HOXTONS IN MADRID

There is a popular saying in Spanish, which if translated into English will be something like " U will never go to bed without learning something new"

A recent friend of mine just proved that right, when he defined himself as a "hoxton boy". I must confess I was puzzled. Of course I pretended I knew what he meant by that, but honestly I didn´t have a clue.

For those like me, here comes a definition “A scene kid that resides in the London Borough of Hackney area. Hadouken! makes a reference to a Hoxton Hero in their song "That Boy That Girl"”

Probably at this stage you are still as clueless as before. So what better way to understand the concept than go out in your city and try the real Hoxton experience.

For those living or planning to visit Madrid, the “Hoxton” mood is divided equally between Latina & Chueca neighborhoods. Here come some suggestions:

For a good Hoxton Dinner:

MATRITUM (www.matritum.es)

Cava Alta, 17  (+34 913 658 237)

Probably one of the best tapas & wine experience in the city without tourist and in a cozy atmosphere, ideal for everybody looking for good food and wine and a different place.

For a casual quick early lunch:

LA MUSA LATINA (http:/la musalatina.com)

 Costanilla San Andrés, 12 (+34 913 540 255)

A classic in the city but always reinventing himself. Best to go on a weekday for an early lunch.

For a nice roof terrace Hoxton experience:

POOL CLUB (roof terrace of the Oscar RoomMate Hotel  www.room-matehotels.com)

Plaza de Vázquez de Mella 12 (+34 917 011 173)

Relaxed but active, and not pretentious and snobby as many of their counterparts in other city hotels. Just people enjoying the view and the company. A must if you want to experience the new Madrid

For a Hoxton Shopping experience:

There are numerous places but a few of them are:

Monkey Britstyle (Hernán Cortés, 14), Rivendel (Fernando el Católico, 6),  Upbeat (Espíritu Santo, 6). Isolée (Infantas 19)

PS: At last I talked about Madrid!

BIN THE GUIDE !!

There are so many things I want to talk about, but I think I should start for the beginning. And there cannot be a better beginning than talking about the city where I live, Madrid.

Big city, big task. It is hard to describe any major city in the world, they are always changing, evolving for better or for worse. Where should I start? I think my first advice could be applied to any city really. If you are holding in your hands at this moment a travel guide, please throw it into the bin. Yes throw it. Unless you want to go and meet with another hundreds of people that were on your exactly same flight. You will mirror that lovely queue at the airport check-in, this time trying to enter into a museum or restaurant. It could sound a little bit radical, but that´s the first sacrifice you may do in order to take your first step into a better holiday. For some people it can be like quitting smoking, or dieting. You may feel insecure without it, lost, but once you overcome the first shock, a whole new world of possibilities opens up in front of you.

At his stage, you may be asking yourself, shy I advise not to use travel guides, when somehow this blogs intends to be kind of one. Personal and different. But at the end of the day, a travel guide. Well I am not crazy, although some people tend to think sometimes I do behave like if I really was crazy. The point is, guides are useful, no doubt about it. They can give you some basic information, help you to orientate your research when you are really lost but few times are going to help you to make your holidays memorable. But why? Here they are a few reasons why…

·         Guides are usually outdated. Think for one second, about the process of making a guide. The author, travels to the selected destination (well if the guide is good, because I have come across some that made me wonder whether the person has actually been in the place). By the time it comes back, writes the report, gets corrected, published and distributed, we are talking of at least 1 year the very least. And when you get it in the bookshop, it can be at least 2 or 3 years old. What that it means? For instance, that night club that was so cool and trendy in London is now completely out of fashion. That the list of hotels in the resort you were thinking about,  just misses the latest one opened a few months ago and has the ultimate ocean view. Or that the restaurant they recommend, has lost its Michelin star, due to food poisoning…

·         Second main problem is that guides cannot give you all the information. Many people rely on them as a Bible, but actually they cannot cover all the city attractions, restaurants, hotels, bars, shops… Think about your own city or town. Even if you have been living there for many years there are still areas where you probably haven´t been. Restaurants that you haven´t try, places where you keep saying you will go but you never had the time. Now think about the author. Even if he spends several months in the city he will not be able to see everything.  Furthermore, take it to the other extreme, if you really know well all the sports, think about that time when some friends come over to visit you. How hard was to actually recommend or take them to all of them?. For sure you realized afterwards that you forgot to take them to that little bar you loved…. Guides had limited pages. They can only hold a little amount of info.

·         But for me, the biggest problem of all is that guides are biased. Let´s face it. Every person is different, ahs different interest, likes and dislikes, different notions of what it is relevant or not. If you are a 25 year old you will be looking at different things to a 75. So when it comes to write a guide, the author normally tries to be as neutral as possible, and therefore it loses the freshness and makes the advice plain and average, suitable for all those who where in your flight, instead of unique. Even in the “specialized guides” it is hard to escape from that feeling. Moreover if you take a look at the authors, you will realize that 90% of then are Anglo-Saxons. That means that the guides are thought for average English speaking readers and that affects the contents and approach.

·         And finally, if you don’t buy the guide, you will have probably 20 euro in you pocket to order a better bottle of wine in a restaurant, isn’t that a better way of making your holidays memorable?

So if you don’t want to have an average “Anglo-Saxon” holiday, it is easy bin the guide. I will try to give you in the following post so advice on how to plan your holidays to make them your own.

PS. By the way at the end I haven´t spoke a thing about Madrid. Promised I will soon.

Travel vs Trouble

TRAVEL, what does travel means? According to any dictionary it is basically to go from one place to another. But anyone how has travel recently would have realize that it is not what it used to be anymore. To be plain and direct it is not fun. Low cost airlines, delays, security, people everywhere…

Have you ever realised that doesn’t matter where you go, you will always find somebody, even further, that you will always find somebody from your own town. It seems like there is no adventure left. That everything has been discovered and even if we embark ourselves in a so call “exclusive tours” we are just following and organised tour like any other. Even the simple trip to a supermarket has become complicated (remember to bring the re-usable bags, the points card, the discount coupons…) it looks like our lives are to programmed or plan and with little room for the improvisation or surprise.

So, why are we still travelling? Why do we go thorough all the pain of packing unpacking, checking in checking out, queuing, dress and undress at the airport? The answer is easy. Because we love it. No matter how much we complaint about these things in public, privately we cannot wait to jump in a plane and travel. As human beings we have the power to create the illusion we want. We can believe that we are doing something exotic even if deeply inside we know we are not. We just want to get out of our comfort life and search for experiences that add some spice in our souls that give us something to remember.

And this is the thing, even if we sometimes despair and think that there is no place new to discover, we are wrong. Even in your own village you ill find something you will probably haven´t seen before. Even in your daily supermarket you will discover a new product you never though they sell. It is my goal in this blog to help you rediscovering travel by helping you to look behind the high street and go to those little things that make a trip unforgettable.