After a week in Madrid, I turned round to my fellow travellers and said,
‘Madrid is SO AWESOME!’
This is in stark contrast to what I generally thought about Spain before arriving there. I hadn’t even been to mainland Spain and I immediately thought that the country would be full of old people on their retirement or families chasing the sun to live in the middle of a desolate place or perhaps even full of hardcore trashy people looking to party 24/7. So why did I come to Spain if I felt this way?
I wanted to be proved wrong. I desperately wanted to be so. At its height in the 1400s and 1500s, Spain was the ultimate global superpower full of culture, dark times, and charm. Until our Queen Elizabeth I put a stop to that in 1588 when she defeated the Spanish Armada. (Blows raspberry. Go England!)
So when I got given the chance to tour Spain by my very good and annoying American travel buddies, Auston and Dave of Two Bad Tourists, who have moved there for the next year, I simply jumped up at the chance and hey…it’s free accommodation isn’t it? I suppose I could let them off calling me ‘Goober’ constantly. (Look up Urban Dictionary – it means kind and Goofy person).
So when I landed at Madrid Airport in the middle of May, I knew that I was being proved wrong immediately. I think it was due to the very svelte and sultry air hostess with dark eyelashes under her dark features that drew me in with her small smile that nearly made me throw myself onto one knee and asked her to marry me. Maybe I am a Goober.
So within a week, (I’ll tell you in detail what I got up to in Madrid in another post) I immediately felt like I wanted to move here, learn Espanol, pick up the chicas, try out all the cultural activities and get around from Madrid as the country’s central point by hiring a car in Spain.
So why was Madrid SO AWESOME?!!!!!!! I’ll tell you why.
Fantastic Weather
Oh my god, after the coldness of Wales, it was such a blessing to get Vitamin D from the Sun! And shock and horror! I could walk around without a jumper or coat! And you could even eat and drink OUTSIDE in the courtyards. But it’s not hot enough to make you sweat profusely like trying to find the right wire to snip to defuse a bomb, in order to get some shade. For me, it was just right. It was nice to show some skin.
Gorgeous Architecture
This was the biggest revelation for me. I kind of imagined Madrid to be a run down, dirty and depressing place. I WAS TOTALLY WRONG! Slap a dress on me and call me Wanda, I was so wrong. Madrid has utterly gorgeous architecture. Plenty a time I would snapping a building much to the annoyance of Two Bad Tourists, who had to urge me to go to another street after an hour on the same one. It was colourful, a joy to look and happy! This was what I called Cosmopolitan. We all need bright pink buildings in our lives. FACT. I wonder if I can convince my dad to paint his house that colour…
It’s all about the Tapas
Ah Tapas. During my time in Spain, I kind of developed a love-hate relationship with Tapas. But I’ve decided to love it this time. Means ‘to cover’ a drink with a small food based goodness, sometimes you don’t actually know what you’re actually getting. I love this. It’s like russian roulette especially for vegetarians. You’re screwed if you get meat. But Spain has a winning formula, it’s stops people drinking on empty stomachs and rolling around drunk in the street. I didn’t actually see any paralytic drunk at all when I was there. And also, I LOVE Food and over time, if I got chorizo in my dish, then I’m one happy dude!
Cheap Wine!
‘You’re telling me it’s 2 Euros for a bottle of wine?!’ I exclaimed to David as he took me to the supermarket to get some ingredients for a meal that Auston didn’t know he would be cooking after his hard work all day. I began to see why both of them moved here. Wine is so dirt cheap here especially Tinto Verano and Sangria. So as you could predicted, the three of us would be in cahoots somewhere polishing off many bottles of wine throughout a course of a day. It’s £1.50 people!
Very Good Looking People
Tall, dark, handsome and a smile to die for….oh I shouldn’t be describing myself…my bad! I should be talking about the Spanish people or Madrilenos rather. Again, they all have dark features and dark eyes that draw you in. Many a time I would stop my terrible spanish in mid-conversation enraptured as I gazed in their eyes…men and women alike. They have that special feature. But these spanish people have bags of confidence as they strut their stuff in the streets or parks of Madrid and they ooze sex, sex, sex. Now I know where the meaning of sun, sand, sangria and sex comes from. All you have to do is look around and you can be jealous of their features whilst perving at the chicas bums, they are perky.
Brimming with History
As I said at the start, Spain has bags of history. The walking tours starting in the Plaza Mayor will attest to this…I know, I dragged David kicking and screaming on one. Unfortunately, a lot of places got destroyed during the Spanish Civil War 1936-39, but it’s not to say it’s been eradicated. Anywhere you turn, you’ll see a historical monument or site. My favourite has to be the Stuffed Crocodile Museum…I’ll explain in a later post.
So as I looked behind me to look at Madrid while we roared off to the south of Spain, I was left with a fond knowledge that Madrid was truly the place to be and who knows…I may move there one day. Now that scream you hear now is Auston and David reading this and immediately booking tickets home to USA to get away from this goober from dragging them on more history tours….
What did you think of Madrid? What was your favourite thing about it?
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Hi Rexy! We are inventing a new app about safety tourism, and our first city is Madrid. That´s why we want to know whats´s your opinion about tourism security and if you have any problem during your travel.
Thank you!!!
Ive visited this incredible city seven times along with barcelona.
Madrid is my favourite city in the world. Incredible shopping, restaurants, museums , archutecture, parks and an unequalled nightlife.
Cant wait to go back
Great to hear! I love Madrid! It’s just the vibes and the relaxed atmosphere that I love!
You hated Lisbon and rave about the shit hole that is Madrid?
The place where cockroaches abound so heavily in the summer months, the crunchy sound of stepping on them is par for the course for anyone walking more than 20 meters out in the open? The place where prostitutes ply their “wares” out in the open, in broad daylight, in the most touristic parts of the city? The place with “Gran Via”—i.e. Times Square for retards—as a city highlight? The city where you eat rocks if you’re not ordering jamon, and where the bread is stale enough enough to kill a man if one were throw it in his general direction?
what a heavy hater!!
No matter,
this city and the citizens will always welcome you.
Awesome. Awesome city.
Fantastic food and architecture.
Unequalled nightlife.
Fantastic public transport.
Great climate.
How can you possibly not fall in love with this great city?
Youll always get jelous people putting it down.
Very very jelous people everywhere.