Evenings of Relaxation

31.07.20 — Madrid

July’s always a busy time when working in Spain, because many companies here withhold the excellent custom of shutting down and affording everyone a decent fortnight of summer holidays in August. While great, this does always cause somewhat of a hectic July, with everyone looking to wrap up projects before the summer holidays begin!

This means a lot of long working days, which means that one must make the very most of any free time, no matter how brief it may be. To this end, a couple of weeks ago Hugo, Jhosef, and I headed up to my office to make the most of the pool in the increasingly oppressive summer heat!

The swimming pool of my office with trees in the background.

We were quite at home in the lovely spaces of the office.

The three of us boarded a bus in the city centre, bags laden with snacks and drinks for the evening, and made our way up to Pozuelo, the neighbourhood of Madrid in which the office sits. After a quick tour of the many different spaces within the office, we slipped into our swimming gear and began a slow-paced evening of munching, swimming, and sharing all kinds of tales and quips.

Even though I was much more interested in the gin and tonics and various snacks on offer, I do enjoy the odd swim in the pool, and so I instructed Hugo to take some photos of me whilst I did so. That ended up with a rather happy accident, as he managed to hit the shutter button just as I was emerging and the surface tension of the water still hadn’t given way. It’s a horrific photo of me, but I find it quite funny and interesting!

Surface tension of the water above my head.

The sun shines through an ivy covered tree and house.

Once the sun began to set, the evening air became a little too cool, and so we sat out the rest of the evening on the roof terrace. There we enjoyed the last of our beers, watched the sun set, and shared a whole tub of ice cream as we chatted about life in Spain. The three of us are all immigrants from other countries, and so it was interesting to hear other perspectives and compare shared experiences.

Back home, I had another busy week in store for me, with my free hours on an evening dedicated to naps, cooking, and throwing my own little “spa evenings”. These are evenings when I activate my new coloured lighting, pour myself a glass of wine, pop on a face mask, and lie on my sofa listening to a special playlist of relaxing music. It does make me feel like I’ve hit some kind of mid-life crisis, but it’s a little indulgence that serves well to de-stress after a long day!

Outside of my flat, my obsession with the city bikes continues, as I’ve been exploring further along the banks of the riverside park which runs through my neighbourhood and up along the west of the city centre. The other night I headed out at about 10pm, which is about the time the daytime heat has become somewhat bearable, and discovered some lovely nighttime scenes along the way, including the Príncipe Pío train station and some trees which were lit up with coloured lights.

A tree lit in a purple and yellow light.

The arch next to a train station in Madrid lit up at night.

Just last weekend, me and Jhosef arranged to meet up in the city centre, as he was keen on taking some long-exposure photos of the Catedral de la Almudena (Madrid’s Cathedral) and the motorways in the north of the city. As per usual, I cycled up to the cathedral, which lies just next door to the Royal Palace, and took a few casual photos of my own.

A skyscraper is seen illuminated by the evening sun, with the Royal Palace and a line of trees in the foreground.

Madrid's cathedral is seen in the evening light of the sunset.

We were lucky to be greeted by a gorgeous orange sunset over the palace and cathedral.

A panorama of a sunset over the royal palace and cathedral of Madrid.

As the sun set, Jhosef took plenty of lovely photos (check out his Instagram), but I was more wrapped up in taking in the view and munching on a bag of dried seaweed snacks that I’d brought along. We’d taken up position on a hillside street right next to the palace, which offered amazing views (as you can see from the photos) over the cathedral. This all reminded me of the first time I ever visited Madrid, when the cathedral was one of the highlights of my trip. It still amazes me to think that I now live a ten-minute bike ride away from the place.

I look over the sunset by the royal palace.

Madrid Cathedral lit up in the latter stages of a sunset.

Once the sun had properly set, we made our way towards the north of the city, deciding to spontaneously stop off once again at the Peruvian restaurant for a meal which included cow’s heart – which, after my initial doubts, was rather delicious! This happened to fall on the 28th of July, which it turns out is the day of Peru’s National Holiday, so I must say: ¡felices fiestas patrias Perú!

