I lazily got up, realizing it would be the last morning I got to really sleep in until April 7th! Each time I'd start to think about rolling out of bed, this thought would pop back into my head and I'd close my eyes again, guilt free. ;)
By the time I was up and ready, it was late afternoon. I hadn't had an adventure all weekend long... And it seemed like a total waste of a three day weekend to continue sitting around, generally doing nothing... So I got my lazy butt out the door and onto the train!
My afternoon in Madrid was very carefree. I had nowhere I needed to be and no time at which I ad to be there. And so I did what I love doing the most - I just began to wander, looking at the city glistening in the sunshine with fresh, free eyes. After living somewhere for awhile - even somewhere that a year or two ago would have seemed very exotic - you start to take it for granted. Not on purpose, and not in a cruel way - just in the way that you are using the city as a means to an end, rather than just enjoying it for itself. And so, it is important to take those lazy, solo afternoons to rediscover it and get lost on little charming streets you've never seen before, or try a new blood orange juice at Mercado San Miguel, or figure out which neighborhood you were enchanted by a few weeks ago and how to get there on foot instead of by metro without cheating. :) A city that once seemed so big and foreign starts to feel like home - a home you really cherish and feel lucky to live in - when you start doing this. <3
I once read about a city walking meditation - where you take in everything around you and then focus on super tiny parts of the city (a crack in a building, a sticker behind a sign far out of sight, an old roof of a church). It has the most charming ability to center a girl and make her both feel like an important part of something great and like a very, very tiny being in comparison!
XOXO
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