Friday. Big plans for our first night of discotecas. We wanted to go to Buena Vista, a suburb of Toledo, where they have a botellón (pre-discoteca party in the parking lot) and three outdoor clubs that play different kinds of music--reggaeton, American pop, and something else. I'm not exactly sure what that something else is because we never actually made it there. I was with a group of 3 other people and we were going to take the Buho (owl) Bus to the bridge where the clubs were. We had to take the buho because that's the nighttime bus and obviously we couldn't be lame-os and arrive super early or that would have been totally uncool. After we got off at the wrong bus stop and walked around every inch of Buena Vista looking for the puente, we finally found the botellón.
However, surprise, it was BYOB, and we didn't bring any B. We couldn't buy any B either, because the nearest gas station doesn't sell B after 10pm. Lame. So we just decided to nix the clubs and go home because we didn't want to pay for cabs and the buses stopped running at 3. So we walked. We walked all the way back to the bus stop where we got off because we knew FOR SURE that the bus would stop there. After waiting for half an hour, the buho finally pulled into sight. And then kept driving right past us. The driver and I had a Mexican standoff of sorts, exchanging a knowing glance as he drove by. I thought the knowing glance was his way of saying "I know you're tired, but don't worry. I'm coming back for you." But after 30 more minutes of waiting we figured that he really meant, "Ha ha, you foolish Americans. I'm not coming back for you...EVER!!!" So we paid for a cab. Not just back to Toledo...all the way to Polígono. Fail.
But fret not! Saturday night more than made up for Friday night's lack of festivities.
Setting: Madrid. Event: La Noche En Blanco.
My host mom told me about La Noche En Blanco and said that I should go with my friends. She suggested we take the train from Toledo to Madrid and then just take it back in the morning after we were done raging. ...my HOST MOM told me that! Granted, she didn't use the word "raging," but it was certainly implied that raging would occur.
We got to Madrid around 8:30, and began our self-guided tapas crawl. We crawled all over La Puerta del Sol, the plaza in the exact center of Spain. We crawled a long time, just enjoying tapas and sangria and people-watching until the real excitement began. La Noche En Blanco means "The Night In White" and all the major museums and exhibits are open all night. And they're free! The streets are blocked off and there are different activities in various plazas around the centro. Our event of choice was a GIIIIIANT game of Twister in the Plaza de Colón. Playing Twister outside in Madrid at 2am with 150 people is one of the most magical things you could do. And by magical I really mean confusing and hilarious. The DJ calling out the right and left hands and feet was speaking in Spanish (obviously) and he was talking so loud and so fast and there was music everywhere and people talking and yelling so all we could hear was the occasional izquierda and derecha...pie and mano and the colores were harder to distinguish from all the other noises. So naturally, chaos ensued. People were falling everywhere, and no one was doing it right. Clearly a game of Twister with 150 people would be entirely too hard to regulate, so everyone was a winner.
After some exhilirating Twisting, we moved on to the discotecas where we danced the rest of the night (more like morning...) away. When they kicked us out at 6 am we miraculously made our way to a cafe for a hearty breakfast of espresso and churros. We struggled/sleepwalked back to the station to catch the train to Toledo and finally fell into bed at home sweet home at 10 am. Luckily, sleeping in on the weekends is strongly encouraged in Spain, so napping until 4 was no problemo. I know they say that New York is the city that never sleeps, but I have to disagree. It's definitely Madrid.
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