and the region is close to Cuatro Cominos and the Computense area.  There are cleaner, trendier barrios to live in, for sure, but for my first Madrid/Spanish living experience, it was kitschy and lively and just dangerous/dingy enough to give you to the true ‘livin’ in the city’ kind of vibe, if that’s what you’re looking for……I’ll bet a lot has changed since I lived there, so I’m due for a visit.

One memory I’m fond of recalling in Tetuan is when I stepped into an ‘old man bar’ to buy some cigarettes on the way home from teaching class one afternoon, enjoying my new personal bad-habit freedoms which also included drinking wine before 5pm.  When I fed the machine with coins, I was beamed up to Vegas and about 20 or 30 euros in coins clanged into the tray for what seemed like several minutes. I wanted to take the money and run, but being a tourist has built-in good behavior expectations and so I just looked at the bar man and put my hands up with a ‘whaddya gonna do’ expression.  He did the same and we laughed (well, I did) and I split, sans cigarettes, before he could change his mind about letting me get away with it.

When the guys wanted to move on, Mihai in with his girlfriend and Silvia to the Canary Islands to teach scuba diving, I moved to a 60’s-era flat on Pez Volador with a couple of older, male friends of mine…