Backpacking With You - Backpacker Blog

Facebook Interaction with Backpackers

2008-04-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

I know this post is just interrupting with the time line of my Backpacking experience but there is something very interesting that can be of Interest for all the Backpackers that are reading this BACKPACKERS DIARY. If you are part of the Social networking revolution specially talking about Facebook there is a new Facebook Application for Backpackers, and there is a very interesting Review of it in this Facebook Blog,

Check it out, and tell me what do you think. :-)

We woke up to Visit Madrid during day light!!

2008-02-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

So after the long night, and early morning we decided to go for a walk in Madrid and visit some of the museums we were said that were interesting to visit.

First we walked through the "La Gran Via" where we checked all the amazing constructions at the sides of the roads, having a first insight of what was waiting for us during all our Backpacking around Europe.
Even now that I read my Backpacker Diary from Europe and I compared it to my Backpack Diary wrote on my Backpacking around Bolivia (South America), I can understand that the world is divided in several different worlds one totally different to the other, and there is beauty all around no matter where you go.

Then after La Gran Via we went to the Reina Sofia Museum, where we spend some hours looking art (that yet I do not understand), and that was pretty much all for the first day.

Alarms and Backpackers don't get along

2008-02-05T12:26:00.001-08:00

Turn that off!!!! we are going to wake up all the people in the HOSTEL!!!

3:47 morninf time, I was sleeping like a baby, maybe even better after the whole crusaide with our backpacks and no place to go, while the alarm, yes the alarm starts to ring like crazy!!!. I jump from my bed, stepping on my backpack willing to defend all my belongings against the thread that activate the alarm.
I turn my head to my right just to see my cousin also ready to act, full throttle for our heart beats... I switch on the light!!!
WAAAAAAAAA

Nothing there, but the alarm was still shouting like crazy, everything was there our backpacks, our cloths, even my backpacker's diary... so what happened????, but please before we keep on looking arounf turn that annoying thing before we wake up all the people sleeping in this hostel.

My cousin and I, confused and annoyed, sit in our beds, give a fast check to our backpacks, nothing happened, false alarm (noisy one) but still our hearts and adrenaline are up high....

We look one to the other, and agreed. We rather get stolen than die of a heart attack, that thing really scared us both... more than necessary!! - the alarm looked similar to this one in the pic

So, no alarm for this backpackers, we better go to sleep. We have a whole new continent to discover starting from Spain..
Good night!, and sweet dreams with no alarms tied to our backpacks, this time if you want to steel us please don't scare us, just take the backpacks, and leave this new backpackers keep on sleeping.!!

First Insight, Backpackers Discovering Madrid

2008-01-21T23:52:00.000-08:00

Backpackers... Let's go for a walk around the city

Yes, all set backpacks open, smiles in the faces and a a new city to be discovered. We got all our things in our "5" stars bedroom in the guest house, and we leave the place to go for a walk.

We go down the stairs that by then felt so easy because we weren't bringing our heavy backpacks on our backs, and life seemed to be just wonderful. We started walking through the Gran via Street finding ourselves for the first time with the real feeling that our backpacker's experience was starting at that right moment, with no worries about schedules, nor responsabilities but just the will to see what every corner, and every street had to offer to us while we walked sorrounded by the lights of the winter night.

We walked for around two hours, around the city, had dinner and return to our majestic guest House.

We got up the stairs and went to sleep... but first... yes as always fear appears again, and my cousin takes out his backpack and searches for something inside of it.

HERE IT IS!!, I ask what's that???, and alarm we plugged to the door and if somebody tries to get inside while we are sleeping we will be wake up!!.

WOW, that's amazing!!, we can use that during all our trip!!! with that we can go to sleep safe without the fear that somebody could steel our backpacks or stuff while we sleep.

Exactly he said....

All done, I write down on my backpacker diary "First night, the unexpected happened, we solve it!!, this backpacking thing really suit us!!

Hello Backpackers!! Welcome to my guest House

2008-01-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

Backpackers, Finding their first Hostel!!

So we get in, we walk around some bricks and buckets full of fresh paint.... there is an elevator, we called, but apparently it doesn't work so we start going up through the stairs!!, three floors up with our huge BACKPACKS, that after a 14 hours plane, plus another 5 hours of research and walks around all MADRID, where the longest stairs in my life.

Hello, little boys, she said.. I am Sacha (in clear spanish but with strong russian accent), what can I do for you??...

We are looking for a place where to stay, that was obvious, to her reply that she only had two bedrooms left, both of them with showers, but only one.... with TOILET,,,, hahah Yes that's right we had a place where to take a shower but no place at all to do number one or two!!!. ( As you can see on this picture that didn't stop me to follow nature's call)!!

