Monday Mornings in Madrid

I prefer to keep things fresh and exciting in my life because I’m cool, edgy, hip and happening like that. So each Monday, as I make my way to Inhispania’s sister school on Calle de las Infantas where we have extra classrooms and a top-notch student zone for our diligent students of Spanish, I take this opportunity to explore Madrid a little. The nearest metro stops to this school are Banco de España (line 2) and Gran Vía (lines 1 and 5) but as my nearest station is on line 3 (4 and 6, it’s a great station I won’t brag), I prefer to walk rather than lose time going out of my way and changing lines.
When you arrive on Monday morning, there you will find me: ready to give you a tour of the school, show you your classroom and answer any questions and Andre will be on reception always conducting his admin with a smile. Of course he has the boring job of sorting the final payments at reception so your fun at your fun at Inhispania can truly begin.
Before this all kicks off on Monday morning however, I have to arrive. I live a good 30 minutes’ walk away from school so, apart from the obvious excitement of meeting the new students, I remain positive by regarding this trek as an excuse to investigate the lesser-known streets of Madrid.

Initially I would walk all the way down c/ Fuencarral or c/ Hortaleza from c/ Alberto Aguilera before turning off onto Infantas but lately this seems overdone and frankly, too mainstream. So arrogantly I meander through Malasaña, edging into Chueca on my way to work. I take a different combination of streets every time. Fortunately they’re organised like a grid so you can’t go too wrong. Unless foolishly, as I may or may not have done before, you take 3 rights in a row and find yourself walking back up San Bernardo in the opposite direction, confused as to whether it was 5 minutes ago you were here, on Friday night on the way to the bar or the other day when you were leaving leaflets for the school in local hostels. I don’t mind however, I’m all about spontaneity.

And what rewards do I reap from exploring like this? Well, on c/ de Hernan Cortes, I stumbled across By-Week. As if Madrid wasn’t exciting and full of life enough, this shop is a changes its stock every 7 days so each Monday you can find some new fashion label, makeup brand, art, food, tourism and more. Their motive is to always look for something new, attractive and interesting, that was unavailable before in Madrid.

You can follow the store on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/by_week, and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BYWEEK?sk=wall to find out their latest news and what they are stocking each week.

And so, this is why the Monday morning blues simply don’t exist in Madrid!