Madrid by night

Nights out. We all have those hazy memories of cheesy pop, embarassing moments, those £1 vodka mixers that seemed like a good idea at the time and then the initial 'what happened last night?!' the following morning. But what about a night out, Madrid style?

Imagine a club with 7 floors, encompassing a roof bar with fountain and palm trees, a karaoke booth, a saxophonist accompanying the DJ, a man dance on ribbon suspended above the club, gushes of air, balloons and glitter being dropped from the ceiling and you come close to the experience. Welcome to club 'Teatro Kapital'.

Surrounded by students drawn from across Europe, and having bumped into friendly faces from my language class on almost each of the seven floors, I had a small moment where I became excited about being part of such an international community. It's strange thinking about how many nationalities, languages and cultures were drawn together in one, rather large, incredibly loud space. But this is an exciting strange, not only to be able to be a part of this international community, but to be a part of it in one great city.

All in all, a great first taster of nights out in Madrid. The only two things that take a lot of getting used to is the closing times here and the drinks. The first is closing time which is a lot later compared to Edinburgh where everything shuts down at 3am as, after stretching our bodies to the limit, we taxied home at 5:30, half an hour before the night finished. Secondly, the alcohol content. In Hive, for example, a mixer consists of a trickle of vodka with mixer (mainly cheap lemonade/cola etc). Here they take this to be half a glass of vodka and then a bottle of mixer on the side. Not something I'll be trying...or spending money on again in a hurry though. A trusty bottle of Sangria for 2 Euros does it for me I think.

Having had a good dance with some great people and soaked in the atmosphere, it was then bizarre making the journey home in Madrid. As I was heading home to bed for some much needed sleep, most of the students and young people here were still out and some only just heading out. Think this might be a city that never sleeps...!

Besos x