Mariana, My Madrid Host

It is about 2pm on a sunday afternoon and I take a deep breath as I press the buzzer to her apartment, I am greeted by a nice voice welcoming me and telling me to come up to the 4th floor. I make my way up there and discover that she is a really nice spanish woman, 40 years old, speaking great english as it turns out she spent many years in london and travelling abroad.

I am not sure if it is because I am her first host, or that she is very generous but the next 4 days I spend there are most comfortable. I sleep well and get over my stomach bug, inbetween eating nice food and visiting many small amazing bars, where I drink my fill of vermouth and eat countless complimentary olives and other tapas snacks. Some bars are very old, others in former butchershops, all have many old bottles displayed on shelves and are full of young and old, all having a drink after work.

I am amazed at how relaxed the spanish are and I think I begin to understand why. They talk a lot and are very social creatures, every night the streets are crowded with groups of people all chatting about life, and I begin to wish I could understand spanish so that I could evesdrop on what is going on. The spanish also place great emphasis on food and drink, and this explains why the bars are always full, even on a monday night. My host tells me that spanish enjoy drinking, but they do it more to relax than to get drunk, a stark contrast to the binge drinking culture of australia, and they always must eat snacks when they drink.

I hope to take this lifestyle back with me on my return, as I am certain there are many australian summer days ahead consisting of ice cold vermouth, snacks and lazing around in the heat.

And I also spend my next four days exploring the streets of madrid and taking many photos. It is nice to be alone again so that I can concentrate on my artwork and start thinking about plans for my return to australia.