La Noche en Blanco y El Rastro

Both Saturday night and Sunday were spent in Madrid. Madrid holds an annual event called La Noche en Blanco (The Night in White) where all museums, cathedrals, etc in the city are free to enter and open from 8pm to 8am. We were all told this was a must-go-to event, which includes music in the streets and in general just a good time. So we boarded the train and off we went! So so many people, everywhere. The lines for the museums curved around blocks and each plaza was filled to capacity. The streets were all closed, so there are no cars but there are enough people that no matter what street we were on the street was packed. Every restaurant, bar, and discoteca were also filled to the brim! Definitely a sight to see! After wondering the streets for a few hours, listening to some live music, and dancing to American music at a discoteca, we decided to try out the bus system home. The train does not start running again until 6 am, but there is one bus that leaves the city every hour on the hour. We did not do our research though and the bus station was quite a hike from the discoteca. Getting home was an absolute nightmare. Usually, it would be easy to take the metro there or a taxi but because of this special evening neither of these was possible. After walking for around an hour we found a place where the streets were open and ended up taking a very expensive taxi back to Alcalá! Lesson learned for sure!

La Noche en Blanco

The following morning I ventured into Madrid alone! I was meeting a friend from high school who is also studying in Madrid to go to el Rastro. El Rastro is an enormous flee market held in Madrid every Sunday morning. After looking at my calendar and realizing it was my only free Sunday until November, I figured I should probably get out of bed and go (definitely not an easy task after strolling in around 4:30am)! No regrets though! I have successfully figured out the metro system (after getting lost a few times), which is much easier, cleaner and safer than any metro system I have ever been on. El Rastro is quite overwhelming at first, with what seems to be never ending lines of tents all full to the brim with anything you can imagine. Lots of Spanish being yelled out and major bargaining taking place! At el Rastro I made my first two real purchases of Spain, a pair of black flats and a beige fall jacket. I was told I should bargain but with my limited Spanish I just paid the price given to me (maybe next time)! After returning to Alcalá I was definitely in need of a siesta, but overall quite a successful day!
Muchos Besos!