Madrid

It's the hardest to describe and quite frankly I'm terrified that even the description won't be enough for you to really understand Euro Pride.

It's like walking into a giant party. As you walk the streets of Chueca you are greeted by the shrieking voices of people. You don't know any of these people but they all have smiles on their faces and you can only smile back.
Two-million people graced the streets for the biggest gay pride event, in Madrid. Of course I had to see and experience the event for myself so me and three people from our tour including our very own guide settled out to what would be the most exciting event of our whole trip.

Arm in arm with Erica and Gerardo we tried to keep with Gary as he took us through a maze of people. It was crowded, at some points we could not even walk and it took some football playing to fight through the crazy crowd. All around you can hear music and people yelling hysterically. Then we finally stopped in Gran Via where the party was supposed to be happening. There was a parade going on and the wide four lane street including sidewalks was packed to the brim. The only thing getting through the street easily was the eighteen-wheeler holding people on it. The floats were not your average floats, they were trucks with railing and loud music. Some people on the floats were naked or wearing close to nothing. But none of that mattered, they were having a good time dancing and getting the people down below hyped up. It was an amazing sight seeing so many people jumping and dancing with Sangria or beer cans in their hands. The first thing that came to mind was Fiesta San Antonio but then I knew that this event was bigger and louder and in better control.

After dancing around and meeting new people we decided to retreat back to Chueca were there was performances taking place. Now this was a beautiful sight to see as well. The buildings surrounding you in this square were brightly decorated with the colors of the rainbow and people were singing from their balcony's. Full grown men were dressed like beautiful women and the whole crowd was going crazy for them to perform. Finally after waiting a couple minutes they started singing a song that I didn't know and everyone else did. Everyone's beers and hands went up in the air and they began singing at the top of their lungs just like we sing the National anthem at the Super Bowl. As you stand in the crowd and look around you have no time to think only gaze in astonishment at how the crowd reacts. So being that you don't want to be different you fall into this trans and do what everyone else is doing. You feel just as happy as they do and even though you don't know the song, after the third time you hear the chorus your singing it to.