Following on from my day excursion to the
lighthouse, I thought I would talk about night time excursions. Don’t get your
hopes up – there’s nothing too scandalous.
My first night out in town was suggested by
Lea who had heard on the grapevine that the place to be on a
Thursday/Friday/Saturday night was El Rio de la Pilar. El Rio de la Pilar isn’t
a bar or a club, rather it is the name of a road. Granted, there are many
different bars along this road but it is in the middle of the street where
people tend to gather. Almost like pre-drinks, you bring your pre-brought
supermarket alcohol and hang out outside the pricier bars. The difference is,
is that this ‘pre-drinks’ can last until 3 in the morning and only then people
might head to a club where you can dance. This is ‘el botellon’: a phenomena is
Spain where people gather to drink alcohol in some sort of public arena. Often
it takes place in plazas but here it is el rio de la pilar.
I couldn’t say why it takes place in el rio
de la pilar but I imagine it is something to do with the fact that it is a
steep hill. I heard – but I do not know if it’s true – that the challenge is to
start drinking at the bottom and try to reach the top. Obviously, the more
alcohol you drink, the harder it becomes and shenanigans, subsequently, ensue. There
is even a funicular to help take you up this certain road, so, you can imagine
when people are intoxicated or wearing high heels the difficulties they have
trying to make their way up the street, offering hilarity to onlookers.
Anyhow we decided to head this way,
starting off in a bar where I had an exceptional mojito (my favourite of the
cocktails) before we began to bar hop. At one bar, Lea introduced me to
‘calimocho’ – a popular drink made up of coke and red wine. I thought it was a
little odd, as I don’t really know of anyone in the UK who drinks this
combination. But here it is apparently drunk like a soda - in fact some pupils
even laughed when I spoke about never having the drink before. I enjoyed it
though, and drank it for the rest of the evening.
As it got later, the road just got busier
and busier with people coming from here, there and everywhere to drink in the
street. Something I found amusing was that in many windows, sat completely
redundant signs saying ‘no drinking in the street’ and well … see for yourself.
I kinda love that busyness though – it
makes for a really lively atmosphere and you can actually talk to people unlike
in a club. You can keep moving too, and so, you get to meet a lot of different
people. We even ran into a whole gathering of other language assistants at a
bar that I thoroughly enjoy called "Cientoccho" They play good music here including the
likes of the Kinks, Madness, the King and Johnny Cash.
We kept on moving and ended up in another
well-known drinking place called la Plaza Canadio. At this point I was getting
quite tired (maybe 3 in the morning, but I get sleepy easily) but even so, we
managed to spend another hour or so out just chatting to people. People sat at
bars, people sat on steps, people passing through and people getting warm
tortilla from a cart – essentially the equivalent of getting kebab. I even got
talking to a few Americans and Canadians who had been at the meeting the
Wednesday before. One of them actually lived
on el rio de la pila which, even though I like it for a night out, I personally
think would be terrible. Noise doesn’t particularly bother me, in fact on the
contrary I quite like the silent noisy-ness that you get in a city, but all the
time in one concentrated place? I’m not so sure. I think I am happy where I am
for the time being: down a high street where people constantly pass through, but
they PASS through. They don’t set up camp there for the night.
On another occasion, we sought live music
at a place called "Rocambole" I think this is a bar really but it also has a stage where
bands often play. Generally amateur bands – like this time round – but they are
still really good, and more importantly enjoyable. One guy in particular really
knew how to gee up a crowd, and even I was singing along with this Spanish song
in the end, and I didn’t really understand the lyrics. One female singer had a
voice like I have not heard before – she was incredible, a complete show
stopper! An added extra bonus was that it was free! Something great about being
here is that I have not once had pay an entry fee into a bar or a club unlike
most places in Britain.
From this club, we took to the streets
again made our way to … We picked up some more friends along the way and a
larger group of us even had a bit of dance in a club that was run by a large
duck – the hook to get to enter and buy a drink.
Again upon leaving we ended up staying
another hour or so just chatting to people we ran into. In all sorts of
languages! In English, in French and in Spanish (most importantly for this leg
of Erasmus)! I don’t see any problem in this though, as I am here, principally
to improve my language and communication skills.
We finally got in around 4:30am which seems
to be a relatively early night here in Spain having gone (in the words of
Mickey Flanagan) out out. But, sleep is important to me too and I wanted to get
up in the morning and head to places.
Hasta luego
No comments:
Post a Comment