10.04.23 — Journal

Some Pre-Easter Wanderings

After some time outside of Madrid, namely in Prague and then my hometown Worsthorne, it was nice to be back in Madrid for a few weeks before the Easter holidays came around. With the temperatures now averaging a decent 20°C during the day, the season is well and truly upon us for making the most of all the city has to offer.

The very day I arrived back from England the weather was absolutely lovely, so I allowed myself to be talked into an evening having a drink on a terrace with Sara and Eric. I headed up to their neighbourhood once I’d finished unpacking and we spent a lovely evening chatting away and watching the sun set over the road that the two of them live on.

The sunset over Atocha was made more dramatic by the huge cloud.

All this moving around and the differing temperatures between places did have its downsides, however. At one point I wound up stuck at home for a week with a stinker of a cold, but I made the most of this down time to install some new colour-changing lights in my flat. Just when I thought I could fit no more in!

By night I feel like I live inside a 1980s video game.

After a few days of solitary confinement in my now much more intricately lit house, I was once again right as rain. Now there was no excuse to avoid walking back home in the sun before the summer really kicks in and things get way too hot to bear. One of these walks took me through the local neighbourhood of Lavapiés, where I was delighted to see the trees in bloom and the colourful bunting out in full force.

These must have been a nightmare to install…

In between all this there was also plenty more stuff going on: Luis’ birthday bash, evenings with Pedro around my neighbourhood, the traditional Spanish Easter processions down my street, and much more. I just didn’t have time to take any photos of it all… I feel like I’ve not had a moment to take stock and realise where I am or just exactly what’s going on recently!

I did get a chance to remedy this, however, with a very special visit just last week. More on that, though, in my next blog post…