La Noche en Blanco

Yesterday night was a really awesome celebration that happens here in Madrid in which the entire downtown area is closed off from all traffic and everyone crowds out onto the street to enjoy the city’s atmosphere. Music, art, museums, and tapas galore are offered at especially low (or even free) prices all over the place – basically, the city center becomes a hub of Madrileña (from Madrid) and Spanish culture. My new German amigo and his roommate met me downtown and we trekked around, watched a magician and stumbled upon a fantastic jazz concert taking place at a small book store.

By the time we were jazzed out there was some stomach grumbling - a trip to the frozen yogurt stand was in order! Soooo good, nothing like fresh frozen yogurt with around 20 possible toppings as a snack! Julian (my German amigo) then mentioned that he had another friend downtown that wanted to meet up. So a group of Germans, 2 Dutch girls and I began wandering the city. We heard about what sounded like a cool presentation called “Isla Ciudad.” Now I want to make this clear, the pamphlet for the night says that this is an island paradise in the heart of the city for relaxation and hospitality. After an hour and a half long search we finally found the place to go (which we had already passed 2 times before not realizing that it was the right spot of course), and what a weird venue this was! With a bizarre unfinished-looking, wooden, turtle shaped art piece the size of a house in the centre, a lil’ bar on the side, a strange too-inclined-to-sit-on concrete slope surrounding the stage, and music that sounded like only the bad nail-on-a-chalkboard parts of electronic music...it’s no surprise we didn’t stay long. We walked back to the main plaza in the centre and met up with the other Canadian girls from UVic, then found a little bar to have a beer.

Shortly after we sat down (by this point it was 2am), the bartender kicked us out to close up and we decided to walk to the nocturnal bus station (yes, the bus schedule changes after 11:30pm to new numbers and routes – always fun for your confused gringo :D). The main traffic circle around the bus station was closed off of traffic and DJ’s had set up for the Fiesta de Mucho Bailar (party of a lot of dance) the girls and I took a bunch of sweet pictures and videos to send in as a competition picture for the business exchange and then carried down a side road as a last hurrah before going home.








We found a crowd of people surrounding a busker playing a guitar who was one of the coolest entertainers I have ever seen. This guy could seriously play any music that people threw at him; in the words of Andrea (one of the Canadian girls) he was a “human jukebox.” I don’t know if this was a gimmick, but from the time we arrived he was trying to wrap things up, saying that he had to get up to work the next day, but every time he started to leave people yelled “otra!!!!” and started throwing Euros into his case. He just shrugged and kept playing. At 4:00am things finally broke up and the girls went on their way walking to their apartments. I walked to my nocturnal bus to get home, waiting next to some very loud and drunk Russians. Luckily the nice lady next to me gave me a nudge when I fell asleep on her shoulder during the ride home, waking me up just in time to get off at the right stop. I finally got home and was in bed at 5:30am.

A truly Spanish night :P

Mucho Amor,

Rob

P.S. Here is a nice picture of the Madrid skyline from the top of a gigantic centre downtown, Que bonito!