Am I alone or does anyone else feel this way?

I returned from a wonderful 8 days in Madrid and surrounding areas. It was great to be back in my favorite city. Now, I am depressed. I want to appreciate my regular life, but I keep thinking wistfully about Spain and how I wish I were back there. Surely on this website, I can't be alone in this. How do you all cope with the intense desire to run away to Spain? Fortunately I have a "partner in crime" now. My son also loved Spain and he's planning our next trip!

You´re not alone ... I´m just trying to find a way ( after 5 years ) to stay here !

I used to but I had a rather bad experience the last time I visited. Besides, Spain's changed too much for me and it's getting way too expensive.

Im always planning my next trip back as soon as I get home .

How often do you go, eskimo joe, if I may ask?

Usually about 2 times a year , maybe 3 this year . Its a lot easier for me just to pop over from Scotland than come from the States though .

I always get "trip depression" when I get home...I just love Madrid and all of Spain. It's hard to find anything good to eat when you get back too, you get use to all the fabulous good food, and just walking the streets and "people watching" is so much fun too. But I'll be back in September, so I can hardly wait.

How often do I go to Spain ..? Oh yes , I forgot , I live here ! Hehehehehe ... Not wanting to brag of course !

Kipper, how often do you go back?

I am a Spanish teacher, so I have a great reason to visit. (Not that loving the country isn't a great reason to visit) I am also wondering what brings all of you to Spain with such frequency?

I know exactly what all of you feel! I am a teacher too so that gives me the opportunity to take a long trip every summer (last summer, though, I stayed home and planted a garden and enjoyed my city).
Our visits are two-fold. First and foremost, my husband's whole family is there, he is the ONLY one outside of Spain. Next but for myself, it's that I truly love Spain and envision a life there one day, I don't know if it will be next year, in 10 years, or when I retire, but I will be there permanently one day, in my future!!!
I also really want my Americanized daughter to know her Spanish heritage and family !
In the meantime, we have satellite t.v. with TVE, perfect the art of Spanish cuisine, made a paella oven outside, have Spanish friends, take daughter to flamenco lessons, and of course, enjoy all of you on MM message board@@@!!!!!!

well, what can I say but reiterate what laduque says...my hope is to live in Spain at some point in the future...it may end up being when we are retired, but if we win the lottery we will be there sooner

It is extremely hard to come back to the US after a visit to Spain. Especially hard. Happily, the daily dose of the MM message board, the other daily websites and newspapers from Spain and my own classes, where I can talk about Spain, help a lot!

Yes, I agree. I love having a job where I can think/talk about Spain and it is considered "cultural" and important. I love telling my students how wonderful Spain is and encourage their love of travel.

Esperanza, do you have family there, too?

I would love to convince my husband to consider spending part of our retirement there, but first I have to get him to go. I hope he will like it.

your husband has never been to Spain? Shame on you! He will love it! That is for sure! I have never met anyone who has been to Spain who has not fell in love with Spain, the culture, the lifestyle... everything!

Yes, my family is mostly in Galicia and I also have a cousin in Madrid.

Now that your son has been to Madrid, you have help to convince your husband to experience SPAIN.

TeacherTraveler8...I try to go every year, if not twice a year. I have good friends that live in Madrid...one from the states...so I have a place to stay ad we travel to different places on each visit. I love Spain....

As many have all said wisely, it really helps coping with the distance when you have daily reminders in your life like a Spanish spouse, Spanish classes, family who live in Spain, and, of course, TV and internet do wonders to keep you connected.

For 10 years I PINED to live in Madrid. One of my nightly rituals included setting the computer to record 4-6 hours of audio of either RadiOle or one of the talk radio stations in Spain. Then when I'd wake up the next morning I'd burn that onto a re-writable CD and take it to work, playing it nearly 6 hours later. So with the 6 hour time difference, it was almost like listening to it live, hearing the hourly "Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeep! Son las nueve de la mañana..." and I was listening to it at 9am at my work desk in Ohio - and that was because we weren't allowed to use the internet for anything other than work-related purposes so that was my way around it. People would come in my office, tilt their head at the audio coming from my speakers, and ask, "Are you listening to internet streaming audio?" and I'd pull out the CD and show them. Ha! Beat the system.

I learned to "Live Spain" everyday - it was the only way I could survive. I won't say I was obsessed but I was THERE in my mind. I'd print out English versions of a Spanish newspaper and take it to work, reading it on my lunch hour. Some evenings I'd make an Ohio-version of Paella (although I realize you're not supposed to eat paella for dinner - it's a lunchtime food) with real Spanish wine and a can of anchovy-stuffed green olives and watch a Spanish movie or TVEi when my "Latino" cable TV package offered it for those two years - until they removed it for lack of popularity and I hence canceled that part of my cable package. I'd leave TVEi on behind all weekend long as I worked on MadridMan.com at home, frequently turning my head to see what they were talking about. Sunday mornings over breakfast were so pleasant as TVEi showed video-documentaries about the different parts of Galicia. Man, that was beautiful.

