I have written about traveling as a vegan before, but it was all theoretical and based on past experiences. Two weeks ago I traveled to Spain and the next couple weeks of blogging will be dedicated to talking about the trip as a vegan.
Before going, I did some research about the food culture there, so I would know what to expect. I had always wanted to go to Spain, so I was super excited. The trip started in Barcelona and they eat a lot of seafood. As I moved inland to Madrid, I learned they ate a lot of pork. In addition, vegetables are always ordered separately. This meant that menus would have separate vegetable sections.
I also did some research about the knowledge of veganism in Spain and learned that most people had never heard of it and many are still unfamiliar with vegetarianism. I am luckily that I know some Spanish and can communicate my desires about what I don’t want to eat. The good news is that one can easily explore Spain without Spanish by sticking to the vegan/vegetarian restaurants and asking if any of the wait-staff can speak English before sitting at a restaurant.
But, I had to begin with provisions. I knew there would not always be a vegan option close by to all the things I wanted to see. And, there is never a guarantee the airline will get my special meal right. I had to be prepared for the worst.
The photo above is the food I packed:
- Ten servings of seaweed
- One and a half boxes of mini peanut butter crackers (I should have packed the full two boxes because I love them)
- One box wheat crackers because I am known to get motion sick and crackers help
- Two bags of ginger chews, again for the motion sickness
- One bag dried plantains
- One bag dried berries
- 20 servings of nuts and dried fruit in packets to shove two in my purse every day as I headed out
It was perfect! I ate almost all of it and was so thankful to have variety. I was right, one plane ride did not get my order and there were many days I was suddenly hungry and surrounded by food I couldn’t or didn’t want to eat. My hour of research before heading to the grocery store was completely worth it.
