MADRID

Madrid is a city I have been fortunate to visit many times over the years. Thie first time was back in 2014 to celebrate my parent’s wedding anniversary, and then again in 2020 with my father, unknowing that we were just about to be locked down by the pandemic. From my first visit, the city’s atmosphere and infrastructure left a really positive impression on me, and so I was pleased that when I received my placement details for the English Language Assistant role, to know that I was going to be living in a town with a direct train route to the capital. I made the trip there many times throughout my stay in Spain and it served as a bit of a hub for me. Sometimes just for a few hours as I was passing through, and other times for a few nights like when my father came to visit me one weekend.

I wouldn’t say it is the most eye-catching city I have ever seen, but it certainly is a great one to relax and wonder around in or perhaps take advantage of the tourist bus as me and my family did one time. There is always a café, bar, or restaurant to enjoy as you make your way around the city’s many wide avenues. Whilst it may not be the most obviously beautiful city, I once heard a great saying about Madrid which I found to be very appropriate. It was that when you are in Madrid, you should always look up. This is because a lot of the beauty in Madrid’s architecture is in the upper floors of its buildings, with beautiful windows, balconies, and rooftops occupying the spaces above a ground floor which can often seem pretty ordinary at street-level.

Throughout my many trips to Madrid I have ticked off a match at almost every professional football team in the city, with Atlético de Madrid being my personal favourite. And apart from also just enjoying the general culture and cuisine of the city, another individual highlight was visiting an art exhibition for one of Spain’s most famous artists, Joaquín Sorolla. I am not generally interested in this type of exhibition, but my father convinced us to make the visit and I’m really glad he did. The exhibition was being housed opposite the royal palace and the works on show were incredibly inspiring. It was particularly interesting to see such convincing representations of what life was like in the country at the end of the 19th century, especially as I was now getting to visit many of these places in the modern day as well.