Spain dreams of normality before the first weekend without a state of alarm

It begins the first weekend after the state of alarm and the streets of many Spanish cities have been filled with life. Noisy terraces, large bottles and queues at nightclubs, all of which are often guarded by police officers willing to prevent a repeat of that early New Year's Eve which became the early morning of last Sunday, the first without mobility restrictions and a general curfew. . The euphoria and lack of control of the first night have given way, at least in the early hours of the morning, to a more restrained attempt to return to normality, but still far from pre-pandemic standards. On the day in which the lowest number of deaths has been registered since mid-September, according to the Ministry of Health; the eve the travelers hit the beaches,mountains and second homes, EL PAÍS has traveled in the last hours several points of the Spanish geography to see how the first weekend is being lived without a state of alarm. From the traditional Vistillas garden, in a soulless San Isidro in Madrid, to the terraces and crowded nightclubs of Malaga, passing through the “desire to go out” in the Marina of Valencia.

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• Health reports 58 deaths from coronavirus, the lowest number since late summer

Madrid: the lonely Violetera and a clueless chulapo

The garden of Las Vistillas is in the early morning of Saturday, San Isidro's day, of everything of everything except traditional.

The data of the pandemic in Madrid, somewhat more uninhibited since the state of alarm waned last Sunday, has not come back enough to allow it to recover one of its big parties.

Four vans and a dozen municipal agents haunt La Violetera, more frozen than ever in her solitary bronze.

Neither concert, nor festival, nor anything like it.

The occasional group of young people play cat and mouse with various agents who, flashlights in hand, hunt for the bottle, the eternal resource once, at midnight, the bars draw the blind.

"We are going to report you," the uniformed woman threatens, moving the beam of light. Immediately, the bottles return to the bags and the group disperses, leaving the bust of the painter Ignacio Zuloaga more alone in the shadows. "Either you throw it away or you go home." Neither one nor the other. Adrián, a 22-year-old law student, has come to Madrid for a few days from his Erasmus year in Slovakia and is not willing, along with his group of friends, to waste the night. Sol, 25, a Law and Politics student from Seville, can't find the cork on the bottle of white wine as they wander under the watchful eye of the police.

Along with Las Vistillas, Ras, 62, collects the terrace of the Pandora, a place open 25 years ago that used to make its best boxes at these parties. None of this has happened since the last San Isidro was celebrated without viruses in 2019. At eleven o'clock this Friday night the last customers fly. An abyss separates this night from those in which he dismantled inside the premises to leave it only as a warehouse and hundreds of people crowded into the bars installed in the street. "This is another world," he laments in the silence of a night illuminated by the blue of the sirens of the Municipal Police vehicles. A clueless young man with three friends looks out before turning around to see that not only is there no atmosphere,rather, the device will prevent them from sharing a drink in this Madrid still dominated by the holy virus.

Malaga: "This is to burst"

A terrace of a bar full of people on Friday in Malaga.Daniel Pérez

"This is going to burst," said Javier Suárez, 21, who along with his group of friends was milling around the entrance to the La Guarida bar, on Beatas street, in the heart of the historic center of Malaga. Nearby, on Granada street, a fortnight of girls were celebrating a bachelorette party at El Pimpi, where they would come out dancing and clapping their hands minutes before midnight. At that time, the waiters passed the accounts of the clients of their terraces to close on time. The only option then was the party rooms, licensed until two in the morning. In some of them, like the Gallery Club, dozens of young people - many foreigners - gathered at the door. "We come from Marseille to have fun," said Alain Deshayes, 20, while his friends danced without a mask in the middle of the street on their way to the tourist apartment "to continue the party."“We don't know what to do now,” affirmed María Ruiz along with her group of friends, with no destination to continue the party, just after midnight and without wanting to access rooms like Bambú, with fifty people waiting to enter. No sign of the 1,112 agents deployed by the Malaga City Council to control the most conflictive points of the night, with Pedregalejo, Teatinos and the center as the main focuses until four in the morning. The idea is to avoid situations "that can generate insecurity in the health field," according to the mayor, Francisco de la Torre.No sign of the 1,112 agents deployed by the Malaga City Council to control the most conflictive points of the night, with Pedregalejo, Teatinos and the center as the main focuses until four in the morning. The idea is to avoid situations "that can generate insecurity in the health field," according to the mayor, Francisco de la Torre.No sign of the 1,112 agents deployed by the Malaga City Council to control the most conflictive points of the night, with Pedregalejo, Teatinos and the center as the main focuses until four in the morning. The idea is to avoid situations "that can generate insecurity in the health field," according to the mayor, Francisco de la Torre.

