New Year’s Eve Party In The Spanish Capital
Puerta Del Sol, Madrid
Madrid, Spain – It’s one of Europe’s great cities. With great food, vibrant culture, fabulous architecture and friendly people, Madrid has a lot of appeal to people who visit the Spanish capital. However, I personally think it’s an underrated European city in relation to its peers. Often, visitors to Spain would either go to Barcelona or head down south to Andalucia and the Mediterrannean coast for some sun, and bypass Madrid altogether. I think people are missing out, but I’ll be happy to keep this secret to myself (oops! spilled the beans now! LOL!) Madrid still gets its fair share of tourists visiting from all over the world, but the numbers are nowhere near those visiting Paris or Rome or even Barcelona.
The New Year’s Eve celebration is a big thing in Madrid. It hosts Spain’s biggest New Year’s Eve festivities and is televised nationwide to the rest of Spain. The party centres on Puerta del Sol, in the heart of Madrid. Several stages are setup in the area, offering a wide range of music from techno dance music to hiphop, to Tango and Flamenco style music. People flock to the streets and the verandahs on the buildings surrounding Puerta del Sol have tons of party goers looking down on the street to check out the festivities.
New Year’s Eve Luck
Clock Countdown at Puerta Del Sol, Madrid
I was fortunate enough to have experienced this New Year’s Eve festivities a couple of years ago. I flew in from London to Madrid on the 31st of December just to be able to celebrate the New Year in this fabulous Spanish capital. It was my first time to travel on New Year’s Eve, and I hadn’t realised how busy the airports in London can get on that day! The queues were ridiculously long, and we almost missed our flight!
Our flight was in fact overbooked, and the lady at the check in counter shouted to everyone that the last direct flight to Madrid only has 3 seats left and the rest of the passengers would have to take the flight to Geneva and connect to Madrid from there. I was travelling with my sister and my brother in law, and my brother in law went for it and luckily we got the 3 seats just in time! The downside was, because we checked in too late, they forgot to load our luggages into the plane and we landed in Madrid with no luggage at all!
We reported the case of our missing luggage to the airline, and they told us it would be a couple of days before we get our luggage! I needed some clothes to wear for the next few days, and my sis, brother-in-law and I didn’t have a clue where to shop in Madrid. So, we ended up at the department store called El Corte Ingles, which we then realised is one of the most expensive places to shop in Spain! Nevertheless, we enjoyed shopping for our new outfits in time for the New Year’s Eve party at Puerta del Sol!
Venezuelan Party goers, New Year's Eve, Puerta Del Sol
One interesting tradition they have in Spain is that at the stroke of 12 midnight, everyone on the streets start to eat 12 grapes to symbolise good luck and great fortune for the upcoming year. This is one tradition that has actually been adopted into the Philippine culture, as it was something I grew up with, and I never knew it was originally a Spanish tradition!
In Puerta del Sol, people were just handing out grapes and sharing with people on the streets. It was such a great atmosphere where everyone is just so happy and having a great time with the party. When the clock struck midnight, some fireworks display happened in Puerta del Sol, and confetti poured in.. I met a few Venezuelans and locals alike on the streets, and everyone had a fantastic time! This is one place I’d recommend to go for a New Year’s Eve Party!
More of Madrid on the next post. Have a Fabulous Journey ahead!
