I have to say...
I thought I was the luckiest person in the world for living in the center of Madrid.
But, really... I dunno if you feel the same about but I am getting mad these days. Living two streets behind Plaza Mayor can be seen as the best place to stay...but.. during these crazy days when everybody buys and buys, suddenly, the center of Madrid becomes the hell!!! Imagine that you have been working more than 10 hours, then you wanna relax and peace... But, what oyu find is hundreds people walking here and there. You cannot buy any goods because the supers are so crowed you couldn' pay in hours...
I am starting to hate the people!!!! AHHHH!!!!
Christmas time... jajaja... IM BECOMING THE GRINCH!!

BESITOS!!! :ks:
Xari

hi Xari, as a veteran of the city center who has been here 8 years (and someone who would not trade living in the plaza mayor for the world) let me tell you that you get used to it after a while.

the reason that the center gets soooooo mad packed out during the holidays is becuase this is where all the holiday cheer is millions of people who live in the outskirts and would otherwise never come into the center flock to us at the holidays.

so, they are all coming to see the holiday stands, decorations, parades, etc... and the population of the center shoots waaaaay up albeit temporarily.

let me also tell you that it is not just the center. while the center is the most congested, others who live outside the center can tell you that the shopping thang is everywhere.

you could always try living outside the center but i am afriad that you would miss living here the other 10 months of the year and would regret your decision.

also, many of the millions who come into the center only at the holidays live all year round in suburbs of madrid. they food shop at hypermarkets like hipercor, carrefour, alcampo, etc... and spend their free time at the many, many strip-malls that have infested the outskirts of madrid over the past few years. personally, if i wanted to see a mall outside my apt. window, i would have stayed on long island. also, the malls and hypermarkets outside the city are just as crazy as (if not crazier than) the city center, go to one on any given late afternoon or saturday and you will see. instead of spending an hour on line at "champion" or "d�a" in the city center, you will spend 2 hours getting to the mall and finding a parking spot and then another 2 hours getting out of there i have a car and this is first-hand as we had to go to ikea, carrefour and mediamarkt a few weeks ago :lo:

hope this helps you to look past the business of mid nov- mid jan in the center and appreciate what you have neighbor

give me the center any day

saludos,
jer...

I for one envy Jer living next to the Plaza Mayor. I hope the noise at night-time doesn't deprive him of too much beauty sleep though!

nah, what people don't understand about the plaza mayor and immediate surrounding areas it is not a real late night area.

it is an area where people go for tapas and such and start out there evenings so it is pretty dead by midnight.

then the "marcha" heads over to the late night areas like huertas, tribunal, etc... where i would not be able to deal with having an apt.

truly an ideal place to live

saludos,
jer...