"There are many people and little surveillance," said Alejandro Villén, secretary of the Centro Antiguo de Málaga neighborhood associations.

His entity complained that the terraces of bars and restaurants have doubled in size because of the pandemic.

"With the excuse of social distance now they have twice the number of people and noise," said Villén.

Meanwhile, in the Pedregalejo neighborhood, all the bars and restaurants were vacated after a great night.

“Everything in order so far.

When we appear they all stand firm, "concluded a tired police officer in front of the Vox bar.

Barcelona: alcohol, music speakers and police in El Born

Hundreds of young people were waiting for the first Friday night without a curfew in Barcelona. In fact, they were waiting for him, but also the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Guardia Urbana. The local Barcelona police had already drawn up a map with the “hot spots” -the same as last weekend, which were also the same where the bottles were concentrated during curfew- and several patrols were stationed in the afternoon in these places to discourage the presence of young people drinking alcohol on public roads. The points were squares in the district of Ciutat Vella, Gràcia, Sants and the beaches.

The Deputy Mayor for Security of the Barcelona City Council, Albert Batlle, announced yesterday that the usual staff of local police officers has been increased by 30% during night hours on weekends until the end of May. There are a total of 260 officers, who have been ordered to practice the "saturation" technique. Or, what is the same, arrive before those who are going to extend the party in the streets, and thus dissuade them from occupying the public thoroughfare before incidents and sanctions occur. On this first Friday night since the state of alarm ended, this technique has worked in places such as Plaza de los Àngels, Plaza Universitat or Plaza Terenci Moix. Where it has not worked, basically because it is a place full of bars and where it is allowed to open until 11pm,It is on the Paseo del Born. Hundreds of young people gathered in that street and in the Fossar de les Moreres square with cans of beer, alcohol and music speakers. Most were tourists or residents of foreign origin — especially French and Italian — who were eager to party. While the bars remained open, the Guàrdia Urbana agents strolled down the street forcing the participants in the party to throw beer cans into the garbage cans - in Barcelona the municipal ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcohol on public roads - and reminding the concentrates that they had to put on the mask correctly. There have also been sanctions but, above all, for disobedience to the authority after ignoring the orders of the agents.Hundreds of young people gathered in that street and in the Fossar de les Moreres square with cans of beer, alcohol and music speakers. Most were tourists or residents of foreign origin — especially French and Italian — who were eager to party. While the bars remained open, the Guàrdia Urbana agents strolled down the street forcing the participants in the party to throw beer cans into the garbage cans - in Barcelona the municipal ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcohol on public roads - and reminding the concentrates that they had to put on the mask correctly. There have also been sanctions but, above all, for disobedience to the authority after ignoring the orders of the agents.Hundreds of young people gathered in that street and in the Fossar de les Moreres square with cans of beer, alcohol and music speakers. Most were tourists or residents of foreign origin — especially French and Italian — who were eager to party. While the bars remained open, the Guàrdia Urbana agents strolled down the street forcing the participants in the party to throw beer cans into the garbage cans - in Barcelona the municipal ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcohol on public roads - and reminding the concentrates that they had to put on the mask correctly. There have also been sanctions but, above all, for disobedience to the authority after ignoring the orders of the agents.Most were tourists or residents of foreign origin — especially French and Italian — who were eager to party. While the bars remained open, the Guàrdia Urbana agents strolled down the street forcing the participants in the party to throw beer cans into the garbage cans - in Barcelona the municipal ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcohol on public roads - and reminding the concentrates that they had to put on the mask correctly. There have also been sanctions but, above all, for disobedience to the authority after ignoring the orders of the agents.Most were tourists or residents of foreign origin — especially French and Italian — who were eager to party. While the bars remained open, the Guàrdia Urbana agents strolled down the street forcing the participants in the party to throw beer cans into the garbage cans - in Barcelona the municipal ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcohol on public roads - and reminding the concentrates that they had to put on the mask correctly. There have also been sanctions but, above all, for disobedience to the authority after ignoring the orders of the agents.The Guàrdia Urbana officers were walking down the street forcing the participants in the party to throw beer cans into the garbage containers - in Barcelona the municipal ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcohol on public roads - and reminding the concentrates that they had to put on the mask correctly. There have also been sanctions but, above all, for disobedience to the authority after ignoring the orders of the agents.The Guàrdia Urbana officers were walking down the street forcing the participants in the party to throw beer cans into the garbage containers - in Barcelona the municipal ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcohol on public roads - and reminding the concentrates that they had to put on the mask correctly. There have also been sanctions but, above all, for disobedience to the authority after ignoring the orders of the agents.

