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Published: September 20th 2010
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Outside Gran Via
This sign was illuminated through traffic cones and suspended by cranes in the middle of the street Saturday night of September 11, was the La Noche En Blanco (The White Night). This is a huge European celebration throughout the major capitals like London, Paris, etc. I had never heard of this before, but quickly learned of it once I got here as everywhere in the city was advertising for this event for a month before. La Noche en Blanco is essentially an all night city celebration of art, culture, and fun that lasts from sundown to sunrise. They close down three major roads and several plazas for several miles all of which hosts loads of different outdoor exhibits, fun things to partake in, music, and thousands upon thousands of people! All museums are open and free as are land marks such as the palace. The whole city takes part and it was incredibly mind boggling how everyone migrates out for a full night of city fun! It was slightly weird but also cool to see families with young kids, old couples with their canes, and young people our age all walking around together at four in the morning, all clearly enjoying themselves.
Our group decided to meet at Plaza Ciebles, the main plaza where the all night
dance party was taking place. From this plaza there were lines that were blocks long (had to be at least an hour or more) waiting to get into museums and other famous buildings that were free for the night. We decided to skip these and walk up the street to Gran Via (an area normally known for its incredibly pushy prostitutes) where they were supposed to have a pretty cool outdoor play ground.
On our way up, we decided it would be a good idea to grab a drink from the many different street vendors openly selling beer and mixed drinks out of wagons (they made a killing that night!). It is fairly normal to run into random Asian people always trying to sell you a can of beer for a euro, but tonight seem to bring out everyman who had an extra bottle out to mix drinks. We found a really cheerful, Jesus like looking guy who you would expect to find on a hippie corner in Santa Cruz to get a rum coke from. But the crowd was absolutely ridiculous and it was taking forever. I finally realized we would need one of the girls to help
us. So I asked one of the girls who also is very attractive to come help (this works everywhere with the Spaniards who love pretty girls) and she simply wandered to the front, twirled her hair, and bingo! we had our drinks. But this guy even thought Hansika was so pretty that he insisted on way overfilling the drinks with Brugal rum. When it was all said and done, we had drinks filled with at least 4/5 worth of rum topped with a trace of coke, that literally knocked you over with a little sip for only 4 euros. We all got a kick out of the experience (mostly because the guy was such a character) and needless to say, we all didn't need anymore drinks after that.
Gran Via proved to be pretty cool with giant swings hanging from cranes and slides that fell from the top of buildings. Just down the road was also an "exhibit" where you could take any piece of clothing hanging on several lines as long as you replaced it with some clothing of your own. In another plaza, they filled it with beach balls and divided it in the middle with barricades
and people threw the balls at people on the other side. And once the balls were gone, people just pushed each other with the barricades... it looked crazy and somewhat out of hand, but there was a comfort amongst the crowd that it was all just for fun. (Spaniards don't get crazy drunk like you see in America and things never get 'wild'). Everywhere we went, were massive crowds.
The night culminated with breakfast in the Retiro park at 6 a.m. Most things on the street closed down around 5 or 5:30 so we had an hourish to kill before breakfast during which we got to witness something that has always really impressed me about this city: the night time clean up of parties. No matter what goes on the night before, every morning the streets are absolutely spotless, washed, and clean like nothing ever happened. Well, while waiting for breakfast we watched the army of street cleaners, street sweepers, high powered washers, police, and others at work. They had the entire Plaza Ciebles (where the dance party was) which was a war zone when we arrived to wait completely clean and open to traffic in an hour (that
Beach Ball Fight
This plaza was filled with beach balls and separated by barriers over which people threw the balls at each other. Once the balls were all gone, people just shoved each other using the barriers... is tearing down sound equipment, screens, lights and all)! It was really impressive to watch!
Breakfast turned out to be really cool, but WAY to much work. They give you a cape with a treasure map on it that you then had to follow throughout the park for different food and drinks. We were all way to tired to go running around a giant park for a bagel or two (and we were to tired to translate the Spanish) so we called it a successful night and headed home to be in bed around 7.
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Aunt Lorraine
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You are having way too much fun!! This is all part of your college abroad program? Can't wait for your next experience