| Spanish
Nightlife Glossary
Pub
Pronounced, confusingly, 'puff.' Establishment catering to
'early' nightlifers - until about 3 am, that is, depending
on bye-laws. The word originally meant somewhere done out
to look like the inside of an English pub, all dark colours
and fake leather upholstery, but if you come across such these
days it probably means it hasn't been redecorated since the
seventies. It is likely to be your staple type of nightlife
locale as a visitor, which is why I put it in first place
in this glossary, the other terms going in alphabetical order.
After
After-hours, the kind of place that opens at six or seven
in the morning when the discos are shutting.
Club
Brothel. Literally, in spite of the gregarious name. You may
enter one or not as you wish (for you are, are you not? master
or mistress of your own destiny), but don't say I didn't warn
you. You will find them everywhere, most noticeably strung
out along highways, where they are surprisingly well illuminated.
Copa
The word means 'glass' as in the recipient, but here refers
to almost anything you drink in a pub, especially
in a tall glass. Hence, bar de copas is a synonym
for pub.
Cuba Libre
Strictly, rum and coca cola, but often used (especially in
its abbreviated form, cubata) to mean any long, mixed
drink.
Disco-Pub
Late-night bar where care is taken over the quality of the
music and sound, likely to have a DJ or at least a waiter
who acts as such and very possibly even a dance floor: in
smaller towns and cities, particularly, disco-pubs have the
same function as discotheques.
Discoteca
Discotheque, which you could have worked out for yourself,
I know. I'll just mention that the entrance price will normally
include your first drink, and that lots of people make that
last all night, which is fair enough. The more exclusive the
disco, the greater the difference between the entrance price
and drinks prices - in cheap ones, it is often the same.
Marcha
Very roughly, 'action.' It's a slightly old-fashioned word,
but still valid, and the first expression you as a party-hungry
visitor should learn in Spanish (after "una caña,
por favor," of course) is "¿dónde
está la marcha?" ("where's it at?").
Most towns in Spain, however small, have at least one street
where the pubs are concentrated and it isn't always
easy to find, so ask someone (nine times out of ten, they'll
be flattered that you think them hip and draw you a map).
Whiskería
OK, you could possibly enter one of these for a glass of Johnny
Walker, but most people go for the young and not-so-young
ladies attending to the customers. Not quite a brothel, more
one of those places where the girls try to keep you drinking
as long and as expensively as possible, though they are also
likely to be 'available' themselves.
SPV Articles and Links Pages
Ibiza
Nightlife
The nightlife of the island of hedonism is so magnetic, not
a few tourists never see the light of day.
Madrid
Nightlife
Madrid residents often come back from a holiday in, for example,
New York, complaining that they found it boring. For Madrid's
nightlife is justly famous and has to be seen to be believed.
Where else do you get traffic jams at five o'clock in the
morning?
Selected Links
Pacha
The mother and father of all macrodiscotheques began in Ibiza
but now has clubs throughout the world. Even so, it is in
Spain where it still has the greatest deployment - Madrid,
Majorca, Torrevieja, Sitges and more.
|
