Summer 2011 Update

Note: It's September and I find myself at my childhood home in San Diego for my annual 'visit' of my hometown.    Before I launch into a series of general-interest blogs, I thought I'd give a quick personal update on my travels.  So to explain how I moved from Spain to Argentina to the States, let's start the story three months ago, back in May when I was still living in San Sebastián...

Leaving The Basque Country...

I was getting restless in San Sebastián. After two years of a relatively settled life in Spain I was itching to get back on the road. At night I lay in bed awake, craving more certainty, adventure, and danger.

My closest buddies in San Sebastián

My life was moving in the opposite direction. I was making good friends in the Basque Country, starting to put down roots. My Spanish reached a level near fluency, and now the next step was Basque. And as my writing career continued to develop I began focus more and more and Spain, and I worried about getting pigeonholed. I wrote a guidebook on the Basque Country, opening up even more reasons for me to stay put.

Yet my soul respects no frontiers. Two years after my wanderings through Asia, I felt an irrepressible urge to pack my things in a backpack and go with the wind. I turned long weekends into freewheeling hitchhiking jaunts across Spain, doing whatever I could to hone my vagabonding skills. With my thumb out along the roads of Navarra and Aragon, I felt an inner peace and contentment I had almost forgotten.

With Friends in San Sebastián - Santo Tomás

Summer came quickly and the year was suddenly over. My lease expired on my apartment on May 31^st and I had no plans henceforth. With no job and no apartment I knew I would have to get creative if I wanted to keep up the momentum. But what to do? Where to go?

The answer was clear in my heart: I wanted to sail. I'd talked to a few people who had worked as a deckhand – the entry-level position of seafaring – and heard stories of adventure and good pay, up to 2500€ a month with living expenses covered. I was sold - that was over triple what I made as an English teacher. I packed up my life in the Basque Country and booked a flight to Palma de Mallorca, with only a vague notion of how to make it happen.

Practicality has never been my forte. For one, I had very little money. San Sebastián is an exceedingly expensive city and my scholarship paid very little. Much of what I'd managed to save had been invested into writing my guidebook, leaving almost nothing for summertime adventures.

Moreover, over half of my savings would have to be invested in to a sailing certification called the STCW 95, a near requisite for sailors. But it was a “near” requisite, and I was determined to hold off on procuring the expensive piece of paper until I had both my feet on Majorcan soil. If I could become a sailor without dropping over half my net worth, by god I would save the silver.

Previous Sailing Experience

But there was an even larger challenge before me – my painful, glaring, complete and embarrassing lack of sailing experience. I've made some bold moves before, but this bordered on stupidity. Though I'd always harbored dreams of sailing the world, they'd remained just that – dreams. I'd failed to bring them from abstraction to reality. In fact, the only picture I have of me sailing sits upon my father's office desk - a ten-year old Marko piloting a dinghy across a lake, white knuckles gripping the helm, life jacket raising above my ears, and my mouth wide open. Screaming in terror.

In short, this would be a journey of personal growth. There would be obstacles to overcome, but after wrapping up my first guidebook I felt confident and ready for another challenge. Excited, anxious, unqualified and unprepared, I departed the Basque Country and flew to Palma de Mallorca

My Guidebook - The Basque Country: Cuisine & Culture

The Basque Coast, near Zumaia (Gipuzkoa)

First off – I have an excuse for not updating this blog in a while.  It's a good one too.

For the last four months I have been devoting my heart and soul into writing a gastronomical guidebook about the Basque Country. As you may know, I have been fascinated by Basque culture ever since I first heard about the homeland of the nationless Basque people. Since arriving in San Sebastián I've done my best to soak up facts, stories and cultural perspectives on all things Basque, and this guidebook is the culmination of my curiosity.  Check it out here. 

