What does Spain Smell like
Finding my nose
My friends and family are intimately aware that for the last six months my nose has been kind of a big deal in my life. No my nose has not become a celebrity, but I do think it is developing a complex. A really gross, snotty, stinky complex. This spring mono was quickly followed by a sinus infection that I simply could not shake. After a few bouts of heavy antibiotics it was gone! (YAY!) I could smell for about a week, than I got a cold and the infection came back.
This morning, for the first time since spring break, I could smell.
While I wish it had not been the smell of my stinky self during my morning work out to send me into fits of delight; I regret to say that it was. As I was wishing I was smelling something other than my own stanky self I couldn’t help but remember what it smelled like in the mornings in Spain.
Top five smells I miss from Spain
In no particular order
The view from my room, you can see the ocean on the left, the mountain on the right, and the old town of Palma is everywhere.
The smell of the Sea: I lived on a Mediterranean island (an ISLAND!) for almost a year. No matter where you went the damp fresh smell of salt water was in the air. I could see the ocean from my bedroom, even if it was far away, and would wake up every morning to the smell of the sea.
The smell of seafood: I will happily be the first to admit that the smell of fish on their own is gross. It is, in fact, nasty, but the smell of fresh seafood is a little different than that fish you left in your trash can for too long. There is something more alive about the smell. And, if that explanation is hard to understand, the simple fact that there was such a plethora of fresh sea food was also amazing.
Enjoying a coffee with my mom
Really good coffee: And by coffee I mean café con leche or a café corto, which has less milk. Spanish coffee is nothing like the drip coffee we get here in America, or the fancy pressed coffee the French like so much, it is often just really good espresso, deep, rich and flavorful.
The Sun:If you don’t already know this, I don’t really like the heat that much. In fact it is kinda terrible most of the time. It was, therefore, a surprise to many that I would choose to walk across Spain, in July. It was hot, dry and sunny for most of the journey, but it was a dry heat. It smelled like earth and dirt and dust.
The gang’s all here. A group picture after I was taught how to do a true Spanish BBQ
Unfiltered tobacco: It is not a myth; many Spaniards smoke… a lot. Unlike American smokers however, most Spaniards roll their own and can, therefore, choose to leave out any filters. On top of that, it is legal to grow and consume, but not sell, marijuana in Spain. Whenever I would hang out with my madre’s friends, especially Dulce, the smell of tobacco, tinged with a little extra, always hung in the air. They were a crowd wholaughed and sang more than most, and I miss them.
Sounds like smells of Japan… except for the dry heat and good coffee haha. It’s humid here :but the smell of good matcha, that’s irreplaceable D
Mallorca was humid, but I spent most of my summer in central Spain, where the sun baked the earth to smell like soil. It’s cool though how some smells transcend different areas. Just out of curiosity, what does matcha smell like?
The smell of rain on the heat baked savannah in South Africa was a memorable scent.