You Know You Are a Backpacker When…

So I haven’t written much of note lately…mostly because of a hectic semester, law school applications and just life! More on those things when the semester from hell ends (in two weeks!)

Anyways while taking a 2AM study break, I happened across my journal from the summer and came across this list I made of all the things that most backpackers can relate to (or at least things I’ve done as a backpacker!). Just thought I’d share…

You know you are a backpacker when…

1. You’ve gotten lost, even just for fun
2. You’ve slept in airports, bus stations, train stations etc
3. You’ve hand washed your clothes
4. You get upset when passport control doesn’t stamp your passport
5. You’ve spent way too much money on something to get yourself out of a bind
6. You’ve saved a ton of money on fabulous deals bartering
7. You wear flip-flops 24/7 – and now your feet are cracking
8. You own at least one guidebook
9. You’ve discovered the gold mine that is budget airlines in Europe
10. You love the “Where Have You Been?” application on Facebook
11. You’ve gotten dirty at one or more festivals
12. You’ve woken up people in your hostel
13. You’ve been woken up BY people in your hostel
14. You’ve partied ’till sunrise
15. You’ve ‘creatively rearranged’ your backpack at the airport weight scales to meet the 15kg maximum EXACTLY on budget flights
16. You’ve saved money by taking overnight buses and trains – and then regretted it the next day
17. You can tell what country people are from based on their backpack brand
18. You need a haircut
19. You’ve gotten smashed with people who until one hour ago were complete strangers
20. You get excited for flush toilets and indoor plumbing
21. You look forward to hostels with free Internet
22. You’ve invented your own system of packing
23. You’ve come home with completely different clothes than you left with
24. You look at people with suitcases and shake you head
25. You’ve gone free camping
26. You’ve been lost in translation
27. You’ve been confused about public transportation
28. You’ve had some close calls, but not close enough not to live and tell everyone about them
29. You never buy books, you just wait to trade them at hostels
30. No matter how much you travel, you always want to travel more!

If you have any other ideas for the list, feel free to add a comment!

Six Things Simply not to be Forgotten on Summer Sojourns

Pumice stone- while this little rock may seem insignificant, it can come in handy at some of the most crucial times. In the summer, especially in warm countries, the footwear of choice is definitely sandals because they are convenient and comfy. But this exposes the feet to nature and the weather. Speaking from personal experience skin gets dried and cracked within a few weeks, and even with daily moisturizer these deep cracks can take weeks to heal. So in this case prevention is the best medicine – use a pumice stone daily!

Plastic Sealable Bags – these are probably the most versatile things to bring along. They can be used to separate different clothing items – not just clean from dirty, but also t-shirts from shorts. They can be used to safely store bottles of liquid. Not only to they keep liquid in but they also keep liquid out – in case of being caught in a sudden thunderstorm. I recommend buying good quality, heavy duty, extra large bags to cover all contingencies.

Book – while this may seem like a unnecessary extra, I argue it is a must have! Books are a great way to pass the time waiting in lines, after you’ve gotten bored of the scenery on a 5 hour bus ride or sitting solo in a restaurant. They also are great gifts if you need something to barter with. There is also no need to bring more than one, most hostels have a book exchange so you can trade in your old one for a new one.

Alarm Clock- it doesn’t have to be a separate one, just something that it loud enough to wake you up NO MATTER what. There is nothing worse than missing a flight…enough said.

Multi-purpose Tool/Knife - you never know when you made need to cut something or open a bottle of wine. Be prepared for any situation, you’d be surprised how many times I’ve had to use mine!

Laundry Detergent (for handwashing) - sometimes good laundry facilities can be few and far between. Then when you do find laundry services they are often quite expensive. So learn how to handwash and then bring along some detergent. It will save you space in the long run, because you won’t need to bring as many clothes. Detergent is easy to find in most places so you can replenish your supply when you run out – to save space use those plastic resealable bags you brought along!

Stay tuned for more updates, photos and a selection of my Toastmasters speeches to come in December 2008!

Vitoria and Paises Vascos

I had a wonderful 2 days on an express tour of the Basque Country. I saw the three main cities Bilbao, San Sebastien and Vitoria. Each city has its distinctive qualities and I agree with my host that together they would make a fantastic super-city. Bilbao used to be an industrial centre (and still is) but now they are trying to sell it to tourists by calling it modern. The coolest thing to see there is the Guggenheim Museum – I didn’t go in because several people have vouched it’s not worth it - but I did see its fantastic exterior. The old town is quite pretty as well but not as nice as San Sebastien. i can see why San Sebastien is the capital of tourism in the Basque Country - it is very picturesque and has great beaches. I spent a lovely afternoon polishing off my tan on the beach called la concha. During this express tour I was staying in Vitoria - the capital city of the Basque Country which doesn’t offer much for tourism, but is a great starting point for cool car trips in the region and it has a pretty good night life. This part of Spain is a lot greener and a lot colder than the rest of Spain – I definitely would come back and spend more time seeing it in depth.

