Jason and I recently spent 3 weeks in July living in Madrid, Spain while Jason taught for Auburn University’s Global Programs in Europe. His students had first been in Rome for 6 weeks taking classes and then had a week off to travel during the 4th of July Holiday. On week 8 they landed in his classroom for 10 days of an entire Principles of Management course, a class that typically lasts an entire 15ish week semester. It was fast. It was intense. It was hot. We got sick. I’ll tell you what I remember in a bit of a hodge-podge manner. It was 3 weeks of a mostly routine day-to-day schedule, but there are definitely some points that stick out. Buckle up, I wrote a long one again.
We spent our 3 weeks in a cute little Air BnB apartment on the backside of Plaza Mayor. It was tiny, but it had everything we needed – including a little AC. We loved the little balcony for fresh air and a peek at the world. I loved the ambiance with the fabulous chandeliers, expansive book collection, ancient door and next door neighbor that gave music lessons. It was on the third floor of a very old building and had all sorts of quirks from centuries of remodels. It was pretty great, but no lie, I was super jealous of the view from our friend’s apartment next to the palace and gardens. But, we were very centrally located, could walk everywhere we needed to go within 15 minutes and I never had to get on the metro. We even had a little grocery store right across the street. I don’t think I made it farther than a 15 minute radius the entire time we were there. So weird.
Laundry. It was over 100 degrees the ENTIRE time we were in Madrid. The first two weeks we were in the city I did laundry almost every day in our tiny apartment washing machine so it had time to dry (very few dryers in Europe) before we needed clean clothes again. I was washing by the third day we were there. Between clothes and sheets and towels I was completely overwhelmed. I don’t know how they keep up! Maybe they care less about the summer stink or just generally have way more tolerance for the heat than we do. Luckily, I had come along and could conquer this task so Jason could focus on his class. He worked and was in class constantly. We had packed about a week’s worth of clothes, so by the end of the second week, I quit washing clothes and planned to just haul them home dirty to wash one load in my giant washer. So much faster. Funny enough, I hang most of our clothes to dry at home these days anyway, so the lack of a dryer wasn’t that big of a deal to us. The biggest challenge was finding a place to hang sheets to dry quickly. I got creative and opened the doors to our wardrobe and draped them across the top. Victory. It was after this I saw they would replace our sheets and towels for €25 per set – this was one of those character-building opportunities and just another load of laundry. Not a big deal.
By the end of the third day in the country, I knew something was wrong. I’m typically puffy after flying and have a constant sore throat from Missouri allergies, so I thought nothing of both following me to Spain. By the end of day three though, my voice started to go, that almost never happens – Jason will tell you he never gets a break from me gabbing. We were at a program dinner that night when my eyes started watering profusely, like I was full-on crying, and wouldn’t stop! I dabbed my eyes all night and cracked jokes about how terribly sad I was, but we blamed all the smoke and wind in the outdoor bar and thought the earlier rainstorm had maybe stirred something up. Other than these weird things, we felt totally fine. By the next morning, I was a wreck. I managed to peel myself out of bed, do some yoga, throw a load of ever-present laundry in, sweep the floor, and then I crashed hard and basically didn’t move for 5 days while I cycled through fever, a drowning amount of phlegm, and a horrible cough. Jason was lucky and was only down for about 2 days over the weekend, so his class wasn’t affected. He always bounces back from an illness so much faster than I do. A week and a half later I still had congestion, a throbbing headache (I’m blaming the headache on the constant heat and dehydration), and generally dizziness, but was starting to be able to function again. I know what you’re thinking – oh my gosh, they got Covid. It very well could have been, we’d been traveling, flying, and living in countries that no longer have restrictions other than masking here and there. We did the best we could in our situation and tried to be responsible by laying low until our symptoms went away. This was longer for me, but that’s how it goes with me and wasn’t a big deal since I’d planned to work from the apartment most days anyway. I’d like to say I got a ton of work done while I only saw the inside walls of our apartment, but I was too busy watching the insides of my eyelids.
