Once upon a time…

… I spent a long weekend with 3 of my friends in Madrid. Of course, you know that, because you already read my article and know all the other reasons why Madrid is my all time favourite European capital. Let me tell you how an innocent trip to Madrid changed my whole life.

We all can agree, there’s by far easier things to agree on than the location for the next girl’s trip. Why should it have been any different with my girls and me? So travelling to Spain’s capital actually wasn’t our first choice. You see where this is going. From start to finish there was fate involved!

Instead, Lisbon was the first choice and we already started planning the trip. To then bend to the realisation it gets a bit pricy for just a long weekend. A little while later Madrid fall in our laps. The city was affordable, we adore Spanish food and it would be the first visit there for all of us.

Before I can go any further, I need to tell you something personal. I deeply and truly believe in fate. Always have and always will! Whenever fate is involved there’s a great and a worst part at the same time. Fate seems to never give you the heads up. Rather it hits you right in the face. And let you wonder how it was even possible to not see it coming.

Let’s back up a little

Back in 2016 I was in a relationship with a great guy. After roughly 2 years with up’s and down’s and one break- up in between there was again that point…

Like in all my previous relationships I reached that point sooner or later. The point I realised it’s not working out the way I wished for. The point I understood I’m not truly happy and that it’s not what I expected from love and life in general. Often I found it so much easier to know what I don’t want, but this time I needed to be honest to myself. Sometimes you need to be selfish to be happy.

Deep down I knew for a long time what I wanted! Flying on Cloud 9, a stomach full of thousands of butterflies, endless sparkles and fireworks. All the shit out of a romcom! The whole damn package! Finally being able to honestly say: “THAT’S HIM, the one, the lid to my fucked up pot!!!”

So tired of ending up at the same point over and over again. Done with all the doubts and fed up wasting my time without my true soulmate.

Of course there are challenges in every relationship. Don’t think I’m naive to think, there aren’t. But there’s a HUGE BUT here: When you really really believe in something, then it will come true. And when the time is right you’ll meet the person with who you’re able to face any kind of challenge no matter what. It will not even feel like a challenge anymore.

And I never gave up, believing that he’s out there. Somewhere… still hiding, but also waiting for the right time to show himself.

You fall in love with the most unexpected person at the most unexpected time

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Get the ball rolling

All right. It was a Saturday evening, the city centre was buzzing and together with my girls I wanted to sip a drink, reflect the day and have a great dinner to build an excellent base for a great night. In our case there’s always a bit of a challenge when it comes to choosing a restaurant. Our tastes differ a lot and we’re all too polite to step in to quickly get a decision on that matter.

After a couple of hours we finally decided and went into a posh looking restaurant. In which we ended up having low- class food. Seriously, I had better meals on board of a Ryanair flight. Despite the meal the restaurant owner charged us an immense amount for the plain food anyways. The result of not properly fed 4 women is they’re likely to start arguing over anything and everything. For us the bill in combination with the shared holiday fund seemed to be a perfect opportunity to get angry about. Suddenly it seemed the evening will come to a quick end.

Calm down! Your life is about to change.

During a silent walk back to our hostel we filled our stomachs with fresh air. Afterwards all our heads were cleared off and we agreed on not calling it a night quite yet. The cozy bar at the hotel seemed welcoming busy and we ordered a bottle of wine. Quickly the atmosphere picked up and the billing- drama was forgotten. And after we finished the wine we were back on track to finally hit a club.

But where to start when there’re so many to choose from. (Un)luckily there were many promoters all over us town. They offered and sold VIP tickets to the clubs to anyone who seemed to be old enough to pass the guy at the entrance. Again we didn’t want to rush things. Instead we stood in front of the club Joy Eslava right opposite our hostel and enjoyed the colourful emboss while having a cigarette.

After a while (we kinda already decided to go for Joy Eslava) I spotted a group of men walking towards us. They were around 20- 25 lads in dress- up suits and looked all together really impressive. Immediately there was one man, who caught my eye. He wore a red suit with bats on it. Does it take long for a man to catch my attention? Normally it does, but how can any woman resist “Batman”?

As soon they stopped just behind us, I heard their British accent. I can remember me saying: “Oh dear they’re British.”

Without knowing right there and then I saw the love of my life for the very first time! The man who is about to change my whole life.

If that didn’t give you goose bumps, wait what comes next.

A night full of JOY

A joyful promoter managed to sell the club to us and we entered as VIP’s. One of the security guards even guided us three levels up in our private booth, where a waitress served us a bottle of Champagne. From time to time I enjoy this kind of treatment. Rich bitch!

Now… Guess who’s back? And showed up just a few minutes later!?

Yupp! The guy in the red suit with bats on it with the rest of the funny troop.

Out of all the different ways, different times, days and locations you can possible go and meet in life. For “Batman” and me it was meant to be in Madrid the night of the 5th of November (Which is Bonfire night by the way).

Joy Eslava is (obviously) my favourite club in the whole world. Once it was actually a theatre and you can now party throughout 3 levels. We visited on a pretty busy night and I still can’t believe that we both found ourselves on the upper level. How high are the chances for something like that!? Pretty high when it’s time for fate to hit you.

Not too sure about what happened next. I was probably still wondering about the fact that “Batman” is in the same club and even on the same level like me. The next thing I can remember, is seeing his jacket and his tie hanging over our bench. OUR bench… just behind our backs. A sign? Fate? Coincidence? Who knows! All I know, is I didn’t care that night…

I love the banter and a good crack. So me, being me, I decided to put his cloths on. Attention guaranteed, right?

Every love story is beautiful but ours is my favourite

Obviously it didn’t take long and “Batman” recognised that someone else is now wearing his stuff. So he turned up, grabbed the tie around my neck and said in a demanding and serious way: ”HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY STUFF?”

