I'm Done With Clubs

To preface, I'm a very introverted person who while was in Spain, forced myself to go out and be more social. Here's one of my experiences close to the conclusion of my stay due to COVID.

I am done with Clubs. It seems that every time I've gone out, nothing good has come. The first time it was a Salsa Club. One of the first red flags I should have noticed were the people I went with. I had barely known the guy who invited me, Sam. He was a bit older and he felt like he needed to take me under his wing to "learn the game". He gave me some good advice and it was working so I took a chance.

Before we set out I had a moment to meet the other guys that were going with Sam and I. Sam was Peruvian and knew a majority of the Peruvians living in Madrid. They all seemed friendly enough. I learned some Peruvian Slang I had never heard of. After taking some whiskey and beer to start the night, we set off to the Club.

The Club "La Baila" was in a seedy part of Madrid near Sol. I had never been to a club before so seeing the big bouncer in front of the building scared me a bit, since I was easily the whitest person there. Thankfully we got in no problem. We decided to split a bottle of whiskey, about 20 euros each from the 5 of us. It was quite dark in the club. There was the bar, some bathrooms, a seating area, and the dance floor.

It wasn't long till the servers brought out some food, the whiskey and a giant Hookah pipe. I don't smoke so I didn't partake in the hookah. Any worries or doubts melted as we began to heavily drink whiskey and energy drinks. Between the noise, the darkness and the alcohol it became hard to navigate the crowded club. I was very drunk and having a lot of fun. I didn't talk to as many women as I had originally wanted but I learned a bit about the guys I came with.

Eventually 6 am rolled around and they kicked out everyone for the night. Sam had disappeared. I could barely walk and decided to tag along with the other guys to figure out how to get home. We hadn't gotten 10 feet when I guess the Club owner's son pushed one of the guys I was with to the ground. I was shocked. He started bleeding out of his head onto his nice white button up shirt. We got out of the area, one of the others picking up the fallen guy. Eventually we decided to call an ambulance.

When the ambulance arrived, the police did with it. Spain has a much higher tolerance for public intoxication than the USA ever could. After telling the police what I had saw, they told me this was a "bad neighborhood". The police were polite but very serious. After patching up the guy they let us on our way.

At the Metro I ditched them and sobered up enough to figure out how to get home from where I was. Because of how far I lived from the "Centro" of Madrid. I didn't arrive back until around 8:30-9:00 am. I crashed for an hour, only to wake up to get ready for my first date in Spain.

Overall, this Club experience started out fun, then became a nightmare after the attack. I was scared that I was going to be attacked myself and got back home as soon as I could. One might think I would have learned my lesson, but I didn't. I might talk about my other stories at clubs. A word of advice to those partying in Madrid, stay out of Sol.