by Helen Macrae

This week’s fun money-saving activity involves a visit to one of Spain’s most important institutions.

El Corte Inglés

There are literally hundreds of these horribly confusing department stores dotted around Madrid, so just take your pick of which one you fancy getting lost in for an afternoon. On the plus side, their size means you can find pretty much anything and everything you might need in there, just be sure you go to the right store in the first place (unlike yours truly who went up a whole eight floors looking for a pair of speakers, only be told that the electronic goods were in the shop next door. Obviously).

Since you’re broke and shoplifting is naughty, you’ll have to content yourself with freebie activities, such as trying on all the make-up, testing out the perfumes and stuffing yourself with any free food samples. If you want a challenge, try and crack a smile from one of the po-faced shop assistants. If you want a bigger challenge, try and find the way out afterwards.

by Helen Macrae

As city, Madrid has got it all. With theatres and tapas, bars and bullfighting, shopping and sunshine, it’s cosmopolitan, frenetic, bold, brash and…smelly.

When I first touched down in Spain I was overwhelmed by the host of aromas to hit my nose (starting with that all-too familiar smell of smoke mere seconds after I had walked into arrivals), but after a while I became accustomed to it all as I busied myself with daily life, trotting around the city teaching executives useful words like chav, monkfish and Tesco clubcard. It took a visit from my parents and their non-initiated noses to remind me that Madrid has an amazing array of aromas, some of them nice and some of them nasty, but all combining to create that unique “Esencia de Madrid”.

My sensory journey begins each morning at Metro Sol, when I change from Line 3 to Line 1 and my nostrils are hit with the delicious smell of freshly-baked waffles coming from the cafe in the station. Luckily I’m always in too much of a rush to stop and buy any, otherwise I’d currently be the size of a small country. Unfortunately though, even this divine smell is sometimes not enough to mask the stink of drains which seems to permanently hang in the air round Sol. Other unpleasant odours I experience on the Metro to work are B.O., bad breath and, my personal favourite, the smell of someone sweating out alcohol they drank the night before. Yuk.

More agreeable aromas you might encounter as you journey round Madrid include cut grass when the gardeners have been out in force in one of the city’s numerous parks, along with the delightful scent of flowers as you walk by the Botanical Gardens next to the Retiro. The smell of cigarette smoke is pretty much unavoidable anywhere you go, as is that of frying food, both of which may or may not to be your taste. As you wander round Lavapies you’re hit with the pungent smell of curry, laced with a whiff of hash and perhaps a dash of urine. Walk round the more well-heeled barrios of the city such as Salamanca, Retiro and Opera, and you can smell money.

But my favourite smell in Madrid is one that it’s difficult to put my finger on, and which at times can be quite elusive. As my mate H puts it, it’s that smell you sometimes catch a waft of on a summer’s evening, just as dusk is drawing in, a smell full of promise and anticipation of the night’s adventures. The smell of fun!

Madrid Metro - Smells delightful?

by Maja Gojkovic

Comedian Andrew Maxwell is bringing his show WAXIN’ to the Giggling Guiri in Madrid. He was nominated for the prestigious if.com Intelligent Finance Comedy Award for his one man show WAXIN’ at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His show was a sell-out success and his popular late-night ensemble comedy show MAXWELL’S FULLMOONERS, received five star reviews.

At this time of year the Giggling Guiri and Barcelona’s Irish festival “El Feile” come together to present stand up in a English language comedy show in Spain, called the ‘Best of Irish comedy special’. Every year the two team together a new and up and coming star with one of ireland’s more established acts to create a special show. Due to the amazing success and popularity of Maxwell, the Giggling Guiri have decided to feature only Maxwell and his show this month.

The comedian has quickly gained success and is one of the most important comedians in the world today. His comedy style is the most impish and cunning of all the Irish comics. He has gained a reputation as something of a cult comic thanks to his late night Maxwell’s Fullmooners shows, which take place in the early hours in a disused theatre in London.

In his hit show ‘Waxin’, he takes his audiance on a journey through the idiosyncracies of the Irish race that drove Sigmund Freud to declare that they were immune to pyschoanalysis; something he comes very close to doing in his shows, with his stories that include things from drinking sessions with the IRA, to the essence of the Corkonian .

The Comedian has recieved impressive reviews, and these are just some of them:

“One of the most significant comedians working in the country today” THE INDEPENDENT

“Andrew’s on particularly fantastic form. He’s without doubt the strongest comedian on the circuit right now” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

“If you see one thing at this year’s Fringe please, please, please take time to see Andrew Maxwell” Five Stars, THE LIST

“A bright young comic, who will offer the fringe so much in the years to come” Four Stars, SUNDAY EXPRESS

If you are interested in seeing Andrew Maxwell perform in Madrid, you can buy tickets at FAT TONY’S restaurant C/de la Cruz 11 (metro: Sol).

Venue: Sala Clamores, C/ Albuquerque,14 Metro: Bilba on Saturday March 15 at 10 pm (Box Office 9.30 pm)

Ticket prices are 17€ presale and 20€ at the Box Office.

www.comedyinspain.com