Done the law done the snare.

Many of those concentrated in the streets were drinking this Friday from huge cardboard cups of the kind used for coffee with milk.

THE COUNTRY has been able to verify that these glasses are ideal containers to hide, from the eyes of the police, alcoholic drinks.

When the clock has struck 23.00, just the time when the bars have to close, the vans of both police forces have combed the Born area, forcing the concentrates who were going through the streets trying to find other areas of public road where to continue with the speakers and alcohol.

When the police vans have acted, they have come to hear a "freedom", which has so popularized the president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.

Salamanca: the university city stretches

The university city par excellence is stretched, after months of restrictions, to the blow of beers, cocktails and drinks. The hours have changed in Salamanca: those nights that started at 11:00 pm now start after eating. It's nine o'clock and Rodrigo, Juan, Gonzalo and Ángel have shaken two bottles of rum at one of the tables that occupy the squares. It's time to adapt and hurry up before midnight. Then they will take flight and "go home, two Hail Marys and go to sleep," they say amusedly, before admitting that the festivities will continue in private homes, much more difficult to pursue. The police try to avoid large bottles and street congregations, but the students know it all.

The agents watch with zeal that nobody forgets the mask and they lecture the hoteliers, who grunt when some group exceeds itself. The young Sara Pérez and Andrés Romero and their friends taste a "vampire", an indescribable concoction that leaves red lips and tongues unleashed to admit that the coronavirus is still alive, but they will not "lose two years." The fall of the curfew has resuscitated them, they explain, and they acknowledge that some revelry did organize during the state of alarm. Each one expresses his happiness in his own way and with different doses of alcohol in his soul. Nazzla Romero turns 20 this Friday and celebrates it "partying." The only thing missing was, after months of restrictions and not being able to go down the street, he defends with his friend Nuria Cruz, 18. When they strike twelve, they will not ride a magic pumpkin towards the palace,rather, they will go to an address to continue partying. Like Victoria Sánchez, who is studying Aeronautical Engineering in Madrid, but has returned to meet again with her colleagues and the hubbub that exudes the city. "I'm a little pissy," she admits delighted, while outlining the night plan. Of course, he promises, "with care."

Valencia: "The staff wants to be scandalized"

It's Friday night, the weather is good and people want to go out.

"The staff is fed up and wants to be scandalized," says Javier, 37, a regular customer of one of the dozens of bars in Russafa, the capital's fashionable neighborhood.

The tables are all occupied but, in general, distances and capacities are kept.

Javier will not leave this area tonight because he does not have time to travel further: the curfew is at twelve and the locals stop serving drinks at eleven thirty.

Julián, a bartender at the bar, recognizes that when it comes to picking up, people resist.

"But we always comply," he assures.

More people have been showing for days.

We have gone from six per table to 10. Since two in the afternoon they are full.

People will go to the beach later.

In the premises of the Marina de Valencia, in the heart of the maritime district, there is not much fuss. Raquel and Marina, in their 30s, have gone out for dinner and a quick drink because they work the next day. "It goes by age groups and it depends on the mentality and the head of each one, but if we have not screwed up until now, we are not going to fall now", they say. A few meters away, a group of young people, who ask for anonymity, have left the tables to smoke and go without a mask: "They are useless, my whole face is peeling, you are swallowing all the carbon dioxide," he says. one of them. Another next door reproaches him for speaking in these terms, he does not agree, but acknowledges that they already have "a little eagerness to go out and interact with people."

In the Plaza de Honduras, a common area of ​​university entertainment, there is a bit more noise and some agglomeration of young people at the doors of some places. But a group of policemen patrol the area and, when they see a lot of people, they approach and their mere presence tends to deter. The problem, they admit, is when there is alcohol involved, because the spark can jump. It is 11:30 pm and they begin to collect tables and chairs from the terraces and to look for a taxi with which to return home. The city is fading little by little.

In Valencia's night owl Carmen neighborhood, people finish their last drinks before midnight curfew.

The evening is lively, with full terraces, but nothing to do with pre-pandemic times.

The atmosphere is calm.

There are no crowds.

Traffic on Valencian roads has increased by 40% this Friday compared to last week, the majority coming from Madrid.

