The day before I left for Sevilla, Edward wanted to take me to his favorite beach so the two of us hopped in his car and drove an hour and a half through the Spanish country side to the little beachside town of Bolonia. Along the way we drove through sunflower fields, vineyards, cattle ranches, wind farms, solar farms (yay clean energy!!) and I’m sure we passed some really good surf spots, which I hope to explore more of some day.
The beach at Bolonia is a long stretch of coastline just west of Gibraltar, so while it’s still the considered a part of the Strait of Gibraltar, the beach is on the Atlantic Ocean. Across the strait one can see the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and behind the beach itself are the ruins of the ancient Roman city Baelo Claudia, which you can read more about here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baelo_Claudia. The ruins, like any classic Roman city, include an amphitheater that has the stunning backdrop of the turquoise-azure water of the Atlantic Ocean framed by the mountains of Africa in the distance. Like, what the fuck, Europe? How are you so damn cool?
After a swim in the crystal clear, chilly water, we went to lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach. Edward, being the foodie that he is, ordered us croquetas of cuttlefish, a plate of local clams cooked in butter and garlic, and navajas, which according to my other foodie friends are razor clams, but I had neither seen or heard of them before.
If you’ve ever eaten a razor clam then you know that they look like alien penises (or what I imagine alien penises to look like). In spite of their strange appearance, the navajas were delicious and tender, not fishy or chewy in the slightest. The clams were so fresh that they had some sand still in them, but even sand tastes good with butter and garlic. I’m not the most adventurous eater, but this was one of the most remarkable and interesting meals I’ve ever had.
After lunch we drove along the coast to Tarifa, which looked like a kite festival due to the number of kite surfers out in the water. Apparently this stretch of coast is a kite surfing mecca because it is always windy, and there were hundreds of people out there ripping. It made me want to learn how to kite surf. It also makes sense as to why there are so many wind farms in the area.
In Tarifa we got a coffee by the port, and I tried to talk Edward into driving onto the ferry for a quick jaunt to Africa, but neither of us brought our passports and we had to get back to the familia. This part of the world is extraordinarily interesting - where two seas meet, two continents are mere kilometers apart, civilizations have risen and fallen… I mean seriously, Europe, how are you so fucking cool?
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