Madrid - travel journal pages

Life is sweet. Yesterday, I got back from a wonderful city trip to Madrid, Spain. 
I'm a lucky girl. My husband had to travel there for his work and we decided I could travel with him and to add the weekend. 
So on Thursday morning, we arrived at Barajas, the airport. My husband took a cab to the office, and my little adventure started right there. I love travelling, and when you're on your own, the experience somehow is even deeper. Taking the subway into town was an adventure and my senses opened up completely. It felt like I saw, heard and smelt things sharply, and even the warm air from the subway tunnels felt like it touched the hairs on my arms in a very special way.
I saw well short dressed and high heeled women, smelled freshly fried churros, noticed elderly men wearing pastel colours, their checkered shirts matching the colour of their pink, baby blue or lime green pants. I was still underground and could already see: I am in the south of Europe!

The first thing I did when I arrived in the city and ascended from the subway into the sunny streets of Madrid, was find myself a Cafeteria to drink my very first, very spanish cortado: a single espresso with a little bit of milk.

Then I checked into our wonderful apartment we found through www.airbnb.com, I worked for a few hours (the entrepreneur life does go on, you know, also when you're travelling!) and then headed outside into the sunny city life. Had tapas for lunch and drew my view from the cervezeria. 

Next day I visited the museum Reina Sofia and I was also told to go see the Atocha train station which is on the other side of the roundabout there. So I did and also drew it.

Early in the evening, I made this drawing while having tapas with my husband. Including greasy tapas stains:

And we visited the wonderful mercado de San Miguel at night, for a glass of Verdejo and... yup, more tapas!

I am still doing my daily self portraits, as you can see. There's just a few pages to go in my current sketchbook, and I will sure keep the habit of doing self portraits, but I'll be glad to not be committed to do one each day anymore when I start a new sketchbook.
On the 14th, we woke up to another gorgeous day and before heading out, I drew the view from our window.
Next day, just before leaving home, we visited El Rastro, the largest flea market in the world, held every week. Super festive. We walked and walked and walked, so I didn't sketch any of it. The only drawing I made was the one in the right corner, during lunch.


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