So to keep your head in Spain while the rest of your body is somewhere else, you only have to turn to the internet or TVEi (if you can get it). In fact, right now I'm surprised to see they're broadcasting online Los Desayunos de TVE (from 9-11am weekdays).

Saludos, MadridMan - in Madrid, Spain - and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

You're defiantly not alone. Everyday I'm planning our next trip. Checking fares, events, festivals etc.

Once again, I'm looking to come late Autumn early Winter. I really enjoy the cooler weather for our stay. There is something very special about that time of year for me as I'm from California and putting on a warm coat and scarf for the evening is something I don't get much here. I love walking the city streets, below the Christmas lights and getting caught amongst the "ocean" of people moving about, and getting swept away in their current. I just let it take me where it's going without any concern of where I'll end and hoping to discover something I hadn't planned when I get there.

Having said that, I can't get back soon enough regardless of the season. If I could, I'd hop on a plane today.

Rudy,

Do you have friends or family there? What is your tie to Spain? Did you just visit once and fall in love or do you have a Spanish related job? I loved your description of the city streets. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for asking. I'm happy to answer.

Yes I have family there(sort of). I first went to Spain when I was 15 with my parents and other family members. I had an uncle, by marriage, in the air force stationed in Madrid so we stayed with him and his family on the base.

Twenty some years later, my wife had been "pestering" me about a "real vacation" for a very long time. I noticed that a band I love was playing in Barcelona so I said, "How bout going to Spain?" That was the beginning of it all. On that first trip we did Madrid-Valencia-Barcelona then back to Madrid, all by train.

We didn't know what we were doing! We booked 7 days and only had reservations for our first night in Madrid at the Petit Palace Londres. We played the rest by ear which made things very interesting but fun. It was low season in February so getting rooms was easy but we looked ridiculous dragging our HUGE suitcases around town without knowing where we were going. It was a great experience but I wouldn't do it that way again. Plus, I'm too old for that nonsense. These days we travel with one carry-on each. The wife even has her own curling iron from Spain so she doesn't have to worry about a converter.

That uncle of mine is still in Madrid but now, working with his Spanish wife at the U.S. Embassy. We try to spend 2 or 3 days with him when we're there. We've also since met a few lovely gentlemen from the MM board who have enriched our stays. My wife is determined to retire to Spain someday. I won't complain. Since 2003 we've been 5 times. Looking forward to number 6! We Love It! INEEDSPAIN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxMm849e0AQ

Rudy, I love that link you posted! I love Spain! What a great ad campaign.
So many reasons to love Spain. Thanks for sharing that.

Esperanaz, yea those adverts are great. I subcribe to that You Tube channel. 200 + videos of Espana. Glad you enjoyed!

Great "I Need Spain" promotional videos from the Spanish Tourism Board. Love them all.

Saludos, MadridMan

I lived in Madrid for 3 1/2 years when I was a kid from 7 to 11 years old , so it had a big effect on me . When I lived here I wanted to be a bulfighter , and if we had styed on im sure I would have went to a escula taurina .
I returned 18 years later with my wife for a long weekend , and in that time we managed to squeeze in as much of the memories I had of Madrid , the restaurants , retiro , corrida , Batan to see the bulls , etc etc.
After that trip we returned a couple of times a year , and eventually moved over for a year in 2007 , only to return to Scotland when my wife was pregnant with our 1st child .
We still come over on vacation , and would love to move over more permanently one day

Spain is everything under the sun was a popular tourism slogan of the 1980's and 1990's, indeed I always think about it, moving there at least at retirement.
I lived in Madrid from 1971 to 1974, came back in 1982, then again in 1990, 1995, and being coming every year sometimes several times since 2003. Its never enough but now with a family is not easy just to move. Maybe in retirement. Now, from where I am we get satellite TV, see all the autonomous regions channels including TeleMadrid, its a consolation.

Wow this is an amazing thread.... I went to Barcelona as a Rotary exchange student wayyyy back in the 80s (From Ohio also) and it totally rocked my world. I had Spain on the brain but there was no internet, nothing around me to keep me in touch, and everyone around me thought I was nuts.

I married a Turk in the mid 90s, and we went back and forth between Turkey and the US but I never developed the same feeling for it, thinking it was some emotional block on my part, and I had convinced myself that i was being silly and immature with my love for all things Spanish.

We live full time in Istanbul now, but I have never met another expat here with the same addiction to Turkey that I had and you all seem to have for Spain. We have been coming to Madrid on holidays (during the Eids) for the last few years now and will be there again during the Sacrifice Holiday in November.