The Basques are famous worldwide for their culinary prowess, and the area is home to more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else in the world. San Sebastián (Donostia) alone is brimming with Michelin starred restaurants and more pintxo bars than you could visit in a full fortnight of glutinous grazing. Beyond gastronomy, I've included historical anecdotes, a menu decoder and the most current insights on the local culinary scene so you know what to eat at which restaurants. 

Fishermen's homes in Hondarribia

Mine is not a traditional guidebook – it's an app for iPhones I developed with SutroMedia. It will be available for download in the iTunes store by July 2011 under the name “The Basque Country: Cuisine and Culture.” The fully interactive app has over 200 entries on everything from local taverns in Bilbao, splendid palaces in Vitoria, Michelin-starred restaurants in San Sebastián and up-and-coming chefs from small seaside towns like Hondarribia.

Traditional Basque farmhouse - un caserío

I fell in love with the Basque Country, and this guidebook is one written out of my passion for my host country. I intend not only to inform readers of their dining options, but also of the fascinating culture they are visiting. I hope that you all have the opportunity to visit the Basque Country in person so you can share my enthusiasm for this fascinating land.

And to conclude this self-plug, I'll throw in the text from the iTunes store below... ; )

Bogavante (lobster) from Restaurante Zortziko

The Basque Country: Cuisine & Culture

Life in the Basque Country centers around food. Spread across the French and Spanish borderlands and wedged between the Atlantic and the Pyrenees, the homeland of the Basque people is brimming with Michelin stars, tapas bars, and world-class restaurants. This app offers a practical gastronomical and cultural guide to this fascinating and ancient land as Mark Ayling takes readers to the nexus between venerable Basque traditions and latest culinary innovations they inspire. From medieval fishing ports to the gleaming Guggenheim, working-man taverns to the Michelin-starred restaurant of Juan Mari Arzak, The Basque Country: Cuisine and Culture has every angle of the Spanish Basque Country covered.

Pintxo, anyone?

Whether you're in search of white linen dining experiences or the perfect “pintxo” (Basque tapas), this app makes sense of a seemingly endless gamut of restaurants, bars, and wineries. Use Mark's reviews to locate precisely what you seek and compare photos of plates to narrow down your choices and read up on the latest culinary currents in the most dynamic gastronomical center of Europe. 

Hungry for more? Like with most things in the Basque Country, the first taste is never enough. So bite into this app and come see it for yourself.

*What's inside?*

- 200+ entries of restaurants, museums, nightlife, tapas bars, and historical sights

-1000+ photos of each restaurant's dishes/decór to better inform your decision of where to eat

- Interactive maps of the best bites nearest to you

- Detailed guide to “pintxo” (tapas) bars with photos of each pintxo and lists of the house specialties.

- Reviews of restaurants for every budget – from 3-course meals for 10€ to 15-course 200€-a-head blowouts

- Special section on Michelin-starred restaurants to help you decide what best suits your style and budget.

- Touristic and cultural sights with historical insight to demystify the ancient culture of the Basques.

- Menu Decoder to make sense of those difficult to pronounce Basque words!

- Reviews of 17 coastal villages so you can plan day trips or navigate the coastal road from Bilbao to San Sebastián.

- Save money with local €-saving secrets like the “pintxo pote,”the “menú degustación,” the “zurito” and much more...

Please understand that this guidebook includes plenty of reviews of sights and restaurants but NO INFO ABOUT HOTELS. Also, this first version of the app only includes the three main Spanish Basque provinces. It does not cover Navarra or the three Basque provinces in France.

Check the iTunes store in early July to download!

Surfing in Zarautz

Thoughts on - City Size

What is the perfect size of a city for you?
 
For me, San Sebastian feels just right.  Weighing in at 180,000, San Sebastian feels like an overgrown seaside village – a gorgeous, vibrant, and extremely cultured village, that is. 

It’s small enough to know most people but big enough to attract world-class cultural events, such as the 58th San Sebastian International Film Festival that’s going on right now. 

