what's next?

Exactly! And I don't know.

I have three weeks left in Spain and I have no idea what to do and where to go. I don't think I have been this confused about this. 

It all started one day when I was having dinner with my friend Julia back in the hostel. A week later I received the news that I had to leave. It felt like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge... or even worse. Yeah, maybe worse than that.

That was over a month ago. At the moment I felt that the world was crushing me. I didn't want to leave. I almost cried. As much as I love Granada and actually, almost became my new black hole, Estonia is still very deep in my thoughts. I started again with the "when I was Estonia" stories.

Days went by and not only I started to accept the fact that I couldn't stay but I started to embrace the idea that I had to leave. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to leave. Maybe it was a sign from a superior being that I needed to move somewhere. That I needed to pack my stuff. That I needed to get going. That I needed to start using my thumb again because it's getting rusted because of the lack of hitchhiking. But where to, Germany? Poland? Lithuania? Russia? Back to Estonia? Finally leave Europe and go East? Pavel is already in Iran and Matthieu is hitchhiking to India very soon...

Some of my good friends left. I don't know if I'm ever going to see them again. I sure hope so! I still have good friends here but we don't hang out as often as before. There was a very special group of volunteers working at the hostel but they are all gone. Then two more came but they soon will be gone. I, soon, will be gone too. The hostel way of life: people coming in and out of your life. But some, well, they a leave a mark on you. Really looking forward to meet with the little one, the curly hair one, the skinny one and the Swedish looking Aussie guy really soon.

I'm starting to think and to "plan". That is not good. Never works out. I have my life "planned" for the next month. I mean I do like how this plan looks like. No, I love how this plan looks like but what if doesn't work out? You see, I'm thinking too much. I don't like to think this much. I even thought about going back home. Home as in Guatemala. Stop traveling for good. Or go to the forest and live a naked life. The naked part seems interesting but I need internet to keep writing crap, crap like the one you are reading right now.

My room is a mess. I need to clean it up. I'm leaving this flat at the end of this week and I have no idea where I'm going to move in! I will be literally homeless for two weeks. Maybe I could camp in Sacromonte?

Anyways,  I'm back to where I started, asking myself what's next? I guess the answer is that I'll see what happens next...

Note to self

I always tell myself NOT to plan. Most of the times I listen to myself. But it has happen that in a few particular occasions, well... I don't.

Most of the times I listen to myself and just go with the flow, no plan. It has worked for almost 5 years, except in four occasions. The latest one was a couple of days ago. I planned to stay in Granada for an indefinite period of time. I came to like and the love this city. For the first time I found a place I could stay for long. Well, second time. Tallinn was the first one. And then, after the planning, the shit came in! YAY FOR ME!

"Here I am. Life has taken an interesting turn". I found this quote last year. Now, I think that life is playing its "funny" tricks on me once again. Life indeed has taken a quite interesting and specially unpleasant turn. Shit happened and now my days in Granada might be very limited if I don't come up with a solution. My mum always said that things happen for a reason.

"My past known". I have been living in Granada for the past six months. And I love it here, I don't want to leave but...

"My future unknown...". Should I swim against the tide? Should I hit the road once more? I have no idea what to do. I wish my dad was still alive, I could really use his wisdom right now.

"The present is up to me". But he's not here. No one is going to help me solve the crap I'm in but me. "I took a shot to the chin" by some motherfucking cunt. But I managed before. I know I will now. I know me. Time to pick myself up off the floor, shake the dust from my trousers and find a solution, regardless of what that may be. I still have more than a month. Anything can/will happen in this time.

As I was finishing this post, I was about to click "publish" when this song came on iTunes:

Hang Tough by 80s glam metal band Tesla

Took a shot to the chin.

Looks like you just can't win

In this do or die situation.

And it's harder than it seems

To survive, keep alive and make your dreams,

Make your dreams all come true.

You gotta, you gotta give it your best shot.

Give it everything you got.

Oh, you gotta hang tough.

Hang tough. Hang tough.

Sometimes love can make you blue.

A heartache made just for you.

But you can't let it bring ya down.

If you should stumble, if you should fall,

Pick yourself up off the floor.

Fight for what's right and stand your ground.

You gotta give it your best shot.

Give it everything you got.

Oh, you gotta hang tough.

Hang tough. Hang tough.

When the goin' gets rough.

Hang tough. You got to give it all you've got.

Hang tough. Keep your head above the ground.

Don't you let it get you down.

Oh, you gotta hang tough.

Hey! Oh! Hey! Oh!

You stay locked away inside your room

'Cause you don't know what this world is comin' to.

