Corsets and Absinthe

It had been a while since I went been Goth clubbing. Despite the fact I think sometimes Goths should smile more often and be less serious about life, I love a lot of things about the Goth culture. I adore the music, the literature and the clothes. I am a proud owner of four stunning corsets. Unfortunately seeing as it is 2008 and not 1908 wearing a corset on a daily basis is not only bloody uncomfortable but will get you strange looks from people, especially in my job.

However one of my favourite things about Goth clubs is that I look perfectly normal wearing a corset there. Another thing I love is the music and also there are some very amusing and interesting characters you would only meet in the Goth club (like the guy alone at the bar wearing listening to his iPod and looking like a professional in misery).

A few months ago, I managed to convince some friends to go clubbing with me there. I met some really cool people who also were in the search for clubbing buddies in the dark side of the Madrid club scene. After months of saying we were going make plans to go again (but travel, life and work got in the way) we decided por fin to go again.

A main question on anyone's lips on a Madrid night out is "Which bar to start in?". Considering this was not going to be the average night out in Malasaña or in Sol we had to think of an appropriate bar to start feeling our inner Goth. There are some good places around and about but they were either to far or we didn't know them. Drinking red wine in my bedroom while listening to Sisters of Mercy or VNV nation seemed a bit cliché and less fun to me and it is what I always end up doing. However my friend introduced me to the wonderful, charmingly bohemian Café Manuela in the district of Malasaña and conveniently close to the club.



It is a fancy looking place, but it does not feel expensive nor pretentious. It is decorated as if it were a bar from 19th Century Montmartre. What was even better was that they served absinthe - three different types of absinthe. Sounds cliché too but I personally don't care - I love Absinthe!



However a lot of places when you ask for absinthe have no idea what to do with it and give you "chupitos" or if they know what to do with it, there still isn't very much of it. My friends sensibly elected the 50% one, I on the other hand went for the 70% because I usually drink that (a tiny bit watered down a LOT).

The bartender took out three large tumblers full of ice and filled them to the brim with absinthe, the colours turning milky as the absinthe interacted with the ice. I stood there mesmerised and in shock was the bar tender filled my glass with a dark green and very flammable drink (I know that form experience when I introduced my hand to some absinthe and a lighter). We were given a glass of water to accompany it too, and along with some sugar. We sat back down and started to drink. We three looked rather out of place all gothed up (well we suited the place more - I guess the others were looking out of place really) as we sipped on milky concoctions of different shades of green. The absinthe was very good, but very strong. After making my way down on half of the glass I already felt I would have trouble walking down the stairs to the bathroom. On finishing the tumbler I swore to myself not to drink any more alcohol that night or I would simply die!

We proceeded towards Gran Via to the Gothic club Dark Hole. This is the only goth club in Madrid I have been to, and I must say it's pretty good! I personally really liked the music which was a combination of 80's batcave and synthpop and then moving on towards EBM as the night reaches it's peak. Nearly everyone is dressed in black in there but there are still a couple of people in t-shirt and jeans. I had a fabulous time dancing most of the night on the stage with enough absinthe in my blood to erase my inhibitions and enough redbull to keep me dancing for hours like a monkey on speed. A club recommended for anyone in to 80s music, alternative dance music, into the goth culture or for a night out clubbing with a difference. I love this club and it's my autumn's resolution to go there more often following café Manuela and my tumbler of Absinthe - but I will elect the 50% one next time.

A sunday morning on the Paseo del Prado

It was a lovely Sunday morning this weekend and I decided I was in the mood for some art that morning. I had wanted to go to the Reina Sofia, but it was closed due to the day of "los reyes", so walked a bit further up the Paseo del Prado to the Thyssen-Bornemissza art gallery - one of the big three in the Madrid's artistic repertoire.



Out of the three galleries this is my personal favourite. It has a vast collection spanning a 700 years time frame up to and including 20th Century art. It also caters to the art lovers of Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugauin and all the major art movements of the 19th Century which the other two galleries do not have. If you have only time in Madrid to visit only one gallery, and are not too specific on what art you are interested in looking at then go to this one - it has the largest variety and you will not be disappointed in the collection. I didn't do the whole gallery this Sunday as I have been to this museum about 3-4 times, but you do need a whole day really or at least most of the afternoon to see the entire collection. I mainly stuck to the first and ground floor where the 19th-20th century art is located.
Here you will find your Fauvists, impressionists, romanticists, post-impressionists, expressionists, surrealists, cubists - you name it! Certainly proves to be interesting if you want to learn some art history as the art is catagorised by it's genre, and also provides a good cultural education as well as an aesthetic stimulation.

After my time in the gallery I was feeling oh so pretentious and wanted a coffee to follow suite. Not satisfied with the idea of going to the Starbucks next door, even with its chai soy lattes and its view of the Neptune fountain. I wanted grand, yet antique and flaky. Somewhere with character and history, a truly bohemian place to take my cup of black coffee. Where else better than the famous Café Gijón, ten minutes walking distance situated on the Paseo de Recoletos.



