29/08 - 31/08 or: the secret to spotting americans anywhere, the nightlife paradox and a siesta myth unveiled

This is it. This is what all of you have been waiting for. I finally found some free time between looking for apartments, partying and well -- partying. 

Now you raise valid questions like "Can you really party that much?" or "Wait, didn't you go there to study?". The answer is: yes and yes. How? Keep reading.

Friday night. Adam and I didn't really know what to do, until we were told that apparently there are places in Madrid that serve 40-cent beers. Now we had a plan. Initially, we just went there to grab some tapas and stay there a little, that was around 8:30. We were headed there with our not-so-hungover-anymore american roommates, who had musical tickets. Well, needless to say, when they got back, we were still sitting there. Time flew by. We decided to check out some clubs in the gay districts just for the hell of it, but we were disappointed. And the problem weren't intrusive gay guys, but much rather the fact that all the clubs closed at 4:00. That's weird since in Madrid, everything is shifted to a later hour -- only the clubs still close earlier than in Germany. Hence, I refer to this as the "nightlife paradoxon". 

Oh, and did I mention I had found an apartment? Pretty sure I didn't. So there you have it: I'm officially moved in! That's also what I did for the most time on Saturday. I have a balcony with an amazing view in the charming quarter Lavapies. People keep telling me it is dangerous, but to be honest -- if I survived Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rwanda and Köln-Mülheim, I'll be just fine here. In my flat there are two other rooms available, so as of right now I'm living alone. Certainly not too bad, but I love having people around me. 

balcony view

crooked panorama picture of my room

In order to compensate for that, I met up with Adam and his american friends from Portland at night to go to Kapital again. How could I tell they were from the states? Khaki shorts, baby. Khaki shorts. I don't know if you Americans are aware of this, but pay some attention to it -- it's like a uniform. However, you're not getting into a club with these, so later on it would have been a little more difficult. The party itself was pretty cool aswell, I definitely had lots of fun. 

did we?

khaki shorts, for the reference

Sunday I felt the need to catch up on some well-deserved sleep. After not having slept too much the preceding nights, I used most of the day to do exactly that and then skyped some. Really nothing to exciting, typical Sunday business. As I discovered later, you can do your grocery shopping also on Sunday, Lidl is open 7 days a week. Wait, Lidl? That's right. That's the grocery store I do my everyday shopping in Germany. And by accident the ONLY Lidl of Madrid is the closest store to my apartment. So now I have stuff like "Multifruchtmüsli" at home, even with German label. Praise the lord. 

some hometown reality

That's it. No, wait. The siesta myth. I used to think that spanish people actually sleep during their siesta. Extensive field experiments on my parts have proven that this is not the case; they just lay there because doing anything else would simply be excruciating. Using the day to get sleep doesn't really work, I guess I'll have to cut back on my nightlife eventually. 

I'll keep you posted. Take care.