A Coruña Chat

On a rainy Thursday night, Miguel, a 32‑year‑old from A Coruña, opens his laptop from the corner of his apartment and types !join A Coruña. He remembers the first time he stumbled into this channel during the 2017 Copa del Rey final, when a friend sent him the link after the Real Madrid win. The chat had been buzzing with “¡Que juego!” and a flurry of memes. He came back because every evening, when the city lights flicker, he finds a place where the locals talk about their barrio, their coffee, and the latest scandal on TV.

Here the conversations are as varied as the city’s streets. Someone asks whether Mbappé or Vinicius is the better forward for the national team; another debates the merits of the new Catalan autonomy law. A user shares a recipe for pulpo a la gallega, and the whole room offers tweaks—extra paprika, a splash of sherry. Heated arguments erupt over the last minutes of a football match, but they’re always followed by a collective “¡Qué barbaridad!” When a user posts a photo of a busker playing a guitar in the Plaza de María Pita, the room goes silent for a beat, then erupts in admiration and a few nostalgic anecdotes about the old tram.

What sets this room apart is the unmistakable mix of Galician and Spanish accents that bounce off the screen like a live radio broadcast. Every Saturday, the unofficial “Lunes de la Risa” starts at 21:00 when a regular named “Churro” drops a meme about the city council’s latest budget cuts. The nickname “A Coruña” is a code: it means the chat is open to anyone from the city, but the inside jokes—like the “Santiago the Sandwich” story—are reserved for those who’ve lived there. The channel has a tradition of sending a “¡Feliz viernes!” at 18:00 to signal the start of the weekend’s debates, and the last message of the day is always a “¡Hasta mañana!” from the moderator, who never uses a username.

No registration is needed; just pick a nickname and hit !join A Coruña from the desktop or mobile app. ChatZona has been running on real IRC since 2007, so you’re joining a place that’s as old as the internet’s first chatrooms. It would be unusual if nobody replied within the first two minutes, so expect the conversation to pick up faster than you can type your first message.