Hola! I am in love with… Madrid!
Hello to all my friends. No, there was no problem, nothing serious caused my… disappearance all these previous days. We just had some very serious problems with out servers, but now we are back in business. I apologize for this and I hope that it is the last time that it happens…
Well, now that I am sending you these lines, I am sitting on my desk, in the best “value for money” hotel I have ever visited in my life. It belongs to the “High Tech hotels” chain and my room (for which I payed roughly 100 euro / night) includes: Steady bicycle for training, wifi (free) internet connection, cool designer’s bathroom, Villeroy and Boch Jacuzzi – sauna – solarium cabine, 24 inches plasma LG television, a laptop and a printer functioning and waiting to be used, a marvellous orthopedical very large bed, plenty of space, new high quality furniture and a private balcony of almost 10 sq.m., with table and chairs (this one I don’t intend to use, due to the rain, but it is still super to find out about it). Yes, this time I can not complain, God was generous with my colleagues and me…
In the same time, Madrid is just Gorgeous. I am really amazed by it, not by the small fantastic pieces that create it, but by the big picture, which I had the chance to see yesterday, while moving around by the bus for the tourists. 2 years ago I have been in Barcelona (and I will go again, as the breathtaking art work by Gaudi does not let me get over this amazing city). Now in Madrid I realize that Spain (as a country and not as one or two cities) has really advanced comparing to most of the “civilized western countries” and we should sit down and take lessons by this tremendous progress the Spaniards have achieved in the last 20 – 25 years. I will definitely return here, so as to visit the museums, the other spectacles and the endless gardens of this city…
Three of my colleagues and me, we are here for participating in SIMA Real Estate exhibition. Except the exhibition itself, there is also an important conference, in which I will be speaker on Thursday, with the topic of “Romania 2008: Is it still worth it to invest in? If yes, where?”. I am more than happy to find out that there are several companies from Romania participating here, placing themselves next to the impressive stand of the City of Bucharest. The same design and idea, which we admired in MIPIM, Cannes, last month, is presented here too, just the sponsoring companies are different.
Why Sima? Because Spain is an important market for Romania, becoming more and more important throughout the years. Nowadays the investors from Spain have reached one of the top 5 positions in the rank of the foreign investors, having chosen this country so as to use it as a basis for all the Balkan area, but also so as to exploit the really good opportunities that it has. Ok, Sima is an exhibition which mainly hosts developers. But still, we think that we have “reason to be” here, debuting to the Spanish market. The next days I will tell you more about it, as Sima is launched today.
Coming up in the next days: All the news that I missed telling you, the NATO summit and many more. (Regarding my stories, for which I receive so many comments: It is not that I search for the trouble, but as we say in greek “I want to become a Saint, but these people do not allow me to”)
(PS. Now that I have second thoughts, I think that staying in this hotel, being in this city, participating in this exhibition, should be considered as a bonus for my colleagues and next year maybe I should connect this participation with a target, so as to give them one more initiative. Madrid is just SUPER)