Hola, I did some backpackin during the Aug and ended up in Madrid where i had ( obviously) a wicked time!! Came home and missed it madly so have convinced a few of my girly m8s to return beginning of sept for a week. The problem...when i was there before i had little money and was staying in Feuncarral so we only really spent evenings on the Gran via and Santa anna. So just wondering what peoples recommendations were for a good night out...struggling to find places with a hip hop, r'n'b feel....mayb even a bit of local speciality...!?
would really appreciate your help

I do have one recommendation for others though...'La comdiann'(santa anna..oppposite Black Jack) i think it was called... brilliant music!

Gracias
Jodi**

I suppose other good areas to go out at night are Alonso Mart�nez, Malasa�a. The area near Plaza de Castilla is more modern and fashion (although it is a bit far away from Fuencarral street, but there's always the underground ) La latina area and Plaza Mayor are great for tapas and food, and I find the place very charming and beautiful. I recommend the area Near Opera and Plaza de Oriente (Royal Palace) for strolling and taking nice pics, as well as Sabatini Gardens and Campo del Moro (Royal Palace gardens. I don�t know if you went last time, but I recommend a walk in El Retiro (Madrid�s Central Park )Las Cortes area (The Congress, near Santa Ana and Puerta del Sol)

Hey, thanks for all the information... We went last time to EL Retiro it was really nice..even convinced my friends to take a boat out! Just one question about using the metro..does it run late... and last time we werent sure whether it was safe...its harder to tell if you dont live there. I always felt perfectly safe..but i know i would never get the metro late in London! lol

Hello,

I always feel safe at the metro, but maybe I had luck so far.
The metro is only going until something about 12:30 and starts again at about 6 in the morning.
There are some nightbusses, but so far I never used them, because when you go out here, you seldom get home before 6 o'clock in the morning.

Have fun,
Kathrin

I'm sure it's open until 01.30...

The Metro in Madrid is open till 1:30 a.m every day, although from 12 pm trains pass every 15 minutes (it might take ages to go somewhere if u have to take a connection between lines). It starts again at 6 am, and at 7 a.m on sundays and festivos. It's quite safe, and you find many people (normal people) even if it's quite late. It is true that one can see very "peculiar" people, but normally they are not aggressive if you don�t stare at them (just kidding) On friday and saturday nights, u may come across some drunk people but, once again, not dangerous, normally. It is not frequent that one gets mugged in the metro.
Old lines (lines 1, 2, 3 and 4) are quite shabby, but charming at the same time. There's also the legend of the Ghost Station in line 1 between Bilbao and Iglesia stations, which adds some "mystery" to those trips to the underwold. The Ghost station was Chamber�, but they closed it in the early 1970's because it was very near Iglesia station (and made trips longer innecessarily). Nowadays, the train passes the station without stopping, and generally, it remains unseen unless you keep close to the window glass and put your hands around your eyes to avoid light inside the train to be reflected. Then you see the ghost station submerged in complete darkness and silence, which is just broken for a few seconds every time a train passes. They say it keeps the same benches, adds on the walls, litters and metro maps which were placed there in the 70's. They have been recently destroyed by some some vandals who have covered the walls with spray paintigs and burned the paper adds (a real pitty. But the legend is still there!!
As regards night buses (the buhos -owls- as we call them), they depart from Cibeles Square (Banco de Espa�a) and are a good alternative while the metro is closed. Sorry, I�m afraid I don�t have the time tables.
Hope this info is useful and interesting for you.

Like the 'Ghost Station' bit! I'll have to look out for that. There are a few ghosts in London on the underground as well.

Hola,
Thanxs, that infos going 2 b a gr8 help wen i nxt visit in Spet! Living in Watford im sure a few drunken men is nothin me and my friends cant handle!! Though when travelling round spain every where seemed so much safer anyway!Glad to hear its not just me being nieve!! lol
Diffently have to check the Ghost bit out...sounds xciting!!
Ghost in London underground? Have i been missing out???

Gracias.......Jodi*

Watch out, madrem�a! Ghosts normally remain unnoticed unless u know how 2 look 4 them I�ve given u some hints; the rest is up 2 you once u r here

The metro indeed runs until 1:30 am (another reason to go out late - as you can still catch the metro and by the time you're ready to come home- 6am is open again to take you back!

The buhos also run from Principe Pio (if you live in the outskirts) but you'd have to take a taxi or a long walk depending on where you went out to get there. But now Metro sur covers a large part of that also

As far as the metro late- its pretty safe. The drunk people can get scary sometimes (especially if you have the misfortune of someone throwing up! ) Never heard of the ghost station- I think more in this sense that its really still there- just no stop or lights there- I'm going to ask my mom about it- as she grew up next to the inglesia station- I'm going to go with a powerful flashlight to try and sneak a peak! I may be nuts but it would be cool to see!

As for line 1- the light blue one- its not shabby! Line 5 (the green one) is in bad need of some updating though- ewwwww!

Well, some stations in Line 1 look (and smell) like a cloaca sometimes, Espe. Very often u see licks and moho. At least I have seen it.
As regards line 5, it's really crowded with stations, and takes milleniums to cover a not very long distance (tell me about it, I have to take it some times and u have time to read the whole Bible b4 arriving anywhere. Besides, the colour of some station walls makes u believe u are in Disney Land or something like that
But that's the metro I�m afraid, and we must love it as it is.
���Qu� ser�a de Madrid sin el metro!!!

Madremia,

For London ghosts, try this link...
There are almost 40 ghost stations, scattered along the Tube's 255 miles of track, which have been abandoned over the years.

I here you talking about the Metro de Madrid and the timetables etc.
check this out. some have English as well as Spanish, you just have to look for the button.

http://www.metromadrid.es/

http://www2.aena.es/aeropuertos/barajas/nministerios.htm

http://www.travelinginspain.com/Madrid.html

http://www.rivilladebarajas.com/enlaces.htm

http://www.guiamundialdeaeropuertos.com/Airports/mad/mad.asp

http://malika.iem.csic.es/~grant/madi.html

http://www.renfe.es/ingles/empresa/cercanias/cercanias_madrid_horarios.html

Very interesting info about London tube's ghost stations, Laidback. There are really many in the world's oldest metropolitan underground network in the world!!
I�ve also read that there are may tunnels connecting lines in the Metro in Madrid. Metros are real underworlds!!
It is funny thinking about the fact that we, frequent metro users, spend quite a lot of time under the ground every day, in the intestines of the city.

Very useful links Iberian. If madrem�a gets lost when she comes to Madrid, es pa matarla!!! (kidding)
Besides, Madrid is not such a huge, enormous, descomual hyper- city as London is, so underground maps are easier to handle. I�m sure madrem�a won�t find it difficult at all, thanx to our super-advice