Mango top
Zara shorts (similar)
Dior heels
A. Cloud Official bag (c/o) (similar)
Celine sunglasses
Shop Chelsea King hair clip (c/o)
Mejuri necklace (similar)
Linjer rings (c/o)
Mejuri earrings (c/o) (similar)
Location: Carrer del Correo – Madrid, Spain
We took an (extra) early walk to the Puerta del Sol on our last morning in Madrid. Our experience in the city did not go to plan, mostly because of the long series of days of heavy rainfall. It was only as we were getting ready to leave that we began to get a feel for our neighbourhood, and how it was connected to the rest of the city. The Puerta del Sol was so close by the whole time we were there. But we only really saw it in the last two days of our holiday.
It was particularly spectacular at sunrise. The neon signs around the square are still lit up from the night before, casting reflections onto the still water in fountains that haven’t yet been switched on for the day. Of course, the detritus of the events of the previous evening litters the ground – broken glass, food wrappers and cigarette butts, mostly. And you’ll run into young people just finally making their way home at eight in the morning. But the scene is still a lovely one, just a lovely one that takes place in a big city full of people who come from different places and keep different hours. The Puerta del Sol was designed to be beautiful, and it is, at any time of day. But it gets crowded after sunrise.
Our last day in Madrid was a strange one. It felt like it came too quickly, because so many of our early days were overtaken by dark clouds and required us to stay indoors. We could finally do what we’d planned, but there was so little time, and it was hard to know where to start. So we kept it as simple as we could. We’ll just have to come back someday, we agreed. What we can’t do will hopefully still be here waiting for us next time.
It feels almost equally strange to sit in my office in Winnipeg writing about these moments at the Puerta del Sol so many months later. It’s the end of another work day for me. My head is full of technology requirements and contract clauses and questions about return on investment. I couldn’t feel further from Madrid, or from holidays in general, though I have another one coming up in February. This is the head space I’m in, mostly, when I sit down to type these entries which, increasingly, feel like items I need to tick off a to-do list that will never end. But then I do the writing, and I enjoy it, because I love to write. I remain aware, though, that these sentences are neither particularly meaningful nor representative of my best work, the kind I would do if I weren’t trying to juggle so many competing demands.
And so, as I often do at the end of the year, I find myself contemplating the future. I still have a bit more to share from Madrid, not to mention photos from a more recent trip to London in my archive that I haven’t posted anywhere but Instagram. But after that, what? I started Coco & Vera with no plan in mind. The journey I’ve taken with it is one I could never have fathomed, and it’s been a wonderful adventure – but it’s one that I think may come to an end one of these days. Perhaps even in 2024. Time will tell, I suppose.
In the meantime, it’s a pleasure to look back on these brief morning moments at the Puerta del Sol. I still think of Madrid often – more often, certainly, than I expected I would when we returned home. It’s not a place I fell in love with, but one that I’m still keen to understand more fully. So we really will have to go back one of these days. Maybe I’ll still be here to write about it when we do. Or maybe I won’t, and life will go on regardless.
