Day 2 – Madrid

So, this is it then. After a week of goodbyes and lasts and packing and organizing and bureaucracy, I left yesterday morning. Over the last few days, I have been meeting up with lots of people I hadn’t seen in a pretty long time and enjoying myself very much. It’s weird how the excuse of saying goodbye reunites you with even your most occupied friends. I even said goodbye to the lady at the fish market and on my last night out, luck made me run into a woman with whom I used to share the changing rooms when I did my #swimdrawings in fall and winter.

Apart from a brief moment of “What have I done?!” on Saturday night turning off my bedside light one last time, I didn’t really feel the emotion and nervosity people had been continuously asking me about during these last days.

On Sunday morning, however, I felt what a good fried had warned me about last week; This was my real goodbye. The one I have been somehow postponing and not accepting over the last six months. More than fear or nervosity it was mere sadness I felt when I walked to the train station in Sunday’s dawn. Going away is my way of forcing myself to finally give up hope of getting back the life I loved and wanted so badly; and move forward, towards something else. I don’t really want it and I’m not really ready, but yesterday morning, half panicking while taking that symbolic last glimpse at the city, I did it anyway.

It also sort of impressed me to leave the flat without any keys. Even if I say I didn’t really feel at home there, I always had a pair of keys in my pocket and a place to return to every evening where all my things and my bed awaited me. Now, the left side pocket of my jacket has lost its purpose.

At lunchtime, I got to Madrid and installed myself in an Airbnb in Malasaña, the “cultural-alternative” neighborhood of the capital. I spent some time wandering around but found myself after about two hours going straight to the enormous “El Retiro” park, longing to be in the company of trees and grass. Madrid is very nice, but I can’t help myself but disliking big cities. Later, I met up with an old acquaintance of mine and by the end of the day I was almost too tired to take a last look at my thesis presentation.

Today, I woke before sunrise and walked to the university’s office to defend my master’s thesis at 9. Despite presenting myself in muddy hiking boots, I have now officially finished my degree with 10 of 10 points and special honors (matricula de honor).

I celebrated this with some delicious sweets from coeliacs’ paradise “Celicioso”, a 100% gluten-free bakery and spent the rest of the day planlessly wandering around the city. No one knows why, but this is what I do at new places – I wander. I don’t hop from sight to sight and even if I plan an itinerary I am not capable of sticking to it and turn out walking lots of kilometers, coming by the same places over and over again. This might not be the most efficient way of getting to know a city but by the end of the second day I can almost find my way back home without using a map. Which, by my new life standards, means that it’s time to leave, I guess.
I also paid “El Prado” a visit in the evening and admired some artworks from Velazquez, Goya, Bosco, Rafael, Dürer and many others.

This is my last night in comfort-zone Spain, tomorrow morning I am heading towards Athens in Greece.