It's a deliciously wonderful old world place, built at the end of the 19th century and has been home and inspiration to the Spanish literati and artistic community in the 20th century; as well as being a historical iconic figure in Madrid café life. The place has a decaying grandeur atmosphere to it with its threadbare velvet seats and its chipped gold leaf framed mirrors. It smells musty, and has the ambience of an antique shop. The coffee was nice, but over priced but I supposed it is the price to pay when you are sitting in the seat where the Mata Hari or one of the Spanish literary giants may have sat herself so its excusable. The service is fast, but cold and impersonal - but fast service in Spain is a rarity so think of this as bonus. I guess in hindsight I would probably pay the same in Starbucks for a coffee or just shy of it so maybe not such a bad trade off then. Plus you cant get atmosphere in Starbucks no matter how nice a place it is situated in. I would go back there, and I would recommend going if you are a person who values atmosphere, ambience and history. It's a peaceful place away from the frantic bars of the more familiar Madrid and is a good locale to go to drink a coffee, discuss philosophy with your bohemian friends, write your journal or a novel or read one.

Dinner - somewhere cheap, beautiful with tasty food?

No problem! With all the restaurants in Madrid you dont need to settle for a place which is cheap and nasty, or expensive or beautiful, or with great food with the view of a nice busy road. I was doing a course in Madrid (yes I know I live here, but I just finished an interuniversity course which took me all over Spain, one course being in Madrid) and on one night with a group of my friends from the course we naturally wanted some dinner.

We tried to get a table in the Museo del Jamon off Puerta del Sol but at 11pm they told us it was due to close soon. A dilema! However we are blessed by the multitude of fast food shops around the area, including the wonderful Moaz Falafels (a vegetarian fast food place with is tasty, cheap and relatively healthy) and if you want more traditional you can pick up a cured ham and cheese sandwich from the museo del jamon.

We all went to our fast food place of our choice (me - I took the tasty falafel salad!) and took our food to the plaza Oriente. This is right in the centre in between the Opera house and the Palacio Real. Now who can complain with a view like this:



We were infact seated on the benches at the foot of the statue pictured. It was lovely to sit there eating our cheap fast food of our choice with a spectacular view where a restaurant would have charged us 20% for the pleasure. It was awesome!



I highly recommend it to anyone who fancies a nice picnic in the city centre. Maybe with a date? I could imagine this being highly romantic on a lovely moonlit summers night.

Not your normal Sunday - care for a little Hedonism?

While most people enjoy a nice relaxing day in front of the telly on a sunday, I opted to do something a little different to my usual Sunday afternoons. My friend had invited me to go clubbing at the "Space of Sound" - an all day nightclub just above the station Charmartìn. I had been meaning to check it out, and I have never been clubbing during the day before so thought great could be loads of fun.

It was one of the most surreal, interesting and fantastic experiences I have ever had from clubbing. It felt weird, if not slightly wrong walking into a club at 2pm on a Sunny Sunday afternoon but as soon as I walked inside I was transported into another world! A world of an electronic dream and a ravers paradise! To not talk about the clubs and bars in Madrid would not give the correct impression of Madrid, and for me personally its nightlife (or daylife in this case) is a big thing in my life here. Sometimes a good dancing marathon to an awesome beat is as good as destressing as a day of relaxation in front of the sun for me.

Space is probably the most jaw dropping club I have been too. I have not been clubbing like have done in Madrid before, but this place took my breathe away. I forgot the time, the space where I was then. Time did not exist inside here. You are hit with the amazing electronic sound as you come in through the door (while I am a goth/rocker by heart, I am a sucker for pretty much all electronic music!), music with so much depth and intensity that you do not only hear it but feel it through your body, and all of this without being deafened. There are amazing laser shows, dancers, fiber optic lit coffee tables next to really comfy sofas, space age looking bars and most importantly of all - lots of people just having a great time!

The thing I liked about this club is people came there to be free, no one cared what you looked like or how you danced. You didn´t get sweaty, nasty guys humping your leg, nor bitchy girls glaring at you because you are not trendy enough. I went in t-shirt, jeans, no make up, messy hair and no one treated me any different. It was a really liberating experience to feel like I was not being treated as a piece of meat and I could truly be myself. The atmosphere was euphoric and you did not want to stop dancing until 8pm. Sometimes I just stood back and admired the amazing laser shows and sat on the comfy sofas with my eyes closed and let the music wash over me. It was rather surreal to pass the front door when you would go to the toilet to see the sunny outdoors, which to me seemed like the dimensional gateway to reality. Certainly and odd experience but much worth it. Absolutely pure, liberating hedonism. I loved it, and would certainly go again! The best thing about it being in the afternoons is by the next day you are refreshed and ready to work again. I feel like I have just been on holiday.