The countdown has begun, and there are only a few days left to celebrate the major events of 2025, a year that has brought us many surprises. While not always pleasant, these surprises have tested our innate resilience.
I won't explain why this year, in particular, has been so special for me, but I will say that, whether or not it was influenced by the fickle Wheel of Fortune, this year I am working in the heart of the immortal Habsburg Madrid.
A Madrid and its surroundings that have provided me with spectacular sunrises and whose population has doubled since November 22nd, when the Christmas lights were switched on.
Perhaps I'm underestimating it, and it's more like three times as many, but the fact is that the place is packed, as the long-suffering restaurant owners would say, and every day, whether it's a Christmas celebration or not, the spirit of Christmas is especially present here, including a multiculturalism that isn't always grateful for the welcome they receive. What can you do?
The famous Kilometer Zero, that is, the monumental Puerta del Sol, with its adjacent streets—San Jerónimo, Carretas, Mayor, Arenal, Carmen…—is a hive of light, color, and people, who, for better or for worse, always manage to leave unforgettable chapters of unbridled picturesqueness etched in our retinas, the key to the treasure chest of memories.
Company lunches and dinners, crowded shops, traditional nativity scenes, Christmas markets, and churros with hot chocolate in San Ginés bring back that empathy that is so valued these days, but which, unfortunately, we rarely put into practice during the rest of the year.
But this time of year, whether we like it or not, whether we share it or not, whether we celebrate it or ignore it, undoubtedly has its beauty and charisma, and as that metaphorical psychologist of the people, who was, without a doubt, my admired Charles Dickens, demonstrated, it is a time capable of changing even the darkest and most usurious soul in the world.
I don't like the Scrooges at all, but I recognize that perhaps they are necessary: without them, their pathological wickedness, and the parasites who eke out a living in their sinister shadow, we would never escape our isolation, nor would we be able to bring forth our formidable strength and resilience: that very strength that always propels us forward, weathering the storms.
So, from this unforgettable corner of Habsburg Madrid, my congratulations go, first and foremost, to the esteemed friends at Travelfeed and their invaluable work in support of that vital experience that is travel, the wisdom that every good adventure always brings, and of course, the cultural enrichment that comes from sharing it: thank you.
And especially, I want to raise a toast today to those spirits of the shadows, who live only to try to extinguish the light of others, like the old night watchmen did with the streetlights when dawn appeared on the horizon.
It is to them, above all, that I say: educate yourself, travel more, embrace experience, and make your life a contribution, never a setback.
From the heart of Habsburg Madrid: Merry Christmas, Mr. Scrooge!
NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property and are therefore subject to my copyright.
