Paco´s Life: Madrid

Singapore: La maldición de Brugal / The Brugal curse

Saturday I wope up a little wasted after the wild night, I head to my bag in order to get some clothes and then it happened, one of my three very valuable rum bottles which had travelled from Copenhagen fell in the floor, kinda of slow motion, it was not even in a high position but on the floor. I dont understad how it could get broke, I can believe it survived to a very long trip with connection included just to get broke like this later on. What a mess!! They say breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck, for me, breaking a Brugal was nearly a week. From this moment nothing went right. And the situation was promising at that point, that night we drunk one of the survivors bottles and went to another house where we were gonna meet some Paul´s friends. Very singapurean night, it was me sorrounded by asians, later on we were supposed to meet the ICEX guy in Singapur at Clark Quay, Saturday night, best day for going out in Singapore, but everything fucked up… First, we made one of Pauls friends become Flint, the first one made in Asia. After that, and following the normal sequence, we played the blowing cards game… and once again this innocent game fucked up the night. For those of you who dont know it, the game consist on blowing cards in a bottle, the one who blows the last card or blows all of them has to drink a shot. I am going to consider wether to use this game again. Paul ended up totally fucked up and their friends were not in a good condition either, terrible show of people puking. There was no way to move them to meet the ICEX guy so that was the very sad end of the night. Better forget about it…

Singaporean party…

Ben, the new flint

Playing cards..

Wasted…

Next morning I wake up realizing that the night before one of my fingers had got seriously burn, funny thing because I dont smoke. Anyway, that day I was supposed to by my new digital camera. It is quite a worry thing how I keep loosing cameras, it´s been two already, both cases occurred during these “confusing” nights I have from time to time. So I get this really cool Fujifilm camera with plenty of megapixels and the most sophisticated stuff at a really good price. I get into a taxi to go back home and when I get there… the fucking camera is missing!. Unbelievable but true, I was able to loose it in less than an hour, with no alcohol involved. I am still wondering why, I guess I forgot it in the taxi but honestely, I looked back before I got down. Due to my past experiences I was pretty paranoic about it, I remember Paul and me joking about this after I bought it. As you can imagine, loosing more than 200 euros, didnt improve my mood. We wasted a lot of time going back to the place to unsuccessfully look for the camera. It was not only the money but the frustration, the feeling that Murphy is arround you, everything likely to go wrong will go wrong and there is not situacion bad enough so it can not get worse.

The rest of the week in Singapore was not too special, Paul was still sick becuase of the Saturday night and every time we went out there wasnt any people arround, just very annoying indonesian hookers. Looking back now it is quite clear I should have travelled more arround, maybe a tip to Malasia which was more or less close by, too many days in Singapore where there are not so many things to visit. In fact there was a morning I get to the bus at 6, triying to catch the earliest bus going to Kuala Lumpur but of course it had ben cancelled and the next one was not departing until 10. I went home very pissed off.

Therefore, the only good thing about these days was the hospitality I received from Paul´s family (thanks a lot) and the gastronomic tour arround Singapore, I tasted many different asian dishes, very spicy ones as I like the food. The situation required a change and this change would be my lonely trip to the capital of Thailand: Bangkok.

Singapore: Arrival and First Night

And the time came, Thursday, 30th September, 10 pm, Copenhagen airport, first stop of a trip which finally will allow me to travel out of Europe. I have a 9 hours flight to Bangkok and then another 2 hours to get to Singapore, my final destination, where my good friend Paul is waitting. Is OK, the Scandinavian Airlines plane has a lot of entertaiment available: different movies to choose, games, musin channels, I have a very big book Iván gave me but…as soon as I get to my seat I fall totally sleep just to wake up with the captain saying that we are landing in Bangkok . Good way to do a trip, I guess the fact that I only slept 2 hours the night before due to a very hard party night had something to do with this. Anyway, I am already in Bangkog, short yellow persons are all over the place, I have a 2 hours wait until my next flight, what can I do? Answer is pretty clear, I am taking a thai massage. There is a place in the middle of the aiport with some women given foot and back massages to the tired travellers. Half an hour for 5 or 6 euros, after that I dont really know wheter I am relaxed or totally fucked up. This is the way thai massage are, there are moments in which the woman is really hurting you a lot, maybe there is a bit of masochism in this thing. But the truth is that, even though you stand up believing your back will be hurting for a few days, later on you realize you actually feel more relaxed.

