When I arrived in Madrid, I was greated by a city drenched in a golden hot sun which, after having endured the worst summer imaginable in Britain, was a pleasant lick of warmth for my sun-depleted soul.
However, after a few days I began to realise why the madrilenos say they have nine months of winter and three months of hell. It was the trapsing around looking for somewhere to live that did it. For the first few days in Spain I was hopping on and off metros from dawn till dusk, I was discovering new neighbourhoods with quirky names such as Lavapies (wash feet) and Bambu. Whilst doing this I was having to contend with constantly sweaty feet and endlessly empty water bottles. Despite the so-called air conditioning, Madrid's wonderful metro system can get rather stuffy. When I emerged from the airless metro, I entered the airless city. Big cities don't do so well in the heat - all the people, buildings, cars, CO2 ... the romance of a skin-kissingly warm Madrid quickly dissolved into a feeling of 'I think I am about to die' and this was in mid September.
Madrid is Europe's highest capital. It is all between 600 and 1000 metres above sea level. This accounts for its rarified air but it also accounts for a sun that makes one feel they are under a magnifying glass -like little ants sweltering under a relentless and unforgiving heat. As soon as the grip of summer begins to release, the cold is in straight away. There is not much of an autumn in Madrid. One day it's summer, the next it's winter. For the last couple of weeks I have been looking out the window to make sure I am not really in Russia. The brit's view of Spain is of a country that is always warm and balmy. NOT MADRID.
What a silly place to put a city. On a high plateau in a part of the country with no navigable river and hardly any water. This is why on every tap here there is reminder to conserve this precious resource. Having a bath in Madrid is the equivalent of taking a taxi in London - you just never do it!
The way to survive Madrid's weather is to look at your feet first thing in the morning. If they are stiff, it's probably advisable to wear a thick jacket that day. If they are blue, you will need a snow-shovel and ear-muffs. If, by any chance they are wet from that drip in the cealing, that means the first rains in 3 months have arrived and all hell has broken loose. The latter has happened this week. It's been chucking it down. As I skip the puddles in the streets I quietly giggle away with amusement at how the Madrilenos cope with rain. They all jump into their cars and find the nearest and most convenient traffic jam. This way they are all huddled together in herds and must therefore be safe.
The Spanish are rather good at crashing cars and even more so when it rains. The news this week bemoaned the terrible weather for the innately spanish skill of swerving off the road but I am yet to see the them admit that they may just be terrible drivers.
As I sit here I have a heater warming my feet. I go to bed each night wondering if I will survive till the morning but somehow, despite hypothermia, I do wake every morning - must be something to do with that rarified air which has just that bit of life-giving magic in it. It's great.
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Saturday, 17 November 2007
WELCOME!
I am starting this blog now even though I have been in Spain a while…but I say better late than never! I hope you enjoy it and I would be interested to hear your points of view as well.
I have been in Spain for over 10 and a half weeks now – with less than 5 weeks to go until I go home for the first time I am beginning to anticipate Christmas and all that it means – seeing friends and family! I am very excited…
This week has been quite a quiet week. The previous week I was feeling quite homesick and it was making me feel low – for the first time since I had got here I was finding it hard – it was hard but I couldn’t explain why because nothing ‘hard’ was actually happening in my life – I had got over all the hard bits of finding somewhere to live and starting university. I think it was just more of a psychological shift. I had hit a brick wall and now I was trying to surpass it.
I think a year abroad is mostly about the personal challenges it presents. It’s so very character building because it involves surviving in a foreign environment, and there is a point where it stops feeling like a holiday in the sun, where the novelty wears off and you realise what it all really means. I am glad not to have gone back to England in this first term as I think it’s too early. I could see myself going back and then finding it hard to leave again after having slipped right back into my normal life.
Spain is good place to do the year abroad as it is sufficiently foreign to present those challenges. It is also a lovely country with a rich culture and a very lively people! Madrid is non-stop and the vibe is good.
I was presented this week with a reality shock as I heard the news that a man had been killed in my local metro station in a pro and anti fascist clash. It’s the anniversary of Generalissimo Franco’s death this coming week and fascist marches are planned in the city. It seems there are two extreme ideologies: one is fascism that seems to survive to this day despite the Spanish having put ‘everything behind them’. And the other is anti-fascism – who will do whatever it can to disturb the marches.
