Not a creature was stirring....
Not even a cafe.
April and Kelly Crull have been staying with me in my apartment for the last week, and it has been so much fun. Kelly, unfortunately, has had to work a bit from his computer (luckily I have wireless) to finish a project that he's working on for another church that's part of Christian Associates. After hours and hours of web design stuff that I don't understand, he finished today, two days ahead of his deadline.
So we decided that before going to a New Year's party tonight, we would go out for something to drink to celebrate. Plus, April wanted a coffee.
I'm not really exaggerating to say that in my neighborhood, probably one out of every 5 doorways on the street leads to a place that serves food, drinks, coffee, etc. People come to my neighborhood to go out. It was 7 o'clock, and living a 10 or 12 minute walk from the absolute center of town, I expected my street to be hopping when I walked outside.
But this was not the case. Instead, we walked outside to an eerie quiet. Windows were dark and doors were locked. We decided to walk to a nearby plaza that has cute pubs and coffee shops for our little celebration. Again, no luck. A couple of groups of kids were clumped together. A couple old men walked their dogs. I might have imagined a tumbleweed blowing across the bricks of the plaza.
On up the street, a few blocks later, we finally found an open pub and went inside, only for April to find that they didn't have any coffee left. Nevermind the fact that a man sitting at the bar was sipping his own coffee and the espresso machine was visible behind the counter. Evidently he had decided he had made his last for the night. Since Kelly and I had already ordered, we finished up there and about 20 minutes later went on to find another place so April could get her coffee.
By this time we had circled around to Bilbao (the next metro stop up on the light blue line), so we crossed over to Cafe Comercial, a very well known cafe in Madrid. From the windows, the crowd at the bar looked promising. But as we tried to pass through the door that separated the bar from the tables, the bartender stopped us dead in our tracks. "Esta cerrado." (It's closed). One of the better known cafes in Madrid had closed down 90 percent of its space.
If you are in the States and reading this, you're probably scratching your head right now and thinking "What's so wierd about that?" But this is Madrid at seven p.m. This is WHEN people go out for coffee! Supper isn't until eight at the earliest! And besides, Madrid is the loudest city in Europe, and my neighborhood is one of the loudest in Madrid! And IT'S STINKING NEW YEAR'S EVE! Where is everybody?
We left bewildered and walked back home through dark streets past locked doors. The only things open were alimentaciones (like a convenience store) as far as we could see. At least this was in our favor, since we still needed to buy drinks to take to the party. In the distance, we saw lights reflecting against the clouds above Sol (the center), and it comforted me to know that at least someone else was alive.
I've heard that in Spain the party doesn't really start until after midnight, but I had no idea that that meant the town was required to hibernate until then!
I'm leaving in half an hour to go to a party (an early one), so I'll post again tonight or tomorrow on Madrid after midnight.
April and Kelly Crull have been staying with me in my apartment for the last week, and it has been so much fun. Kelly, unfortunately, has had to work a bit from his computer (luckily I have wireless) to finish a project that he's working on for another church that's part of Christian Associates. After hours and hours of web design stuff that I don't understand, he finished today, two days ahead of his deadline.
So we decided that before going to a New Year's party tonight, we would go out for something to drink to celebrate. Plus, April wanted a coffee.
I'm not really exaggerating to say that in my neighborhood, probably one out of every 5 doorways on the street leads to a place that serves food, drinks, coffee, etc. People come to my neighborhood to go out. It was 7 o'clock, and living a 10 or 12 minute walk from the absolute center of town, I expected my street to be hopping when I walked outside.
But this was not the case. Instead, we walked outside to an eerie quiet. Windows were dark and doors were locked. We decided to walk to a nearby plaza that has cute pubs and coffee shops for our little celebration. Again, no luck. A couple of groups of kids were clumped together. A couple old men walked their dogs. I might have imagined a tumbleweed blowing across the bricks of the plaza.
On up the street, a few blocks later, we finally found an open pub and went inside, only for April to find that they didn't have any coffee left. Nevermind the fact that a man sitting at the bar was sipping his own coffee and the espresso machine was visible behind the counter. Evidently he had decided he had made his last for the night. Since Kelly and I had already ordered, we finished up there and about 20 minutes later went on to find another place so April could get her coffee.
By this time we had circled around to Bilbao (the next metro stop up on the light blue line), so we crossed over to Cafe Comercial, a very well known cafe in Madrid. From the windows, the crowd at the bar looked promising. But as we tried to pass through the door that separated the bar from the tables, the bartender stopped us dead in our tracks. "Esta cerrado." (It's closed). One of the better known cafes in Madrid had closed down 90 percent of its space.
If you are in the States and reading this, you're probably scratching your head right now and thinking "What's so wierd about that?" But this is Madrid at seven p.m. This is WHEN people go out for coffee! Supper isn't until eight at the earliest! And besides, Madrid is the loudest city in Europe, and my neighborhood is one of the loudest in Madrid! And IT'S STINKING NEW YEAR'S EVE! Where is everybody?
We left bewildered and walked back home through dark streets past locked doors. The only things open were alimentaciones (like a convenience store) as far as we could see. At least this was in our favor, since we still needed to buy drinks to take to the party. In the distance, we saw lights reflecting against the clouds above Sol (the center), and it comforted me to know that at least someone else was alive.
I've heard that in Spain the party doesn't really start until after midnight, but I had no idea that that meant the town was required to hibernate until then!
I'm leaving in half an hour to go to a party (an early one), so I'll post again tonight or tomorrow on Madrid after midnight.
posted by kelly_w at 6:02 PM
1 Comments:
No worries little dude, every day you learn something new about Spanish culture! Im happy I spent NYs eve with u! Happy youre back two! SARGENTO!!!!!!!!!!!!
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