It's been a very long time since I wrote anything here, but it's been a very long time since my life took a dramatic turn. I started travelling and my whole outlook changed. Just me and my backpack — no laptop even — so the chances of updating the blog were pretty slim.
It all started with a trip to Greece, where I met people who were travelling the real way: backpacks on, hostel to hostel, bouncing through a string of countries over a few months.
Hearing their stories gave me the travel bug. The moment I was back in Spain I organised a three-week trip to the UK. I hit England (London, Oxford and Cambridge), Wales (Cardiff) and Scotland (Edinburgh, North Berwick, Glasgow and the Highlands).
Back in Spain, and within a week I was packing my bag again. This time it was two months: Paris (France), Bratislava (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary), Vienna (Austria), Prague and Brno (Czech Republic), Berlin (Germany), Poznan (Poland), Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and a good chunk of Belgium (Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Menen and Leuven).
This was the route so far:
After a few days back in Spain to recharge I was ready to leave again, this time with barely a plan. In fact, if I hadn't already booked a return flight and an outbound ticket, I'd still be out there.
The thing is, when I first started travelling I tried to stay safe — have everything organised, roughly planned. But bit by bit you realise how straightforward travel is today, what a huge range of options you have for seeing the world, and how many ways there are to cut costs and make the trip last longer.
On my first trip — a week in Greece — I spent more than I now spend in an entire month of travel. I flew Iberia, ate in restaurants, went out without counting the cost, bought souvenirs, used public transport, paid for buses and trains all over the country…
These days I travel on bargain low-cost flights (I average about €12 per flight, all in) when the distances are big, but for shorter hops I either use dirt-cheap buses and trains or I hitchhike.
Yes, you read that right: travelling with your thumb. I met a guy in Prague who was hitchhiking all the way from Spain to Moscow, and he opened my eyes. I discovered it wasn't some bizarre fringe activity, gave it a go, and found it was an incredible experience — one that opens you up to people even more and puts you in touch with fascinating characters. And if you look into it, you'll find there are countries where it's absurdly easy: in the Netherlands and Belgium the average wait was 5–10 minutes.
Accommodation shifted from expensive, well-reviewed hostels to slightly simpler ones — still well-reviewed, but quieter and much cheaper. Then I discovered Couchsurfing: a community of travellers that lets you share experiences and a roof with people living in other parts of the world. An invitation into someone's home for a few days, to discover their way of life up close and see a city from the inside.
In the same vein I stopped going to restaurants — now it's very occasional, and only in cheap countries. Elsewhere it's supermarkets and the odd takeaway. Going out stopped costing much too: two or three beers are plenty for a good night, and in some countries going out barely costs anything. In Budapest, for example, my first night I went to a club where the entry and three pints of beer came to €1.80.
My next trip starts this Wednesday: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland… and after that any semblance of planning stops, because by then I'd already bought those flights back when I was in Greece.
After Poland my new way of travelling will be fully established: no bookings more than one or two weeks ahead, choosing transport on the fly. Couchsurfing almost everywhere, and cheap buses, trains or hitchhiking depending on the country and the destination. No more planning than a rough idea of the countries I'd like to see.
The broad idea is to travel Eastern Europe (whatever I haven't seen yet), head down to Romania and then swing back west through the Balkans (Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia…). Reach Italy and get back to Spain from Bergamo or Switzerland, on whatever cheap flight I find at that point.
All of this unconfirmed and subject to complete change — the rough idea would look something like this.
As for timing, I have absolutely no idea — this could take four months or six. Maybe I'll burn out in Romania and head home from there, or maybe I'll get a wild urge to push through Turkey and into Asia. Who knows? What's the point of planning any of it?
From now on I'll try carrying a small netbook, and if I get enough time I'll keep this updated.
And to finish, here's a short collection of photos from some of the countries I've been to.