Around the World in a Week - Spain

Our weekend stop is to Madrid, Spain, with Becky telling us about her experiences in the city.

I’m Becky, and during my degree I spent a year living in Madrid. 

So what do I miss most about living in Spain? To put it simply, just about everything.

Madrid wasn’t a city that I instantly loved, but I felt very at home there and gradually fell in love with it. It isn’t necessarily as obviously beautiful as the rugged seaside towns along the north coast, or as quirky and bohemian as Barcelona, but it is an incredibly interesting and captivatingcapital city.  

It is a city in which I happily spent many a sunshine filled weekend pottering down cobbled streets, visiting one of Madrid’s many museums and sampling local – and not quiteso local – cuisine at Mercado San Miguel, an indoor food market in the centre of the city. From Empanadas to Escargots, Tortilla to Tortellini there is food to make even the fussiest of eaters (like myself) very, very happy indeed. Food is an integral part of Spanish life; meals are long, usually late, and are very noisy affairs. Without any doubt, Mercado San Miguel is my favourite place in Madrid and not just on account of the food. On any day of the week it is somewhere that absolutely everyone comes to socialise – students, tourists, locals – be it for tapas or a quick glass of Rioja after work.  

Madrid is a city rich in culture wherever you look. Food from all over the world, foreign cinema, music and art, not to mention the large international population that reside in the city. And this is what really makes Madrid the city it is – the people. There is a friendliness and a sense of welcoming that exists here that I’ve never experienced anywhere else. It’s something that I can’t quite put my finger on, but it’s this andall the other little things that made me fall in love with Madrid.

 Maps: Poster Book is available now from all good bookshops - put the world on your wall today. Paperback  9781783702039 £12.99