Lodestars Anthology – Issue 16 (Spain)

Lodestars Anthology Issue 16 (Spain) is available now on loremnotipsum.com. After Greece Lodestars Anthology Issue 16 takes you to Spain. An ode to slow travel, splendour and sun. Que viva España.

Discover Lodestars Anthology – Issue 16 (Spain).

Lodestars Anthology is an independent magazine-meets-journal for curious travellers who long to be inspired, see the world and meet interesting characters along the road. Lodestars Anthology is focusing on one country per issue, it is a scrapbook of place, getting to the heart of a location and uncovering its quirks, charm and splendour. Basically, we’re a publication all about creativity, travel and exploration – one you’ll ideally like to keep atop a coffee table. Or filled with scribblings and safely stored in your suitcase. We hope they fuel your love of adventure, life and all the people, flavours, destinations and ideas this world has to offer. So go on. Pack a bag, hit the road and start your adventure. Lodestar is a star used to guide seafaring travellers, most typically Polaris, the North Star. Something that acts as a model or inspiration.

Features

Spain entranced me from afar. Id had dalliances with it before, and memories of those youthful encounters remained brilliantly vivid, the briefest of daydreams sending me back to Seville’s Royal Alcázat, the Aqueduct of Segovia, or Gaudí’s sublime Sagrada Família as the stained glass created a sea of colour around me. Yet, delightful as these glimpses were, they felt like fleeting introductions, and I was desperate to see more. So, with travel on my mind, I began plotting our Spanish magazine. But there was a complication.

As the issue started to take shape – early drafts conjuring images of warm nights and azure waters – I was ensconced in Australia, learning that international borders can be a fickle mistress. Eventually, after numerous attempts at escape, I relinquished control, trusting the mag’s team of contributors to venture forth in my place and unearth Spain’s wonders. The Spain captured within these pages is more serene than I could have imagined. It is a country entwined with the natural world, cloaked in history and besotted by food; a place of passion, culture and art, where everything seems tethered to something bigger. Talk about saffron, and you’re transported to a family kitchen. Muse on a perfect tomato, and you’re hiking in Catalonia’s hills. Here, each element has a story, a tie to tradition or the land – and the effect is remarkably grounding.

For this magazine, our contributors have descended into caves in the name of cheese, gone in search of volcanoes, wandered ancient pilgrim paths, ridden horses into the sunset, been enthralled by architecture, cooked the way their grandparents did and penned odes to lace. They have explored places that come with meaning. Some destinations are home’, others are steeped in memory, and a few are being discovered for the very first time, the siren’s call impossible to resist. You can read this zest in their words and see the ardour in their images, because when someone creates with love and respect you feel it. You’re there with them.

This is how I was reacquainted with Spain – through the eyes of others. I’ve always believed that one of travel’s greatest gifts is the reminder that there are many ways to live a life; that when it comes to finding purpose and value, there are no fixed rules. As you connect with a place, normal confines fall away, leaving you with the here and blissful now, and an awareness of what is truly important. You may find this clarity when lost in a dance, swooning over pintxos, or talking to someone who has followed their passion into the unknown. I thought you had to be there – talking, savouring, doing – to sense this, but when devouring these pieces, I felt just as elated. Impassioned words can make you rethink the everyday, and wonder what it would be like to be a ceramicist on Mallorca, a wine connoisseur in Costa Brava, a wrangler in El Rocío, a rescuer of fincas, an artist, a chef, someone who understands the allure of going on very long walks. In the end, I did leave Sydney and spent a whirlwind few weeks in the country’s north. It was heavenly, but I was always going to love it – because I was already enamoured with Spain, bewitched by our contributors’ experiences, seduced by its calming, intricate beauty. Spain puts on a complex mosaic of a show, and as you bask in the richness, you can’t help but slow down. I hope these pages capture its magic.

Details: Lodestars Anthology – Issue 16 (Spain)

168 pages