Why Spain?

Dear Readers:

Upon hearing the ground breaking news that I'm actually taking vacation time, most inquiring minds want to know, "Why Spain???"

Tangential story ...

I had never been particularly drawn to Spanish anything - language, culture, food, etc. In high school I received credit for Hebrew Language through my studies (slash, battles with Israeli teachers) at LA Hebrew High. Despite the fact that I received high school credit for Hebrew language from LA Hebrew High, I opted to take two years of Spanish in high school. Two years with Senora Orez* – no textbooks, no real pedagogy, hundreds of hard-to-read copied worksheets – left me to confidently proclaim: “Zulema Pestana tienes pomelo en la cabeza!” (translated as, “Senorita Blum has a grapefruit on her head” if I still have it right, which is questionable). It was depressing.

Later on during my junior year abroad in Israel I trekked through Europe for 28 days with three friends and Madrid was our first stop. I thought the city was spectacular, and when we moved on to Seville I felt like I had stumbled into a cultural hot spot. However, as we travelled from city to city across Europe I soon realized that Madrid is similar to most other big European cities and not so distinctly unique. Our tight itinerary demanded that we exit Europe from Greece and did not allow us time to dip down to Barcelona – a city many claimed to be unique with its Gaudi architecture and more distinct Spanish flavor. I left Europe with a small desire to return to Spain and see Barcelona for myself.

Cut to Fall 2009. I was on one of the many, many plane rides I would take this year in order to recruit campers, hire staff and attend conferences as part of my work with Camp Ramah in California when I was flipping through the American Ways magazine and found an intriguing center spread on Basque country (the northeast part of Spain and southwest part of France). It seemed awesome! The photos captured vibrant marketplaces, peaceful looking sea villages, winding cobblestone roads and other great landscapes. I was sold … and declared (to myself of course since I don’t speak to strangers on airplanes)( that I must visit.

Now, I’ve made these declarations in the past … and yet nine times out of ten my faithful travel partner and loving sister Jodi and I seem to always find ourselves on the beach in Mexico, Hawaii or the Caribbean. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining about beach time. But, it had been about four years since I really “saw the world” when Jodi and I journeyed to Costa Rica and I felt the time had finally come to get my butt in gear. After doing a bit of research, I narrowed down my potential destinations to Argentina and Spain … and a combination of weather, good mileage tickets and my desire to see sites but also relax in the middle of a quiet foreign, cultural destination led me to finalize a plan to head to Spain where I would take in the sites in Barcelona and unwind in at a more leisurely pace in San Sebastian.

Stay tuned to see if I chose wisely.

-Zach

*Real names have been changed ... can't have lashon ha'rah on this blog!