Travels in the sun

The story is about a young man who travels around Spain on summer. The story is told in a first person narrative as the young man describes the food, architecture and nature of the country

 

Travels in the sun

 

 

I arrived in Barcelona in mid summer and got things sorted, I bought a sleeping bag and a small tent. Next was to by a monthly train ticket so I could travel across Spain in comfort. I bought the ticket and this is how it went.

  In Barcelona I walked around the tourist site and drank a bottle of cheap red wine in the parks. I ate load of tapas included marinated anchovies, garlic prawns and my favourite, a garlic dip named aioli which was severed with hot crusty bread. I ate red peppers that were stuffed with local cheese and slice of mountain cure ham that I chewed on with some fresh tomatoes that were just wonderful. Tomatoes from the med are the finest by far in the world.

   The red wine was stunning, especially the rojoer wine I drank every day I was in Spain, I just loved the smoke woody berry flavour of the red wine. I could drink it for days on end with out getting tired from it. A glass of that wine went epically well with roasted mountain lamb   that had been marinated in rosemary and garlic. Enough about food and drink for now, I will tell you latter what else I ate and drank in this great county for flavours and smells.

  I then went to an art gallery and walked around it for a few hours while I let my mind go into these worlds of paintings that were excellent. That night I walked down the ramblers and watched every one have good time. I then went to my hotel room with bottle of wine and drank it and fell to sleep. I dream abut all the painters and paintings that I saw that day. I dreamt about Velasquez and his painting and he spoke to Goya who was speaking to Picasso who then was talking to Caravaggio who he was shaking hands with Leonardo De Vinci whom he was shaking hands with me. It was a weird dream, but a good one.

 I woke up the next morning and watched all the Spaniard go to work while I decided to go on with my trip. But that was not before I went and had a cup of the famous hot chocolate with stick of warm pastry that you deep in to the think chocolate. It was very good and I was happy as a sailor returning to land. After a day and a half I said good-bye to Barcelona and slept on the train as it headed to its next stop.

  I got off in a small town which I can’t remember its name but it was pure Spain. The blazing sun baked the small white road as I walked around taking in the atmosphere. I sat in a small square in the shad of a stunning cathedral. I drank red wine out of the bottle and ate a smoked ham and cheese roll. After the wine was finished I watched the local clientele walk pass and I finally put my backpack behind my head and fell to sleep for a few hours. A wonderful siesta

  That night I waked through the town smelling the night air that only smelled like it in theses small Mediterranean towns. I then went in to a small restaurant and had a great sausage dish which was cooked in red peppers and garlic. It was amazing and cheap and I left after a quick brandy. I went to the train station and sat looking at the deep black sky. I was a bit drunk but a good drunk not the kind when you end up on your knees. The train came; I got on and slept as the train rolled through the green and yellow hills of the region.

  I got of the train after 15 hours and I walked through Madrid with a happy look on my face and I marvelled at the architecture and what I saw in the art galleys that day. I meet a German woman who was travelling through Europe, we spook and had a drink next to the river witch ran through the city. All day we spoke and drank a bottle of red wine. When the sun finally sank I walked with this German woman through the town and we spoke and finally I went to the train station and she went of into the city. Before we separated she gave me her phone number and I gave her my e-mail. We might meet again or we might not but I had more important things to do at this moment. First off I had only 18 day left on my ticket and I kneed to see the part of Spain I wanted to see. So I set of again on my train and looked out of the windows and the ragged scenery as the south of Spain was coming into site.

  The next stop was Valencia where I relaxed all day in the park while reading and eating olives grown in the region. The next day I was to Mercer which I did not like but I did get a good deal on a pair of sun glasses as mine had broken a few days earlier. The new sun glasses were avatar style and they were dead cheap.

  Seville was my next stop and I stayed there for 4 nights and 4 days. I loved every minute of my time in this wonderful hot city. And man was it hot, the sun backed my back and sweat started to pour from every pour. I relaxed in a beautiful square in the shad of a tall tree that looked as healthy as all the residents who walked around in a slow style in this city. The sun heals the human body like it heals everything else in the wild and in nature. I

  I ate eggs fried in smoked ham, paprika and garlic for breakfast on my last day and drank a glass of fresh orange juice that regenerated my soul straight away. I walked around saying hello to people and walking in many churches and being amazed at the stunning architecture and sculpture that inhabited this part of Spain. I read the history of Seville and once I had finished I walked around the town and studied all the parts I could find and guess which civilisation placed the finger prints on Seville. The Arab had a huge influence on the town.

  The final meal I had had been in a very small restaurant that only had one meal on the menu. Luckily it was fantastic and maybe the best meal I had all the time I was in Spain. It was chicken thighs cooked in a saffron sauce with green olives on a bed of wild mushroom rice. I drank whisky and soda all the time through the meal and I dipped lump of bread in a bowl of extra virgin olive oil for starters.

