April Jereza never intended to move abroad to Madrid, Spain, but now that she’s been there for seven years, she thinks she’ll stay for the long haul.

Jereza, 30, moved to Spain’s capital in 2017 after quitting her finance job in Canada, taking a “huge” pay cut and joining a program where she taught English as a language assistant.

She was immediately taken by how welcoming and energizing Madrid is. “It’s just a lively city,” she tells CNBC Make It. “There’s life on the streets. People are always out drinking a beer after work on the terraces or on a rooftop.”

Working professionals take their leisure time seriously, she adds: People typically work from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and take an hour for lunch, if not longer. After-work socializing at bars, museums and concerts is common before having dinner at 9 p.m. And, like much of Europe, Spaniards are guaranteed 25 days of paid vacation a year.

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