Cooking Fresh Seafood & Treasure Hunting In Spain

Years ago I took 5 months off to backpack around Europe.  I stayed in youth hostels, with friends, and visited family I had never met before.  I took advantage of the fantastic youth Eurail passes that allowed me to move around with so much flexibility.  The experience was extraordinary.  I already spoke French and had studied some German, so that made traveling a lot easier.  However, I didn’t speak Spanish, and did have some issues traveling by rail to and from Spain, mostly my fault because I didn’t know to ask for non-smoking compartments.  People still smoke?

Santiago de Compostela, Spain by Mário José Martins

I had been invited to meet friends from Canada who were taking their two year old daughter to Spain to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time, and be christened.  I was spending Christmas in Szeged, Hungary with family friends, so I planned on arriving in Santiago de Compostela by train a few days before New Year’s Eve.  It was a long trip with 3 nights spent sleeping on trains.  I loved sleeping on trains even though the motion, which allowed me to sleep deeply, didn’t do anything to stop my bizarre nightmares.  Just before the porter brought continental breakfast, as we zipped toward my first layover in Zurich, I woke from a dream that I had arrived at my destination, and as it dawned on me that I’d left my daypack somewhere, it arrived on the doorstep looking like a skinned animal.  What?  I had stops in Geneva, Barcelona, and Madrid before arriving in Santiago.

Is It A Law Or A Suggestion?

Peter and Pili met me at the train station, and we took the scenic/most indirect route to Pili’s parents’ house.  They wanted to drive up to A Coruña to hunt for old coins in antique shops and this way my introduction to Peter’s obsession with looking for coins.  Not only did he buy several coins, he also admitted that he had a list of castle/ruins that he wanted to visit on the way to the house, and a metal detector in the trunk of the car!  So there weren’t any actual signs posted anywhere forbidding people from using a metal detector and shovel to locate and dig up artifacts, but it seemed like a no-brainer.  So Pili and I had to stand watch while Peter hunted and dug.  He didn’t have any luck finding coins because we wouldn’t let him spend tons of time at it, we found it too stressful.  It was certainly a different way of looking at ruins.  One of our stops was at Castillo de Vimianzo which was built in the 13th century and is considered to be one of the best preserved castles in Galicia.  We also stopped at Castillo del Cardinal which was built as a fort right at the water’s edge to protect the mouth of the estuary.

Seafood Paella by avlxyz

The Freshest Seafood

When we finally reached Pili’s family’s home I was treated to first of many feasts.  Every night that I was there we ate mountains of wonderful fresh seafood.  The town also had a cannery, so even the canned scallops and mussels were fantastic.  Pili’s mom was alternately offended by and concerned for the health of, anyone who lacked appetite.  My favorite was the Calamari Romana, and she let me help prepare it one evening.  The instructions couldn’t be simpler.  Dredge cleaned and salted squid in a mixture of flour and baking powder, then into beaten egg.  Fry in small batches in shallow oil until browned.  Squeeze lemon over and serve.

Elizabeth Evans left her backpacking days to join a multinational focused on SEO in latin america, she is fluent in Spanish, French and Italian.

Tags: 5 months, antique shops, backpack around europe, castle ruins, continental breakfast, daypack, doorstep, indirect route, josé martins, layover, long trip, maternal grandparents, metal detector, old coins, pili, Santiago de Compostela, santiago de compostela spain, szeged hungary, train station, youth hostels

Category: Spain, Travel Tips