Hostal Aliste

Hostal Aliste, our home for the first two nights and again at the end of the trip. 3rd Piso = 4th floor to US citizens. McDonald's is everywhere.


This is the view directly across the street from our room in Hostal Aliste. I've looked in vain for my own reflection, but I cannot find it.



Here's a typical street-view of downtown Madrid taken from our room.

We spent our first two nights in Spain in Hostal Aliste, a sort of budget accomodation. There is a lot of action in this area. It is located a couple of short blocks from the Puerta del Sol. The Puerta del Sol (Gate of the Sun) is so-named because at one time, the eastern gate of the city was located there facing the rising sun. The Puerta del Sol is now the central nervous system of the not just Madrid, but of the entire country (and if you ask a madrileño, it is also the center of the Spanish-speaking universe, but don't tell the Mexicans or Argentinans this). There is a marker along the south side of the plaza called "kilometro cero" ("kilometer zero"), which is the origination point to measure all distances to other places in Spain.

Hostal Aliste is also a few short steps from the Gran Via Metro stop. Nines and I once passed through this area late at night when there was a knife fight going on. I was naturally curious, but Nines dragged me out of there cuanto antes (in other words, as fast as she could). I have since learned that such fights can be staged to draw in onlookers who are then distracted while a pickpocket picks them clean. Who knows?

It is also right around the corner from the Restaurante Iowa which I have already mentioned. They have some the biggest, cheapest, and tastiest tuna empandas around.

The other famous site near Hostal Aliste is the prostitutes of Calle de la Montera 50 feet away around the corner. Sounds a bit rough, maybe? Not really. Rick Steves calls them, "the unthreatening prostitutes" of Calle de la Montera. This has been the streetwalker zone of central Madrid for as long as I have known the place, and I believe for much much longer. I didn't take any photos of them myself, but through the magic of the internet, you can get an idea thorough others' pix of the hookers of C/ Montera here, here, and here. I wouldn't say we befriended any of the girls, but we did spend several days at Hostal Aliste at the beginning and ending of our trip. There were several regulars who I am sure recognized us from having been in and out and about so much. They also seemed to take their breaks around the corner from C/ Montera not 20 steps from our front door. Whenever I was with Lisa, they hardly made eye-contact with me, but the one or two times I passed through on my own was a different story. One or two of those who "knew" me actively tried to get my attention while Lisa (i.e. their "competition") was not in the area. Sorry girls. :((

The prostitutes of Calle de la Montera have changed quite a bit over the ten years I have known the place. When I first visited Madrid, there were many short, indigenous-looking girls from Central and South America. More recently, there are more girls from Africa and Eastern Europe, though there is still a mix of Latinas for the traditionalist. These changes have evolved as immigration patterns (legal and illegal) have shifted. These days, there are very many illegal immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe, while it is getting harder and harder to get into Spain from the New World. My man, Dan Savage, says that there are many sex workers who like their jobs and take the jobs out of choice. I do not believe that is the case for most of the C/ Montera girls. I think they are stuck. You can see it on their faces. They work long, long hours. There were a few girls who were nearly always present when we passed through, day or night.

We arrived at Hostal Aliste around midday on August 30th, 2009, fresh from our agonzing 20+ hour trip from Albuquerque. Tired or not, we had work to do, so we simply checked in, dropped off our baggage and hit the streets. More on this later.

It was the end of the summer when we arrived, which meant that it was still brutally hot in Madrid. There is not much in the way of central air conditioning in most of Madrid. This means that most places are really hot in the summer. It is for this reason that most people from Madrid take off for the mountains or beach in August. Our room did have a small AC unit, but a remote that cost an extra five Euros each night. I was too cheap to pay for this, so we sweltered instead. Even more ironic, for the first two nights we were there, they accidentally left the remote for the AC in our room even though we did not pay for it. Unfortunately for Lisa, I am from Iowa, which means that I did not use the AC. We hadn't paid for it, after all. I cast the situation as an opportunity for Lisa to really experience "real" Madird (as opposed to "Real Madrid," which is the local soccer team).