Madrid averages over 300 days of sunshine per year, making it one of the sunniest cities in Europe. So I’m moving to Madrid in Spain but first I need an apartment.

After 9 years I’m leaving the UK so I thought it would be fun to share more details about the place I’m going to be next: Madrid, Spain.

Before I forget, this is the video in case you prefer to watch a more complete version:

PART I: LEAVING THE UK

After the Brexit shocking news, more and more people are trying to move away from the UK. I don’t blame them. There are a lot of pros and cons when it comes to living in the UK.

I think after almost a decade of living in the UK, certain things started to become monotonous. Although my reason was not Brexit. Simply, an irresistible opportunity to work in Spain. An opportunity that came to my life while still working in Switzerland 2 years ago. Can you imagine 2 years in the making?

The pandemic delayed things as I was supposed to move in March 2020 but looking back, everything happens for a reason. In that period I developed my passion for cinematography and photography.

I’ll leave all my thoughts about leaving the UK for another post or video.

By the way, when I travel I post a lot of stories here, in case you want to connect.

PART II: FINDING AN APARTMENT

Few days before leaving the UK, we started to check apartments in Spain on idealista.com. We booked several appointments via Whatsapp and we didn’t really like anything when we saw them in person.

So we ran out of options. We started the search again but this time in a hotel in Madrid. We truly had few days before going back to the UK so we needed to be super efficient and hope for the best. Therefore, we woke up early, Kristina started to check flats online, saving in our Favourite list so I could call them all. Most of them didn’t pick up the phone straight away or didn’t answer emails. The only chance was to send a Whatsapp message. That’s how they do it in Spain.

We booked 4 visits. The first 2 we didn’t like at all. The 3rd one was love at first sight and the 4th one was very good as well. We made the decision on selecting the 3rd property we visited given we both loved everything about the flat but also the area was absolutely amazing.

You’ll see what I mean by that here.

PART III: WHAT’S NEXT?

Now that we have a flat/apartment, we’re moving very soon to Madrid. In fact, by the time you read this we might be already living in Spain.

We need to get all the admin stuff (NIE, social security, bank accounts, town hall registrations, etc.) sorted next week and then after that, we’ll start focusing on exploring our local area in Madrid.

I’m excited as I’ve already seen the lifestyle in this city. The weather, the joy, the passion, the lack of structure, the gastronomy (the UK has also great food, don’t believe it? check here), the wine and more importantly exploring a new culture.

There’s a lot more to cover about but hopefully the video can complement it.