“Why are there no gypsies in Melide?” my friend from Melide asks me.
I shake my head.
“Because the people of Melide are more like gypsies than the gypsies themselves.”
I didn’t understand what he meant, until he explained that the people of the town are famous as traders: they will sell you anything! They have also taken advantage of their situation on the Camino to prosper as a market town.
Melide is on high land unsuitable for farming. You are aware of this as you walk across the heathland from Leboreiro to here on the Camino de Santiago walking amongst the gorse and heather. People were not going to get rich from farming in this area.
In the centre of town there is a roundabout with roads coming in from Lugo, Pontevedra, A Coruña and Santiago. As you wait for the trucks to pass, you can understand why this crossroads town became a commercial centre. This was the way to make money.
The people of Melide have always been renowned as merchants and traders. They have dedicated themselves to transporting goods from the coast inland and inland to the coast. Right on what was the highway to Castille- the Camino de Santiago- this is still a good place for hauliers.
And if you zoom out on the map, the fame of this inland town for its octopus makes more sense. The rugged coast of Galicia is punctuated by estuaries and headlands: if Galicia is a stubby-fingered hand, Melide is in the palm.
As soon as you get to town you start to see octopus bars- the pulperías. With simple wooden benches and tables they are alive with noise at peak hours. In the window you see a copper kettle where the octopus- or pulpo- is cooked to perfection with Galician potatoes: the best in Spain. It is served on a wooden platter- bite-sized chunks of melt-in-the-mouth octopus with perfectly boiled potatoes sprinkled with pimentón.
The perfect accompaniment is a glass of ice-cold fruity white wine- the famous Galician Albariño. Like all the best pleasures in life it is simple!