Hummingbird hums 'cause he don't know the words

And the piper will play 'cause he don't know what to say.

He's alot like you, yeah. Oh, he's alot like you, yeah.

He tries hard ev'ry day to be free and fly away. Yeah!

Hang tough, oh, when the goin' gets rough.

Hang tough. You've got to give it all you got.

Hang tough. Keep your head above the ground.

Don't you let it get you down.

Oh, you gotta hang tough.

Hang tough. Oh, you got to give it all you got. You gotta

Hang tough. Don't you let it get you down.

Hang tough. No! Oh, you gotta hang tough.

Hang tough.

Hang tough!

One thing is sure: I'm not ready to go back to Guatemala...

Granadian? Granadese? Granadino facts!

These are some of my facts I came up with and some of the things I think about Granada.

- People with dreadlocks in Granada are as common as people with noserings: you can see them everywhere! I'm no longer crazy about girls with dreads. Pity.

- I loooooove girls in tights/leggins. Never seen so many like in the South of Spain. You looked so good in them!

- Guys with beards are also quite common but I'm not going to shave tho. I shaved not long ago. I'm starting to think that I do it once a year.

- Awesome free tapas is a Granada thing. In Cádiz they were not free nor awesome, they were actually quite expensive. In Madrid there was only one place that had great tapas but the drinks were quite expensive.

- Most things are more expensive than Estonia but the few "important" things (if you know what I mean) is way cheaper!

- I don't think I will ever go to Alhambra, at least to the paid areas. The Spaniards spent 800 years trying to get rid of the Arabs and now they are making a (huge) profit with what they left behind? This is not to open a debate. If you don't like this, keep it to yourself.

- It's painful to walk on the cobble stone street with shitty jandals. Even with Chuck Taylor's is painful.

- I will NEVER get used to going up and down Albacín. NEVER!

- Who the hell had the idea of putting slippery stones on the sidewalks, even if it's drizzling it's super slippery! Don't even think about going out wearing jandals... or be prepared to spend most of the time either on the floor or walking funny. 

- The weather is as crazy as all the women in my life. During the day can be really warm and at night can get chilly. Then it was warm throughout the day. Now it's chilly throughout the entire day! WTF! Granada., you're drunk!

- Did I mention the tapas... Oh my God. They're great! The other day me and my friend went to this restaurant and for only 1€ we had a 3-piece (?) tapa!

- It's a hikers paradise. There are many hikes to choose from. Too bad that's not my strong.

- With the exceptions of Poland and Estonia, where I had a bunch of local friends, in Spain all of my friends are not Spaniards and I'm the only whose native language is Spanish. But I ask ask them quite regularly how to say some things in Spanish...

- Outside sitting is called "terraza" (terrace) but a "terraza" is also a real "terraza".
- There are many things that are quite similar to Latin America, for example: you can buy movies on the street. Or sunglasses. And while you drunk a beer in some pub you can see a guy selling roses inside!

Granadadada

Just like nothing 3 months had gone by. Three months I have been living in Granada. It took me a while to finally get used to it or actually to adjust to this new country. As weird as it may sound, one of the reasons why I couldn't quite adjust was the language. If you know me, you know that I'm weird so this shouldn't come as a surprise. Nevertheless, it took me about a month to accomplish what it took me more than 6 months in Estonia (even tho is no secret my love for Estonia).

I no longer live in the hostel, which is good. My flatmates are cool. I live with 3 girls. I have a super cool group of friends in which I'm the only native Spanish speaker.

Another interesting fact is that in these three months I had more friends visiting than for an entire year in The Black Hole. And a couple of more are coming in the next few weeks. I guess Spain is more "central" than Estonia.

All in all, life is almost good here. I mean there are a couple of things are not quite alright but I guess I can live with them. At least for the time being.

I wish that 9gag didn't exist. I need to spend less time browsing through all the crap people post there. But it's funny. That, and the fact that for some strange reason I cannot get online at home make very difficult for me to write new stuff. But there has to be a solution no? Maybe I could write a word document and then copy and paste it onto the blog? I could try that. This post won't have pictures in it. I don't know where my memory card reader is.

