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| Fountain on Plaza de Colon |
December 6th is Dia de la Constitucion in
Spain. They don’t have fireworks like in
the USA, but they do like to party all day!
After Nicole and I took our siesta naps, we got ready for a walk about the
area of Madrid called La Castellana.
Very
close to our hotel we came across Plaza de Colon with a bunch of large block
sculptures for Christopher Columbus.
There was a long line of familes on the sidewalk waiting to ride the
open top Christmas lights tour buses.
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| Children playing the lights around the Christopher Columbus monument |
During
December in Madrid all the streets are decorated with Christmas lights in
different colors and patterns. It’s very
beautiful and helped me distinguish different squares and streets. We walked past designer clothing stores and
window shopped a while, before we headed to Chueca which is the gay district.
A
friend of mine had told me it was her favorite area, but when we arrived in the
main square for Chueca, decked out in rainbow lights, it was very quiet and
desolate. Perhaps it was too early in
the evening, or maybe the hot spots were hidden off on the side streets. But we were not impressed, so we headed over
to the streets around Puerta del Sol where we found crowds of people strolling
through the lively streets, with tapas bars one after another.
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| Chueca - Gay District |
We
hopped around the bars and wove our way through the streets enjoying the sights
and sounds, snacking on tapas and sipping on vino. We walked down one street lined with outdoor
tables and were invited by a group of four guys to join them. One of them spoke good English, but they
spent most of the time speaking to Nicole in Spanish, while I sat quietly
enjoying my drinks.
They
explained the holiday and how they celebrate it, which mainly entails drinking
all day. They were all but one married,
they just wanted good company. The
unmarried single guy was actually Ukranian and his family had moved to Spain
when he was in high school. He spoke a
little English and we tried to talk, but he usually didn’t understand what I
was saying.
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| Me at a bar, sitting next to a pig leg. They have Jamon on display at all the bars! |
Eventually,
we all decided to move on and find a new bar.
They joked about running out on the check. I kept telling them jokingly to let me go
first since if that was the plan… but they were good guys and paid the check
before we left.
We
wandered the streets, joking and making fun of people dressed in strange
costumes. There were a lot of people in
wigs to celebrate the holiday. We
eventually picked a jazz bar to walk into.
It was super crowded and the band was about to start. There weren’t any available tables, but
Nicole and I decided to stand by the bar and stay for the music and we said
good bye to the guys.
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| Jazz Club in Madrid |
The
live jazz band was good and the female lead singer was singing and American
jazz song in English, but would occasionally mispronounce a word or say it
funny. It was interesting to listen to
her sing and I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the song the audience
actually understood. We finished our
wine, enjoyed the music, and decided to head back towards the hotel.
But of
course, we had to finish the night with churros and hot chocolate. We found a crowded 24 hours churros shop and
went in. Nicole ordered 3 churros and a
hot chocolate. We dipped pieces of the fried
dough into the Spanish hot chocolate, which is thicker than and not quite as
sweet as American hot chocolate. When we
finished the churros, Nicole said that you’re supposed to drink the hot
chocolate.
I didn’t
believe her, I wanted to drink it, but I thought it was a trick. So I sat, looking around to see if anyone
else was drinking it. I finally saw
someone else take a sip, so I drank the whole thing! Nicole didn’t want it, but I love
chocolate! It was very yummy and the
perfect treat before bed.
