Another Night, Another Adventure
Last night, after talking to one of my roommates Mary-Angela about a ‘festival’ that was going on in Madrid, I decided that I kind of wanted to do something. So I texted a few of my friends to see what they had planned for the evening. I got ahold of Anne who said that she was going to do the same thing as Mary-Angela and go over to a club called ‘Kapital’ for their Carnival celebrations. We agreed to meet at 1130pm at Puerta del Sol, then we’d take the Metro together to get to the club. Easy enough.
We got to Puerta del Sol and meet up with Anne, who came bearing a bottle of cheap white wine that she bought (illegally - there are apparently laws where you can’t sell alcohol after 10pm) from one of the Chino stores. Like a veteran, Anne pulls out a wine opener from her small clutch and begins to open the bottle. After initial troubles getting the cork out, we were finally able to indulge in a little bit of wine in public, which brought down our classiness level just a smidge. After standing around Sol for a little bit, and being approached by multiple ‘street vendors’ trying to sell us beer by the can, we moved onto the subway. We took the subway to Atocha, where we were supposed to get off. Since it was still mildly early and we were told by the club promoters that as long as we got there before 130am, we would get free entry and two free drinks, we decided to wait inside the metro station for a little bit to drink some more wine and continue to warm up. After we were done with the wine and ready to head to the club, we left the metro station.
We got to the club and the line was ridiculously long. We probably waited in the line for almost an hour before we got to the front. We were able to meet and see a lot of different characters. Most notably, the Brazilian guy in front of us in line who didn’t understand American’s need for personal space. While we were in line, Anne’s friends from her school (American University) came in line to meet up with us. Kate proved to be the groups biggest asset because of how aggressive she was with not allowing anyone to cut around us. She was not going to risk us not making it in time. We got to the doors at 127am, therefore we had 3 minutes to spare and we were all incredibly grateful that we made it. Except then the bouncer told us that we had to make it before 1am. We were all immediately pissed, especially because since it was after 1am, it would cost 15 euro (with 2 drinks included) to get into the club. None of us wanted to pay that so we decided that it was time to look for Plan B. We all got on the Metro and decided that we’d head back towards Sol. Once we got there, Anne decided that she should just head back because she had class early at 1030am. Since Kaitlyn and I did not have class (and because I napped for like 4 hours that day) we decided that we’d continue hanging out with these new people and go to the pub with them. We all went to a pub (La Fontana del Oro) where we got a free shot of blackberry liquor, which was delicious. Kaitlyn and I shared a pint (which I assumed would be larger than just a glass) of Sangria and we were having a good time just talking and getting to know each other. Since the tables were really limited, we decided that we’d go dance on the dance floor. The music that the DJ was playing started off as typical club music, including most top 40 hits. However, sometime during the evening, he decided to change completely and started playing music from Michael Jackson to George Michael (‘Wake Me Up Before You GoGo’ - Mom!) to the Spice Girls. Needless to say, the array of music made me quite happy. In fact, attempting to guess the next song quickly became one of my favorite games (which I was extremely good at, I even called the songs and artists a few times). At 4am, we decided that it was time to head out. So we then went to the nearby crepe place, where some of the other people in the group indulged, I was able to resist. After a little bit of standing around at the crepe place, we all decided that it was time to part ways. Kaitlyn, Kate and I started heading towards Gran Villa, while the others headed to the bus.
I think we got home around 515 in the morning, which is fairly normal for Europeans. We actually got home a few minutes before our roommates who actually paid to go into Kapital, so we chatted about that for a few minutes then went off to bed. My body was basically in a coma until like 230pm when I woke up from my sleep. How these Europeans do it, I have no idea but it was a good time. It was really nice to meet some new people who also go to Comillas. They all seem like a good group of people who I hope to get to know a little bit more over the next few months.
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