Why Madrid?

A great location for trips

Madrid was the perfect location for au pairing – it’s the capital so there is so much to do at ANY time of the day, which is perfect for when you finish work late afternoons/evenings. It’s also in the centre of Spain, so travelling to other places around the country is so accessible!

The city itself is great for exploring, with hidden gems dotted around the place. When one of my best friends came to visit me for a weekend, we found a little hill, across from the Catedral de la Almudena, where we could watch the sunset whilst listening to the harpist and violinist perform down in the plaza (video below).


Day trips

There’s also a couple of great places to visit just outside the city. For example, Toledo, a World Heritage Site is a 30 minute train journey from Madrid (or 1 hour if you want to save some money by taking the bus). It’s the perfect day trip – you can walk from one side of the town to the other in 35 minutes! I spent around 4-5 hours there and managed to see everything that the town had to offer.


My host family also took me on a couple of day trips throughout my stay. My favourite would have been when we went to Las Cuevas del Aguila where we walked through a huge cave with massive stalactites and stalagmites and crystal clear water that made the cave look even bigger because the reflection looked like a mirror image.


North of Spain

I ended up travelling to Bilbao and San Sebastian in the north of Spain by train when my mum came to visit me for a week. It was perfect timing as the kids that I looked after went to a summer camp so were away from home for a week which gave me time off.



Transport

The city has an unbelievable transport system – anyone who is under 26 years old can get unlimited travel on buses, trains, metro, trams etc. for only 20 euros a month! My bus pass alone for one route in Glasgow cost me about £35 a month. All you would need is a Spanish phone number and an address in Spain (you can use your accommodation’s address).

Comments

  1. Anonymous13 November 2019 at 19:29

    Love the pics and vids! Thanks for the ideas too

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anna13 November 2019 at 19:30

    Do you think it would be a good idea to au pair in a rural part of Spain as opposed to the capital?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kelly13 November 2019 at 19:32

      As a younger person, I would personally say it would be a lot more fun to au pair in a city/main city because of how many things you can do. However, if you are looking to properly immerse yourself into Spanish language, a rural area would be ideal as there would be little to no exposure to English :)

      Delete
  3. Joanna13 November 2019 at 19:34

    I think I'm going to have to find a family in Madrid now - I'm convinced!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Donna13 November 2019 at 20:46

    Great life experience

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Secret to Perfecting a Language

Image
Hey everyone – welcome to my blog! I’m a 3 rd year International Business with Marketing and Spanish student at the University of Strathclyde. A vital part of learning languages is to immerse yourself in the culture and language and this is why I decided to au pair in Madrid last summer. In this blog I will give you advice and recommendations about the au pairing process, where to go, stories from my experience in Madrid and much more. Background In summer 2018, I went to Madrid for 2 months to work as an au pair. My best friend (who also studies languages) and I decided to do this at the same time so that we could explore the city together during our time off work in the evenings and weekends – it turned out to be the best decision. Everyone’s au pairing experience is unique. I did encounter quite a few minor (and major) problems during my trip, which I will delve into later, but overall I really enjoyed it. What is au pairing? An au pair is someone who move...
Read more

The Rocky Journey with My Host Family... Part 2/2

Lack of communication  Some days I would wake up in the caravan to find that the whole family had left with the car and I thought that they had left me stranded in the middle of nowhere because no one told me that they were 1) leaving and 2) where they were going! Turns out they had went to a village in the mountain but they were gone for hours and I was panicking because I didn't even have service to call anyone!  After arguing against going to the campsite every week, they weren't happy, saying that they didn't trust me in the house alone and that it was 'tradition' as their previous au pairs went with them. One week, I didn't realise they were going to the campsite as no one had mentioned it all week so I thought everything would be dandy and I had already made plans to meet my best friend and her mum and sister who had come to visit her for the weekend.  On that Friday when the parents came home from work, which is when they start packing to leave...
Read more