In the second half of my six weeks in Spain, my roommate and I took it upon ourselves to do some traveling and see as much of Europe and Spain as time allowed. First, on a recommendation from our host mother, we flew out for a weekend in Porto, Portugal—a wonderful city on the Iberian coast north of Lisbon. In contrast to the dry heat of Madrid, Porto’s cool and humid climate was a welcome return to something more familiar to our native Florida. Although we only spent a weekend in the city, Porto quickly became one of my favorite places I’ve visited in Europe—I’m already planning to return the next time I’m on this side of the Atlantic.
With the heat intensifying into the following weekend, my roommate, another friend, and myself decided to get out of Madrid once more—this time to the north of Spain in a small but well-known city called San Sebastian. San Sebastian is regarded as one of the food capitals of the world, and specializes in small tapas-like plates called “pinchos.” For newcomers like us, the process of ordering and consuming these pinchos was quite confusing at first; the foods were little hors d’oeuvres-looking pieces laid out around an oval-shaped bar, nothing was labeled, and we were not allowed to sit down. Considering my luck, or lack thereof, with Spanish food, I tried to choose pinchos without copious amounts of sea food or other meats that I did not recognize. Even now, I could not tell you what exactly I ate, but regardless, I enjoyed every piece I had. Some of these pincho restaurants have menus you can order from, if you are lucky enough to find a table to sit at, but the more popular places (like Bordaberri, which was probably the most “famous” restaurant we ate at) do not even have seating—not that you would be able to sit down, as the best restaurants are full to bursting by 8pm most nights.
It feels strange to say that some of my best experiences on a trip to Madrid occurred only when I left the city, but I suppose that is true of many countries that have a busy capital. Coming from a fairly small town, it took me the majority of the trip to adjust to city life, and I would not have been able to without weekend trips to smaller cities. Not only did getting to travel provide me with a break from the business of Madrid, but also gave me the chance to see more of Spain and a completely new country.