Swept up by Gay Pride

What a surprise!!! Without knowing it I booked the long weekend in Madrid right in the middle of the Spanish Gay Pride!! I stayed at the "lusso Infantas" hotel right in the heart of the Chueca district (a magnificent 4-star hotel both for its strategic position with the nightclubs and for the elegance and size of the room). We arrive on an Easy Jet flight from Milan (90 euro each) at 8.30 in the evening in Madrid; straight away a taxi to the hotel (in Chueca, that is).... I already see from the window the grandeur and beauty of the Madrid buildings.... and the euphoria starts to infect us....... but the fun begins when we're near the hotel and the taxi driver informs us he can't get to Calle des Infantas where the hotel is because the streets are closed for a party in progress!!! He drops us two streets away (on the Gran Vía) at a cost of 35 euro (the metro would have been better!!!!).

We walk with our trolley towards the hotel and begin to hear a great din of revelry.... we enter Calle des Infantas and we're left speechless!!!!!!!! Thousands of people in the middle of the lane drinking and smoking, dancing to the notes of dance music blasted at full volume!!!!!!... we look at each other and say.... BUT IT'S ONLY NINE IN THE EVENING!!!!..... Here that's how it is: at this hour the evening aperitivo kicks off before dinner, which must never be before ten! Adrenaline at full blast!!!!!!!! Bags in the hotel and straight off to revel in the Madrid movida!!!!! What a blast!!!!!!!!!! You go from one bar to another... always without paying (except for the copa or the cerveza) you see people dancing everywhere in the streets...

it's the Spanish Gay Pride!!!!!!!!!! Here the delirium kicks in!!!! Of course we overdo the drinking and in the evening (at six in the morning) we find ourselves in the room taking Plasil to keep from throwing up......... but it was so worth it!!!! The next day (we get up around two in the afternoon with an infernal headache) we decide to visit Madrid. We start from the Gran Vía, where we go wild with shopping, to reach the Puerta del Sol, then on to Plaza Mayor, a magnificent example of a Spanish square with a building (la Panadería) entirely painted on its façade! Then we go on to the Almudena cathedral and the Palacio Real, Plaza de Oriente and the opera house, and then wearily walk back to the hotel.

What a slog!! But we're happy all the same with the beautiful photos and the shopping (Zara, NH etc.) In the evening FLAMENCO!!!! We take the advice of the Lonely Planet, which recommends above all other places the Café de Chinitas, I have the reception book a table for two and in the evening (at 10.30) we're ready to dine..... the building from outside is magnificent, we immediately think we're in for a great "thrashing" in every sense...... Once inside, however, the place turns out to be more downmarket and the waiters few and rude. The show begins and immediately there are cries of OLE'!! But dinner also arrives (the house menu), which proves to be a real swindle... like a company canteen... the house wine is undrinkable... our "you-know-whats" start to grind and the irritation takes over from the show, which, beautiful as it is, doesn't move us as we thought.

The bill for two dreadful dinners with a stinking wine is 150 euro!!!! A fine rip-off of a tourist trap!!!!! Exhausted by the experience we go back to the hotel, but here the festive air of Chueca immediately brings back our good mood and our desire to carouse together with our Spanish friends! The next day is the big day of the Gay Pride parade!!! We go to see the start at Puerta de Alcalá.... it's a riot of music and celebration, of cheerful, colourful people with a great desire to make a racket and shout to the world the pride of diversity!!! A spectacle I'd never happened to take part in and that left us breathless!!! In the evening FIESTA all night long in the streets and squares of Chueca, with tin-drum bands played by the pride boys making rivers of amused people dance, eager to party. too beautiful...

too hard to express in words the feelings of those moments! The next day a late wake-up... it's Sunday and in the evening we have our flight to Milan.... with a bit of sadness at the thought of returning (and a bit of a downer from the previous evening's excesses) we go to the Reina Sofía museum to admire Picasso's Guernica... Wonderful!!!!!!! Then we drag ourselves to the Prado to see in particular the Goya..... always moving the paintings of the "Black Period", as well as the famous Maya Desnuda and Maya Vestida, then, cooked by tiredness, we rest a bit on the lawns of the Buen Retiro park, until we wait for six in the evening to go back to the hotel and pick up our luggage. Unfortunately it's really over.... but certainly the memory of one of the most fun holidays of my life won't be over soon!!!!!!!! Good Madrid to everyone! Bye Max