Let’s Go to Spain

My last international travel, pre COVID, was to Ukraine in November of 2019. In hindsight I am beyond thankful I made that trip because we had no idea what the world had in store for Ukraine. I spent a week in Kiev including a two-day tour that took me north to Chernobyl which was the primary aim of the trip. Mid November brings, just as it did then, Fall Break (a week off from work/school) and my birthday.

This year I traveled to my 22nd country–Spain–and visited the lovely and vibrant city of Madrid! Please allow me to share some of the highlights of our time spent there. I traveled with my Turkish friend Yonca, and we went to stay and spend time with our Spanish friend, Dolores. The two of them visited me in Dalyan this past summer and somewhere along the way we hatched the plan to visit Dolo once she settled into Madrid. 

FOOD

The food in Spain was overwhelmingly delicious! And I say this as someone who loves Turkish food. I don’t often feel like my life in Turkey lacks much of anything. Except Mexican food. In all honesty that is the singular thing I miss about America (beyond my family and friends, of course). 

While Spain is obviously NOT Mexico, the food has some similarities or overlaps. We ate tacos and quesadillas. Our host made homemade guacamole and we munched on nachos. I even made my birthday wish on a meat empanada!

Most importantly I found myself in a “pork wonderland.” I can buy pork here in Turkey, but you rarely, if ever, find it on a menu at a restaurant. It was delightful to have slow-cooked pork in the traditional cocida platter, to enjoy chorizo with breakfast or on a tapas, and yes, I even tried the famous and traditional cochinillo (suckling pig). Pork is my favorite meat in the whole world and needless to say, I got my fill while in Spain. 

DRINK

I expected to fall in love with Spanish wines. And don’t misunderstand me, I drank and enjoyed wine while in Spain. However, it was the “cañas culture” that caught me by surprise. In the midday and afternoon it is customary to pop into small tavernas for a caña with tapas. The beer was so darn tasty that each and every day, no matter the wet and cooler weather, I was ready for a small and tasty beer fresh from the tap. I normally associate beer drinking with summertime and heat. But Spain required beer drinking. Daily. And I was not alone in my appreciation for it, as you can see.

ARCHITECTURE

Another part of the trip that I enjoyed was walking the streets (SO MUCH WALKING–I walked 100 km or 60 miles in 6 days) and taking in all of the diverse architecture. This is one thing that Turkey is not known for beyond the numerous ancient cities sprinkled across the country. Modern buildings are not much to write home about.

But the streets of Madrid (and Segovia–another city we visited) had so very many beautiful buildings with well maintained and colorful paint, or massive stone structures, some with beautiful statues on the roof or interesting features around the doors, and some had beautiful wrought iron components. It included everything from churches, to government buildings, old fortresses, structures in the park, and even modern day apartment buildings.

NOTEWORTHY AUTHOR SITES

We each had sites of interest that we requested to visit and tour during our time in Madrid, as well as allowing Dolores, our native Spaniard and Spanish speaker, to take us wherever she deemed important or fun. The sites I requested were noteworthy of the literary kind. Dolo opted to include a walk through the Literary Quarter of Madrid–Barrio de las Letras–as part of my birthday observance on the 15th. 

While Dolores worked one day, Yonca and I took a train to Alcala de Henares, to visit the birthplace museum of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote (which I have not yet read, but have seen dramatic performances of). The museum is small, a home after all, and is free to tour. It also has a small gallery attached that was currently showing an exhibit about the history of inks (colors, etc). I will now have to add Cervantes to my “to be read list.” 

I am currently reading An Englishman in Madrid by Eduardo Mendoza which I picked up from the Central bookstore in downtown Madrid on our final evening there (for which we attended a Flamenco performance, see Clip 1, Clip 2, and Clip 3). The novel was recommended by an employee at the bookstore as being a well-known and important book about the city. I have started to read it already and am enjoying it. 

Additionally we visited a few sites in the city that had been frequented by Ernest Hemingway such as Sobrino de Botin, which is also the oldest operating restaurant in the world! We saw the Guinness Book of World Records certificate ourselves, and observed the original oven still being used to cook cochinillo (mentioned previously).

Because our daily schedule was often changeable, we only visited these sites in passing and never had a reservation to make more of the time in any of them. On a city bus tour one day we drove past the Las Ventas Bullring and that absolutely requires me to visit Madrid again in the future, to tour it and the Bullfighting Museum located inside. Maybe someday I can attend a bull fight!

GOOD TIMES WITH DEAR FRIENDS

I had the pleasure of celebrating my 49th birthday while in Madrid. While I have only known Dolores for one year, and Yonca a couple more years than that, our “Triad” became strong over the past year as we supported one another through life decisions, hard times, and the celebration of successes. We are a Triad of nationalities–Spanish, Turkish, and American. We live a variety of lifestyles across our different ages. But what we have in common is honesty, raw vulnerability, and authenticity. And a healthy desire to enjoy the most out of each and every moment. 

We encourage and support one another; and we push one another to look at our shortcomings and to seek and pursue personal growth and development. We love one another unconditionally and simply know how to have a damn good time together. We laughed hard, we cried (sometimes because of too much laughter), we learned more about one another’s pasts, and we shared dreams for the future.

All in all, it was a wonderful holiday. I loved the city very much and would certainly return. Though I do also want to visit Barcelona (Dolores’ hometown) and Figuerres which is the birthplace of Salvador Dali. Oh yeah–we also saw some Picasso and Dali works in the Renia Sofia Museum. See, it’s impossible to share with you all of our adventures across the week. It felt as though we packed two days or more into each one that we spent there. Therefore, this will have to do as a highlight reel! 

I will wrap up with a big THANK YOU to beloved Dolo–our gracious and energetic host–who took us into her home, treated us like sisters, and took care of so many things. Thank you, soul sister, for a wonderful holiday and such quality time together. Thanks for sharing your homeland with us! And thanks to Yonca, too, for being an easy-going travel companion!

Until we meet again–Thanks for the memories!