🌸 The Tapa Weekend: March 22
The Holy Week, torrijas (lots of them!) and Czech comic books.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | March 22, 2024 | Madrid | Issue #46
🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Tapa: Weekend Edition! An English-language newsletter about what to do this weekend in Madrid (plus memes!)
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Here Are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
Happy Friday and spring, everyone!
We’ve finally managed to leave behind this horrible winter that for way too long has stalked our livelihood. The terraces are brimming with patrons, the tinto de veranos and the Aperols are flowing and people in Chueca are already wearing tank tops (remember, that’s always a good sign!).
Yes, a cold front may return next week to force us all indoors one more time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go nuts this weekend. Dust off those shorts, people! We got some tardeo to do.
Enjoy.
1. The Holy Week Celebrations (Part 1)
We say Part 1 because the real climax (Part 2) is next weekend, when Jesus comes back from the dead and stuff. But since Spain is (mostly) a Catholic country, there’s always a reason here to put on a robe, confess, atone and binge drink. This is what Part 1 is for.
Madrid loves to commemorate the passion and death of Jesus with lots of cultural events that take place around the city starting today (which, for those of you heathens not in the know, is called the Friday of Sorrows).
There are processions and concerts galore, as churches and basilicas play sacred music and the brotherhoods (cofradías) take to the streets with their elaborate Christian-themed floats.
Even the restaurants and bakeries offer Holy Week/Easter-related delicacies. It almost feels Disney-esque, as if we’re all one step away from breaking into song like the nuns in Sister Act (a pop culture reference you’re probably too old to understand but we don’t really know what the kids watch these days anyway).
Tonight, there are lots of procession options around Plaza Mayor, the Paseo del Prado and Calle Alcalá. It all culminates this Palm Sunday, and if you go to mass you get a little souvenir in the shape of an olive branch. Or palm. Check the city’s official (very large) activities calendar for processions, concerts and other stuff. Trust us, you won’t be bored.
Holy Week in Madrid (Part 1) Multiple locations around Madrid. Click on the link to download the official calendar for activities and schedules.
2. Pasiones Dulces: La Ruta de las Torrijas
For those of you newcomers and apostates, this may need some explanation:
Torrija: the Spanish version of a French toast. So, like, Spanish toast. You eat them all year round but they are especially on demand during Holy Week.
The rutas (routes), we’ve covered many times. It’s when several food venues come together to offer a menu or special dish for a fixed price (usually with a drink!). And since during Easter in Spain you eat torrijas, many pastry shops, bakeries, bars, restaurants and food markets come together to offer their traditional and innovative recipes in the year’s only Ruta de las Torrijas.
There are endless variations of torrijas: with oreo, dulce de leche, fruit, chocolate and many more! (See video above.)
The basic recipe is simple: you grab a slice of bread that’s going stale, soak it in milk that’s been previously seasoned with cinnamon, lemon or orange peel, heat it and then leave it to rest and then coat it with egg and fry them in oil. Add some honey or syrup on top and voilà: you just gained weight tried a Spanish delicacy.
Remember, everyone is buying them this week so make sure you get them before they are sold out.
Ruta de la Torrija. Multiple locations around Madrid. Check the city’s official Ruta map to see which one is closer to you.
3. Goya: The Awakening of Conscience
If you’re not feeling particularly religious this week, don’t worry: you’re not going to hell (yet). In the meantime, swing over to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts to check out their new temporary exhibit “Flora and Hercules”, which starts today.
The exhibit features a curated selection of works that showcase the artistic and life evolution of legendary Spanish painter Goya, as well as the stages and themes he explored throughout his career. It seeks to highlight his work and personality as well as help you understand the artist behind the man and the continuous exchange between the world around him and his artistic endeavors.
The exhibition is divided into four sections: "The painter, the norm, and the clientele"; "The awakening of consciousness"; "A painting outside of style"; and "The expressiveness of reason." These sections, comprised of paintings, drawings, prints, and etchings, showcase the artistic and life evolution of Goya.
Go check it out and then go grab a torrija on the way home. Because YOLO. (Do the kids still say YOLO? We don’t know and/or care.)
