women of the night

This post may be highly inappropriate but it can't be left out because watching and observing these women were our nightly entertainment while in Madrid. Our first night in Madrid we ate at the restaurant right in front of our hotel. Our hotel was on a pedestrian only street/ally and the restaurants had tables all set up outside. As we were eating, we noticed these girls just hanging around in front of us. It took us a little while but we discovered they were "women of the night" as we nicknamed them. So of course then we couldn't keep our eyes off of them. We watched them attempt, succeed and fail at picking up different men. Watching either them approach the man, or reverse, the conversation (wishing we knew what they were saying) and then either them walk off together in the direction of the apartment (we were guessing) or the man leave all together. Quite a few times we watched as the man would go back and forth trying to decide if he was going to do it or not. And one time we watched two friends each choose their girl, one was harder to convince and then them both walk off each with their girl. The police would patrol the street and never even acknowledge them and the girls didn't even respond to police walking inches in front of them. I guess the police were more worried about the tension and riots going on. We knew which girls were more "popular" and we were very surprised at how quickly they were back and patrolling again after being picked up. One time we actually timed it and she was only gone 10 minutes! Wham, bam, thank ya mam!! 

We ended up eating dinner at this same restaurant ever night we were there. 1. because it was convenient and good. 2. because we had to check up and see what "our girls" were up to. Most of them were there all three nights with a few new ones each night.

As we were leaving for the airport our last morning, Dianna and I had to reenact their poses and see how we would fit in. The last night for some reason every group had purses. That was a new addition to their "uniform" that they had not had before. (there were multiple different unrelated groups up and down the street, each set having their own "territory") 

 

Our  first night after dinner, we just couldn't tear our eyes away so we continued eavesdropping from the balcony.

 

 This was their "pimp". He just hung out, played on his cellphone and ate ice cream. He played around and messed with one girl as you can see on the video. Disappearing off with her for a long time. We figured she was his favorite or his girlfriend or something. We don't really know the ins and outs to how this whole "industry" works but you can hear our play by play and insight on the videos Please excuse the very country voice! I hate listening to myself talk!! :)

 We were so surprised to see one of "our girls" being interviewed for something. We have no idea what for but she was one of the top girls. She was there all three nights and got picked up a few times. Wearing the same dress all three nights.

 we of course had to google it to see what the deal was and we quickly found out, we ended up on the street that is most known for this activity. Here is a blurb of what we found out about our street (Montera)

"Prostitutes congregate around this area north of Gran Via, as well as on the aforementioned c/Montera. They are known to hassle men, making distinctly unattractive clucking noises (I've no idea on what planet that is considered sexy) and at times grabbing hold of men. Montera at night is when there are the most prostitutes on the streets and so is probably best avoided, however, apart from the fact that it is aesthetically displeasing, trouble rarely occurs. Women in particular, as long as they keep walking, should not have anything to fear - it is obvious which girls are the prostitutes, so neither the sex workers nor their clients are likely to pay you any attention. Men should be more wary, as the amorous attention that the girls 'lavish' on you is often accompanied with stray hands that might find their way onto your wallet."

We didn't have any problems at all, besides having to nicely ask them to move away from our gate so we could get into our apartment building.  In fact our apartment was really nice and in a very central location to get to everything.