  After I paid for the meal I walked to the train station and looked at my ticket. I had two days and two nights left until it ran out. My money was nearly out apart from the money I was saving in my back for my ticket home I had hardly any money left for food and drink and defiantly not for a hotel. So I decided I would ride the train back to the Basque region as I loved that part of Spain. My plan was to my buy sum supplies and see how long I could live in the beauty of the Basque hills.

  48 hours later I got of the train in a small village. I went to a local shop and bought two bottles of brandy, two boxes of matches and 12 homemade sausages. I then went off by my self into the hills until walked through a pine forest and came out the other side and found a perfect place.

  The place where I camped was on a wide plain of green grass with a fresh water stream flowing in front of me and a huge pine forest behind me. I drank the water from the stream and it tasted very cold and fine. I then walked around the hills while drinking my brandy from out of the bottle until I had a head ache. I returned to my camp and watched the sun sink behind the hills and I began to make a small camp fire.

  I started the fire quit quickly and I controlled the blaze while the moon rose over head. I got my self a stick and place two raw sausages on it and placed them over the flames. Once they were cooked I let them cool down and then I picked them up and held them in my right hand and munched on them. They were nice but not great in flavour so I decided to look for some wild herbs in the morning. I cooked the other two sausages and ate then while drinking brandy and gulps of fresh water. I fell to sleep with a smile on my face. The next morning I woke and watched the heart felt sun rise.

  I walked all over the hills all day until I found a rosemary bush. I brook of a few sticks of the wonderful herb and brought them back to my camp fire. I then walked through the pine forest and looked at the birds over head while I had a sleep in the afternoon heat. That night I placed all four sausages on to the rosemary twigs and cooked them over the fire. They were amazing, as the rosemary brunt the smoke went into the meat. I collected more wild herbs that night and got them ready for the next day.

  In the morning I wanted to catch and eat food with my own hands. So I walked to a big river that was about two miles away from my camp, when I got there I took my hat of and stood waste deep in the cold water, my legs were cold and my torso was hot as the sun sprinkled its rays on my shoulders. I then held my hat under the water for about an hour until I lifted it out of the river and I looked down at the soggy hat.

  Inside I looked a medium size trout flipping around. I quickly walked out of the river and the fish fell to grass. I hit the fish’s head with a stone to kill it instantly. I then walked back to my camp in the heat; once I got back I was dry. I then gutted the fish with a sharp stone and tried to remove the scales with the edge of the stone. I then wrapped the trout in a bush of wild fennel that I had come across earlier on. I covered it in fennel and then placed it over the small fire. I  watched the fennel catch light. It burnt and smoked for about ten minuets, the smell was so good its hard to explain. I then picked up the fish with two big leaves so I wouldn’t burn my hands, I walked over to the stream and very slowly washed the herbs of the fish, it cooled the fish down but it was still warm when I ate it latter on. A fennel covered trout made by me, and maybe the best tasting fish I had ever placed in my gut.

  I drank two bottle of brandy and loads of water. I fished all my sausages with rosemary on the third night and then on the forth morning I deicide I would make my way back home. I walked and walked until I came to a town were I hitchhiked to a bigger town where I bought my plane ticket back to where I was born.

  As the plane took off I looked down out of the window and watched the Spanish country side vanish. I loved all my time I was there, I heave read all Ernest Hemingway’s books and the Spain set ones are the most amazing and that is really the reason I wanted to come hear and travelled across it.

  Hemingway said Spain was probably one of the greatest countries in the world. He was right and wrong about what he said; he did not go to Spain in the 21^st century like I just did. The Spain I had just lived in was a completely different Spain to Hemingway’s one. But there is 20% of real Spain that exist and I think I capture it in my heart with the wonderful architecture and food and drink. I closed my eyes and dreaded going back to a cold country when I was born, I was not happy but at least I could fell the heat of the Spanish sun in my body when I get home.

  Once you experienced that amount of heat for a long time it doesn’t leave you and why should it, I think the heat of the sun is the most important thing for everything that breathes on earth. I wish that all religions in the world ended and every one decided to worship the sun again like the Mayans did. I wouldn’t hesitate to join that religion.

Reviews

[Casey Dusek]

You have a very good plot here, but my only recommendation is to slow down and add more descriptive words and less adjectives ending in -ly. For example:

As I awoke that morning, I had the desire to catch and eat my breakfast with my own bare hands. So I took a trip down by this old river that was only about two miles away from my camp. When I got there, the only tool I had was my hat. I stood waste deep in the ice cold water, my legs were frozen but my torso was warm as the sun sprinkled its rays on my body. I held my hat under the water, using it to fish with for close to an hour.

I hope I helped, you have a very creative plot. :D