Let's call this an update...

First off, I apologize for being far from active this entire year. I practically haven't written anything this year. Only 6 posts so far this year. This is nothing compared to what I wrote in 2012 (61 posts).  Not an excuse but I think it was because eventho I still did small hitchhiking trips, it was mainly because I was living a "sedentary life". 

I will try to change that. I was told by someone that I should start writing traveling tips instead of just (crap) stories. Maybe I should. What should I write about? What to pack? Come on, you're not a 15 year old and besides, there are tons of packing tips on youtube. Well, I wrote about what I pack. So it's done. What else? Top 10 things to do in (insert name of the place here). Maybe My top 10 things to do in (insert name of the place here). Yeah, maybe that. Although it will probably will mostly (only) include pubs and cafés.

I have no idea what I wrote all that give the fact that I'm going to write about my times in Portugal... maybe my next post will be My top 10 places to drink and eat in Lagos? There is only one way to find out.

After getting back to the Iberian Peninsula from Lithuania, I came back to Granada (where I'm writing these words) and started immediately with the job hunt. Found a temporary one but it became clear that, let me put it this way, I'm not office material anymore. It was only part time but I was getting depressed. Took some days to get away from everything and did a small road trip along the Portuguese coast with my friend María. I did look for hostels in Lagos. I went to this hostel on the exit to Sagres, the name is Bura Surf House. I left my CV. Went back to Graná. Had an offer from a friend of mine: teaching English in Bilbao. I packed my shit and left to the Basque Country. Suddenly, an email... The hostel in Lagos sent me an email, they wanted to have a skype interview... Packed my shit again, made another quick stop in Madrid to go out for one with my friend Felix and moved to Lagos, Portugal!

I spent almost 6 months in the Algarve. The South and specially the West Coast of Portugal have impressive landscapes and cliffs. They have the "the end of the world", the "corner of Europe" (although the Westernmost point of mainland Europe is Cabo de Roca, near Sintra) and it's simply said: impressive!

I tried as much as possible to see the region. I remember that hitchhiking was easy in Portugal. It's not as easy as I thought it was. I did some small day trips, always hitchhiking. I visited Sagres, Aljezur, Portimão, Silves (during the annual medieval festival), Vila do Bispo and Luz.

But as all good things have to come to an end, I had to leave Lagos and went to Sintra and Lisboa for a few days before coming back to Spain to sort some shit out. Shit that I'm still trying to sort for fuck's sake!

I'm in Graná for a couple more weeks. I found a small job doing pub crawls in my friend's hostels. Nicely done: getting paid to get shitfaced... haven't done this since my time living in Kraków.

Faith in humanity, restored

A few days ago something happened. I went to sleep at the beach and got robbed in the most stupid way. I'm supposed to be an experienced traveler, having been traveling for the past six years. But sometimes you just take things for granted or just fall deeply asleep. This incident made remember the "you're not in Europe anymore" quote I used extensively a couple years ago while I was traveling in Latin America...

So there I was, trying to get some sleep before sunrise and it was before sunrise that my small bagpack was gone. Alone with some important (but replaceable) stuff. What was not replaceable were the photos I took earlier that day in the next village to Lagos.

A few days went by when I received an email. I didn't know the sender and judging by the name, he was (is) Portuguese. I opened the email and start reading this: "Hello my friend, I am security and have your black bag on Lagos, Portugal Iberlagos please call me 9xxxxxxxx"... Wait, wuuuut!? Did I read correctly? Somebody found my bag!? So I go the following day and discover that indeed someone had left my backpack on the entrance of this apartment complex not far from the beach where this all happened.

I couldn't thank enough this guy. There were some things missing (obviously money, but it wasn't that much) but there was my wallet with all the crap I had inside, the book I bought earlier that day. The water was missing tho (inside joke).

I'm glad to know that there are still nice people in this fucked up world. I would like to think that the nice people outnumber the bad/mean/evil people.

The Wrong Way To Travel

I've been told, I've read and I've heard (when commenting other people's travels): "that is not the way to travel". What is then? What makes us travel experts that don't travel "the wrong way".

I was told once that I was scared of traveling because I like to go back to places I have been before. My friends in Poland, Holland and Belgium would agree on that. I was scared just because I like that? 

Everybody have their own way of travel. Some people like to pay for a week in an all inclusive, well I don't. Wouldn't mind if for some reason I end in one of those by any chance. I just wouldn't pay for it, even if I had the money. Some people like to live on a couple of euros a day. Some of my closest friends have this lifestyle, even tho they could live on 50€ a day.

Some us love to hitchhike. Some don't. It's not meant for everybody. Some like to pay for hostel and don't like CSing. I like both. Although in Europe I've only stayed in a handful of hostels (even counting the ones I've lived in). Not to brag about it but the few times I've hitchhiked between The Baltics and Spain, I didn't pay one single cent for accommodation.

