Erasmus Welcome Party at Soumat

After our siestas, we began to prepare for our first proper Erasmus night out. We were aware that most nights out in Spain didn't end until the morning so we all had a nap in the hope that we would last the night! Again we had pre-drinks at our flat in Plaza de Mina as it was near Soumat, where the Erasmus party was set to start.

Once we had all arrived and had a couple of drinks we headed on to Soumat, not entirely sure where it was, but it soon became apparent. We walked past one road that was filled with people, some we recognised as Erasmus, so we knew we were on the right place. We headed inside and were met with an ESN flag, and many people wandering around with name stickers on, we weren't sure whether we were all meant to have these stickers, we never found any so just went without!

The music in Soumat was great, just a shame that it was so packed that it was absolutely boiling and very hard to move around, we quickly understood why there were so many people standing outside.

We decided to grab a drink and then perhaps head outside, however after half an hour of waiting we still hadn't been served. It seemed to be no order to how people were getting served, the staff were clearly stressed out. I did manage to place my order once, and a barman got out glasses and put ice in them but then disappeared to go and collect glasses from around the club and my drinks were quickly forgotten about. It seemed to me that they had run out of glasses as there were none to be seen behind the bar, and drinks were only being made once the poor guy at the sink had washed up a cup! We soon gave up on drinks and headed outside as the heat was becoming unbearable, luckily on the way out we passed a man with some water pistols loaded with some kind of alcohol, and he was kind enough to shoot some into our mouths for us. It wasn't nice but at least it was a drink! Outside was even busier than before, at least a hundred people filled the road. For one of the 'biggest bars in Cadiz' it was still nowhere near big enough!

We cooled down outside, and someone offered to take a photo of the girls from my flat - first flat photo now that everyone had arrived! However the fun was soon broken up when the police arrived to insist that we could not all be in the street at this time of night (around 1:30 a. m. ) so we headed back inside and many people headed to other bars, probably because it was impossible to fit many more people inside Soumat! Soon there were people congregating outside again to escape the heat, we joined them after a quick dance inside, but mainly to avoid the attentions of a couple of older spanish men who didn't seem to be able to take a hint.

By 2:30 a. m. several of us were really hungry, at home in England 3 a. m. is take away time! So we set off in search of somewhere to eat, we headed to a kebab shop that we knew of only to find it closed, when we asked some locals if there was anywhere that we could eat they all scoffed, apparently spaniards don't eat at 3 a. m.! Some people did point us in the direction of the town hall, so off we headed, hopefully that Burger King was still open, McDonalds often have 24hour restaurants at home. Unfortunately there was no such luck, feeling a little desperate by now we asked some of the local street cleaning team, who led us around the corner to a '24hour Euro Vending' area, it wasn't quite what we were thinking of but we were so greatful for the food! There were sandwiches, crisps, chocolates and drinks in the vending machines, so we all bought something and sat on the steps and ate. Once we were satisfied we were ready to continue the night, and meet up with the rest of the Erasmus people, who by then should have been at La Punta, or at least heading there.

We arrived at Sala Supersonic where we found many of the Erasmus people, entry was free, this club was mercifully much cooler than Soumat, and a bit more spacious, although none of the clubs or bars in Cádiz are very big. The music in there was very 70's and 80's relaxed type thing, playing the Grease Soundtrack and songs like Surfin' USA. It was a nice enough club however some of us were after something a bit livelier and more modern clubbing music and so we moved along to the next club 'Aki Te Quiero' which was much more what we were after. We had a great time in there dancing the rest of the night away until 6 a. m. when the crowds started to thin and we decided it was probably time for us to go home. Not bad we thought for our first attempt at keeping pace with the Spanish on a night out, next time we would be sure to bring snacks though, to stop getting peckish mid evening.

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