Since my arrival in the wonderful city of Barcelona, I have not had the privilege to do any real traveling. I have been outside the city to incredible beach towns like Sitges and visited friends in the surrounding areas. So when I was presented the opportunity to go see one of the greatest men on the planet in Nick Tazik, I had to jump on the chance.
I have been blessed to know Nick for around 6 to 7 years. While I was at MTSU, he was also in school at Belmont in Nashville. He’s just one of those people who you can go 3 years without seeing and when the reunion happens, it’s always as he puts it “the stuff of legend.” He has been teaching English in Herrera Del Duque which is south of Madrid since the fall and our experiences have been polar opposites.
He lives in a pueblo of only 4,000 people (the Noxapater of Spain). Since he has been in Spain, his Spanish has become quite good and it was a big encouragement to see how far someone can get with the language in 9 months.
With this trip, I decided to go the cheap route due to the fact I don’t have any money. I opted with the torture and utter hell that is Ryanair. I will give you my itinerary that will shed some light on why Ryanair is so cheap (32 euro roundtrip flight). Thursday morning I took a bus from Barcelona at 3:30 am (yes am) headed to Girona airport. The bus ride was around an hour and my flight left at 6:25 am. I arrived in Madrid around 7:30 then headed to my next bus station. I took another bus at 3 pm in Madrid headed to Herrera Del Duque and arrived around 7 pm (4 hour bus ride). It was around 16 hours of tough travel. Here are some photos of the COUNTRYside headed to the Duque.
Look familiar? When my trip was finally finished, it was so great to see the face of a longtime friend (seeing as my PIC left me). There was no time for lollygagging. We went straight to a cafe where all of his professor friends were hanging out. From that moment on, we hung out until around 3 in the morning (entirely in Spanish) and they were some truly incredible people. We watched the Liverpool v Atletico Madrid game and I was the only one in the pub for Liverpool (of course we lost).
On Friday, we had a wonderful lunch that Nick prepared. We ate eggplant parmesan and I was incredibly impressed with his skills with the oven.
We took a light 1-hour nap to recharge the engine. The next task was to tackle the Castle in the Duque. We had one of his students drive us halfway up the hill and after crossing through barb wired fences and other treachery, we arrived at one of the most unique castles I’ve ever been too.
That night was a very low-key night because all of the professors left the pueblo on the weekends. We had a great dinner and tried to get some sleep because “The Day of All Days” was soon to happen.
When Nick invited me to visit his pueblo and I picked my date, he informed me of a massive festival that all of the pueblos around the area attended. The best way I can describe the fiesta was a mix between tents in the grove and the Brookhaven Exchange Club Fair. We paid 25 euros into the pot of Nick’s friends and we had unlimited access to food and drinks for the whole day and night.
There were 2 unique auctions that happened throughout the day. One was a bake and pastry auction. Women of the church would auction off all of their prized cakes and goodies and the proceeds would go to the church. Whatever you have in your head of a bake auction is the exact opposite of what this was like. The highest selling goody went for 400 euros. Insanely, the woman that bought it gave Nick and I 2 pieces.
Then, they auctioned off a leg of ham and last year it went for 1000 euros (around 1300 dollars).
The next auction was the right to carry in the Saint. Most fiestas in Spain coincide with a Saint’s day. Here’s how it would go. One person would carry each handle (like a casket) and they would bid to carry each corner. Then, they would walk to the end of the area and pick up speed by running and try to barrel through the door of the church. If other people wanted to bid more then they would block the door like the Rebels front line. This process lasted for around an hour. The bids started off at 5 euros for each person. It ended up at 600 euros for the shoulders and 500 for the legs. Ridiculous.
As the night settled in, we headed back to our tent for more hang out time. We ended up playing football (soccer) and Nick and my team put it on ‘em. We had supper at 11:30 pm (lunch was at 4) and we ate so much it was painful. I thought the night was coming to a close with everyone seeming to be exhausted and ready to go home. As soon as I this thought ran through my mind, our dj called for everyone’s attention and announced that the party will now begin. He cranked dance music and everyone hopped up like his or her chair was on fire and began to dance the night away.
Throughout the night we played games like musical chairs, which I won and other games that I was clueless about. We listened to Johnny Cash, U2 and other great music. All in all, it was one of the best parties I have ever attended and they all invited me to come back next year before I return to the states.
To wrap the trip up, we had breakfast (masterful sunny side up eggs prepared by Nicko) at the home of one of Nick’s students. I said my goodbyes and headed back to Barcelona. “The stuff of legend” might be a terrible understatement. It was one of the most legendary weekends of my entire life and adding Nick Tazik to the pot made it all the better.
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