on madrid

Madrid is growing on me. Until this year, it wasn’t a city I had much experience in, it was mainly just a stopping off point to change planes on my way to South America. I suppose Madrid isn’t the first, or second, place in Spain foreigners would head to. It doesn’t have the striking architecture and excitement of Barcelona, or the beaches offered by more southern destinations. At first glance, it is not even that pretty, and lacks the impressive monuments of even many provincial Spanish towns. Yet, it is somehow an extremely pleasant business destination. It has well developed infrastructure: the airport is extremely well connected to the centre by an excellent metro system, cabs are readily available and not ridiculously overpriced. The hotels and restaurants are equally of good value, so I can stay in a top hotel in the centre and eat in top restaurants without giving my company card abuse. Of course, that technically doesn’t matter- I could eat or sleep wherever I wanted in any city on company expense, but I still like the fact that a good meal in Madrid costs me €40, instead of €150 in Moscow. Actually, it is not even the meal itself, what I particularly like here is that it is somehow comfortable. Unlike in Moscow, there is no pretension and people are laid back and cool; unlike in Rome, things here actually work. In meetings in various companies it is the same: the people are polite, honest and friendly. They don’t spend ages attempting to calculate the cost of your suit (as in Moscow), pretend to be happy and friendly when they are not (Houston) or leave you with the feeling that you are attempting to keep a litter of cats in a basket (Rome, Milan). So, all in all, there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about Madrid, it is just a pleasant place.