I’ve braved the 405 to work in LA, I survived the Mumbai local trains to my internship, and last year I stuck out nine months of isolation in small town Spain. 

After tasting cities of all sizes and styles I’ve chosen San Sebastian. 

I'm happy with my choice...

A Dream Come True

It still feels odd when I tell people I’m living in San Sebastian.

It’s a dream come true.   In my opinion this beachside town is the best in Spain, the elegant jewel of Spain’s verdant northern Atlantic coast. 


I have everything I need here.  Two exquisite beaches in the center of town, a great surfing beach, the charm of the fishing port and narrow warren of bars and restaurants in the old town, and a youthful population living aside the vanguards of arguably the oldest culture in Europe.  France is 30 minutes away, the Pyrenees are no farther, and a rugged coastline stretching from here to Portugal beckons me to explore her shores on a year's worth of surf trips. 

Still there is more here than meets the eye.  Nominally, this city is in Spain and nearby Biarritz is in France.  But these lands are disputed territories, home to a nationless people called the Basques.  I am fascinated by Basque culture - speakers of an ancient language unrelated to any other on earth, at once outward-looking explorers and innovators with a cloistered, conservative streak running through the hinterlands.  The Basques' desire for autonomy and independence has deteriorated into a terrorist war against the Spanish and French central governments, sadly overshadowing the rich culture for which they fight. 

I hope to use this blog both to chronicle my adventures and showcase the beauty I see in the Basque culture. 

Such beauty is often self-evident - look at the background picture of this blog.  Yesterday I walked up to this hill, one of two that guards the crescent-shaped beach, and beheld my new home.  From where I stood the sheltered bay stretched out before me, named Bahia de la Concha for it’s shell-like shape.  Its golden beach arced from there to a narrow peninsula where the Old Town huddles against the steep, fortified mountain at its tip.  Beyond this bay lies the surf beach, Gros and the northern foothills of the Pyrenees.  In the distant horizon I can see Biarritz, France.  To my left stormed the capricious Atlantic throwing waves and wind against the cliffs, ports, and beaches of the Basque Country.  Sea, wind, and the hills – this landscape lies at the heart of the Basques. 

It is in this landscape that I will make my home for the next year.  One year in this seaport, tucked between France, Spain and the Pyrnees.  A year in Basqueland.  

I came back to the moment and watched the sunset splash purple waves across the bay and the lights come on in the Old Town. For a moment I could see in the reflection in the water all the experiences waiting for me in the coming months.  I could not help but smile. 

It’s going to be a great year. 

#13 - Springtime Update

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since I have written a post, perhaps a month or so.  The truth is that a lot of things have happened since I went to Cadiz for Carnival – I’ve landed an internship writing for a travel website, made some tentative plans for my future, and been suspected by Arévalo’s local police of being a terrorist.  But let me start at the beginning. 

Getting the travel writing internship was the best piece of news I’d received in months.  I was ripe for some good news after so many months of fruitless effort, for a break of any kind.  One of my Canadian friends, Maria, read my blog and suggested I try writing for a new website called Off Track Planet.  I liked what I read on the website, so I contacted them and soon enough I had an internship.  That was a month ago, and I’ve been writing for the website ever since. 

Each week I have to write an article on different travel-related topics.  I’ve written one on how to find cheap flights in Europe, Top 10 Things to Do in Madrid, the best places to get a tattoo in Madrid and how to ride a motorbike across Vietnam.  More are in the works…

I don’t know where the experience will lead, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.   After over a year of trying to break into writing I finally got my first break.  Now I have an editor who helps me develop my style and pushes me to do better each week.  Furthermore, having to research and write articles on a diverse range of topics will continually expose me to new aspects of traveling.  

Definitely check out the website.  It is oriented towards young American backpackers and its full of inspiring articles, tips, advice on working abroad, and practical information on planning the trip of a lifetime.  I just got my first article published, but you should see more of my work appear on the site soon. I hope the articles will inspire you to embark on your own journeys.  Of course, feel free to contact me with any travel-related questions you might have. 