I am so glad to read what you all have written here, and glad to know after a couple decades that I wasn't as crazy as everyone else thought me to be. Thank you!

I love Istanbul and travel to Dalyan sometimes . Eating fish sandwiches down by the Bosphorous river looking at all the mosques is magical ... or being invited into a shop for apple tea while they try and sell you a carpet ( I have 3 stored away in England ) . I always stay in Sultanahmet because it´s so central .... Istanbul is one city I would definitely consider living in . I have a friend ( Turkish ) whó lives there but would definitely like to meet you the next time I go .
I should also mention the hamam in Goçek ... superb .. and the trip around the islands in a big boat .. BBQ on the beach . What a great country ! I have had major problems there but they are anhialated by the good times .
The only downside to Madrid is the lack of a major river , the sea , a big lake etc... During summer that is a problem . The only resort is to go to the open air swimming pools , which are good BUT not quite the same .

Yes, back when i was "haciendo COU" in Barcelona, back in the Middle Ages, everyone went on and one about the lack of a large body of water in Madrid. Of course I live walking distance to the Bosphorus so maybe I would change my mind once it were taken away.... but... No one has ever mentioned this particular kind of magic like you guys have.

Giggling about the stuff you like, you are such a tourist! :-P

I honestly have to check myself that I don't talk about Spain too much to my friends and family. I am a Spanish teacher, so all day long, I can bring it up with my students. Even today, a new 4th grader asked if I would be showing and telling about Spain because she had heard about it from her brother, a former student. I don't know about others on the message board, but for me, it is the people, the history, the language, the attitudes about life, and the general atmosphere. I am so grateful for this community of people who seem to understand and feel the same way.

Hey we're all tourists ! I travel widely and try and take local advice ( which is what this site is about I guess ) . I'm proud to say that my friends in Spain , Turkey , Russia etc .. have helped me appreciate how wonderful their countries are .

so glad to hear it!

Hey, Detroiter, which part? I am from Toledo!

I sent you a private message.

@steve : ok, true enough! But it was funny!

@teachertraveller8: didn't get it and i tried to write you now but it said all the bb blah blah fields weren't filled in. humph....

Do you see the where it says "My Stuff" at the top of the page? there should be a little flashing envelope. If you click on it, you can open it. Try again and let me know!

oops, my fault. I didn't send it properly, I will try it again.

Sorry!

Traveler 024,

You are most definitely not alone in your feelings. Many of us on the board feel exactly the same love for Spain, the Spanish people, the culture, the history, the lifestyle, the food and wine … I could keep adding things but you get the idea.

The first time I was ever in Spain (Madrid originally then all over the country) I had taken off after freshman year in college and wandered around Europe - I fell instantly in love with Spain and that has never changed. After college I lived in Australia, the Honolulu, then San Francisco, then Boston, now Charlotte … and I’ve traveled to innumerable other countries over the years. But my love for Spain has never ever changed except to get stronger and more visceral.

Years later I think I might have figured out part of the reason – my mother, whom I never really knew until I was well into my adult-hood, had been born in France but baptized in Spain where she lived until perhaps age 5. Her Godfather was the then King of Spain. My Mother and I are almost exact physical clones of each other: we move identically, we are both writers, etc. Her other kids tell me it is eerie in the likenesses …

Without commenting on the reasons for this, suffice it to say in my heart has always been in Spain – that I feel Spain is my home, & the tears I shed every time I land in Madrid only increase with each return.

Addendum to the above - my Mother's baptismal name was Victoria Eugenia Felecia Angoosta Christabl(e???) Tita - then last name. That mouthful was the curent King of Spains Grandfather's doing!

I love Spain ... but when I go back to London and take a black cab ( taxi ) through the streets I cry too . Home is where your heart is .

Home is where your passports(s) is/ are issued from :-P

well I have four passports::) Actually as one expat put it to me one day, ITS A STATE OF MIND.
Cheers

If someone has an American passport, are they allowed to have more than one?

Yes you are!

I guess the answer is YES. I know one American with a foreign passport in addition to their American one. The foreign one was obtained because they had married a foreigner.

Saludos, MadridMan

Absolutely correct but contingent upon the country the passport-holder/spouse is from.

I can think of only one major country in the world where 2 passports are forbidden and that is Japan . If a Japanese person decides to apply for a foreign passport they have to relinquish their Japanese passport .
And also , my room mate travels on both a Peruvian and American passport .

absolutely yes.Of course. The only condition is that when in the territory of THE country, you must carry THEIR passport and under THEIR laws.

so for example, when I go to the USA, I go in with my US passport there. When I come back to France, I enter with my French passport. The same for Spain and Cuba ::)

Cheers

AFAIK India also forbids dual citizenship...