I went to Nerja again. This time I camped on the beach. There is a hippie beach 5 seconds away from what I think it's  the guiriest beach in Nerja. Just walk around a big rock and you are in Playa Chica. I didn't feel welcome there. I felt a bit of aggression while being there. The same kind I felt when I went to the Dragon festival, a free hippie rave in the nearby town of Santa Fé. I wanted to take shitloads of photos of people but nope, I didn't. I didn't want to get my ass kicked. It was a very interesting festival. I'm not an expert when it comes to festivals but I thought there was going to be a central stage where DJs where going to play their (strange for me) music but no. Anyone could just set up a tent with a sound system and voilá! I was having a lovely time when suddenly a generator was started followed with horrible music. Killed the mood. There was a tent that was playing good music but I only stayed for one night. My parents raised me as a responsible boy, didn't even go out that night. I tried to hitch back to town but no one picked me, bastards. The police were checking for drugs, they were checking people going in and coming out:
- policeman: "where are you going?"
- Ron: "home?"
- policeman: "do you have any illegal drugs on you?"
- Ron: "no. I don't do drugs" (?)
- policeman: "where are you from?", while holding me by the arm
- Ron: "Guatemala"
- policeman: "do you have hash in Guatemala?"
- Ron: "eeer, I don't know". I actually don't know,
- policeman: "and coke?"
- Ron: thought about telling him that we also have Pepsi and a few other colas but decided not to, he seemed that he didn't have a sense of humor. "coke is from Colombia. Besides, coke is everywhere"
- policeman: "alright. good-bye"
- Ron: ?. "ciao"

Spring should here. During the day it's warm and sunny, except when it's raining. The other day it was and I went to the shop wearing shorts and jandals... some people even looked at me angry! It was not that cold, nothing I couldn't bear. I probably looked very guiri.

I think Granada is drunk: warm days and chilly evenings. Oh well, beer and drugs are cheap around here... probably that's the reason.

still roaming around Andalucía

It's been over a month since I wrote something. I had so many friends visiting me that I haven't found the time to write.

One thing that maybe some of you might already know is that Granada is growing on me and it's doing it fast! The moment that I immediately started to really like it here was one sunny saturday afternoon a few weeks ago. I was cooking in the hostel when my friends Marie and Felix showed up. The weather was superb, they literally dragged me out to catch some sun in one of the many parks in Albayzín. There we met with other people and in the end we were a small group of about 8 people drinking, chatting and listening to music. From that moment onwards I started to really, really like Granada.

I had a few days off in a row and my friend was flying into Málaga so I decided to go. Málaga is a nice city, not sure if I would go back, maybe yes, but it was nice. Weather was awesome, it was more than awesome! Tshirt weather. There is some kind of fortress on top a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, going up there was not fun at all but the views from up there made all worth it.

After sending a few unsuccessful CS requests we decided to drink the night away, going from pub to pub until well, a new would arrive. Probably this plan would've worked out on the weekend but it didn't work on a monday. Málaga doesn't have as many chinos (Asian owned open till late convenient stores) as Granada. To find one it took us about an hour but we found it and bought the precious wine to celebrate Justyna's graduation. We drank it by the boardwalk. Then we started our plan: first pub told us they close at 23:00, we only had time for one beer. We found another one, the bartender told us that he was going to close at 3:00. It was 2:00 when he kicked us out alleging that his boss called and told him to close due to the lack of patrons... we were the only two customers. The bartender told about a bar that was open until very late so we decided to give it a try. We even took a power nap there! We were kicked out at 4:00. What now? We found an open underground parking garage and decide to go 4 floors below ground level where there were almost no cars parked and was dark. Amazingly I slept quite good, the floor was hard but it wasn't very cold.

Maybe I need to see more of Málaga. Maybe I need to go back. Maybe.. it was a good decision to go to Nerja. It took me several days to finally be able to say the same correctly but I finally stopped calling Renja.

Without a place to stay we explored the town, which is a guiri town but still very nice. The last time I saw (didn't even touched) the Mediterranean Sea was when I was in Barcelona in 2010, almost four years ago! Wow, how time flies! After wondering around town I saw someone that reassembled the CS  guy but he wasn't. His name is Aleksi and is from... Estonia! After talking to him for a while he invited us to sleep in his cave. The caves in Nerja, unlike the ones in Granada which are man made, are natural. Perhaps in summer is super cool to sleep in caves but in February when it's pouring outside it's not fun. It was an interesting experience though. Oh! and the cave wasn't his, it was his friends' cave! Aleski just left us there after sharing some boxed wine with him. The cave was very damp and very cold. Around 5 the real tenants of the cave woke up, well two of them, German and Dutch guy (the other two a Latvian and a Czech). They were really friendly.

The idea was to skinny dip in the sea but due to "safety reasons" (the water was super cold!) the idea was abandoned. Tried to hitch back but was impossible, not one single car stopped. Ended up taking the bus back to Granada.

photo by Justyna

photo by Justyna

photo by Justyna

photo by Justyna

I don't know why I wrote Andalucía in English (Andalusia) in the first post of the "roaming" series...