El Rastro, Madrid

From an old letter home from Madrid:

Last Sunday I went to visit “El Rastro” or one of the most Madridian parts of Madrid. El Rastro is an old quarter of Madrid and that means narrow streets, tiny pavements, houses built just 2 - 3 feet from the road, cobbled streets, a lot of dead-ends and some low hills.

On Sunday mornings the streets within dozens of blocks are turned into an open-air “market”. When I say market you think of provisions (vegetables, tubers,fruits, in Trinidad) and meat (a "wet market) but that’s not the meaning here. In the Rastro there’s everything and I mean that. Some stalls deal in rusty discarded parts of motorcycles, electrical equipment, etc., etc., some sell rags and most of what is sold is secondhand. Dave would have a field day looking at all the odds and ends here. And there’s no attempt to make things look better than they are. For example, you know all those old motorcar parts rusting in the yard. Well, just bring them, as they are, dump them onto the pavement in El Rastro and you will be absolutely in step with the rest. Clothes, pens, food, iron railings, junk of all sorts, and even some motor scooters and trucks are sold here. I was a complete tourist in shades and sports coat. Hundreds of people come to look around and the clang of passing trams adds to the oldtime flavour. The stalls are usually just collections of objects for sale lying in heaps on the ground, and ropes holding tarpaulins to shade the sellers crisscross the streets. From a distance it looks as though the wash is hanging out to dry between the houses.