Today was truly a day of rest for me. It’s amazing how traveling can really wear you out. I spent the morning doing some reading, writing, prayer time, and laundry. My very wonderful host had informed me that today was an event called “El Rastro” which literally translates to, The Trail. It is an outdoor market where everyone comes and sets up booths in the street. The streets are packed with buyers and sellers of everything you can imagine.
I walked along two streets.
It was a cold and gloomy day, so I was happy to not have any plans. However, I did stop to get a bite to eat at La Torta
Ham, Cheese, and Tomato on a crispy, flat, round piece of bread called a Salmantina. Since I skipped breakfast, I had this combo for lunch. I tried to ask some questions about the bread, but all I got was, “it’s common”. Well, not to me it wasn’t. It was one of the best pieces of bread I’ve ever had. Crispy crunchy on the outside, but delightfully soppy on the inside from the tomato. And it had just the slightest sweetness to it.
In the late afternoon/evening I needed to make some adjustments to my schedule and to book some stays and railway tickets. I’m currently staying in a 4th floor walk up which, although is beautiful and has every amenity I need, it’s a long hike up after a day out walking. Realizing that I was doing a lot of walking I loaded a step tracker onto my phone. I’m averaging over 20,000 steps a day, so I’m not going to think twice about having that little piece of pastry. Having just said that however, I ended up skipping dinner, too and had an orange that I bought at the market.
There’s a spot near my apartment called La Bomba and it looked like people were eating a delicious Spanish Omelette, so I’m getting that tomorrow. I know this because everyone here eats outside. Not sure if this was always a thing or as a result of Covid, but most restaurants are small inside, so the sidewalks, squares, and even certain street areas are filled with tables and chairs.
And my last comment before heading off to slumber: I think it needs to be instilled into our culture, encouraged by family, friends, teachers, and employees for Americans to have more vacation time and to travel the world more. Every European gets 6 weeks vacation. I can honestly tell you that I’ve spent less in a week here in Spain (even the airfare to get here) than I spend in a week visiting Mom in Florida. There’s something to be said about getting breakfast out for 2.8 Euros. My most expensive meal so far was still less than 15 Euros, which included a glass of wine.
We, as Americans, have become way too insular. We have a lot to share with the world on a one-on-one basis, but the rest of the world has a lot to share with us, too. We don’t ALWAYS have it right. We could learn a lot from other countries and their cultures and their everyday living. Here’s a mundane example: Every toilet I’ve come across in Spain, both publicly and privately, has a two button flush. One is for a “light” or half flush and the other is for a whole flush. Why? To conserve water. I know these kinds of toilets are available in the US, I’ve seen them. But why don’t we make them the standard? Why do we need to be so wasteful? One more thing. I’ve only visited Barcelona and Madrid so far. They are large cities, but there is hardly any trash in the streets. There are workers cleaning the streets constantly. In Barcelona, I swear, it felt like there was a street cleaner for every block. At home, I’m disgusted with how much trash there is. (And I’ve made that comment before, a number of times.)
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