So, after the short thai experience I get into another plane and I reach Singapore. Paul is waitting for me in the aiport, we get into a taxi and we head to his place. I am surprised to see talk is using English with the taxi driver. The truth is that Singapore is a very “british” city, consequence of have been a colony of this country for many years. Everything is written in English, they drive like them and Paris Hilton new cd is announced everywhere. Paul lives in a complex of high buildings (this city is mostly high buildings) with swimming pool and very well located, close to the center. After an easy afternoon we get ready for going out in Clark Quay, very touristic area. International environment and very expensive and bad drinks, 8 euros Bacardi with too much ice. Anyway, I use my wallet to get into the mood. I managed to get friends with some british girls (I guess there is something useful about having lived there so many years) and they get us into a very nice place called Attica for free. There I talk with some Spanish guys.When I am about to order something I see this guy who apparently bought a whole bottle of Absolut Vodka for himself, he has about 8 glasses in front of him. When he sees me he asks me wheter I am up to the challenge, with a lot of sacrifice I help him to get rid of such a heavy task. Very friendly guy, we get friends and oh! surprise! he is british! Funny thing, 3 years in that country I only need one night in Singapore to socialize with those people more than in that whole period. Anyway, it happens to be a very funny night, laughs, shots and with the british who is in the company of his wife. Nobody would say she is that cause she is dancing with me very close while he is just looking and smiling, I guess is some kind of game between them. I dont get into trouble and just drink vodka and talk with the Spanish until the place close down. As I said, a funny night

Because of the british guy I lost Paul who went home earlier. Once again I have to find my way in a unknown city when been pretty drunk. Is OK, Paul´s place is not far away. But when I am getting there I see this Asian girl, arround 16 and totally fucked up next to the road. She is almost unconscious with her stuff spread all ove the floor. My drunk mind requires me to help her, I sit down whith her, get her stuff back in the bag and take her in my arms out of the road so no car can kill us. Few times I have seen someone so fucked up, she has no control over what she says or does, she is a total zombie. I am not exagerating when I say I probably spent about an hour trying her to tell me her address so I could order a taxi. I have no idea if she really understands english or not but since I am also quite drunk I get very stubborn and dont leave her alone. Finally she reacts, I manage to get her up and then, suddendly, she embraces me and start crying like hell, telling me a lot of stuff in chinesse. I would really like to know what was going on with the poor girl. So we stay in this weird situation quite a few time until I finally see a taxi, I get her inside not before I make sure she already remembers her address. And then, when the taxi is leaving she looks at my face for the first time from the window and say goodbye with her hand to this guy she will never see again and she probably wont remember tomorrow. Maybe this sounds ridiculous written like this but at that ime, 8 am, and in such a remote place, I felt I was the most decent man in the world. I got home feeling I had done the good thing of the year…

Big Weekend

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So many things happened this weekend that I don’t think they are going to fit in a single post. Actually, the streak started last Wednesday, with the night out to the Sudenter I already talked about. But you know, once I get into going out the thing always gets wild. It’s been five days in a row going out a lot, yesterday was Monday and I finally had a rest, 14 hours sleeping got me new and strong enough to write again.

