Madrid, Toledo and Alicante

To start travelling to South America, I first needed to get there. Spain is one of the cheaper jumping points due to its historical ties to the region, and the many Latin Americans living there. I shared my initial plan with a few old friends living in Copenhagen, and they immediately suggested going to Spain for a short vacation. That seemed a great idea, so I booked my flight from Barcelona to Argentina just after Easter, which gave me a week and a half of Spain. I got in contact with some other old friends, and I already had more agenda than the days I planned there.
The start was in Madrid, though the cheaper way there was to fly to Alicante – my favourite city in Spain – and then take a 2h fast train to Madrid (for 7 euro only!). So that’s what I did. That allowed me to go basking in the sun for 3 hours on Postiguet beach, and meet a friend and a former Alicante housemate for a drink. Though sweet, the day was really tough. I didn’t enjoy the sun and the beach the way I normally would. I was so extremely tired, and that exacerbated my heavy emotions about leaving. My thoughts were everywhere. I felt like a complete mess…
But the sun was nice. Such a weird cocktail of feelings.

(photo galleries might take a while to load, they are in containers like the one above)
I never explored Madrid properly, and previously I had the impression that it was less interesting than Barcelona, the second most important Spanish city where I lived for a semester years ago. However, Madrid surprised me very much. It is royal and beautiful, it is also less flashy than Barcelona – no fancy beautiful waterfront or a river, but the atmosphere is amazing. That city is so alive!
My host was another friend I met 6 years ago in Alicante, over a group of Spanish students. Born in Italy, she moved to Madrid a year ago planning on, and hoping to settle there. Like me, her life took her to many places, and she was tired of moving. With an uncertain job future, she is also aware of yet another possibility of searching for a new home somewhere else. That felt comforting in a way. That set of my problems – feeling like a gipsy – I shared with her. Her friends and housemates, Spanish and foreign, hung out with us most days. Spring was in full swing, so many people were on the streets.

Here are some photos I got there:

I’m not in museums too often when I live in the same place. When travelling, it’s like my mind gets into the mode of wanting to see everything that the place has to offer. Madrid has 3 world-class, very famous museums forming a museum triangle: Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza. Prado is focused on classical art, Reina Sofia modern and contemporary, while Thyssen has a mix of everything. I visited the latter two, as I visited Prado some years earlier.
I enjoy modern and contemporary art very much. There’s a lot of crap, or things I do not understand or can’t relate to. Sometimes however, I’m really surprised, and my thoughts and emotions take a route they never did. I enjoy that very much. Sometimes also just thinking about the artist’s life, motivations, feelings, struggles and others, gives me a broader picture of human life. After living in a certain way – with friends who are similar to me, for days, weeks and months – it is hard to see things from a different angle. Modern and contemporary art does that to me sometimes. It’s hard for me to explain why really.

Thyssen had some art that I found a bit funny, here’s some of it:

I took the time to visit another friend in Toledo. We met in Cork, Ireland, during Covid times. First neighbours turned friends on a communal terrace of our building, and one of a few great things that came out of Covid for me. Toledo was built by Arabs and was once the capital of Spain, the first one after the Catholic Kings conquered lands held by Arabs. In full honesty, I did not engage much with history, which usually takes a lot of my interest while travelling. And that is because I had good food, amazing weather and great company: 3-4 of my friend’s friends joined us for the whole day. The day was pretty much walking around and enjoying the beautiful old town where my friend studied.

The last stop for a few days was again Alicante, the city that I love for several reasons. I studied Spanish there, I have good friends, I never had any issues there, with anyone or anything, and the city is the sunniest city in Europe by the measure of sunshine hours. The city has so much to offer too: old quarter, (Arabic) castle on the top of the hill, beach, good food, nice prices, it’s not very big… We like places for people too, having local friends makes coming back always a pleasure. This time on top of that, I had a reunion with some of my closest friends from Ireland and Denmark, two countries where I lived the longest.

It was 5 days of smiles, drinks and beach!