The ensuing trip to the northern business district of Madrid to take long-exposure shots of cars turned out to be somewhat of a damp squib, as we arrived way too late and there were hardly any cars circulating. We made the most of the evening, though, and walked back home after encountering a group of conspiracy theorists on the metro who were waffling on about coronavirus being a big government coverup and refusing to wear their masks. Now look, you can hold your own theories by all means, but for peat’s sake just wear a bloody mask. It’s not that hard.

Waffle on about your coronavirus conspiracy theories if you do so wish, just wear a bloody mask while you do.

With that little rant over, we arrive at this week, my last week before a few days in Tenerife and Murcia! The other night I headed down to the park for a few beers and to say goodbye to my friends for the time being, and of course one beer turned into three, meaning I arrived home rather tipsy and peckish. This led to me toasting some bread in my oven, tipsily admiring the red-hot heating elements in the dark…

The red-hot heating elements of my oven in the dark.

As mentioned, it’s now time for me to round up my blog post, close my laptop, and disconnect as much as possible for the next week as I head off to visit my friends Cami and Sam in the south of Tenerife. Naturally I’ll be taking my camera along, and so there’ll be plenty of photos and stories to come from the lovely island. I just hope I survive the heat!

Happy summer everybody!

A Slow Summer

20.07.20 — Madrid

It’s now been over two weeks since my last post, but I’ve still been trying to get out of my flat as much as I can. Be it to run errands to IKEA for more coloured lighting or to head out with friends to eat, I’ve been slowly taking back the streets as we head into the height of the Spanish summer!

As you can imagine, though, this same heat can sometimes become rather insufferable, and so I’ve been spending the majority of my afternoons in my flat sleeping the siesta, prepping some food, or cleaning the place in the comfort of the air conditioning. My neighbours seem to be doing the same with their weekends, and so one Saturday I awoke to a flat bathed in the warm glow of the light reflected off the neon-pink towel that they had hung out.

Even the plant that I’d left out left a lovely green and pink glow.

A pink glow and a green light from a leaf are shown through the frosted glass of my bathroom window.

That same weekend, I arranged with my friend Jhosef and his sister to visit IKEA, as the three of us needed to pick up some supplies that we’d noticed we lacked during the lockdown. I was, however, mainly in it for the meatballs, but I did also decide that I’d probably splash out on some new coloured lights seeing as I’m now spending so much time in my flat.

After a rather stifling metro journey down to the shopping centre, we were ushered through the many steps of preparing to enter the shops: temperature checks, alcohol gel, and a stern word telling us to neither sit down nor come to close to others. Other than the taped-off seats, the queues to enter the shops, and the detour that we had to make through the horrible outdoor heat in order to enter IKEA, everything seemed like business as usual.

You can feel the heat in this photo that Jhosef took of me in the car park.

Our shop around IKEA was quite normal, except from the one-way system and the many signs telling us to only touch what we were going to buy. The experience at the cafeteria was very different, however, as we’d to wait to be seated, have our drinks poured for us, and were not even given napkins.

After arriving home late that evening, sticky and exhausted from the long journey and daytime heat, I was rather cross to discover that one of the lightbulbs I had bought was the wrong type. I wasn’t sure what I was to do, but in the end I decided to make the hour-long journey all over again the day after in order to get it replaced – if I know one thing about myself, it’s that if I don’t do something more or less immediately, it’ll probably never get done!

That Sunday evening was then dedicated to wiring up all these new lights that I had bought, alongside some that I’d had in storage for a while. Jhosef later came over to take a look at what I’d made of all these lights he’d seen me purchase, and we took a few photos around the house. I’ll be sure to hold a little photo shoot of my flat by night at some point and it’ll get its own little blog post (much like when I first moved in and started decorating), but for now I’ll leave you with a couple of teaser photos…

A plant is bathed in the glow of both a red and blue light.

Jhosef stands in a doorway, bathed in the glow of both a red and blue light.

