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Published: July 31st 2010
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Madrid awakens at night. Dinner was served at 11pm when we settled into an outdoor seafood restaurant across the street from our hotel. Temperatures were pleasant enough to be dressed up and seated outside without being too hot. We ordered garlic shrimp and marinated sardines both of which were outstanding. Of course the olives that came with the sardines were perfect.
We hopped the Metro again which felt surprisingly safe even though it was Midnight and ended up in La Latina.
La Latina seemed to be a place brimming with people and clubs. A totally different feel from where our hotel is located which is much more commercial. Many streets were brick and cobblestone here and some simply could not be managed by cars. You can tell what the city felt like before cars were invented as streets here seemed just wide enough for a carriage. The whole area had a great feel. The street signs are all embedded into the sides of the buildings with beautiful tile and people were everywhere.
Walking around with open containers here seems to be no real issue as the scene seemed like a New Orleans Mardi Gras without folks being overly
loud or drunk. Thankfully, no one was flashing for beads.
I also now know why the streets looked so clean: because through the night they get littered with debris and the street cleaners start early. I think I saw the first one coming through at about 2am. By morning, the streets are again pristine.
Instead of seeing a Flamenco “show”, we preferred to stick to the local streets and find a local Flamenco Bar. These bars usually feature local folks singing and Flamenco dancing sort of like a Flamenco Karaoke type of feel - but these folks were good!
One small bar in the basement looked promising and the guy singing had an amazing voice but no seats and no dancers had us move onto another place.
We ended up at a very cool bar that had an actual show but with a very local flair. There was no cover but the drinks were pricey. The dancers were most likely paid but audience members would get on the stage and dance with them as well. It was an awesome atmosphere and Mike and I had this great little corner nook on an elevated platform all to
ourselves. We did manage to take some video of the dancers which is attached below.
A few Sangria’s later and I almost had Mike convinced to go up and dance! I’ll keep working on it.
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Scott
non-member comment
The REAL Madrid
I guess I shouldn't read these so early in the morning. The Marinated sardines sort didn't go well with my coffee and cereal. I read David Beckham's memoir and his discription of the night life and social life while he was playng for Real Madrid is a lot like yours. He eventually bought a home there. Actually the home is in a compound next to the home of Elton John and his partner. Beckham commented that at La Liga games, the Madradistas dress up and it is a much more social atmosphere than other European venues for soccer. One doesn't think of Spanish food like say Italian food. It seems as though it is a unique quisine however. Hasta Domingo.