Prostitution

Calle de la Montera

You can easily see the prostitution on some streets of Spain. In the center of Madrid there is a street calle de la Montera where you can see various prostitutes offering their services. I managed to get two prostitutes to the picture when I took the picture above in front of the metro station Gran via. Night clubs in Spain are not for dancing but night clubs are to get services of prostitutes. Night clubs can be easily recognized from the colorful lights.

15M

Puerta del sol

The protest to better democracy in Spain is still visible in the center of Madrid. The protesters have still their camps up where they have been living now almost two months. The camp is like a slum of few houses in the center of Madrid. In Finland M15 is better known as a captain of Finland's curling national team.

Views

View from the kitchen

View from my window

As you can see from the first picture Spanish do not try to hide all the possible ways that they are cultivating cannabis. It is also possible to see cannabis plants on the balconies. Second picture shows the modest view from my bedrooms window. It is just made because the rooms must have a window. In big cities flats are constructed side by side which leads to this kind of views. Two other flatmates have a better view to the street.

Gay Pride Madrid 2011

Plaza de España

Gay pride attracted the streets of Madrid full of people. Gay pride was a good excuse to have a party even you are not gay. Various stages were set where DJs or performers were playing music. Few stages were under the name of silent disco where people should have been wearing headphones to listen the music what DJ was playing but the idea did not seem to work because I saw nobody wearing headphones. I spotted many more gay male couples than gay female couples. Many were dressed up in a very gay way or without shirt. The whole center of Madrid was full of people with good party mood.

Flat in Madrid

Living room

I have now moved to a flat in Madrid after living one week in a Spanish family. Also this time I am living with three girls who all are Spanish. The flat has two renovated toilets and also a renovated kitchen. Flatmates seem to be nice and overall the flat is good. When I was looking for a flat the most important condinition was to find a flat near to the working place where I am doing the internship. The flat is one kilometer from the main street of Madrid called Gran via and a half kilometer from the work. The rent is 380 euros including all the costs like Internet, gas and electricity.

Parking in a hot waether

Parking

This is an interesting photo. You can see in the photo that cars are parked next to the yellow lined curb which is illegal and the parking space next to the cars is empty. Because of the hot weather cars are parked illegally in the shadow. Seems like Spanish are not afraid of getting a parking ticket or they just do not want to respect the rules.

Hot Spain

When I was deciding to do an internship in Madrid in the summer I was afraid of the hot weather. I was thinking that hot weather can be very uncomfortable. Then I thought people still live in Madrid also in the summer time that of course I can live here too. During the hottest time of the day it is good to stay inside. Even though Finnish mentality would be to go outside because the sun is shining so beautifully. Staying in a shadow is much better than in the sun. I have not been yet too long times under the sun shine so I have not even burned myself yet but I have to be careful.

Back in Spain

Today I arrived to Spain. My friend Jesús kindly offered me a place stay for the rest of the month. I have to look now for a flat in Madrid but I do not know yet where exactly. My sim-card in the mobile phone of last year does not work anymore so I have to get new one to arrange meetings to see some flats.

Freemover scholarship

I have been granted a Freemover scholarship for my exchange period in Turkey. Scholarship is 800 euros inside the Europe and 1500 euros outside of the Europe but I do not know if my destination Ankara is counted as an European city or not. Before going to Spain I took hepatitis A vaccination and now I will take also hepatitis B vaccination before going to Turkey. The host university in Ankara asked documents to prove that I have insurance during my stay in Turkey. I have already some basic insurance which covers three months of travelling but I had to take nine extra months which cost 270 euros.

Interview of Alicia

Alicia

I made the same interview what I did to Albert for another exchange student in Joensuu. I am very happy to know so positive and happy person like Alicia. She is from Valencia and she brings interesting new points of view in the interview what Albert did not mention.