Meanwhile, Jason is having time of his life, living the European dream! Ok not really, he’s working really hard and I’m seeing the concern he has for his students as they struggle through tests every other day and their own issues with living in a country that is not their own. They’re college students in Europe, what could go wrong (oh the stories!)? Prior to this, Jason had not lectured in a classroom setting in almost 3 years (due to Covid and his stint as department head), and a 3.5-hour class every day will really knock the wind out of you! His class was finished every day at 12:30, then after running errands or scrouging up lunch we (I) partook in the great “siesta,” generally while Jason was catching up on grading and prepping his next class. Siesta is my favorite thing about Spain. To avoid the heat of the day, most places close down in the afternoon, and using this time for a nap is perfectly acceptable. I’ve decided this is how they have the energy to stay up all night to enjoy the cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, our American work schedule and the time difference prevented us from enjoying many late nights out. So, the siesta ended up being some catch-up rest from late nights working, early mornings to work on Spanish time, and heat exhaustion. It was a bit brutal!
We did have time for a couple of fun things during our stay. On one Sunday, we strolled a couple of blocks from our apartment to the biggest outdoor flea market in the world (so they say). El Rostro happens every Sunday and public holiday in Madrid. It was a conglomeration of all things imaginable for sale, but my favorite was all the different types of music from different cultures. Stalls lined the streets as far as you could see and the businesses behind them were open as well. We didn’t end up buying anything and cut our trip a bit short due to the heat but we’re here to say, it certainly was large! Had I been in the mood, I could have found all sorts of “treasures” to haul home.
A friend and I had an entire day of fun as well. We headed off to shop early on in our stay along Calle Gran Via (remember: the double-l in Spanish is pronounced as a y, so Calle is pronounced Cay-yay – it means street), a popular shopping location in Madrid. We ducked in and out of tons of stores, finding a few things, and enjoyed the wide pedestrian streets that are closed to cars, except for delivery vehicles. There is very little traffic in central Madrid due to their push to move cars out and turn the streets into walkways. They only allow only electric scooters, bikes, and taxis in the city center to cut down on noise and pollution. The metro system running under it all gets the bulk of people around when it’s too far to walk, but honestly, I didn’t get on the metro the entire time we were there since we were so centrally located! We just walked everywhere. After our long walk and shopping trip, we got lunch at what turned out to be my favorite restaurant, La Rollerie. Jason and I went back multiple times after for brunch. Since my friend was only here for a short time before her husband started teaching and was staying in a hotel, we took advantage of their pool after lunch. This was short-lived as a freak rainstorm blew in and sent us scrambling for cover. We felt so bad for the pool staff running around trying to pull cushions, tables, and lamps under cover so they wouldn’t be soaked later in the day. They were completely drenched, got hailed on, and had to be absolutely freezing standing in the AC afterward! We quickly saw an entirely new group of staff come in; we’re thinking the others were sent home. Once the storm blew over, we convinced the husbands to join us for a pre-dinner drink before meeting the big group for dinner. It was a great time, and probably the busiest day I had on the entire trip.
We also had a rather entertaining evening on a colleague’s roof next to the Royal Palace of Madrid. We spotted a spectacular sunset out the windows of his apartment where we had gathered for drinks and tapas, so four of us piled into the tiny glass elevator to head to the roof for a better view. Except, the elevator got stuck about two feet from the top floor and the doors WOULDN’T OPEN! After about 15-20 minutes of sweating to death (because of course it was over 100 degrees in a building with no AC), frantically calling the Air BnB host, pressing the emergency button where we were greeted with rapid-fire Spanish that we were having trouble deciphering in our panicked state, and sinking to the ground in despair, someone found a catch for the doors, they opened and we all frantically climbed up out of the elevator. I’ve never been so relieved in my life. I would like to say that someone would have eventually come to help us, but after spending 3 hours on the roof, no one had come, and the elevator was still stuck where we left it. Obviously, we took the stairs back down. We missed the actual sunset but the view was still spectacular, the company was entertaining and I got some fun photos and videos of the palace at night.
As I’ve said, the heat was oppressive. However, we were not dealing with the humidity with it that we get in Missouri, so we were so kindly allowed to breathe. Instead, this was the type of heat that sneaks up on you, you don’t realize you’re too hot until it’s too late. We typically did not venture out in the afternoon once Jason was back from class, dripping sweat from his 10-minute walk from the metro station. Instead, we waited until the restaurants opened around 8 PM (everything happens so late here) to venture out for tapas (small plates of food), grab take-out from the fabulous sushi place next door or call in some Uber-Eats (no lie, this is the first time I’ve ever done that! They don’t deliver in rural MO!). We had paella (pronounced pie-yay-uh) aplenty, Chinese tapas, pizza, a glorious burger, croquettes, sushi, calamari, and an overwhelming array of various other tapas during our stay. The food is fabulous, although, I think, extremely heavy for the climate. I was constantly in search of fruit or a salad for nutrients and hydration and I never did find ice cream I could actually eat. Gosh, that still sounds good. Madrid, help a dairy allergy gal out and bring in some vegan ice cream!
