When you move to a new place, sometimes it can be difficult to meet people and make new friends, especially if there is a language barrier. And if it were not for the people I will be mentioning later in this post, life in Madrid would be much duller (and perhaps a lot sadder). As I mentioned in my earlier post about los personas en mi TEFL, sometimes the people you meet aren't always the people you want to be around. And so, when a new opportunity presented itself to meet people from a different side of Madrid, I jumped on it.
I don't know if he is aware of it but a friend of mine I have known for a while through the internet (courtesy of metal-r.us) introduced me to some of the most interesting people I have met in Spain so far. He is not a native Spaniard but an Irishman, who comes to Spain on a bi-annual basis (more or less) with his long time girlfriend (who is Spainsh). It was two weeks after I arrived in Madrid that they came to visit. I had been in my TEFL all week long and having only 1 free weekend, I spent it unpacking and walking down Castellana Street with my flatmate at the time. He and is friends were the nicest and friendliest people I had met so far. They showed me around a bit of the Moncloa and Arguellas areas. Both fantastic night life spots and great for students.
Over the following Friday and Saturday we walked through a large festival in Madrid (the largest one in Madrid, held every August in the La Latina area). Anyone who hadn't left Madrid or its surrounding neighborhoods yet for vacation was at this festival.
To describe this type of event in only a few words can't possibly do it any justice, but I will do my best. Imagine, thousands of people dispersed over a space less than a mile in diameter, people falling over drunk in the streets, loud screams and yells, the swealtering heat of Madrid in August, people with bags and bags of beer, coke, juice and alcohol, the mixed sounds of loud music from different sources combined with the sounds of carnival games. Imagine, several stages with bands performing everything from pop to dance to Spanish cultural music. The smells of mediteranian spices, olive oil, fried potatoes, calimari and sausages, tortilla and egg and pepper. Hundreds of people surrounding the vedors selling every kind of food, people sitting anywhere there is free space and drinking, drinking, drinking till they reeked of the alcohol they finished. Now imagine this lasting 3-4 days.
After a few hours at the festival, we made our way to a suburb in the south of Madrid called Vallecas known in the past for its heavy metal bars and clubs. We went to one that my friend knew well and had been to before. He was also good friends with the owner of the place and his brother. An extreme metal bar with two crazy Spaniards operating the place.Finally, a place to go talk metal, drink and meet other like-minded individuals. Though the language issue was a problem for the older of the two, most of the time we managed to persevere.
Over the course of the next several months, I've become well acquainted with these two brothers, the others that occasionally work there, and the consistant regulars that make apperances. I've found comfort in this place where the music is loud, everyone wears black, bullet belts are common and discussions of death, morbidity, music, philosophy and religion co-exist where it would normally scare away the less metal friendly individual. The best thing...even though language barriers are an issue, the Spanish love to talk usually, and even when they can't express themselves, it doesn't make them stop talking.
I found a solid metal base in Madrid that I am quite thankful for. People I can see regularly at concerts, discuss the varying sub-genres of metal and talk technicalities with. Sometimes I wonder if I seem a burden because of my lack of Spanish but the people are so open, welcoming and friendly, it's hard to think that for long.
In terms of the people I've met over the course of my time here, I've found this select group to be the most honest, the most interesting and the most fun to be around. Many times people might look at a group of indivudals like these and see only long messy hair, strange clothes, all black, leather and spikes and make judgements on who they are as people. All I see are friends.
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