There’s not a lot in the world, what scares me. But I must say, he had me there for a second. To that point I wasn’t used to reactions like that from a man. And at the same time it reminded me to my own reactions and I guess in that moment I already fall for him.

Nights like this involve a nice amount of alcohol and I can’t remember all of it anymore. What I can remember is stuff…like…umm…I don’t want to share. At least for now:).

Let’s just say it was a long, wild and sleepless night. Apart of the banter we shared, there are a couple of things, which left me thinking about that night a lot. His note I smell like a peach, he was such a gentleman and he spoke with an accent I wasn’t able to fully understand (back then). Also I remember that he showed me his superman tattoo (still wondering, why it’s not a Batman themed one) and he smelled absolutely incredible.

Oh my god his smell !!

Bye and never see you again

With him I spent the most craziest 10 hours and with the sunrise we strolled through the ONE street, which was between his apartment and my hostel.

Can you believe the place he stayed in was just 3 minutes walking distance from my hostel?

I’ll never forget the looks of the people, while we wandered along. Mainly they were just irritated, because he was wearing shorts and flip- flops. Despite the light rain and mild temperatures. Weather conditions in which the rest of the European population already wear coats and a scarf. Typical British, right!? Amused by it, I figured he isn’t a person, who cares what others think. One of a kind this mysterious man.

After we arrived at my hostel we just stood around for a while. Not much words were said just a lot of kisses were given. We both knew it needed to come to an end. He had a football match to watch and I had a flight to catch. Besides that we both knew it was a one off!? He had a life in England to live and I needed to go back to Germany. Who could have imagined, that it will take a while to realised that “one off” changed my whole life?

For reasons we both didn’t quite make sense off, it was hard for both of us to leave each other behind. To turn our backs to someone, who’s so different, but so familiar in the same way, felt wrong.

A couple of times we turned around to get one last look at each other. And that could have been the end of the best love story I ever heard off.

Try to cope in reality

The whole way to the airport I cried and thought about my past, last night, and my future. It wasn’t “Batman” himself, who made me cry. But the fact I knew I need to split up with my boyfriend and start over on my own to find out what I really want and who I really am. Once again I realised there’s more I want from a relationship and life in general.

SHIT !!! To break someones heart is never nice and should be avoided in the first place. For me there wasn’t a way around it any more. Sooner or later it would have happened anyways. With or without the Madrid incident.

To be truly honest, I don’t regret anything I did, but I may agree that I could have handled things differently.

Shortly after I came back I broke the heart of the great guy:-(. I really hope he has or will find what I found. Not for guilty conscience, but for his sake!

Time to show some balls

For sure from now on my life wouldn’t be the same anymore. Never ever have I imagined the guy with the tattooed ass will turn my world upside down and is able to make the person out of me I always wanted to be.

It took me a little while to understand that this time something felt different and to admit that I can’t stop thinking about that crazy Brit. I also knew it would be nearly impossible to reach him. All I knew about him was that he lives in England and his name is Danny, which is obviously a nick name. Back in 2016 I didn’t even had Facebook… Imagine that!

What I didn’t know, was one of my friends had already added one of his friends on Facebook the night we met.

Bless her! She really did an excellent job and with stalker attitude and investigative skills she found out that his name is Daniel and like expected “Danny” was just a nick name. That still wasn’t enough, because we still couldn’t find him. What’s wrong with these people who use thousand different names??

After a couple of days my friend finally came back to me with good news. AND bad news…

Good news: She found him!

Bad news: His profile picture, which was his wedding picture !!

Fuck… That was a shock, but didn’t fill me with anger. To be fair we didn’t talk about engangments we’re having at home. So he didn’t know I had a boyfriend either. It was what it was!

After I set myself up with a Facebook account and spent some time stalking him myself, I couldn’t help myself. So on a chilled evening around my friends house I messaged him.

Nothing special, just if he enjoyed Madrid…

Patience isn’t part of my skill set

Nothing whatsoever for two days. TWO DAYS in which I nearly went mad. But I guess being married didn’t make it any easier to answer at all.

The day he messaged me feels like yesterday. In the office it was nearly time to go home, when I saw in the corner of my eye my phone going off. In the same minute I realised the message is from “Batman”, one of my colleagues entered the office and started talking to me.

Guys, I swear, till today I don’t have a clue who that person was or what was said. I was miles and miles away and just couldn’t get over the fact he finally reached back.

In the next couple of hours we told each other our whole story and we both came out with the full truth. He told me, that he never met anyone like me before. So it wasn’t just me thinking, I’m completely unrealistic!

His words: “It takes crazy to know crazy. You’re an amazing girl and I just wish I could stare into those beautiful eyes just one more time!”

And he did… much much more often than once more. Since March 2018 he’s even able to stare in those beautiful eyes every day.

Crazy love passes fast, but the love of two crazies last forever.

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Two souls on a life changing trip

We were apart for 33 days and just able to communicate through messages and calls. Everything what followed then was the most incredible roller coaster ride of a life time. Together we turned our life’s upside down and we became the people, who we always wanted to be.

Between a hard 16 months long- distance relationship, a divorce, three moves and thousand of tears, we always believed in each other and our fairy tale. Instead of giving up the challenge we walked together in the same direction.

After 4 years and 4 months finding each other we’re stronger, happier and more loved up than we ever imagined. And believe it or not we’re still in the honeymoon period and would do all of itagain tomorrow.

Daniel, alias “Batman”, is and always will be the love of my life, my rock, my biggest challenge, my one and only soulmate!

Now you know, why Madrid is my personal “City of love”. And you’ll read a huge amount of our adventures stories through the world and how we survived in our long- distance relationship.