The Great Northern Spain Homecoming! 

Revisiting Old Places, New ​​

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For years I had dreams of going back to the places throughout Spain that shaped me in my 20s, tracing my walking routes through cities I called home through my mind to sometimes fall asleep at night. This trip was an important part of integrating all of my past selves into who I am today. Spain - living in a new culture, learning a new language - represents for me the joy of exploration, coming of age, and vibrancy I feel through constant learning.

 

I first went to Europe at age 18 with my best friend on a classic month-long Euro trip, taking trains through Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam and Madrid and partying until the wee hours. 

 

After that, I fell in love with Europe and the Spanish language and culture specifically. Barcelona stole my heart. I'll never forget speaking to a cashier at the beach in Spanish and remembering I wanted to be back and feel this sense of awe and excitement again, and even more. I remember walking through the psychedelic streets adorned with Gaudi's colorful artwork and I knew this place had to be eventually named my home. 

 

Just a few years later, I went back to Spain armed with my crappy high school Spanish and studied abroad in Alicante, living with a Spanish family that spoke no English. It was a constant struggle between the language and culture shock but I loved (nearly) every minute. When school ended for the summer, I went to Tenerife in the Canary Islands and worked at an eco-village/farm as a World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) volunteer for a month, spending my days wading through water in black sand beaches, cooking meals in the outdoor kitchen and pulling weeds. I also worked on another farm in Murcia and befriended a fellow French WWOOF volunteer who encouraged me to skinny dip in streams and run in the mountains when not working on the farm. After WWOOFing, I went on a hiking tour in northern Spain of the Picos de Europa, solo with a guide (Rafa!) because no one else signed up for it. I was lucky enough that Rafa didn't cancel it and I was able to have a solo trip with him hiking through the mountains and get a lot of Spanish practice. 

 

After my time living in southern Spain, I finished my senior year in college and took more Spanish classes. Upon graduation, I went back again for a year. This time I went to the province of the Picos - Asturias -and I taught English in a Spanish secondary school, contracted by the Spanish government through the North American Language and Culture Assistant program. I rented an apartment with Spanish roommates who again, spoke no English, and lived in the capital city of Oviedo. I left that year feeling like Spain had truly become a second home. 

 

Needless to say, for 13 years, I've had a soft, terribly empty space in my heart for Spain that could only be filled with a joyous homecoming and lots of sobaos, Fabada Asturiana and the limestone cliffs of the Picos. 

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So, it was finally time. I signed my husband and I up for the same hiking trek (Walk Picos) that I went on in 2009 with Rafa which inspired me to move to Spain for that second time. 

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In mid-June, my husband and I set out for Bilbao from Whidbey Island and rented a car upon arrival. We drove the coast directly from Bilbao to Oviedo, where I lived and taught English. We spent a few days there, enjoying the city and many cafe con leches and then left to head back to Bilbao by way of the coast, but for this direction we took our time and stayed overnight in both Lastres and Somo.

 

Once we eventually arrived back in Bilbao, Rafa picked us up and we started on that same 6-day trek through the Picos de Europa that I enjoyed back in 2009. That trip made me fall in love with Asturias and northern Spain specifically, and inspired me to move back again. This trip reminded me of the instinctual love I feel for Spanish culture and Europe specifically. Being in Spain always reminds me of being at my Italian grandmother and grandfather's dinner table, where I spent my years growing up in Connecticut. 

 

I'll focus this post on the swimming we did along the way, since after all this is a swimming blog. We stopped at a number of beaches along the way but did not swim in all of them due to timing - I'll highlight a few that I wish I had time to swim in!