Day 10 - The Olive Oil Journey

January 2020, final semester at UVA - the answer to "why do you want to take Entrepreneurship and VC?"

I have always been interested in the field of entrepreneurship but never took a deeper dive. I want to expose myself to the way startups are structured and how entrepreneurs think.  With the right idea and people, I would not have trouble founding / working for a start-up in my eventual future despite going into Sales and Trading straight out of undergrad.  The world is changing quick but there are so many simple ideas people slip by every day.  Introductory exposure into this community can't hurt, right?

Day 10

Malaga, Andalusia, Spain | November 3rd, 2022

Morning

I woke up and walked to the Mercado de Atarazanas - guess the number of unique tomato vendors: (answer at bottom).

Good luck narrowing those tomatoes down to 1. Of course I got a picture of 0 but at least I got an Olive Oil (AOVE = Aceite de Oliva Virgin Extra) picture.

I went back to the hostel and worked until late afternoon. Here are some morning thoughts (I wasn't in so happy a mood):

1. (Regarding the fact I was at Malaga and not a more Olive Oil related location) Pisses me off. This is precious time and maybe I could have been making more connections

2. The empty time traveling solo without purpose is tough to swallow. A lot of dead time. But you must power through the lows and the rewards will follow.

3. My to-do list is too big

4. My music is also all over the place (referring to my liked songs being the only songs I had downloaded)

Afternoon

I had my first European shawarma since 2019, which is surprising given my tendency to gravitate towards shawarma and halal - it's such a convenient, cheap, and filling delicacy packed with flavor.

By 4pm I had enough of my laptop and walked to the beach. I grabbed a quick snack at BK  and of course went back on the laptop I tried to avoid.

I then rode a Bird Scooter through the port during sunset - calming and beautiful.

"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," by the Beatles

Evening

A couple of phone conversations later I made my way back to the hostel and out for dinner. I sat at the bar at this restaurant where the employees were moving 1 million miles per hour but couldn’t get Olive Oil for my bread if their life depended on it. Painfully slow meal.

I took some laps around the town square and end up in my hostel by midnight.

1 Olive Oil Takeaway:

Glass, Paperboard, Tin, and Porcelain are greater inhibitors to oxidation than plastic (UC Davis). I avoid plastic bottles when shopping for quality Olive Oil.

-Jack

# of unique tomato vendors: 23

Thank you for reading and welcome to the blog! I'm traveling through Europe on a quest to find great Olive Oil.

See you Day 11!