Madrid: A tales of tapas and frozen peas.
With Lindsey, once more, with feeling.

The Spanish Dilemma

Madrid was never an option. After three weeks in London, Lindsey was flying back, and stopping, on her way to Jo'burg, to the Spanish capital.
When she originally booked the ticket (some months ago), she asked if I wanted to spend some days with her before she would fly back, knowing that anyway my answer would have been positive.

After all, if I had to say goodbye to her again, I'd rather say it in some new place, after London and Johannesburg. Just to keep it fresh.

While I was writing this report, someone asked me how was Barcelona. Yes, Barcelona. It seems that when you say "I'm going for a weekend to Spain" you mean either Barcelona or Ibiza. This guy knew I wasn't the drunken/sweaty/desperate/druggie/dancer kind of guy who would fly to Ibiza, so he assumed I went to Barcelona, which I visited already twice.
"Actually I went to Madrid"
"Madrid? What's the point? Looking for something exotic and mysterious?"

Now, obviously this guy, who he's a friend of mine (well, pretty much), he's quite ignorant (well, pretty much) about the fact that Madrid is a big city, and it's the capital of Spain and he's indeed better than Barcelona.
Ok, I said it. But hey, before protesting, at least I spend some time in the two cities.
Probably the fact the Barcelona just knocked out my favorite time (AC Milan) from the Champions League didn't really help.

"But how can you say that? Barcelona has Gaudi, the sea, La Rambla, Ronaldinho!" - someone else reminded me.

Let's face it, Gaudi built some pretty weird stuff, but like any other monument/museum, you looked at them once, snap some pictures, and that's it.
The sea is ok, but I went there twice and I never took a bath or enjoy the beach, too boring and too many people asking if I wanted to buy Coke, Sprite or Marijuana.
La Rambla? Forget it. It's a tourist trap, ok for some pictures (see Gaudi) and buying some souvenir, terrible for food (way overpriced).
Ronaldinho? Sorry, donkey face is a nice guy and a terrific player but, for example, Rooney's skills and ugliness never really helped me appreciate the city of Manchester.
Barcelona has some other cool spots, like the Montjuïc for example.

But Madrid is better.
First, is much more relaxed. The local people from Barcelona I met, plus too many tourists/friends kept reminding me how important was Catalonia, how they deserved to change official language, to be independent (yes, great idea, a Catalonian Football League with Barcelona and Espanyol... as much exciting as the Scottish league) and political reasons. Madrid, being the capital, doesn’t care.
I'm on holiday, no moaning to me please, simply not interested.

I guess that I reached that age when I go on holiday to relax, drink, enjoy the weather and the company, and snap some pictures.

Probably Barcelona is a nice place for alternative people (usually fake, but they really believe it), left wingers who go on holiday just for the right to smoke that joint and drink that sangria, right wingers who are a bit confused and probably gay, alternative music listeners (which usually the music is so damn crap/boring that they need drugs to keep going) and occasionally tourist who arrived to the city because "Barcelona is Cool".

Well, don't get me wrong, I liked Barcelona. Madrid has its downsides too. Like too many gays hugging and kissing around.
Besides that, I just had a better time in Madrid. And yes, obviously this is my point of view.

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