Santiago de Compostela: feast of the Ascension without pulpeiras or crowds

In Santiago de Compostela the second night of the Ascension party, one of the most important for the city, was celebrated this Friday. This year there are no pulpeiras, fair, or crowds. In short: "You don't breathe the same atmosphere," says Marina. The 31-year-old young woman from Compostela leaves one of the concerts that the City Council has organized in the Plaza del Obradoiro, with a maximum capacity of 700 people, all seated and at a distance. Bad weather and restrictions due to the pandemic still leave the terraces and streets of the old part of the Galician capital half empty, but for a 34-year-old German pilgrim, there is more “freedom” than in his country. "Things here at least are open," he says.

Six young Valencians celebrate that, with the end of the state of alarm, they have been able to travel to visit the city. The friends, who crowd around the table on a terrace a few meters from the cathedral, meet the maximum number of people allowed. They will stay until 11pm, closing time for bars and cafes. Private meetings between non-partners are prohibited. In the middle of the squad, all between 20 and 21 years old, Marcel explains that the only control they have gone through has been a search when entering the tourist apartment they rented. The Xunta de Galicia has set up a website for travelers to notify their entry into the community, but both he and his five friends admit that they did not know him. Away from the atmosphere of the bars, about thirty passersby stroll along Rúa do Franco looking for a place to dine.However, licensed restaurant venues face more lax measures: they must lower the blind at 1.00.

Seville: 30 degrees and not an empty table

In Seville, people have taken advantage of the good weather — it has reached 30º — to take to the streets.

The bars of the Andalusian capital have been full and it was difficult to see an empty table.

This has been noticed in home food deliveries, as Xena, a delivery girl, tells us: "Today is one of the weekends that I have least had to work."

Carmen Aguilar, 18, comments when leaving one of the bars on Avenida de la Buhaira with her group of friends that they will go out but with caution.

“This is the first time I have left since before the state of alarm.

But we are going to go to a terrace in a park [the Prado de San Sebastián] to a very closed place ”.

Dozens of young people have gathered in that park

Other young people have taken the opportunity to monopolize the clubs in the early afternoon, since in Andalusia they can be open until two in the morning.

"Today I have taken trips to all the clubs," says Raúl, an Uber driver.

In the Alameda de Hércules, where last weekend images of people were seen crowding the square after the end of the state of alarm, the bars were completely normal.

Those that closed at midnight have been closing and people have moved to nearby discos.

San Sebastián: the empty sand of La Concha

A couple dances in the street in San Sebastián.Javier Hernández

La Concha beach could be the perfect terrace at midnight to enjoy a warm and starry night.

But the vastness of the arena was practically empty.

A group of six girls in their twenties have formed a circle and chat with laughter. They are practically alone. All with masks. Three of them are nurses and have come to “decompress” after a busy day at the hospital, says Nuria González, 24: “We need an escape valve and we have decided to come and enjoy the tranquility of the beach”. The Paseo de La Concha, on the other hand, is a coming and going of people who take advantage of the night off, without a curfew. San Sebastián is a calm and restrained city. The municipal guard patrols the Old Town: "We have a crowd in the Plaza de la Trinidad and a fight in Urbieta," says the agent in charge.

The bars have closed at 10 pm, but groups of young people have stocked up on drinks to give free rein to the desire to party. There are no excesses. Gautier Chauffrut is from Biarritz, he declares himself to be in love with San Sebastián, and is accompanying some friends from French Brittany who have come to spend the weekend in the Gipuzkoan capital: “They love this city”, he says referring to his friends, "surely today we finish very late and with a few more drinks." They have a dance in the heart of the promenade, near one of the busiest points. It is one of the breakwaters of the San Sebastian port, where last Saturday a crowd and there were remains of a night with a lot of alcohol that made Mayor Eneko Goia blush. "Today everything is calmer. We are going to behave well," says Iñaki Agirre.In this area the masks are conspicuous by their absence.

Córdoba: the city recovers the Fiesta de los Patios

Córdoba takes up its essence little by little.

With the Fiesta de los Patios, which faces its last weekend, the city recovers an atmosphere longed for in recent months with Spanish and foreign visitors and neighbors who on this Friday night are enjoying peacefully.

Atmosphere in the historic center of Córdoba on the night of Friday, May 14. PACO PUENTES

With information from

Luis de Vega, Nacho Sánchez, Alfonso Congostrina, Juan Navarro, Cristina Vázquez, Ferran Bono, Caridad Bermeo, Santiago Cañas, Mikel Ormazabal

and

Paco Puentes.