Back in June 2013 I wrote a blog post about a 6-month international assignment I’ve arranged in Madrid, starting in February and ending in July 2014! This 6-month placement is the final stage of the graduate scheme I’m currently on and Madrid is where the headquarters of the company are. My start date draws ever closer and I have very excitingly just booked a one-way flight to Madrid for the 31^st January 2014. (I will of course be booking a return flight to London at some point too! I just don’t yet know exactly when).

        With under two months to go I’m in the midst of paperwork and sorting living arrangements in Madrid, and it’s getting very hard to hide my anticipation! There is already a whole host of things I’d like to do and places around Spain that I’d like to visit, here is just a sample:

• See Las Fallas in Valencia (14-19^th March 2014)
• Visit old friends from my Erasmus semester in Córdoba, both in Córdoba and other parts of Spain where they’re living
• Escape to sail around a Balearic island in the heat of July
• Pop down to Gibraltar and on towards Morocco
• The Arabic Baths in Madrid
• Practise my Portuguese in Porto and other areas of Portugal
• Make paella on Sundays
• Read endless Latin American magical realism literature in outdoor cafés
• Generally overdose on tapas!

        There are so many lovely places to visit in Spain, the ones above are just some of the ones I haven’t yet visited, but I could write a whole blog post on where a newbie to Spain should head: Barcelona, Salamanca, Granada, Seville, Toledo, Segovia, Pamplona, Valencia, San Sebastián, the list goes on…