Brendan Boyle

Oct 21, 2024 | brendyboyle.medium.com | Brendan Boyle

Brendan Boyle·Follow13 min read·--Photo by Carlos Zurita on UnsplashAutumn is for Madrid. While the Mediterranean coast deploys torrential tantrums to wring summer out of its system, Madrid jolts into life like the resume button on a treadmill that’s been paused on speed 20. The well-heeled Madrileños with topped-up tans waltz back into the city, beautiful faces reflecting the fluorescent lights of the Gran Via night. These are the weeks when the pre-lunch vermut can be enjoyed out on the terraza.

Aug 26, 2024 | irishtimes.com | Brendan Boyle

In this loudest of countries, all it took to silence a group of socialising Spaniards was a routine football trivia question. Sitting around a table outside Matilde – a bar tucked into a corner of A Coruña – Diego, Sito, and friends scratched heads and exchanged puzzled glances.

Jun 11, 2024 | brendyboyle.substack.com | Brendan Boyle

During our last podcast, we spoke to Andrew Halliwell, a British winemaker based in La Rioja, the epicentre of Spain’s wine industry and now we are moving a little further north to talk about something that pairs perfectly with all sorts of wine: the Basque Country’s humble Pintxo, of which there are endless varieties. It was a pleasure to speak to Marti Buckley, an American writer from Alabama who has lived in San Sebastian for more than a decade.

May 24, 2024 | brendyboyle.substack.com | Brendan Boyle

These are a few acts you will rarely catch Spaniards committing:Being drunk during the day. Using severe sunburn to exfoliate. Leaving the house without a coat in the morning. (Any slight morning chill trumps the inconvenience of being straddled with an extra layer in 35-degree heat nine hours later)Wearing shorts during any month not called August. Driving calmly in the rain. Throwing on a confused mismatch of sports clothing and loungewear when running out for errands.

May 10, 2024 | brendyboyle.substack.com | Brendan Boyle

For one day at least, all eyes were on Portugal. Then Spain happened. Again. A discrete country left alone to face the Atlantic and contemplate its continental solitude, not much happens in Portugal. Nothing click-baity enough to wrestle media attention away from the other side of the Iberian divide anyway. April 25th, 2024, alas, was supposed to be Portugal’s day, a moment for Europe to salute the 50th anniversary of the peaceful Carnation Revolution that toppled the longest dictatorship in Europe.