While some people might say they've been somewhere just because they had an 18 hour layover at the airport and went sightseeing, I don't consider that being in one places, but that's my opinion. I actually had an 18 hour layover in Iceland but I don't consider having visited it.

My point is: there is no wrong way to travel.

There is a right way tho: the way you fucking want it not paying attention to stupid criticism.

There's always a first time

There is always a first time, for everything.

First kiss.
First beer.
First time having sex.
First time traveling.
First time hitchhking.

This is not the place and I won't discuss the first three. I'm going to write about my first time hitchhiking.

For most of the people (if not all) in my circle of friends it's a very known fact that Spain is one of the hardest countries to hitchhike. Ironically, the person that introduced me to hitchhiking is Spanish!

I was very active on CouchSurfing back in 2009. I saw a post in one of the Guatemala forums, it was a Spanish traveler asking a few questions about Guate. I replied. We met and after a few beers I decided to take a couple weeks off from work to travel with him.

We agreed to meet in the cute little village of Monterrico on Guatemala's Pacicif Coast. I took the bus. After a couple of days we left, destination Xela (Quetzaltenango). Not more than 230 Km but it took us the most part of the day. I was amazed of this new way of transportation. I got to Monterrico by bus btw.

Now, having hitchhiked for more than 5 years and gathered experience, I would say that that distance is easly covered anywhere... well, almost anywhere.

It was a hell lot of fun. Riding in the back of pick ups which is one of the things I miss about hitchhiking in Latin America. 

I was a newbie to traveling and specially to hitchhiking, I didn't know how and what to pack. As you can judge for yourselves: the backpack on the right is mine. I traveled two weeks with that huge backpack (now about to close my sixth year of travels, my current back pack is a third smaller than that!)

That was the beginning. I got hooked. I have been hitchhiking ever since.

I hitched new cars. Old cars. Family cars. Sports cars. Lorries. Trucks. Pick ups. Coca Cola trucks. Buses. Minibuses. Horse and cart. Taxis. Ambulances. Boat. Sailboat. Sailship. Motorbikes. Ferries. VW buses (my favourite). Tractor. I still have to hitchhike a donkey.

This last photo was just to show you some of the impressive beauty of my country.

Este post es para vos Jotikas, gracias!

Road Trippin'... in Portugal

Last month we did a  small road trip along the coast of Portugal. Was my second ever outside of Guatemala. Well, kind of. Me and my friend drove from Asheville to Ann Arbor a few years ago but no sure if that counts as a roadtrip.

It was awesome!

But, what does it have to do with hitchhiking if you rode inside a car for a week? That has nothing to do with hitchhiking you bastard! Wait for it, wait for it... of course it has to do at least a bit with hitchhking. How? We picked up three hitchhikers along the way! ha! there you go: it's hitchhiking related. Besides, it's my blog, I can write whatever I want.

Anyways, instead of using the motorway, we only used small roads. We traveled the entire length of Portugal from North to South. We started in Galicia and after a couple of hours we started to work our way down until we would reach our final destination: Graná (Granada).

I have only been to Santa Maria da Feira and Lisboa. Although it was a short time, quality prevailed over quantity. I promised myself that one day I would come back to Portugal... little did I know that I was going to end up living there. But that's a story for another time (or post).

Even tho it was a short trip we had the opportunity to see many, many small towns. Cruising down small national roads, sometimes even rural roads was awesome. We never stayed at hostels or guesthouses or whatever, instead we opted to sleep inside the car.  We had not one but four tents. Don't ask why. But it was still a bit chilly to camp on the beach so we just looked for a place to park the car and that was it. It's not like we stayed in any car park or anything. No, no, no. We stuck to the coastline therefore we almost slept on the beach every single night. Portugal is I think one of the most underrated places I have been. To be honest, I don't know. But then again, I think it's better this way as it won't get massive flocks of tourists. Let me give you an example: I was in Lagos for Páscoa and it was not as crowed as let's say Granada. Which was by the way not so nice to walk around as there were people everywhere.

We took the motorway from Ourense to the border. Right after the border we got off the motorway and started on smaller roads. We avoided at all costs Porto (I'll leave for later) and Lisboa (where I'll meet with a friend of mine next month). The end of the road for us was Granada.

The towns we visited are: Viana do Castelo, Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Nazaré, Sines, Sagres, Lagos and Faro.

I won't write about the cities as this is not a place in which I will write about "the top 10 things to do in Portugal". You are can figure that out by yourselves. You can google them. Or even better, you can just go with the flow and discover your own top 10 things to do anywhere.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Viana do Castelo

Aveiro

Figueira da Foz

Nazaré

Sines

Sagres (photos taken by María)

Lagos

Faro