A Love Letter To Madrid
From the minute we set foot in Madrid, I knew I was going to fall in love with this city. It was an instant connection, a buzzy sensation building in my chest from the minute we hopped off the metro. A feeling I've experienced only a few times before - on our first visit to New York, or pounding the cobbled streets of Lisbon. We only spent 48 hours there - such a short amount of time, but plenty enough for an obsession to form. Within a couple of hours I knew that I'd return to this city time and time again. Perhaps with my best girlfriends for a weekend of fun, or with a curious child in tow sometime in the future. Regardless, I'll be back.
It's a city full of life. It's noisy and colourful and gritty and gorgeous. Thousands of smells fill the air - fresh fish at the market, deep fried croquetas at tapas bars and that unique scent of hot heat rising. People spill out of bars onto the streets to share a bottle of wine with friends and chat animatedly. Cars beep their horns at the pedestrians ignoring the traffic lights. It's a city that is so alive.
Nothing is done in halves there - the people of Madrid eat well, drink plenty and laugh hard. We spent our time there doing exactly that, and while we barely scratched the surface of what this city has to offer, the trip was exactly what I needed.
It reminded me how truly brilliant a city break can be for your soul. How getting away for a night or two to somewhere new can help you remember everything you want out of this funny old life. It reminded me that there are so many things that are more important than sitting at a desk and lining someone else's pockets. There is laughter and sunsets and sharing food with people you love. There is spontaneity and quiet time and striking up conversations with strangers. There are new dreams to be imagined and plans to be made and streets to be pounded. There is a whole wide world to be explored.
The few days we spent in Madrid this week stirred a feeling inside of me that has lay dormant for the past year or so. The part of me that has been buried and masked by my anxiety and grief. But it's awake again now. The determination and the ambition and the sense of adventure is coursing through my veins once more. And for that very reason, I will always love Madrid.