Day 1: Grumpy cat

You can run a million miles (hyperbolically speaking) and still not escape the turmoil of feeling inside of you. You might think that the mistakes you make are only short term lived and they won’t haunt you but they do (if you are anything like me). Entropy and the arrow of time are things that constantly leave me baffled. If only I could go back to before I sent that last message, pressed deleted on something important, never showed up for something important, broke someone’s trust or lied to a friend. You can’t take things back and that bloody sucks.

Anyhow, my first day in Madrid did not turn out to be anything like what I had in mind.

The vision

I thought I’d arrive in Madrid and everything would be fucking awesome. Clearly, the problems I had were all about Hong Kong, right? (Err.. wrong)

I was going to come and drop my luggage at my airbnb. Walk down to the first cafe, sit on the patio sipping espresso. Walk around to the historic centre, visit a museum or two. Grab some lunch if possible.

Come back and rest before heading out for a great night.

First, I’d get a tattoo and then get some tapas before painting the town red (colloquially speaking, I do not have tomatoes or red paint).

The reality

I have two HEAVY suitcases which is all well and good in Hong Kong MTR stations but you leave the city and you realise how much upper body strength matters.

I am proud of managing to lug around my suitcases but, in Madrid there are only stairs down to the platform and I had to change 3 different trains. URGH. As if this was not enough the train didn’t stop at my stop. Why you ask? BECAUSE IT IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

After I drop off my luggage, I look like shit and smell like plane. I feel like a HOBO which in retrospect I am but my motivation to explore any city went right out of the window. You couldn’t have convinced me if you tried. I did eventually decide to get some coffee and a sandwich that improved my mood.

Now, I thought: all is not lost, let me go and try to figure out the tattoo business. Get an appointment you know. Just in case. I get to the place and they tell me they can’t do any day before Monday. I had almost given up at this point.

Things did look up once I had had some sleep. After all, nothing works wonders than some sleep and food. I mean that guy Maslov wasn’t completely bonkers. Coffee and alcohol also work to improve mood BTW but I’d recommend sleeping because it has less downsides.

I eventually managed to make my way down to the centre of town where all the shopping was. Most of the shops I already knew of, some more local / european brands I’d only heard of. It did made me realise that all cities are commercial and materialism isn’t so much a cause but rather an effect.

If you wanted, you could come to Madrid and never enjoy any of the culture, food or wine. You can go to Tim Horton’s or Mc Donalds. You can choose to never experience anything new but that is your loss.

We all like our comfort zone and I do too. That’s why it is called the comfort zone. When life sends you curve balls that don’t match your comfort zone, you get angry and react badly. It’s because unexpected needs more attention and we like to go on doing monotonous things in the hope that we will give it to something more important.

I did end up having a good night with great tapas at La Musa Malasaña; but I also found out that the hike I was looking forward to on Monday is cancelled.

We all wish that life would give us everything we wanted but then, it would also become everything we expect. The best things in life are unexpected.

There was a lush here.

Fin.