El Rastro

El Rastro, a huge flea market replete with street performers and stalls. People were selling all sorts of things from car parts, dolls, antiques, to just plain, unwarranted junk. It was really hard to see everything as the narrow streets packed the crowds like sardines. We had to check our wallets every so often because of all the shady characters we were rammed up against. The whole neighborhood smelled like incense intermixed with distinctive Spanish body odors. It takes place every Sunday since "hundreds of years ago" . I took some photos.












These were a couple of the junk sellers. I saw things like door knobs, wheels to grocery carts, phone chargers, rusty cheese graters etc.

This guy was playing that one really popular Beethoven symphony on crystal glasses. The one that everyone can play on piano.

These guys were playing these horns, you hear these guys playing African-like beats throughout one of the rastro plazas here. You can see saliva spilling out from the horns.








Saw a whole bunch of jovial singers like these guys. They were singing something upbeat. The fat lady started pointing at me to donate cause we were  listening for a while. I gave her a quarter on purpose.

I had to make this one large so you could see the expressions on their faces. The trolls would make a spitting-like noise and hit you with one of their sticks and scare people as they walk by.

These guys were amazing and drew the biggest crowd, the one guy in the middle with eyeliner was hilarious.

Tired from walking. Lots of unique smells on me.

Dinner consisted of legume and sausage (churrizo?) soup. The sausage isn't spicy like it usually is back home, but had a mild pepporni taste to it. Next we had a breaded and pan-fried hard boiled egg with tuna stuck inside of it, had a very peculiar taste, but delicious none the less. Dessert was a microwaved granny smith apple (i think). The skin was peeled back to see the intact molded insides which were piping hot. Ana gave us the "Ramage maple syrup" I gave her to use on our apples, very good. We had the syrup for breakfast as well with our tortitas (Pancake).

It's become a daily regimen for me and Dean to return to our rooms and hunch over on our beds and moan about why we continue to gorge ourselves beyond the limits of our stomach capacity. I'm blaming Ana if something happens to her plumbing.

El Skoolio tomorrow.

Nick