Orgullo

One thing to note about Spain is their incredibly different concept of time for meals and sleep. Breakfast is about the same, around 8-10a.m., but lunch gets pushed back all the way until 2 or 3, before the siesta. And Spaniards don’t eat dinner until 9p.m. at the earliest.

As a group, we’ve tried to push back our eating times little by little, but it’s hard to adjust when you’re body has had a lifetime of expecting dinner at 6p.m. Today we at the latest we have all week at 8p.m. and we were the only people in the restaurant besides the girlfriend of one of the workers.

One of the most evident issues with time has been the incredible partying going on outside our window each night. There are several bars, a pizzeria, and a café right outside, and when the party only gets started at 9p.m. you can bet that it doesn’t end early. It’s strange, but there are literally more people on the streets at 5a.m. than there are at 5p.m. And once the party is over (and it never really is) they move all of the chairs from the outdoor patio and bring in a truck to wash it all, at which point it’s morning and the noise level has yet to die down.

It’s been difficult to sleep, but sort of in an endearing way. I imagine it’s a muted version of the way new parents must feel every time they get woken up. You hate that you’re awake and that 20 minutes of good sleep you just had is over, but you have this awe and excitement for the thing that woke you up.

And Madrid is exciting and awesome, the people are fantastic and so lively, all of the buildings are part of the beautiful Spanish architecture. We’ve done a little bit of the tourist-y things. We went to a couple of churches, including the one the royals used to attend until they moved to a church closer to the palace; we walked to a few fountains and plazas; we explored one of the largest parks in the city, which felt a little bit like it should be a zoo.

And then we walked out of the park into an even more zoo-like area. Without knowing it was this weekend, we have stumbled three times upon festivities from Pride Fest in Madrid. Pride, if you don’t know, is a huge celebration of the LGBTQ community. In Madrid, which has the largest gay district (not very PC, but that’s what it’s called) in Europe, Pride was a huge event. There were parades and concerts and all sorts of things going on.

This is their logo. “Orgullo” literally means pride. I just appreciate the cleverness that is only possible because this is Spanish.

Later that night, we went walking around La Puerta del Sol, the central area near our hostel, and found all sorts of street performers and characters, and even a fantastic band. Hopefully you can watch the video here:

Then we walked up the street in search of refreshments, and stumbled upon more Orgullo! It was a lot of fun and excitement and energy, and we weren’t even there late at night. A tour guide from our hotel (we didn’t go on the pub crawl he was guiding, so I felt guilty through our whole conversation) told us Orgullo is the largest party in Madrid each year, and that we shouldn’t miss it. But it really wasn’t a choice for me; I was too exhausted and had to be up the next day for my train to Oviedo.