Bucharest Blues

It was so nice to be done camp and just have three days with the other staff chillaxing in Bucharest. We stayed in a dorm at the Polytechnic university- which wasn’t too far from the centre. Bucharest is a very interesting city and it took me awhile to get into the groove. I think it was because many Romanians are very negative about their country. Many times on the camp the kids would ask me ‘Do you like Romania?’ My answer was always something along the lines of ‘Yeah. I find the culture and history very interesting.’ but the kids always responded, ‘That can’t be true, no one likes Romania’  

Bucharest is a city that will probably undergo a lot of change in the next few years. There are construction cranes EVERYWHERE! Most of them are fixing up the buildings that are in a French architectural style that got run down during the communist era. Bucharest has very little left that was built before communism, now there are just a lot of concrete boxes for apartment buildings. 

I’ve learnt in history classes about the brutal communist dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, but it wasn’t apparent to me how badly he ran the country until I visited now I see why they executed him. In my opinion Bucharest’s best sight to visit is the Palace of Parliament. This building is the second largest building in terms of volume after the Pentagon. Inside is room after room with chandeliers, marble and gold. Today this building is worth approximately 6 Billion Euros. To build this monstrosity Ceaucescu demolished several dozen churches, 1000s of apartments, a monastery and a stadium. He also starved the people to pay for the construction. I was in awe after the tour, the contrast between his extravagance and the peoples poverty was disgustingly apparent.

There are some nicer areas of Bucharest that manged to survive communism, namely the area surrounding Arcul de Triumf built in 1935 modeled after the Arc de Triomphe. The walk we took along Kiseleff Road to get to the arch was also quite nice - saw the Canadian embassy on the way it was definitely the ugliest building on the street, but is was nice to know that it had more guards out front than the American embassy!

I don’t think Bucharest makes it on to the list of my favourite places to visit, but I’m glad I did go. Also I think in another 10 years it could be a beautiful city – so buying real estate there would be a good investment.

A Bit about Bran Castle and Various Other Visits

After the first week of teaching we had a relaxing weekend in Transylvania. We drove for about 3 hours to Brasov (apparently this is the most touristy city in Romania). We spent the evening there just wandering around. It had a pedestrian area similar in style to Augusta Street in Lisbon. What struck me about the architecture was how every house had a different style of architecture and was a different colour. It doesn’t create the neighborhood/district feel like most big cities, but it is certainly interesting. After the sun set we headed off to our overnight accommodation in the town of Bran. We had a wonderful BBQ with all the trimmings. The mood was certainly set for Transylvania as we were staying across the street from a cemetery, you could hear wild dogs and we were treated to a lunar eclipse.

The next morning after a freezing cold swim and some sun bathing we went to Bran Castle (aka Dracula’s Castle) There is actually some interesting history surrounding the castle. While Bram Stoker did base Dracula’s castle in his novel on this castle, the historical figure that Dracula is named after (Vlad Dracul) actually lived in a castle in Wallachia. The guide said Stoker created this fiction for a more exciting story, as in Wallachia there are mostly plains whereas Transylvania is forest. In real life Dracula’s castle was actually Queen Mary of Romania’s summer house. We also visited another fortification where the plains meet the forest. To finish off the day we had a late night dinner at an authentic Hungarian restaurant. I had this really garlicy fish stuff and some cabbage salad.

Since being here in the province of Moldavia (not to be confused with the country of Moldova), the kids have gone on several trips in the area. Their Romanian teachers have been nice enough to invite us on the trips with our students. The trip I went on last week included a gondola ride in the town of Piast Neamt, a walk in the Keys of Bicaz (a cool gorge) and a boat ride on Romania’s Red Lake. In the second week we visited composer Georges Enescu’s home, a monastery and (in my opinion the coolest part) an old salt mine that has been revamped to have a restaurant, arcade and park inside it – over 200m underground! After leaving when you licked your lips you could taste the salt.

Summer 2008 is coming to an end soon, my last stops include Bucharest for three days, Basque Country for two days and one final day in Madrid. When I get home I have long, arduous law school applications to look forward too and moving into my new apartment.