Goya: The Awakening of Conscience. Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Alcalá 13, Madrid. Through June 23. Tickets: €6. Check website for opening hours.
4. Here & Now: Contemporary Czech Comics
Too hipster and pretentious for something as mainstream as Goya? Fret not. We have an obscure option for you to go and brag about to your friends at a dinner party this Sunday night: an exhibit on contemporary Czech comic books.
Here and Now features a selection of the top 20 Czech authors of recent years and explains how these comics had never evolved so dynamically until now. In the past two decades, three waves of authors have entered the local scene in the former Czech Republic (now Czechia), creating and publishing freely.
Despite being limited by the many years of communism, Czech comics are now more varied in genres than ever before—and are achieving their first international successes—thanks to authors such as Pavel Čech, Jiří Grus, Karel Jerie and Štěpánka Jislová.
Better hurry up and go see this before they become too mainstream and you start rolling your eyes whenever someone mentions them. And don’t forget to pick up a torrija on the way home!
Here And Now. Casa del Lector, Matadero Madrid, Paseo de la Chopera, 14, Madrid. Through Sept. 9. Check website for opening hours. Free admission.
5. Opera: La Voz Humana / Silencio / La Espera
To be honest, we were originally going to suggest some really cool musical selections for you this weekend: indie Spanish singer Russian Red and Danish Loke Rahbek, with his glammy synth pop show Croatian Amor. But they are both sold out :(
So we’re now offering you the closest thing we could find: a night at the freaking opera. And it’s quite cool because this may be your chance to see iconic Spanish actress Rossy de Palma (who you may remember as an Almodovar girl) on stage.
This production is a big musical event as it's the first time The Human Voice, based on the text by Jean Cocteau, is being staged at the Teatro Real. It is presented alongside Erwartung (The Wait or La Espera). This visceral approach to female roles will be a real challenge for two women, both in desperate situations, portrayed by Ermonela Jaho and Malin Byström.
To link between the operas, Rossy de Palma will premiere the monologue Silencio, created by herself and the stage director, Christof Loy. It's a poetic invitation to explore the different states of love and heartbreak. A moment of silence and, at the same time, an impulse to break it. It’s three plays for the price of one so get your tickets ASAP.
La Voz Humana / Silencio / La Espera. Teatro Real. Pl. de Isabel II, s/n, Madrid. Check website for schedule (three shows left until March 28). Tickets start at €20.
👨🏻💻 Viral Story of the Week
🤴 HEY KING, CAN YOU SAY HI TO MY MOM!
We imagine that being King means tons of people ask you for selfies or video greeting for their friends. And by tradition you can only grin and bear it. Well, some dude was super insistent that Felipe VI send a shout out to his mom Rocío recently, and the volume of the guy led postureoespanol (which is rapidly becoming our fave Spanish meme service) to harken back to video of another kid screaming for his buddy Baltasar to grab the scooter 🛴. Oh, just watch it.
🎙️ “Dream the impossible dream…”
Now, we have no idea what this is, but it’s too good not to share. A member of the Spanish military sings a song in (you be the judge) English with the most epic tone-deafness that it must be heard to be believed. Enjoy! (Or run in fear…)
🍀 Is the Queen lucky?
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Queen Letizia, on leaving an event of ONCE—the lottery-holding foundation that raises funds to provide services for the blind and people with serious visual impairments—bought two tickets for an upcoming drawing. But what numbers were they? Inquiring minds want to know!
🔔 A Message From Our Sponsor
Secret Kingdoms is your English bookstore in Madrid. It specializes in Spanish history and literature, contemporary and classic novels, books for children and young adults of all ages, history and historical fiction, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, biographies and much more.
Located on Calle de Moratín 7 — a few blocks away from the Prado Museum — and with over 20,000 new and used books, Secret Kingdoms has something for everyone.
Find out more at www.thesecretkingdoms.com
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We’ll be back next week with more.
You guys are hilarious.Always feels like I am eavesdropping on a wonderfully chatty (and educational) banter between a bunch of friends with a very wicked sense of humour.