Something I’ve also been working on (and which I never really stop working on) is the design of my new website! I’m always cautious of bringing the topic up, as I’m well known for changing the design a ridiculous amount of times before launch, but I thought I’d share a little peek of some new features.

My laptop screen shows my new website design.

As I say though, do take this with a pinch of salt, as last time I shared details on my new website design (the one you’re seeing right now) I wrote a whole blog post about it, only to wind up changing typefaces, layouts, and other details before launch. It’s no lie when I tell my friends that my website is an eternal project!

Anyway, when not in my flat, I’ve been trying to visit the more green areas of the city, as I do occasionally miss the countryside that I grew up in. This has included the park by the river near my house, another green area by the railway tracks, and even a trip across the city to the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple donated to Spain and transported to the centre of Madrid in 1968.

I swooped by here with Jhosef after he took me out for a delicious Peruvian lunch at a local spot, where we dined on delicious roast chicken, ceviche (a dish based on fish which has been cooked by soaking it in lime juice), mussels, and papa rellena, a fried potato-based dish stuffed with meats and vegetables and all things nice. This was washed down with chicha, a delicious drink made from purple maize and infused with herbs and spices. It was absolutely delicious, and we definitely needed the climb up to the temple in order to walk off the lunch!

Stairs lead up through a blanket of trees at the Parque del Oeste in Madrid, Spain.

The "Building of Spain" hotel seen through one of the arches of the Debod Temple in Madrid, Spain.

Social distancing meant that I could get this shot of the old and the new.

Another evening I ventured a little less far from home, opting to head down to the river for a couple of hours to call some friends back in England, watching the world go by and the sun go down as I hid in the cool shade of a bunch of trees.

A conundrum that I find myself faced with in this post-lockdown world is the struggle between the desire to get as far away from my house as possible and explore, and then the aversion to using public transport except when absolutely necessary. To this end, I settled on a solution, which was to pick up one of the city bikes and cycle as far away from my home as I could before I’d need to turn back in order to get a decent night’s sleep in.

A view over the centre of Madrid, with the royal palace and cathedral on the skyline, illuminated by the evening sun.

This little aventure led me all the way to the northern transport hub of Moncloa, which I managed to reach by simply crossing a bridge before arriving at the end of the park’s path. This led me on to a series of quiet back roads, which then took me past a flat that I lived in whilst working at Erretres for the first time over four years ago.

A red railway overpass is lit in the warm glow of the evening sun in Madrid, Spain.

After a lovely evening on my bike, the weekend saw me and Jhosef head out to celebrate the end of his university course. We headed up to Chueca, where we had some cocktails on the roof of the market, before heading down to a local restaurant and gorging on croquetas and fried squid. It was a lovely evening, and the cocktails certainly went down a treat after many weeks of hard work!

This isn’t all I’ve been up to, however, but it’s as far as I’ve gotten with organising my photos to upload to my blog! Me, Jhosef, and Hugo just spent a good few hours this weekend splashing around in the pool at the office, and of course there are plenty of photos, but that’ll have to wait until next time!

For now, I can reveal that I’ve booked myself a little escape to Tenerife and then Murcia for my work holidays, and so fingers crossed that the coronavirus situation in Spain remains under control so that I can get out to see my friends on the island and then my auntie and uncle down in the south. I’m sure that all will go well, and of course I shall return with many photos and I’m sure a good few stories too. Until then!

The Ghost City

02.07.20 — Madrid

Now in the glorious throes of the new normality, I have been taking every opportunity to return to the familiar streets of the city I now call home after falling in love with the place almost five years ago. The arrival of summer has also served to coax me out of my flat, even if my first major outing left me rather hot and bothered as the temperatures begin to rise past 35°C during the day.

This first venture into the centre was spurred on by the search for home comforts, as I’ve been craving cordial (what some of you call “squash”) for a good while now. This took me to Dealz, which is basically Poundland’s presence in Spain, and which offers a decent range of imported products from the UK – decent enough to warrant a two-bus trip, anyway!

I didn’t like having to change buses but it was a nice spot to do so.