 

 

 

Random Remarks from Romania

After landing at the Bucharest airport at dusk, we (the 11 English teachers plus our Romanian escort) began our 5 hour journey to Camp Valea Budului which is about 15 mins from the town of Bacau (pronounced Bakow).  We got to see the Carpathian mountains in the west and the plains in the east.  Along the way there was a mix of the new ‘EU Romania’ and the parts of Romania that are still stuck in a crazy Soviet time warp.  We had to slow down to pass a horse and cart along the highway, but yet the highway was all paved and new. A lot of people have mobile phones, but there are also a lot of hitchhikers and fruit vendors along the main highways. 

A have a feeling that not many European tourists make it out this far, based on the fact that there was only 1 guidebook on all of Romania at the airport while there were at least 10 just on Rome.  So far camp seems to have a the modern conveniences of the rest of the EU while still maintaining a distinctly Romanian feel (traditional food and beverage, loud techno music and a MIG jet as a climbing thing for kids)

I start teaching tomorrow. The kids are here only a week and then we get a second set of kids for the last week.

More of Madrid

I’m back in Madrid after successfully completing two summer camps. I’m here for two days before I leave for Telford to visit the family. If you count all the different times I’ve been to Madrid I’ve been here 8 times – but if you count the number of days it is only the equivalent of about three weeks.

Madrid is not like Paris in the sense that there seems to always be more touristy things to do, but that certainly does not mean it is boring. There is always something going on each time I come here – the Eurocup 2008 finals celebrations, Wimbledon 2008 celebrations, EuroPride 2007 or just a average Monday night in Sol. It could truly be called a city that never sleeps – these days Madrid is so westernized that most stores and people don’t take a seista and still manage to be at bars until 7AM.

Now I don’t come to Madrid to see the Palace or the Prado, I come to enjoy the food at La Finca de Susanna or a good cerveza con limón.  It’s also great to know people in the city, so they can take you to El Rastro on Sunday morning for the best flea market shopping in the world. Or to a street full of Irish pubs for a pint of Magners. Or even just some some leisurely midweek shopping.

It has definitely crossed my mind, to move to Madrid after graduation and teach ESL for the rest of my life (see earlier post) After talking with the English teachers from Red Leaf who live in Spain and teach English, the lifestyle seems pretty good and they really enjoy it.

I’ll miss Spain for the next few weeks, but I’ll be back for one last night before heading home to Canada on September 1st.

The More You Teach the More You Learn

Everytime you get in front of a class you are there to impart some of your knowledge to the students, yet they always seem to teach you something at the same time – from swear words in a foreign language, to reminding you to have something prepared in case they finish early or new games to play. The kids here here in Alba are so much better behaved and really want to learn English compared with the spoiled rich kids I had in Pueyo. It makes coming to class a pleasure.

There are definitely some days that I consider permanently becoming a travelling ESL teacher for life. Everyday would be an adventure, something new and exciting - certainly no ”metro, boulot, dodo” existence. I could see the world and do something I love. But then there are the days when I have to deal with little shits for students, who just ruin it for everyone else. On those days I just want to give up teaching and never deal with kids again. That’s why I think if I take a break after undergrad for a year to teach it will be the best of both worlds. A short break to feel rested and refreshed before going back to ‘real life’ and getting a ‘real job’!

Adorable Alba

I am now in Alba de Tormes, a small town just south of Salamanca. It takes about 20 mins by car. It is wonderful – mostly because we only have 55 kids and not 93. Most of the staff that was working in Pueyo is working here in Alba as well, so we are having some great laughs. We are staying in a monastery called San Jeronimo. it is a very old building complete with a bell tower that is falling apart. In the mornings I teach multimedia (computers) and diary time and in the afternoons, I supervise activities at the pool and kayaking. One of the advantages of doing 2 camps is that by now I can come up with activities instantly – it’s almost instantaneous. I’m tired from working hard, but I am having a blast and am exploring a new part of Spain (Castilla y Leon). I’m still looking for a job for August, but worst case I will travel in Eastern Europe for a month! Stay tuned for pictures

Puny Pueyo de Jaca

I have been in the Pyranees for three days now in Pueyo de Jaca – a town in the province of Huesca only 15km from France. It was almost impossible to imagine how small this town was (it is even smaller than Campo). I have only seen one or two villagers, the bars close at 10pm, the store is new this year and it is only open until 2pm. The hostel (http://alberguedelpueyo.es/) is full with all of our 96 kids and we have probably quadrupled the population of the town. However despite the inactivity in the town, I am still having a great time. There are lots of outdoor activities to do. Yesterday we went rock climbing and moutain biking and rock climbing and today we were kayaking. Believe it or not there are tourists in this tiny town -mostly avid hikers – yesterday I met two New Zealanders visiting. It is certainly beautiful here. The lake we are next to is like glass – it reflects perfectly the snow tipped mountains and the green valleys. More to come including photos!