The Secrets of Sangria and an Ancient Market

The one with sangria and tapas, wonky lines and a business idea. And did I mention sangria?

25th November 2019

Dawn.

On the beach.

Yoga with my sister.

All those things fit together to make a place unexpected – Spain. I have heard my whole life (ok, since my late 20s) everyone who has ever been to Spain has loved it. But I’d never felt a special urge to go there.

So when my world fell apart in Morocco (about two weeks before my current moment) and my sister’s visit to see me in Tangier got lost in the mire of “OMG, what am I going to do now?”, I told her to pick somewhere, and she picked Spain.

What do I say now?

I say tapas and sangria and when can I go back?

A proper sized drink

But for me for now, Spain consists of Tarifa, the white brush stroke at the base of the hills across the water which I check out daily from The Boulevarde in Tangier. Spain is currently about as accessible as Australia.

My sister offered to pay for the accommodation, and being slightly more comfortable than moi (not exactly a challenge) found two charming airbnbs, one in Barcelona and one in Valencia. The deal was, she’d pay for places to stay, I’d pay for food. I definitely got the good side of that deal. There was no complaining from me about upgrading my dormitory bunk for a stylish room of my own in a fully appointed flat. Meanwhile, tapas aren’t that expensive.

Of course, that was my sister’s aim from the start – a little TLC for her sister (something I’m seriously bad at giving myself).

I love Barcelona.

There’s something magical about it.

We walked endlessly through the streets and markets, prowled Gaudi’s hillside project estate and the home he built for himself. The fashion and style and colours in the streets and shops were a perfect fit for us.

And Gaudi’s unique style now embedded in the city’s DNA – his bizarre defiance of gravity as well as for the straight lines or uniform curved lines that we are accustomed to in our architecture. He is a physical manifestation of Picasso’s melted clocks. Except that Picasso just messed with us visually. I think Gaudi actually messed with the laws of physics.

I would very happily return to live in Barcelona.

But what I want to talk about is what we did in Valencia, especially in a world of trying to find new ways to survive.

It’s the Airbnb Experience, a part of Airbnb. It’s available for anyone to access, either to enjoy , or as a way of earning some extra cash. Hit the right idea and you could even make a living off it.

My sister arranged for us two events.

The first was the dawn yoga on the beach. There isn’t much more needed to explain it. The two of us with a yoga session guided by a lovely lady who would have been there for herself anyway.

We took our own towels, arranged a time (and payment of course), had a gentle and re-energizing beach session fitted perfectly to our levels, with the sunrise over the Mediterranean, the smell of sea salt in the air, that was topped off by a small gift – a hairpclip from a local craft.

The second was a more spectacular event and would have taken more planning. It was much more of an event, I presume cost more, was run by two people with a rented room/shop, and done for a small group.

Paella.

After some introductions and ice-breaking jokes in the square where we met, our group of maybe a dozen was taken to a local and historic markets to shop for the fish for our paella.

An explanation of the fish market’s history and some info on how to choose our fish (for the more landlubbian of us, including myself. I know about those things – they’re the shiny things that move fast in the water and you can eat them, right? I had two pet goldfish once - does that count?)

We were then led back to their ‘shop’ which they’d set up as a kitchen, and led through a cooking demonstration with as much participation as possible on our part, directed by a chef. They divided us into a chicken group and a seafood paella group.

The dishes were delicious - finished of course by lunching on them, with plenty of sangria, jokes, and topped off with a beautifully printed copy of the recipes and sangria.

These were fabulous events to take part in, but my point here is as much to share the business idea. Anywhere there are tourists and people at leisure (even just locals on the weekend, especially if they are a family) – it’s just a matter of having a business idea, depending on your own personal talents. The more locally oriented the idea, I’d imagine the better, but tourists could be potentially interested in anything.

My skills include making origami kangaroos (many hours of practice procrastinating in my student days ) and cranes - which I could turn into earrings. Not a likely sounding interest in somewhere like Tangier, but who’s to know.

I’ve been surprised at the level of interest in Tangier for Japan and Japanese, and if my focus was not on writing I would have already set up some Japanese language classes and origami sessions, considering the interest here.

But my point is, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever your hidden talents, the Airbnb Experience is a way you could turn them into cash.

You can teach surfing or or how to play pool or a local game - Greece is Backgammon, Morocco is Pachi (I used to call it Ludo, but here the rules are a bit more elaborate), do a music and pub or beach crawl with history, local anecdotes or explanations of the culture. Do a crawl around your favourite cafés and cake shops, or run an exercise session in a beautiful spot near where you live, or a tour of movie sites. Just give your imagination some exercise, make it interesting and leave your guests with some sort of memento at the end.

The world is your oyster. May we all be back in this kind of world very soon.