08.08.22 — Journal

Ollie vs. Heat

Now back in Spain after a few short days in England for Jess and Adam’s wedding, the heat has begun to prove itself to be somewhat of a nuisance. No matter, however, for there’s always fun summer plans to be made and innovative ways of cooling off to be found!

One weekend I headed down to Luis’ place, who then promptly whisked me off to his family’s finca, their casa de campo. This rather Spanish concept sees families families own two properties: the family home, and then their “countryside house”, a more rural dwelling used for family holidays and weekends away to escape the heat.

Escaping the heat was just what Luis and I had in mind, and so we headed off with supplies in tow: our swimming trunks, some beer, and a box of Turkish delight that Luis had brought me back from Istanbul. I do love me some Turkish delight!

A Sunday afternoon spent in the pool was just the ticket.

After a stop for lunch along the way, the two of us then spent the entire afternoon lounging by the pool. We chatted, listened to music, and setup an impromptu medical centre after I wandered into a wasp nest and got stung on my foot. Turns out that wasp stings are worse than the bee stings I always used to get as a child!

Back in the city, I also had an evening planned with Napo, who I’d not seen for a while. We arranged to meet up in Lavapiés, one of my favourite areas of the city. The walk to the bar that we’d decided on was a lovely one, with a relatively cool but still sunny afternoon providing for some lovely sights along the way.

This street is one of my favourite in the city, it reminds me of Lisbon.

We first had a few beers at an old bar, sitting at the bar and chatting with a caña in hand for a good while. We chatted for so long that we didn’t realise that our favourite restaurant, NAP, had already opened! No fear though, as we did manage to get a table in the end, and had a wonderful catch up over some delicious Italian food.

The melanzane alla parmigiana is one of my favourite dishes.

As the night drew to a close we headed back towards my house on foot, making the most of a relatively mild evening and the short downhill journey to my neighbourhood. There I got an early night and prepared for what the next week of heat would bring…