Par-tay in Spain

While this article that I have posted the link to here highlights the downfall of binge drinking in public places in Madrid, I can safely say that that is not the case here in Jerez!

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/spain/091106/spaniards-fight-their-rightto-par-tay

Here is my story of how I discovered public drinking in Jerez de la Frontera.

One night after coming home from going out at the normal Spanish time of around 5 in the morning, I was on the verge of passing out in my bed from exhaustion when I heard the faint sound of music coming from somewhere nearby.

The sound made me hopeful of finding a cool place to party near my house for the next weekend. I thought maybe it was a large club or some nearby concert, but as I passed into sleep I quickly forgot all about it.

The next Thursday I went out to a bar to meet up with another au pair and a Spanish girl she had met. The girl was called Blanca, a very very common name for girls here in Spain, and although she spoke some English, once she found out I can speak Spanish, she switched to the normal rapid and sometimes strange to hear Jerez Spanish.

While she was driving us home from the bar, we passed by the train tracks and she pointed out a very large group of young people hanging out by their cars in a giant empty parking lot.

Blanca explained to us that while drinking in public in Spain is illegal, at this particular location in Jerez the police allow the young people of the city to gather on the weekends to drink, listen to music, hang out and of course, drink some more without ever disturbing the social gatherers.

Naturally I realized this was a custom of Jerez that I would have to experience for myself, to write about here in my blog of course.

Well, anyways, a few more weeks passed and I tried to get the other au pairs to go there to drink, but they did not fully understand what I meant when I said it is a massive place for nothing but pre-gaming before heading to the discotechs around 2-3 in the morning.

Finally on Halloween I was able to convince the girls I was with to check it out, and so as we shared our 1 Euro bottle of pre-mixed sangria and peach alcohol (and no I don't want to comment on what we were drinking) as we walked between the rows of cars checking out the people(the boys' faces, and the girls' clothes).

So while the young people might be disbanning in Madrid from these giant public drinking parties, here in Jerez the custom is alive and well, and well thriving as 9 au pairs have joined the ranks of those flocking their every weekend for some drinking, socializing, and public fun!