We’ve landed back in Madrid and are in the home stretch — there’s very little time left in the semester.
My particular program is more than halfway done — classes will end in ?May — and after a few weeks of traveling, I plan to return to the States the first week of July.
For any of you planning a welcome-home party, I like lots of chocolate cake and balloons.
Unfortunately, that means very little time left to actually explore Madrid. This past weekend is one of the last I will have spent in Madrid itself, as there are more plans to travel and see as much of Europe as possible before heading home.
Oh, what a bad problem to have.
Given that we were still drained from jumping directly into classes after vacation — my first class back was the day I landed in Madrid — we decided to do at least one cultural thing in the city.
Europeans love their markets, but for the most part it can be hard to navigate a swirl of old clothes and “Gucco” perfume.
So we were curious when our program sent us information about Nomada Market. Started in 2005, it hosts hundreds of local artisans, from jewelers to clothes-makers, and is hosted in — and I am not kidding — the attic of one of Madrid´s train stations.
That alone was enough to get us to go.
The market was massive, and there was everything from gold jewelry to hand-stitched bags.
It was a stark change of pace from the crowded street markets found throughout Madrid.
Moreover, it was a slice of more modern Madrileño life. Madrid and many European countries and cities have histories dating back thousands of years.
Many times, it feels like we are walking through a history project.
It can be extremely hard to appreciate modern Europe and modern Spain for what it is because, as visitors, the things we are presented with have been preserved and are steeped heavily in history.
It is relatively easy in six months to get a handle on a country´s past.
It´s hard to understand fully in six months what modern Spaniards think, feel and believe. Such is the pitfall of living in the ?present.
But at Nomada Market, it was entirely modern Spain, and it was an undiluted look at what Spaniards are like now, how they communicate with each other and how they show appreciation for the time they live in.
It made me realize how much I´ll miss Madrid when I´m gone.