We had an interesting time trying to figure out the trash and recycling situation in Madrid. I don’t come from a big city, so maybe this is normal, but they only put the trash cans out after 8 PM. We couldn’t figure this out for almost a week and finally asked the Air BnB host. I could see him shaking his head at the other end of my message as he explained you are not allowed to take the trash out during the day in Madrid. I must say though, this kept the streets less cluttered and smelly, so in the end, it’s great. We collected recycling for weeks too before we located a collection center. This part was expected for us as we collect our recycling at home in bins in our garage before we take truckloads to town to the recycling center. So no real change there. Chasing down trash cans was a new one though.
As we were rounding the corner on our last week in Madrid, things got even more interesting. Just as we were starting to feel pretty good after our illness, I got food poisoning. Really bad food poisoning. It was way worse than the maybe Covid, putting me in bed with a fever for an entire day while stomach pains had me nearly in tears. I should have stayed there the following day as well, but we needed to pack up to head home. So, I had to pull myself together long enough to get my suitcase packed so we could move closer to the airport where we were staying for the night (so we thought). It took some serious kumbaya in the taxi to hold myself together, but we made it to the hotel, and I promptly crashed again after trying to eat for the first time in two days. Terrible idea, I spent the night in agony.
Our wake-up call the following morning came at 4 am when we learned our first flight had been canceled. Some mad scrambling (and a few thankyous to all the gods from me) had us rebooked for an entirely new flight itinerary the NEXT day – after 5 hours on the phone. We almost made it out without any extra charges on our phone plan. So close. It was then we learned another professor had his flight canceled as well, so Jason encouraged him to come to stay at our hotel so they could commiserate (over beers, obviously) while I continued to try to sleep off the food poisoning in the dark cool of our room. The new itinerary meant a 3 am wake-up call the following day (which was just completely brutal), so we headed to bed by 8 pm only to not be able to sleep at all because it was so light outside! We had blackout curtains, but the entire bathroom was frosted glass and mirrors with no curtains, not helpful! We finally fell asleep sometime around midnight only to be jolted awake again at 3 am.
We made the airport by 4:15 the next morning and everything went smoothly. The bag check line was separate from the check-in line (which we had done online), so we quickly dropped our bags off and headed for security. Security was a breeze (why is it such mass screaming chaos in the US!?) and we were to our gate almost 2 hours before our flight. We could have slept longer, darn it, but had we waited there would have been some issue and we’d have missed our flight. No doubt. Our Lufthansa plane was parked at the gate for the night and mercifully left on time getting us to Munich in plenty of time to get through the very orderly German Border Control (which was at least 3 different passport checks) and to our crowded gate. This flight was delayed. I think we ended up leaving an hour later than we were supposed to just due to issues at the gate. We lost our fancy United Premium Plus seats when our itinerary changed but they were able to at least put us in an exit row for our 11.5-hour flight in some relatively comfortable seats. That is currently the longest I have ever been on a plane and it was tolerable. I was just extremely bored. I am also happy to report that my food poisoning issues took most of the day off. I got to Houston on Pedialyte and rice, where a banana nearly killed me, and I had to repeat the kumbaya for the final flight into Springfield. No joke, I wanted to kiss the ground. Jason says this is not recommended in airports.
Our wonderful neighbor picked us up (and had dropped us off three weeks earlier) at the airport and whisked us away home to hug the doggos. Esma and Zara quickly forgave us for our prolonged absence, but Jack is still mad at us. That dog can hold a grudge like none I’ve ever known. The cat also made her protests known the next morning, but I think she’s forgiven us as well. She’s spent a lot of time with me begging for pets.
All of this is to say, I hope you go to Spain! It’s a wonderful country that unfortunately does not agree with me. This was my second trip to Spain with Jason while he teaches and the second trip where I have been very sick. I don’t do well in the heat, so I think that has a lot to do with exacerbating my symptoms. I love the colors, the vibe, and the friendliness of Spain but I will admit I was in dire need of some green – which I was NOT greeted with when we got home. Missouri is currently in a drought, and everything here has dried up as well. There were definitely some fun highlights, but we didn’t get to do any sightseeing on this trip. I’m thinking next year we may stay in Germany longer before or after classes and I’ll just send Jason to Spain on his own and I’ll head home to man the fort myself at home while he teaches. We’ll see what the year brings. It’s always an adventure.
