The June Beach Chronicles - Chapter 3: Sanlúcar de Barrumeda

I've officially exhausted my travel battery. It took a significant amount of effort to drag my ass out of the house on Friday to meet my BlaBlaCar to set off for the town Sanlúcar de Barrumeda in the province of Cádiz. Even having already made a non-refundable hostel reservation, my desire to make another trip was at an epic low - I've gradually sank to super weary status this month - and I was strongly contemplating passing on this round. What ultimately nudged me out the door was the guilt factor of being a no-show after I had requested a seat in our driver's car.

So, indeed, I eventually made it to Sanlúcar. Being a pueblo outside the central city, it isn't nearly as tourist-flooded than some of the major cities in Andalucía. The beach itself was actually quite vacant:

A different sight

For good reason, too, as the wind was in high gear that day:

After a few minutes of having sand tossed in my face non-stop, I called it quits on the beach and spent the day exploring different parts of the town.

Official producers of manzanilla

On the footsteps of a school

Plaza de Cabildo

View of Castillo de Santiago from the hostel terrace

It ended up being literally a 24-hour trip (caught my ride at 1:00 on Friday to, took the 1:00 bus back the next day from) but it turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. The highlight of my short visit had to be the hostel manager, Enrique (if memory serves me right), who invited me to homemade tapas and free alcohol as a welcome gift, and meeting a dutch girl, Meike, whom I shared my room with. Good conversations and much laughter over yummy food, drinks and coffee with people from different parts of the world, the classic recipe for a buen viaje, allows me to deem this mini-adventure a success, un éxito. I do hope, and expect, to return to this charming town one day during Year 2.

With that said, I write the final words of my brief yet (nearly-)historic travel sagas. Three weekends, four destinations and six BlaBlas later, I'm left with the life-affirming result of more international Facebook friends, darker skin and less euros! Thus is the legacy of these Beach Chronicles, edition June 2014.

And now we approach what will be the longest week of private classes EVER in this writer´s lifetime ... ciao.