The roundabout at the Puerta de Toledo in Madrid, with a bus in the background between green trees and red flowers.

With a selection of British crisps, some Vimto, and a stash of Cadbury’s chocolate in tow, it was then another few days before I headed back out into the sunny streets of Madrid. This occasion saw me make a significantly shorter trip down to the Matadero, a recently-reopened cultural centre based out of an old slaughterhouse which is a mere ten minutes walk from my house.

One of the buildings of the Matadero in Madrid in the evening sun.

This is where the title of my blog post begins to become relevant. The large outdoor space, which would usually be filled with people milling around at this time of night, was pretty much deserted. This peace and quiet didn’t bother me though, as I’d a telephone date to catch up with Rhea, who I haven’t seen since I visited England late last year!

One of the buildings of the Matadero in Madrid in the evening sun with a terrace in the foreground.

A multicoloured bar in a hut at the Matadero in Madrid.

The plaza in the centre of the Matadero in Madrid is empty whilst bathed in the evening sun.

After crossing through the Matadero complex to the banks of the river on the other side, I searched in vain for a shaded spot in which to sit and ring Rhea whilst maintaining the proper social distancing protocol. I ended up returning to the grounds of the Matadero itself, where I found a shaded decked area just behind the absolutely gorgeous canteen…

A redbrick building bearing the name "Cantina" (Canteen) at the Matadero cultural centre in the south of Madrid, Spain.

The proceeding weekend saw me head into the commercial heart of Madrid, La puerta del sol, meaning “the gate of the sun”. Famous for it’s plaque marking the supposed centre of Spain, I was here to check out options for a new laptop and head to a boutique food shop to do some informal undercover research for a new project at work.

The puerta del sol in the centre of Madrid.

After getting a little overexcited in said food shop, I wound up treating myself to a rather expensive 7€ pastel de cabracho, which is a delicious fresh paste made from cabracho, a kind of fish which Google informs me is called a “goat fish” in English. The dish always reminds me of the first time I visited Kevin in Oviedo, when he took me out to a local restaurant for my first proper taste of the delicious food from the Asturias region in the north of Spain.

On the way home I ran into my colleague Esther and family, stopping to chat for a while before treating myself to a chocolate-filled pastry known as a napolitana de chocolate from the classic Madrid bakery known as La Mallorquina. I often used to pick one up for breakfast before lockdown had us all abandon the office in favour of working from home, so it was lovely to enjoy the sweet treat once more.

Filled with energy, I decided to walk through the Plaza Mayor and down through the lovely La Latina district, before picking up a city rental bike and allowing the breeze to cool me off as I glided freely down the wholly downhill course back to my flat.

La Latina was absolutely resplendent in the low evening sunlight.

The day after saw me mounted once again on one of the city’s bikes, but this time I had decided to dare the uphill journey to the area surrounding the royal palace in order to see the sights and meet up with Hugo for an ice cream. I also thought that it’d be cool to film the trip on my phone to share the picturesque journey with my family back home, but it turns out that my phone’s video stabilising capabilities are no match for the uneven Madrid roads and the furious rattle of the heavy electric bikes!

Once I’d found Hugo, who was around the centre running some errands, we headed down into the gorgeous Plaza del Oriente at the side of the giant royal palace. This square, with its lush gardens and quaint little terraces, is usually brimming with inquisitive tourists, but we found ourselves wandering amongst very few people in the midday heat. The name of this blog post actually comes from a message I sent to Hugo whilst I awaited his arrival – “es como una ciudad fantasma”, I said – “it’s like a ghost city”.

The east facade of the royal palace in Madrid with no people around at all.

I’ve never seen this view of the palace with so few people milling around.

The royal palace of Madrid is visible through the trees of the Plaza del Oriente.

The two of us grabbed an ice cream from Zúccaru, a Sicilian heladería with delicious homemade ice cream, and sat in the shade of some trees in order to catch up on the week’s events. After some more wandering round (in which I managed to burn my arms, something I only noticed upon arriving home later), we finished our explorations in front of the palace, where I captured this panorama which emphasises really how few people can be found around the centre of the city right now. This plaza, located between the main entrance to the royal palace and Madrid’s huge cathedral, would usually be buzzing with tourists and locals alike, but not a single soul can be seen in the photo.