But, as Jask the ripper said, let’s make parts of this. I will start with Thursday, the day I got beaten up. Yes folks, I had to come to the most peaceful country in the world to get into my first fight. The “how” and the “why” is not too clear yet. It was one of these nights supposed to be quiet until the moment Leo suggested a few glasses of Arehucas in his place. There we got excited talking about different stuff so we decided a visit to the Moose was mandatory. Moose always success and we had a funny time there, chatting with some Dannish girls, 2 or 3 times bigger than any of us but very friendly (I guess that’s the way it is..). So, we went to LA again and it happened to be that there was a bunch of guys there with another concept of fun. It seemed there was a look they did not like and pummm, before I could realize I had been hit. I believe they skipped the normal rough talking and pushing stage and jumped over me. This probably had something to do with my lack of reflects and more than probably with the bad luck I carry with me lately. This normally affects people around me, Elena-Atenas damaged her knee when trying to climb to a fence where I was, I accidentally broke Manuel-Paris’s face when playing basketball, Leo went to the ground the night I made him Flint… And, finally it was my turn. I guess it was unavoidable. The result in the picture..

Important comment here, Denmark is not a dangerous place! Not at all! Those guys were a bunch of palestinians probably pissed of because of something. Don’t think this kind of events is common here, actually is really unusual this happens. In fact, the guys left immediately as if everybody had started to look bad at them. And of course, we continued the night, such a minor incident can not stop a true party-man. We went back to the Moose where I still stayed till very late. And that’s the way the rough Thursday finished…

Next day there was a special plan: Sweden! We were visiting the famous Malmo festival, my eye was very purple and the hangover though, Leo could not make it even to take the train, he was feeling very sick and had to go back home. Anyway, there we went, Ivan and me, right after we got there we met an Italian friend of him. Such a small world, the guy was on his way to Stockholm and decided to stop in Malmo to see the festival till 11 when his train was leaving. But I guess he was not counting with finding a couple of Spanish guys armed with a bottle of rum. There is no better way to colonize a new country than some street drinking, using the table of a bar and, not happy with that, ask for a cowboy picture with the waitress…

Once the Italian left we got into the real thing. Kind of disappointing though, the festival mainly consisted on a bunch of streets full of places serving any kind of food: greek, Mexican, Arabian… People were too young for us and there was not much going on so we started to ask for the Malmo going out area. In the meantime, something really weird had happened, the rum in my bottle had dissapeard, I guess it had a whole cause Ivan was not drinking and the Italian guy only had a glass. I don’t know what happened…

Churros en Suecia???

As we were not really finding the right way we joined a very friendly Swedish guy who was hanging around with four girlfriends. It happened to be that the guy was part of the Swedish national swimming team, sure he was, 2 meters of muscles, all those girls were rotating around him. The funniest moment was when he mentioned he was only 19. Very friendly people but as soon as we could we got rid of them and continued the night at our own. We ended up in a nice irish place where two very weird guys were playing some music. Ivan talked to them and managed to get the address of the next cool place to visit. Jajajaja very funny place, typical gothic – weird place, people dressing very very rare, black make-up, girls hanging around wearing bras, a lot of leather and the most funny thing: there was a karaoke in the second floor!. I guess this can only happen in Sweden, to see a collection of sinister people holding a micro and singing very loudly every kind of weird songs is priceless!

So, we stayed there until very late and then looked for another place. Unfortunately admission was very expensive everywhere so we got into the train back to Copenhagen. In order to sleep? Nooooo, Copenhage has a very interesting night life even at 4. As soon as we got there we headed to the Moose which was, as usual, pretty crowded. If Thursday had been the fights day Friday was been the good vibrations one. I have to tell you again how friendly is these people, we were sit down, having a beer when we saw a girl with a tie passing. We asked her why she was wearing that and she immediately smiled and sit down with us. The boyfriend, or whatever he was, was standing in the bar happily, later on we also talked to him. Pure Moose spirit.

When we were leaving the Moose we found a group of Danish people and they immediately offered us to join them for going to another place, named Hong Kong, located in the most posh area here in Copenhagen and open till 11. So there we stayed with our new Danish friends and the girl with the tie who shown up after a while! At 8 we left, it was already dawn and time to finish a great night in which we partied in two different countries. Definitely one of the most complete ones so far.