I will continue writing for Off Track Planet as I wrap up my English teaching job in Arévalo.  God knows I need something to occupy my time in the pueblo.  Though I originally shared my apartment with four other roommates, now only one remains.  He is leaving tomorrow.  Writing for the website is the only thing keeping me sane. 

I am considering moving to nearby Ávila, a small medieval city that serves as the capital of our province.  I have a few American friends there and they have offered for me to move in with them for the last month to avoid being stranded alone in Arévalo. 

I have other plans as well, dreams that keep me going as I shuffle from my crumbling apartment to the high school where I work – moving to Paris this summer.  I have discovered a writing program there that lasts the entire month of July and I am in the process of applying for it.  If I am accepted into the program I’ll pass the summer in my favorite city while I practice my writing under the guidance of leading writers.  I could learn French, soak up the culture of Paris and simply enjoy life. 

As important to me as the writing program is, I am most looking forward to the latter element – joie de vivre.  After a spending a dark, lonely winter in small-town Spain, I am dying to live closer to the action.  When I originally arrived in Arévalo I assumed that I could use the town as a base to explore the rest of Spain.  The town was boring but, like a dorm bed in a hostel, it was just a place to sleep.  I was quite close to Madrid, Salamanca and northern Spain and I could easily travel across Spain quite easily. 

But after six months of traveling almost every weekend I am completely exhausted.  I have discovered that where a person lives is one of the most important things in life.  Where you live and who you live with defines your experience in many ways.  In Arévalo I have lacked all the things I took for granted in California – being close to friends, to other young people, to places where things happen.  I am a nomad, setting up camp across the globe as I wander through my youth.  But I’ve learned my lesson – next time, I’m going to pitch my tent closer to the action. 

Paris is first, then the Basque Country, (or, Euskal Herria in the Basque language).   I have re-applied to my English teaching program for a second year, but this time I’m hoping to be place in or around a big city in the Basque Country.  The seaside city of Bilbao would be ideal, as would San Sebastián. 

I have a few reasons for continuing the program next year.  Primarily, I have realized the importance of being patient and taking one’s time in life.  My thirst for knowledge has driven me here to study Spanish, to learn the Spanish guitar, and to become a writer.  I have progressed drastically on all fronts, but not to my satisfaction.  I need more time.  Another year here will cement my knowledge of Spanish and give me more time to work on my writing and traveling.  Also, I want to begin studying French next year, and from the Basque Country I can travel to both Spain and France with equal ease. 

Obviously, this means that I won’t be spending much time in California during 2010.  I miss my friends and family, but I feel that right now it is important for me to continue down this path.  Fortunately my brother has applied for the same English-teaching program and if all goes to plan we will be sharing a flat together in Bilbao and exploring the world-class surf breaks of the Basque Country on the weekends. 

So to summarize, that means I will be in Arévalo until the end of May, then Paris for all of August, then to the Basque Country starting in October.  I plan to fill in the gaps between those experiences as follows: in June I will walk El Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrimage walk from France to Galicia in the northwestern corner of Spain.  The journey in its entirety takes six weeks, but I only have three.  I will have to pick a section and do as much as I can, then return to finish it at another time.  I’ll walk from when I finish my job until I have to move to Paris.

After Paris, I will probably to a bit of traveling out here before returning home to SD to enjoy the waning summer sun.  Mellowing with my friends, lounging at the beach, going to Padres games, and eating burritos are in order.  Then in late September I would return to Spain to get settled in Bilbao and prepare for the upcoming year. 

All this, of course, assumes that I will actually be accepted into these various programs.  I could easily be rejected from the Paris program or be assigned to teach English in some small town again.  That would change things quite a bit.  But let’s hope that doesn’t happen…

That leaves one last tidbit to mention – how I became suspected of being a terrorist.  It all happened last Thursday…