This concludes my recent adventures, which have been interspersed by some intense days at work as we move into our summer hours known as jornada intensiva (intensive days), where we work less hours but without any breaks. This, alongside some big and exciting new projects, has seen me left with little time for weekday explorations, but I’ll be sure to escape the confines of my flat this weekend and report back!

For now, I leave you with this lovely ode to Madrid, as yet again I feel the need to share some Spanish music with you all. I think it fits well with the photos of some of Madrid’s more majestic architecture that I’ve peppered this post with…

Waiting

27.06.20 — Madrid

In another little break from my usual programming, I have decided to publish this little note I wrote on the way to work one day early last year. It’s not nearly as long or entertaining as my last similar post, Purgatory, but I thought it was an interesting little quip worth sharing. Remember you can always let me know what you think about things like this on my blog survey!

One of the things which fascinates me the most is when a metro train arrives in its station and someone waiting on the platform does not board. You have to understand that in Madrid, the city which has adopted me, all trains which stop at any given platform have the exact same destination and make the exact same sequence of stops.

So why then do people stand and watch as the trains pass by? Sometimes, indeed, the carriage will be too full, and sometimes, yes, the train will be scheduled to stop circulating at a given station, but given ideal conditions, why do people remain who do not board?

I have been in a similar situation myself once, as I awaited a friend on a platform between transfers. As I waited, though, I sat myself down on a bench and occupied myself. It is those who stand with an air of disassociation and barely flinch which interest me, the ones who’s vacant eyes only blink as a reflex reaction to the blast of polluted air pushed through the station by the train that they have just declined to board.

Do they await the arrival of a friend? Are they preparing themselves for the arrival of a foe? Perhaps the thought of reaching their destination fills them with dread, or perhaps they have no destination, and are rather idly traversing the underground labyrinths as refuge from the surface heat or the stresses of the world above.

It is only human to allow your eyes to sweep the train as you embark, to check out with whom you are sharing a carriage. What I, however, find much more interesting is not those who have boarded with me, but those who will not board. It is in order to look at them that I turn my head as the doors open, and is is they who fill my mind with petty questions and invented narratives as I swan my neck whilst my train beings to accelerate.

The New Normality

20.06.20 — Madrid

After over three months of a Spain in lockdown, these past few weeks have finally seen Madrid move slowly through the four phases of the Spanish government’s deescalation procedure. My last blog post included various little outings that I was able to make, but such wanders always had to be undertaken alone.

Now, with public transport running, bars and restaurants beginning to open their terraces and interiors, and the relaxing of other confinement measures, social gatherings are back on the cards! This was all very exciting, but my first “social gathering” wasn’t that much of a hoot, as it involved a trip to a clinic in the north of the city for a COVID-19 test that Erretres kindly gave us the option of taking.

Looking up to the sky from the entrance to Delicias metro station in Madrid, Spain.

When the results of said test came back, I was rather cross to discover that I had next to no antibodies, and so it’s pretty likely that I haven’t yet had the virus. I was rather hoping that the results would come back positive, as it would mean that I’d had a very light case of the infection and wouldn’t need to worry about possible ill effects going forwards. But hey, never mind!

After another enthralling trip to the dentist out into the now exotic lands north of my neighbourhood, it was eventually time to finally meet up with some friends after months with next to no human contact! I naturally had arranged to meet Bogar and Hugo down by the river, where we organised a socially-distanced mini picnic and chatted away into the evening.

Me, Bogar, and Hugo have a picnic by Madrid Río.

Me and Hugo then met up again a few days later, once again meandering along the paths of this unimaginatively-named Parque Madrid Río (Madrid River Park) which, shockingly, is a park in Madrid which follows the river. On our journey, we passed the now almost fully-demolished stadium known as Estadio Vicente Calderón, the old home of Atlético de Madrid, which always reminds me of the time I went to watch a match in their new stadium, and even the song that we all sung in support!

