Day 13 - The Olive Oil Journey

May 2022 - advice to self

Unknowns = roadblock. If you don't know something, tends to be avoided. Like when you don't know your workout at the gym, you take longer to decide. When you don't know how much time you have to complete a workout, it will take longer. Unless you are mindful of this action. Identify unknowns, set a routine to avoid the roadblock and pave your way through it.

Day 13

Jaen --> Madrid --> Valencia | November 6th, 2022

I pack up the room, no breakfast again, taxi with my baggage and arrive the Festival, day 2.

It's time to play the game: 87 Picual Olive Oils - I need to find the best.

Here's how I started.

There was a group of 10 olive oil stands bunched together. I looked for the best of those 10 and found it. Boom I got one oil that checks my boxes.

Next 8 oil stands bunched together. None were good, moving on.

I iterated this process as I made my way from oil 1 to 87 and came across some great oils that I even missed on Day 1. And my Day 1 connections carried over to Day 2 conversations. Given the lack of Americans that were at the event, I was again considered to be the unique "American" or "Americano."

There are NYIOOC Gold Medals, Tokyo, Dubai, LA, and Spanish Olive Oil Awards. But I'm not here to find the oils that panelists think are best. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Unfortunately I will not be revealing my favorite oils here - but I will say I had some of the best oils of my life that morning.

I do a couple more rounds and get out of the city.

But leaving Jaen was a whole to do. Here's why:

I've referenced it before but had never explained it. BlaBlaCar is a cheap carpooling service used throughout Europe. For $12 you could get a ride from Jaen to Madrid - but the cost is the trust in the driver, potential uncertainty or last minute cancellations, safety, etc. It would be nice if I could get a $12 car ride from New York to Philadelphia in the US but hey, I opt for the $15 bus instead! I know people that hate public transport and always pay hundreds of dollars for longer distance Ubers - this app is definitely for you, unfortunately no US presence at the moment.

So I booked a BlaBlaCar at 2:30pm on Sunday directly to Valencia (5 hour ride) but my hotel was a 15 minute cab ride away from the festival. I walked through the festival with my backpack on top of wheeled suitcase for 4 hours straight.

I messaged my BlaBlaCar driver during early AM cab ride to the festival to confirm pickup location. He responds an hour later but I forget to respond to his response. I couldn't put my phone in the app because I don't get SMS messages with my E-Sim, so his calls went to voicemails. By 1:30pm, he was convinced I was a fraud! I tried so hard to convince him I wasn't a fraud - to no prevail. BlaBlaCar cancelled. Ugh

Audible #1: Bus to Cordoba, Train to Madrid, Train to Valencia.

I hustle to the bus station and arrive at 2:20pm for the 2:30 bus, but apparently Google was wrong and on Sundays the bus to Cordoba (connection to Madrid) is at 4:30pm. No shot I'd get to Valencia on time, so I wasn't going to wait.

Audible #2: BlaBlaCar to Madrid, Train to Valencia.

After walking a mile in 16 minutes I get into the car and nap my way to Madrid, transfer to the Valencia train and got to Valencia by 9pm. Arrived at the Hostel at 10pm to a girl sleeping in my bed - quick adjustment and I was good to go. That was a long day. Grabbed a quick dinner, a beer, and stayed up a bit later than I should have.

1 Olive Oil Takeaway

Olive Oil is a beautiful, unifying element of society with vast historical significance and utility. This world is so heavily filled with swaths of instantaneous stimulation and cancel culture – especially in the younger generation – that it’s hard to find that break.

The definition of my former job was stimulation, once that went away upon the rotation I didn’t know what to do with myself. Even when trying to edit my Instagram bio (@extravirginguy), reels distract me from what I’m actually doing.

Mediterranean people have been growing olives for thousands of years (yes, thousands) and continue to find ways to innovate despite a world of opportunity. The family of one of my colleagues owns a 6th Generation Olive Farm in Greece, passed down from generation to generation. It’s more than just a table condiment, and I hope we could take a pause and appreciate the story of the olive oil on the table, in the kitchen, or anywhere imaginable.

-Jack

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

Usually I post pictures, but I had a pasting issue today and decided to release the post anyway. Will post them in subsequent entry.