Jul 11
FINlostravel camino, FINlos, spain, travel
My wife and I just completed our second Camino. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, we did the Camino de Santiago (also known my many other names), which is a 1000+ km path from the border of France across northern Spain. While we did not walk the whole thing (yet) we once again walked the last section of it, over 100 km, the minimum required to receive our Compostelas, certificates of completion marking our pilgrimage. The Camino de Santiago, or Pilgrimage of Saint James is draped in religion. And while for the faithful it is surely a revealing experience, for those like my wife and I who shun the trappings of religious demagoguery, the Camino is no less spiritual or revealing.
More
Jun 26
FINlostravel aguardiente, FINlos, lugo, spain, travel
My wife and I arrived in Lugo, Spain, in the province of Galicia on one of many festival days celebrated here. This one happened to be the festival of San Juan, or as he is called in Gallego, the regional dialect, Xan Xoán.
More
Jun 19
FINlosfood, travel FINlos, food, spain, tapas, wine
It’s not enough to simply consider Spanish food. Rather, it’s necessary to examine the entire process of eating a meal, an experience worthy of entire books (I’m sure it’s been done), but here compressed to 1000 words or less for your reading pleasure.
More
Jun 17
FINlostravel FINlos, madrid, rastro, travel
Named for the stains of butchered meat that would run down the hill, El Rastro is an open air market, like a bazaar or flea market, that manifests every Sunday in Downtown Madrid. They really aren’t lying when they say it’s big.
More
Jun 17
FINlostravel FINlos, madrid, metro, spain
I’m in a foreign city, one of the world’s major metropolitan urban areas. I have places I want to go. I don’t want to pay a taxi fare every time. Bus routes take too long to decode and negotiate for a non-native. Walking is possible, if I want to arrive sweaty, exhausted, and hours after my departure (did I mention it’s a big city?).
More
Jun 13
FINlostravel fear, FINlos, flying, spain, travel
I really wouldn’t have a problem with flying if the plane never had to leave the ground and then land again.
More
Jun 06
FINlosdaily life, travel FINlos, lichgate, tallahassee
A couple years ago my wife and I were planning our wedding. It was to be a very modest gathering, much less cumbersome than the standard fare. In preparing for the occasion, the biggest decisions we had to make was where to have the event. We looked at most of the traditional spots that Tallahassee has to offer and although we were prepared to settle on one, none really made us feel that any money we would be spending on the place would ever be made up through ambiance and experience. But thankfully, a close friend of ours mentioned a place just five minutes away from our house called Lichgate.
More
Apr 26
FINlostravel blisters, miscellaneous, santiago, spain
My first trip out of the United States was to Spain, my wife’s native country. Once there I found myself falling into a funk. Culture shocked (in fine European tradition the whole country, it seems, shuts down from 2-4 every day!), homesick (the flat we inhabited with my wife’s Abuelo in Madrid felt to be about the size of my living room), and tragically restricted in our activities by the limitations of our host (he’s old and diabetic), not to mention the 110F temperatures (who knew Madrid was a desert?); I needed a break from the rough start we had upon our arrival.
More
RSS