The remains of the Vicente Calderón Stadium in Madrid during its demolition.

The rear facade of the Matadero in Madrid.

We worked up quite an appetite during out wanderings down by the river, and eventually discovered a lovely burger restaurant a mere stone’s throw away from my house. After a few hours of beers and chatting the evening away, we arranged to another picnic the day after with the two of us and some more of Hugo’s friends.

The brick facade of a building near the Atocha Train Station in Madrid. A streetlight lights up part of the dark facade by night.

I had promised to bring along carrot cake, and so spent the majority of the day baking, only to be met with heavy rain and rumbles of thunder just as I stepped out of the door. I held off back in my flat for another half an hour (I was already two hours late for the picnic), but little did I know that this would be just the beginning of a chain of disasters that evening.

Once the rain had stopped, I decided that the quickest way to get to the park was by electric scooter, and so I strapped my tote bag full of Tupperware to the handlebar of my rented scooter and headed off down the riverside path at full speed. Midway through the journey, I grossly misjudged the height of what I thought was just a small dip in the paving, and instantaneously found myself eating the tarmac as I was thrown to the ground.

Unhurt except for a broken Tupperware, some now rather mushy carrot cake, and a nasty graze on my jeans, I hopped back on the scooter and carried on my journey to the park in question. I eventually arrived and introduced myself to Hugo’s friends, only for my arrival to be followed by more claps of thunder and a light shower which soon turned into a torrent.

Grabbing the plates, the picnic blankets, and the scraps of food and unopened drinks that could be salvaged, my first meeting with the group was cut rather short, as we all retreated to the shelter of a bus stop outside the park. One of Hugo’s friends graciously offered to stop the two of us off at my flat, where a bag of food ended up falling and knocking a glass of red wine all over my carpet. As I said, it was a real series of unfortunate events!

In order to cheer myself up, the next day I made a batch of carrot cake buns with the leftover cake mix, and dropped a few off with my friend Jhosef so that he might give me feedback after he gifted me the most delicious loaf of banana bread for my birthday!

A plate full of seven carrot cake buns topped with walnuts and cinnamon.

With so much work at home, I’ve been increasingly taking advantage of these new freedoms in order to revisit the park by the river and wander, scoot, or cycle away for an hour or so to clear my head of the stresses of the day. Heading out either alone or with Jhosef, I’ve witnessed my fair share of the most excellent Madrid sunsets, as well as the continued demolition of the old stadium, which is all but gone by now.

The evening sky full of various cloud formations seen from a bridge over the river in Madrid.

The skeletal remains of the Vicente Calderón stadium in Madrid.

The sunset in Madrid colours a cloud formation in orange in contrast with the blue sky.

The silhouette of the nearly demolished Vicente Calderón stadium in Madrid, against a sunset.

Another little lift came in the form of a card and subsequent gift sent from Kevin in the US, a belated birthday present in the form of a copy of T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”. I haven’t gotten round to reading it yet, but I am itching to do so, as Kevin has repeatedly spoke highly of the piece in the past!

A card addressed to me which came from the US.

Amongst all these trips down to the river, I also ventured out to meet up with other friends, but the excitement of seeing everyone again meant that I completely forgot to take any photos!

One evening saw me meet up with Luis, an ex-colleague, and a group of other guys from Erretres for some drinks and laughs at a lovely spot in the centre. Another evening was my first time back at my favourite local bar and terrace with Bogar and Hugo, and just last week I met up with Blanca, Jesús, and Pablo from work for tea (dinner) and drinks near the office.

My neighbourhood isn’t all too ugly if I may say so myself.

A street in Delicias, Madrid, covered by a sky with cloud formations.

So with this, I conclude my overview of what the gradual transition to the new normality (la nueva normalidad, the Spanish government’s words, not mine) has looked like for me. As Spain’s internal borders are opened this weekend and we are flung fully into this new phase of a rather turbulent 2020, I’ll be back as soon as possible to bring more updates. Until then!