Multiculturalism at its finest: Looking for Korea in Madrid

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Emilia Kircheva

Photos = Lilia Bozhinova and Emilia Kircheva

We live in quite astonishing times, don't you think? I'm an Eastern European listening to Korean music on my Chinese phone, while drinking Indian tea and eating Russian cookies alongside. What a time to be alive, right?

A few months ago while I was in Madrid, I felt especially strongly this astonishing feeling of unlimited access to pieces of other countries. The capital of Spain is truly one of the most beautiful and amazing cities I have visited. It's big and glamorous, full of people and crowds and yet you don't feel lost in all of the commotion. You breath it in and allow it to infatuate you and to make you feel comfy. The wonders Madrid has to offer are endless: cathedrals, monuments, hidden squares, tiny shops with amazing food, statues with unsuspected stories, and so on. 

All of that truly amazed me, but the country that is in my heart already is Korea. That fact leads to one certain thing: I can`t help but notice everything around me that has some connection to Korea. It's like I have a Korean radar. If I notice even a single symbol of Hangeul out of the corner of my eye, I need to turn around and expolore it thoroughly.  It's a good thing that my travel companion was fine with that trait of mine and was even willing to contribute. Here is the story of what we found in our search for Korea in Madrid.

         

I was going to spend some time looking for pieces of Korea in Madrid anyway, so why not do it the proper way? With just a few clicks and calculations of distance, we already had some Korea-related places marked on our tourist map. It turned out there were quite a few such places, especially Asia-themed markets: about 10 of them. Korean restaurants are also not missing; again, around 10 of them, mainly in the center of the city. We didn't find any stores that sell K-pop paraphernalia, but our main target was the Korean Cultural Center in Spain.

From the list of Asia-themed markets, the one that caught our eye was called the “Supermercado asiatico de Principe Pio,” or the Asian Supermarket Principe Pio. We walked quite far to get there, and, to be honest, a few times I thought it was a bit weird to walk so far in the heat just in order to go to an Asian market in the capital of Spain. 

Nonetheless, as we walked into the store all the wonders in front of my eyes chased away all those doubting thoughts. It didn't seem that way from first sight, but the store was very big, much bigger than the one we have in Sofia, and generally larger than any other Asia-themed market I've ever visited. There were commodities from all over Asia: Taiwan, Japan, India, China and, of course, Korea. The shelves with the instant noodles caught my eye. To my own surprise, I recognized some of the brands and could even tell in which soap opera the main characters ate that brand of instant noodle. I sure have an eye for detail!

At the alcohol shelves, we were disappointed to see there was no soju. Actually, we found an even better drink: Korean sake! At first we laughed when we saw it, but then we agreed that it goes perfectly with our quest for multicultural experiences, and, indeed, it was a good sake.

Our next stop and main target was the Korean Cultural Center in Spain. It's situated in a big beautiful building and has two floors. To some extent, it does have a similar atmosphere to the one we have in Sofia, but the space is much bigger.

     

     

On the first floor, there was an art exhibition by the artist Jung Jong Mee. The exhibition, titled "Dedicated to Femininity," consisted of several images of women in traditional Korean hanbok attire that was made out of paper.

The second floor was a lot more spacious. There was the library and it was full of wonders. On the stands next to the stairs are the pop culture items. There are albums from groups like Infinite, 2ne1, Girls Generation, Super Junior and others. The albums seem to have attracted quite a lot of attention because the creases on the edges gave away that they have been opened tons of times. At the back of the shelf was also a collection of DVDs with Korean soap operas and movies.

         

   

Shelves with books were all around. Most of them were in Korean, but there were also some textbooks in English. A whole section was dedicated to materials to help you study Korea: flyers from Korean universities with programs for international students, guides to the application process, et cetera. They were lying there in case somebody needed them. Another section was focused on  Buddhist temples in Korea that offer bed-and-breakfast services. There were guides and books about it, and it was my first time to discover this.

In the library, there were also two other exhibitions. One of them showed popular Korean dishes like kimchi, japche noodles, bulgogi marinated beef and other delicacies. They looked delicious, but sadly were made of plastic.

          

The other exhibition was of musical instruments used in traditional Korean gugak music. We saw a gayageum, a kkwaenggwari and a geomungo.

        

The biggest part of the Korean Cultural Center in Spain remained hidden for us. The cultural center provides arts and crafts and language courses, and the main space on the second floor was actually occupied by classrooms and an events hall. We didn't manage to see them.

We saw bits of Korea also at many other places across Madrid. In the bookstores, there were books by Korean authors, and also some  Korean graphic novels. At some museums, there were brochures in Korean. We also passed a Korean restaurant, but sadly it was closed.

I believe that seeing how other nations connect with Korea gives me a better understanding of the country and its relationships, and I will keep looking for bits of Korea everywhere I travel. 

wisdom117@korea.kr

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