Copenhagen Nightlife

Hi folks,
It’s been a few days I dont write here and not because nothing happened but because of oh! Surprise! I am working. Well, not too much anyway, don’t get scared, let’s say I am spending around 4 hours per day but that’s believe or not, a lot for me. Therefore, after such an effort, I get totally exhausted and unable to write here.

Last time I promised to talk about Danish night life, something I am starting to discover. Let’s start with the reference place: The Moose. Why? Because it is the typical cheap place that I like very much for starting the night. Very very cheap, in the happy hour a pint of Tuborg beer costs 15 krones (2 euros) and not sophisticated at all. This place is always crowded and full of drunk Danish people, you always end up talking to one of them. The is a dark and painted room at the back of the place where you can enjoy the bat atmosphere and one of these “Trainspotting” toilets. They have one of these machines for selecting your own music. Of course they only have stuff like Guns and Roses, The Doors, Nirvana… This bar is not suitable for sophisticated persons who like expensive and stylish places, full of beautiful women. Of course there are also some nice women around but to the Moose you go for drinking

After the Moose the night usually becomes confusing and I normally let Giorgos or Leo be the guides so I end up in places whose names I don’t remember later. An exception is the LA, close by and, depending on the day, more or less crowed. Copenhagen, like England, allows you to go out every day as long as you show up in the proper place. Actually is much better to go out during the week rather than the weekends. As everywhere, open till late discos charge the entrance, in weekend you pay around 50 krones (7 euros) to get in, drink is not included. The environment is in general pretty nice, usual music, not very different from Spain in fact apart from the higher density of blonde girls…

A funny place you could go during last month was the “Love boat”, very similar to the mythic Newcastle’s “Princess Tuxedo”. It happens to be a disco made out of a boat in the middle of Copenhagen’s main channel. Essential for those who want to extend the night until the end. Here is where Danish get definitely wasted and is not rare to see them jumping naked to the channel afterwards (remember, this is Denmark, everything is normally cleaner). Anyway, the Love Boat is already gone and wont be available again until the next summer.

So mainly, this is the way you hang around here, apart from some special days like the last Saturday: difficult situation, few people, Giorgos is traveling in Norway and Leo in a barbecue. Ivan and me where deciding what to do when my dannish flatmate (the 24 years old, the teenager is gone, sorry fellas) tells me about an “illegal party”. An illegal party? What’s that? It happens to be, that there is a group of dannish organizing big partys in empty buildings, like okupas. You never know when the party will be until a couple of hours before it starts, when you get a sms with the place. It seems Anne knows about this stuff, great!, she tells us where the party is and there we go. Great thing dude! A huge empty warehouse absolutely crowed of dannish people. They have set up a massive stereo music system and people are hanging around in the semi-destroyed and dark rooms of the warehouse. Some guys climbing the roof immediately get my attention. Climbing roofs is something I always considered a good idea when I was drunk. It seems that I finally found something in common with these people! And I bet Ivan and me are the only Spanish around! So, the thing was looking really good but… after half an hour the music stops and… police shows up. Plenty of them. Everybody leaves the warehouse to the street but they stay there. One of the cops use a speaker to tell something to the crowd, the street traffic gets interrupted. People start to yellow at the police, some of them start to throw bottles. Ops, situation is fucked up, I am sure there will be violence here. Noooo… this is Denmark, here even police is friendly. They don’t react and the situation becomes surrealistic, people all over the street, drinking and shouting and cops in the middle of the mess, totally quiet, without pushing anyone, like apologysing for been disturbing there. It is like if they had politely asked people to leave but they don’t want them to rush but to take it easy. And the situation continues like this for a long time, actually it even seemed that people were going back to the warehouse to keep the party going. Police got back to their vehicles. But they didn’t leave, they stayed there, blocking the traffic but without disturbing the party guys. At this point we left so I don’t know how the thing ended up.

