El Rastro

I'm going to blog to you this evening! You may thank my sister for her, er, encouragement.
But first, a note on the weather!
It's in the 40's-50's by day and it's nice in the sun, so most days I'm like - Wow! So much nicer than New York or Pennsylvania in January! BUT. There's definitely a chill here that we don't have stateside. When I'd read about the Madrid's climate before coming, I'd been all - "penetrating cold?" No need to sound so dramatic!
How wrong I was...Today I wore the turquoise UnderArmour that is the one turtleneck I own, which should give you a good idea of how much I did not want to be cold while walking through the market. Which brings us to.....
The Largest Flea Market In Europe! (!!!!!!) Every Sunday from 9-4, a cluster of Madrid's streets are swamped with hundreds of vendors and thousands of shoppers, and today I joined them.
I have no photos to share this week, but perhaps in the future, as I most definitely intend to return. El Rastro is kind of like an arts festival, but times 6. The stalls just keep coming! And lots of them are repetitive, but is that really a problem when there are so many scarves? I adore scarves! And cool artisan jewelry and street performers! And hand fans that I conveniently must purchase for my flamenco class! And Spanish leather purses, without which I will not leave Spain!
But some of them had signs that read "de piel," which is literally "of skin," which just sounds sketchy, right? Right. Cuero is the word for leather, and I  would prefer that the signs use it instead, even if I do always forget it. (Note: I just looked it up to make sure that I wasn't going to misinform you over the blogosphere. Good news - cuero is the word I want! But take care not to confuse it with cuervo, which means crow. "Oh! What charming crow boots you have!")
So El Rastro is a win, but dangerous not only for the rampant pickpocktry (not a word, but I'm keeping it!). Rather more dangerous because I want it all...