Viajunto

This entry is not about how people celebrate their Christmases in different countries or what they celebrate instead. This is an entry about my first Christmas that I’m not spending at home. The first time, without going to the Christmas market in my hometown drinking Glühwein. Without my family. City center in Málaga During my travels I met a lot of people who are going back home for Christmas and initially my goal was to finish this journey till mid-December so I’d be home, too. But Murphy’s law meant it to happen in another way. The view from my balcony in Madrid The reasons for that are simple: first of all I stood longer in Valencia than expected. Not only Valencia, it happened several times that I extended my stay in some cities just because I liked them or I met some people with whom it was fun to hang around. After a while of traveling alone you appreciate guys that are on the same wavelength as you are. But Valencia was definitely the longest stay with almost th...

When I started my journey I thought it would be funny to go there as it is quite near to Spain (at the closest point it’s only 14 km) and of course to be able to say “I’ve been to Africa”. Well I wouldn’t consider Morocco to be African as it’s quite different. Even compared to Europe. That’s crazy. Cameron, a coworker in Valencia, told me she had a huge culture shock when she arrived. I wanted the same experience. This and a couple of other reasons made me finally go there, so I booked a ferry from Algeciras to Ceuta, a Spanish exclave on the African continent. Ceuta is not a big deal and definitely skipable. I wished I went to Melilla as there is this huge border fence to keep out immigrants from the EU. However, those who crossed the border by foot once know this is a weird experience. You walk and walk and see the sign “Morocco” but as it’s not part of the Shengen area I was confused. No boarder patrol or anything like that. Then you come to a small fence, maybe 1 m hig...

Now that I’ve been traveling again I realized something: Traveling, including exploring cities, has some similarities with certain genres of video games. I came to this conclusion, when I was watching a video about Link and his adventures recently. Let’s start with this: First you come in to a new town, which would be a new level, and you have no idea where you have to go (looking it up on google maps would be like cheating, and real gamer/explorer don’t do that!) So you simply start walking until you find something that’ll help you. Sure you talk to people if they might help you but unfortunately these people habe no explanation mark above their head. Advantage for the real life, though, they don’t give you any annoying side quests. So your first achievement would be to get a map to get yourself a view of the city. Luckily, most of the girls working in the tourist info don’t wear tall hats and have a long white beards … some of them seem better if they would. Now, when you h...

Living in a hostel is only as good as you make it. The River Hostel, Valencia I bet there are a lot of people who can tell more bizarre stories than I can, still I want to present you a small list of kind of people you meet in a hostel: 1. the backpacker He’s the typical tourist you meet in every hostel during the main season. The reason why he’s here differs. Additionally there are a lot of subgroups of backpackers, from world explorers to the “my father has too much money”-traveler. Most of them are kind and open-minded and are glad to meet someone to explore the city with or simply to hang around. They just want a good time and like to talk about their experience and are interested in almost everything. They are grateful for any inside tip about local specialties, cheap bargains, distinct places, etc. They wont stop until they’ve seen everything and don’t mind if you still don’t know their name after four days as they already know so many people and meet new ones every...

I admit my last article is some time ago. The reasons for that differ: on the one hand I work now and not so many interesting things happen and on the other hand I’m stuck in all the daily routines as I now have a place to sleep and I’m part of a well-going social group. I sleep every day till midday and go down into the lobby and have my breakfast served. Everybody who knows me knows that I usually don’t sleep that long but the weather in Valencia, madre mía, never less than 12 hours. Ricci said the same. We are eight volunteers working in the hostel now of which three leave till the end of September. Despite or maybe because of the cultural diversity it’s a nice squad. There are Ricci from Germany, Ada from Iceland (nobody can pronounce her real name so it’s Ada), Jana and Marina from Slovenia, Nico from France, Cameron from South Canada (aka ‘Murika) and Liz from New Zealand (her accent is reason for some of our jokes). So far everything’s pretty easy. Except for once I usually ...

A couple of days ago Tamara told me that she would be going to the Tomatina festival. Everyone who doesn’t know it the festival where you throw tomatoes on other people. The whole thing looks like this. The festival takes place in a small village near Valencia. The festival itself only costs € 10 and initially I wanted to go there as well, sounds like a lot of fun. As it is that cheap it’s sold out really quicklz. Only thing left are Tomatina packages which means you get a shuttle bus starting in Barcelona, Madrid or Valencia or another place, or where a hostel in the village is included. Which, however, costs around € 90. Because of the festival we have like doomsday in the hostel. The line for the check in started even outside of the hostel. That’s why we volunteers may sleep tonight and last night in the office as there are no free beds left. At 6 am left the first bus to the festival. I didn’t hear anything at all but according to my colleague it was pretty rough,...

… starts with a single step. That’s what they say. My journey lasted for almost 1,600 km now. I traveled through land, sea and air. Through land? Yes, I walked, rid trains and buses and even hitchhiked for a bit. Through air? Well, let’s just say that all the different scents make you wish you can fly away. And through the sea? Alright, I didn’t went through the sea but I spent a lot of time in the sea. I’ll leave it like that. Maybe one day I will travel through air and sea. My first step was already 23 days ago, a roller coaster for my feelings. But now, here in Valencia, I’ll settle down for a bit. Because I’m working for a hostel from now on. They don’t pay me, though, but at least I can sleep here for free and get something to eat every day. At first I’m getting comfortable in my hostel room. Never have I been so happy to be the only one in a room.