Noche Madrileña

The arrival of this Friday marked one month since I arrived in Madrid. In celebration, I decided to go out and spend a true noche madrileña (Madrid night). Mariana (my roommate), Greg (Rachel's friend and current occupant of our couch), Erin (my Aussie friend) and I headed out to a bar in the Malasaña neighborhood (Manu Chao sings about this neighborhood in his song "Me gustas tú") to meet up with Mariana's friends, who were mostly from Latin America--Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, and then the lone Madrileño, Jaime.

Two bars and one club later it it 6am and we are leaving the club to head home. The whole night Jaime, who is a musician, has been carrying around his flamenco box and a drum because on the weekends before going out he plays in the Metro with his friends in a mini ensemble (including the violin). I am not sure if this is for the money or just for the sheer desire to perform for the thousands of people who pass through the metros every night.

It is 6am outside this club in some random alley and Jaime sets down the box, gives the drum to some guy, and within ten minutes the whole alley is full of people joining in on an impromptu flamenco dance party. Everyone is clapping, dancing there is a guy singing flamenco, and they switch it up and different people come to play the drum. In true Madrid fashion, this party lasts for about an hour, and finally at 7am I head home, happy, exhausted, and wondering exactly how Madrileños can pull this off every weekend and still have enough energy to get up and function at work.

P.D. I had the most random small-world encounter during my night out. I ran into Natalia who studied in Cádiz with me four years ago. She was with her now-husband Javier (they met in Cádiz). Last time I ran into them was at a club in Seattle and they told me they were planning to move back to Cádiz. But apparently they ended up in Madrid and are living in La Latina neighborhood. That was the first night they had gone out since they moved to Madrid. What are the odds?