street fair in Lavapiés

My very first day in Madrid and I'm lucky enough to stumble upon some culture. My apartment-search-walking-route took me to an area of Madrid known as Lavapiés, far south of Puerta del Sol. It is often compared to Harlem in NYC, but it's not the same. Lavapiés is the "ethnic" barrio in Madrid - there are pockets of Chinese immigrants, Senegalese immigrants, Indian immigrants, you-name-it-not-Spanish-speaking-immigrants. Of course, this means they have some amazing ethnic food restaurants! 


But when I first discovered Lavapiés, I get out of the metro to discover an Indian street fair!

Juxtaposed with the crumbling ruins of I-still-don't-kn0w-what old building

it was quite the sight. 


But everyone seemed to be wearing these particular type of swishy-Indian pants that were very loose in the legs and crotch area, but right around the waist with an elastic band, and tight a bit above each ankle with another elastic band. They were selling them at every single booth in this fair and every other female no matter what age seemed to be wearing them. I told myself that eventually I would get a pair, but since it was my first day I wasn't going to go buying everything in sight without at least doing some comparison shopping. Food, on the other hand, was cheap yummy street food. And since in Madrid no one cares about open-container laws, beer was the only drink being sold at the street fair and it was also cheap. So for lunch I had Indian street food and Indian Cobra beer. 

The beer was not my favorite, but the atmosphere of the fair was pretty cool.