A few tips on living in Madrid

Let me give you a few tips about living in Madrid. The first thing you need to know is, of course, how to find an apartment, but I already wrote another post entirely about that. So now I am going to share with you some information about public transport in Madrid and some clubs that I’ve been to, so that you know where to party once you arrive to Madrid.

Source

Transport:

There are two ways to travel around Madrid: the subway and the buses. I never take the bus because the subway is much more convenient for me. The only bad thing about it is that usually in the mornings and in the peak hours it is so crowded that you literally cannot even breathe. And it is quite expensive too. As for the tickets, you can buy just one ticket which costs you around 1, 50 EUR, a pass of ten which costs you 12, 50 EUR or a monthly pass, which is the best option if you travel a lot, which will cost you 35 EUR if you are under 23 years old and 54, 60 EUR if you are above 23 years old. It doesn’t matter if you are a student or not – the only thing that matters is your age. But, attention – the subway opens at 6 am and closes at 1:30 am every day, be it a weekday or a weekend day. At some stations it might close a bit later, because for what I know, at 1:30 all the trains leave the main stations for the last time. During the day, the frequency is around 4 minutes, but after like 6pm it is reduced to 15 minutes. It is the best way to travel, the subway will get you anywhere you need.

So what do I do if I want to come back home from a party at 4am and I don’t want to pay the taxi, you will ask. Well, there are the night buses. The night buses are called “buhos” in Spanish and all of them take off from Plaza de Cibeles. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you now which lines go where, because honestly I do not use them a lot. A little tip though: I do not know the city so well to know exactly where to get off, even if it is fairly close to my house, so what I do is to give the driver my address and ask him to let me know where to get off. It always works and this way I do not get lost. But, even if you get lost somewhere in the city in the middle of the night don’t worry too much – Madrid is pretty safe, at least in the central zone. If you have the tickets for the subway, they are also valid for the buses so it is very convenient. There is also the Renfe, it’s a kind of a fast train, similar to the subway, but sometimes it can be a faster option, especially if you live on the outskirts of the city.

The clubs:

There are several clubs that you have to go to. There are some that are more expensive than others, but believe me, they are worth it. Let’s take the most popular one: Kapital. It is located near the Atocha metro station and the entrance costs around 20 to 25 euros per person. If you come with a group of friends, you can buy a bottle (they cost around 100 euros at least) and divide the cost of it among all of you. Then you will get an area with sofas and a little table just for you and your friends at one of the few floors that it has. And each floor has a different kind of music so there is everything you can wish for. The bottom floor though has a stage on which the DJ’s perform and generally it’s all about electronic music, some special effects with lights and artificial fires and stuff like that. It is always crowded though, especially at the weekends, but it is a perfect place for organizing a birthday party or something like that. Oh, and the drinks at the bar are super expensive (one drink costs 15 euros). Then, there is Gabanna – another one of the fancy, expensive clubs – the entrance costs around 15 euros and the drinks are the same price. Though the entrance fee will include one or two drinks, depends on the day and the special offers that they have. It is much, much smaller than Kapital, but equally crowded. It is better located though, much closer to the center, between the Príncipe de Vergara and Goya stations. And the music is very good also, mostly electronic, as you can imagine, but it is really good.

Then there are some clubs in the Sol area, like Independence, Joy and Moondance which you should try. These three are the most popular among the Erasmus students and you can find a thematic party every single day of the week. Be careful with Independence though – they put different kind of music every day, so check it before you go (I once went on a Saturday, paid 10 euros for the entrance and was disappointed to find that it was a Rock day… Not that I don’t like rock, it’s just that it is not really danceable…). As for Moondance, it is more of latin music type of club. There are also a few typically latin clubs in Madrid, but I only know Lasal. You may also want to try out Ricorda – situated near the Islas Filipinas metro station (quite far from the center) or Lolita – located near the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

By the way, if you join the Erasmus Madrid group on Facebook, you will always receive invitations to different Erasmus events that are organized in the clubs of Madrid – so if you click “going” and write your name on the wall, you are going to be added to a list that guarantees you a free (or discounted) entrance fee with some additional stuff, like drinks included or open bar, etc.

Bars and restaurants:

Source

If you want to eat a nice dinner outside, I suggest you find a little corner bar, one of those located on small streets that no one goes to. Honestly. These are always the best – no crowd, relatively cheap, good food and nice people. And order the Menú del día: it is a menu composed of three meals: entrants, second meal and a dessert. You also get one drink and a coffee, and all of it costs around 10 euros. The good thing is that they offer a few options, so you can choose the one that you like the most. As for the most popular restaurants, I think it is Vips and Foster’s Hollywood (American style). And of course, there are a lot of Burger Kings, Mcdonald’s and things like that. To give you an idea of the prices, let me tell you that a simple menu in Burger King costs between 6 to 8 euros. If you want to just go out to drink a beer and maybe eat something small, try out the tapas bar. In Spain, it is a very popular custom to have tapas – a variety of small appetizers, or snacks, that are served with a drink. So if you order a beer you get one small plate of tapas. It can be anything, olives, patatas bravas (potatoes with hot sauce), calamares (calamari), empanadillas, salads, cheese, slices of Spanish hams… Perfect for accompanying a beer, or a sangria, which is a really popular drink in Spain – it’s wine with fruits and tastes delicious.

The most popular tapas bar is 100 montaditos – it is even more than a tapas bar, because instead of serving tapas, you can order montaditos (small sandwiches) from a list of 100 positions. On a normal day both montaditos and the drinks cost from 1 to 2 euros each, but on Wednesdays and Sundays the prices drop to 1 euro. Totally cool. Another one of the popular bars in Spain is La Sureña – they serve mostly seafood tapas though. The coolest thing about La Sureña are the buckets of beers that you can buy – 10 beers for just 5 euros. You can also try La Risueña, but personally, I don’t like it a lot, because it is a copy of La Sureña, with a worse quality and higher prices, and apart from that there is not much room to sit, so you have to be standing most of the time.

So, have fun and eat good!

Photo gallery