It took us a whole month to get our disco shoes on but we have finally cracked it. The trick to clubbing in this town is to make midnight the start of your night out, and head out to your first bar at that time. After a couple of hours drinking you head to a club at around 2am and go home to bed as the sun rises. It took us while to get our ever so British drinking clocks in order but we are getting into the spirit of it now.
We made our first inroads into clubbing after joining a Spanish language class and it turned out to be really good fun. It is called Espanol Anando and is run by a traveler who takes you out to bars and cafes, teaches you some words and then makes you ask strangers for directions, find out the cost of tickets at train stations and try to buy items from supermarkets. As it all starts with a refreshing afternoon cerveza and ends with an even more refreshing evening cerveza, it beats being stuck in a classroom.
So we got chatting to a nice man from San Francisco who is on our course and part of a big dance scene in California, friends with big DJs and that sort of thing and he tells us about a top new hip local sound that is the latest craze about to sweep International clubs. It all sounds a bit hip for me and Steve but we thought we´d give it a whirl anyway.
The club was great, it was called Zizek and is a small room at the back of a dance club that is fitted out with projector screens, modern and airy, busy but not too packed. And there is a really nice friendly feel about the place. And after all those horror stories of how well dressed clubbers are in this town it was a relief to see people just wearing jeans and trainers like the rest of the world.
The music was called Cumbia something like a slow down salsa beat mixed to dance music. It was well done and really interesting and kept us dancing away for a good few hours even though not really our cup of tea.
The really great thing was returning home along deserted city streets as the summer sun rose across the roof tops and high rise blocks.
After our big night out, we were relieved to have our Spanish lesson over dinner in a restaurant and start at 8pm the following day so we had a nice long lie in. But of course, you have to be sociable and when the lesson finished we went out again, this time closer to home to a bar called the Red Door. It is quite nice little funky place built above a car park and you have to ring a bell to have the bar staff let you up.
While there we met a lovely band, made up of Dutch and Argentinian players, whose guitarist looks like Gael Garcia Benal and who we are reliably informed is the rising star of Buenos Aires tango. Made drunken arrangements to go and see them play next week. Not sure we are ready for hardcore proper tango but when in Rome eh.