As a foreigner who is not used to seeing extreme right-wing marches occur in the middle of a capital city, I am somewhat shocked. I am torn between the right for people to express their points of view, no matter what they are, and the fact that this ideology is a provocation of hatred and violence.
I have read an interesting book recently called ‘Ghosts of Spain’ in which the author, a British foreign correspondent living in Madrid, follows the resurrection and burial of mass graves left over from the Spanish Civil War. 32 years after the end of the dictatorship people are finally beginning to speak up about things that were previously forbidden. It is interesting though as it also shows that Spain has not quite come to terms with its past and the ideological conflict that many say, was a precursor to World War 2. Underneath the surface, the feelings are still raw and the fear still present.
On the face of it Spain has changed enormously – it has an excellent transport system, improving public services (though bureaucracy still reigns as I have often experienced first hand) and richer, healthier people. It’s a country that is going forward, no doubt about it. The past is slowly turning into ancient history as the post ’75 generation grows up with only the memory of democracy and greater affluence.
I stand at an interesting vantage point – I can look at this country as an outsider and draw more objective conclusions of it. I had no particular fascination with Spain before I came but now I have been here for a while, not only do I have a great affection for the country and its people, I have also learned that it is not simply sun, cerveza and flamenco. It is a multi-faceted country with different languages and different people. It is a country of contradictions, where the Roman Catholic Church is still strong but where gay people enjoy more rights than in most other countries.
Anyway, I’ll leave it there for now. Will write more soon…possibly about the farcical system of trying to sign up for university.
I have been in Spain for over 10 and a half weeks now – with less than 5 weeks to go until I go home for the first time I am beginning to anticipate Christmas and all that it means – seeing friends and family! I am very excited…
This week has been quite a quiet week. The previous week I was feeling quite homesick and it was making me feel low – for the first time since I had got here I was finding it hard – it was hard but I couldn’t explain why because nothing ‘hard’ was actually happening in my life – I had got over all the hard bits of finding somewhere to live and starting university. I think it was just more of a psychological shift. I had hit a brick wall and now I was trying to surpass it.
I think a year abroad is mostly about the personal challenges it presents. It’s so very character building because it involves surviving in a foreign environment, and there is a point where it stops feeling like a holiday in the sun, where the novelty wears off and you realise what it all really means. I am glad not to have gone back to England in this first term as I think it’s too early. I could see myself going back and then finding it hard to leave again after having slipped right back into my normal life.
Spain is good place to do the year abroad as it is sufficiently foreign to present those challenges. It is also a lovely country with a rich culture and a very lively people! Madrid is non-stop and the vibe is good.
I was presented this week with a reality shock as I heard the news that a man had been killed in my local metro station in a pro and anti fascist clash. It’s the anniversary of Generalissimo Franco’s death this coming week and fascist marches are planned in the city. It seems there are two extreme ideologies: one is fascism that seems to survive to this day despite the Spanish having put ‘everything behind them’. And the other is anti-fascism – who will do whatever it can to disturb the marches.
As a foreigner who is not used to seeing extreme right-wing marches occur in the middle of a capital city, I am somewhat shocked. I am torn between the right for people to express their points of view, no matter what they are, and the fact that this ideology is a provocation of hatred and violence.
I have read an interesting book recently called ‘Ghosts of Spain’ in which the author, a British foreign correspondent living in Madrid, follows the resurrection and burial of mass graves left over from the Spanish Civil War. 32 years after the end of the dictatorship people are finally beginning to speak up about things that were previously forbidden. It is interesting though as it also shows that Spain has not quite come to terms with its past and the ideological conflict that many say, was a precursor to World War 2. Underneath the surface, the feelings are still raw and the fear still present.
On the face of it Spain has changed enormously – it has an excellent transport system, improving public services (though bureaucracy still reigns as I have often experienced first hand) and richer, healthier people. It’s a country that is going forward, no doubt about it. The past is slowly turning into ancient history as the post ’75 generation grows up with only the memory of democracy and greater affluence.
I stand at an interesting vantage point – I can look at this country as an outsider and draw more objective conclusions of it. I had no particular fascination with Spain before I came but now I have been here for a while, not only do I have a great affection for the country and its people, I have also learned that it is not simply sun, cerveza and flamenco. It is a multi-faceted country with different languages and different people. It is a country of contradictions, where the Roman Catholic Church is still strong but where gay people enjoy more rights than in most other countries.
Anyway, I’ll leave it there for now. Will write more soon…possibly about the farcical system of trying to sign up for university.
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