Botellón

Last night Rachael and I decided to party in Rota, which we usually do at least once a week. Since we are both short on cash until we get paid at the end of the month, we did some predrinking at the apartment. I mixed up my new favourite drink which I discovered here in Spain - Malibu rum with pineapple juice (Malibu con piña) and we were also drinking sangria and doing shots of vodka.

We walked around town for a bit, trying to find a busy place. At first we headed to a disco which we had found while walking around, but it looked closed, so we went towards the port, hoping to find people and a busy club or something. What we found was even better - we ran into the botellón (literally translated, it means "the big bottle"). Botellón is what all the teenagers in Spain do - they take empty bottles or cups, alcohol, and some kind of drink mix or juice and they drink in a big group on the street. In Rota, the "designated area" happens to be along the port. There must have been about a hundred kids milling around, all between the ages of about 15 and 19. And although it became illegal to drink in public in December in Spain, there were police only a little ways away from the group of kids and no one was trying to break up the party, so I get the feeling that they kind of turn a blind eye to this kind of thing and don't really enfore the new law.

On the way home, we stopped in the town's Irish pub. Rachael and her parents had gone there a few times when she first got to Rota, and she had made friends with the Irish guy (Patrick) who owns the place. Because of that and because it's generally fairly busy, we like to stop by and have a drink once in a while. Not to mention the fact that last night, for the second time, Patrick gave us free shots! I could get used to that...