The other cool place to go is the Studenter, yesterday we went there for the first Wednesday international meeting. The new generation of Copenhagen Erasmus is about to come and there was already a few of them around. Well, actually a lot of them, the place was crowded. Typical Erasmus bar, it reminded me a lot to places like the Hancock in Newcastle or Cardiff’s Toad. You could feel the same kind of environment. Is funny to see situation from outside, all these groups of recently arrived people getting to know each other, “where are you from?”, “what do you study?” and these kind of starting questions. Lost guys hanging around without knowing anyone.. The ones not wasting the time and already trying to pool all the girls… Pure Erasmus in its launching stage, when you are still getting adapted to the new place. Fuck, what a memories, I am getting old. I think I will be a frequent here

Special plan for this weekend, the time is getting close… first experience in Sweden. We are going to Malmo festival, Malmo is a Swedish city in the border with Copenhagen, 20 min away by train. I am going to spend one year in that country so I guess I better take a look first. I will tell you about it in the next post.

PD: as I lost my camera in one of those wild Madrid ICEX nights I can´t provide any graphical stuff. But hopefully I will get one in Singapore!

ICEX at Malasaña

Well, here some pictures from the second ICEX Thursday night out. This time the environment was not so posh, first a few sangrias and tapas in the Plaza Mayor area…

Then we went to Malasña…

Martuky and Dublin

Meeting Elenita (hello Pons ) who was arround with a friend…

And finally closing last Malasaña´s club…

Dubai, Beirut, Estocolmo, Tokio y Jesús

All pictures here

Icex at Palacio de Gaviria

As I said in a previous post, before I leave for my new job in Sweden I have to spend a month and a half in Madrid, doing some training together with the other 71 guys (and some substitutes) who got the positions. Actually this training is been exactly as it had been described to me by the people from previous years: fucking boring, appart from a few exceptions, the contents are not interesting at all and I dont think they will be useful to me. However, the environment there could not be better. This was also quite expectable, put 71 guys together for a month and a half, most of them ex Erasmus and more interested in partying and travelling than in the “exciting” job to be done in the ICEX offices and the thing will definitely get wild… As it is quite complicated to remember the names of so many people we ended up calling each other using the destinations i.e. my name is now “Estocolmo”.

So the first demostration of what this period in Madrid is going to be about came the second Thursday, when most of us decided to go out to “Palacio de Gaviria”, one of the most popular discos for foreign people in Madrid and where I have some connections thanks to a friend from university who is working there.

We first drunk at the Orion apartments, it seems that this place is going to be the main ICEX place to meet before going out. Thanks to Guatemala, Pekín and Sideny for their hospitality. An old Erasmus friend of me, Sergio, who was back in Madrid after a year teaching Spanish in San Diego joined us.

friki picture: computer guys drinking..

From there we went straight to the Palacio, David managed to do what it seemed impossible (thanks dude) and arround 30 ICEX computer guys got inside the place for free. The party did not dissapoint..

Therean, Varsovia, Taipei, Ryhad, HoChiMin, Estocolmo, Sergio…

Washington, the crack

As we had lectures next morning people was leaving during the night so at the end just a few of us stayed until the place closed…

Last ones standing (plus México): Miami, Pekín and Estocolmo

It was already early morning and we had to be in just in an hour so the night ended eating some “churros” (spanish meal) and going home for a few minutes rest…

All pictures here

Erasmus life is over

This is a sad post, I am leaving Cardiff. I spent 2 very intense years here, I met a lot of people and had great fun. But it was the time for a change, the city had become too small and, let´s face it, I am too old for been an Erasmus. So, such an event required a proper celebration, which happened to be the last party in that aparment in “The Walk” street…

Very emotive moment, if I wasnt such a cold bastard I would have cried, farewell card and a video with the best moments of these two years in Cardiff. A great memory, thanks to Paul which was the main organizator of this and to all the people participating:Marola, Lucía, David, Xavier, Patricia, Petra, Francesca, Laura, Greg, Diego, Giannis, Monika, Crystel… I love you all!!

And finally, we went to the most regular place for Erasmus people. Last night at Cuba´s club..

Paul, future of the Flint dinasty in Cardiff

All pictures here