Anyway we had no option, how much is it??? O F$&^%k a rip off, but you know that when it's late, in a huge city like Madrid, you are just starting to feel what it is to be a backpacker, and no other option is thinkable, the price is reasonable!!!.

We split in two, me and my cousin David together in the non toilet bedroom, Diego and Ary in the luxurious other room.

Big backpacks are open, way too much for the time we would stay there, but in a way it was the feeling of arriving somewhere... excited? YES!! Our backpacker's adventure was starting succesfully!!

Backpackers arrived to the old Continent now Spain

2008-01-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

BACKPACKING with no Direction

Wow, we got out of the plane, and there he was, my cousin waiting for us because his flight from the states arrived 5 hours before, so right in that moment I realized that we were far away by our own.
So after some happy greetings, laughing and hugs we started to discover the world of the adventurer travelers, by asking to the people how we could get to this hostel that we chose in our hostelling international guide.... So after some helpful and nice advisors we encouraged ourselves to go towards the subway that was supposed to take us close to that place.

We Changed some money before (back then there was no Euro, so we all traveled with US dollars, having to change money in each country) and we took the "Metro". We got to the station we got down, and again carrying our heavy backpacks we ask for directions again to one guy that was walking down the street, and he told us... "O no ese es un lugar lleno de yonkyes" meaning that in Spanish that the place where we were willing to go was full of drogadicts....

First crisis!!! What do we do??? Let's do a Backpacker’s meeting, let's put our bag down, grab our bible (hostel guide) and let's chose another place!!! Yes we can do that! Ok we agreed, we found another interesting place... by interesting I mean that the reviews were well written and we started heading to this new place... lunch time was about to finish and we didn't have time to stop until we found a place where to sleep for the night!!.

We got to the second place, we got up the stairs one floor that felt like a 20 floor because of the size of our backpacks, and there we were.

We ask for a place to stay!!! He laughs!!! We look one to the other we speak the language so we can all understand that this guy in the front desk is laughing at us, asking us how we even dare to go there without reservations!....and starting to imitate our Argentinean accent calling us "Boludos" - (Dumbas) Something we weren't expecting at all.

Another backpackers meeting, we all agreed let's take the subway for the last time straight to the center of Madrid where for sure we will find a place where to stay!!

Subway!!

There we are the four of us, our backpacks, and yet our energy and happiness besides the failures of our previous location plans.

We started walking towards "La Gran Via" (main avenue), looking around all the spots to find a place where to crash, and after one hour of no findings, the evening was coming and we started talking about what we would do if in another half an hour we would not succeed on finding a place...

Traveling on the night train to Portugal was the main option.
Returning to the train station and sleep there was the other one.

NONE OF THEM SOUNDED GOOD AT ALL. - I felt like missing home at that moment.

We kept looking for a place until we found next to an adults shop (where they sell toys) a building about to fall with a crappie sign that said rooms for rent.

We got in!

Backpacking To Europe first stop Spain

2007-12-10T02:38:00.001-08:00

Wow, it seems to be like yesterday when back in 1999 me and my best three friends with 18 years back then said goodbye to our parents, lifted our backpacks and walked through the migrations line in the airport to the trip that would literally change our lives forever.

I remember that that was only the first time the three of us Ariel, Diego and I were going to visit Europe but also the first time we would travel abroad without our parents, having to ask them for a written permit to leave the country by ourselves.

We were sitting on the waiting room half excited half scared because from that moment on we knew that for the next two months we would have no one to take car about us by ourselves.

We got into the plane, and flew straight to Madrid, Spain... with our ISIC cards, our hostelling international membership cards (a total waste of money), some random guide for hostels around Europe, and of course our fake reporter's ID (a big money saver)

My Backpack

2007-11-18T04:53:00.000-08:00

Now I remember when my aunt living in the states send me my Backpack that later would visit after Europe on a cold winter, the tropical jungle in Colombia, the beautiful beaches of Costa Rica and the dessert of India close to the border with Pakistan.

The brand, Kelty model REDCLOUD. I ve been trying to find a picture of it on my computer but apparently I ve got any so thanks to the Internet on kelty´s Website I found a nice picture but of the new version of my old model that looks pretty similar but not the same.

I remember myself very excited looking to my Backpack lying on my bedroom floor, mainly excited by the size of it, that later after some travelling I would understand that some times too big can be very heavy to lift.

Europe, here we go a group of 18 years old Backpackers

2007-11-14T06:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, here it´s when all started back in the year 1999 me and my best three friends included my cousin who joined us in Barcelona where about to start our first backpacking experience that would radically change our lives forever. Back then we were little kids, trying to copy what our elder brothers did three years before us so it was all about saving as much money as we could knowing that by the time the summer would arrive we were getting on a plane without our parents - for the first time in our lives - to fly to Spain to start our Europe Backpacking experience.

I remember those days before going to one place to the other, getting our ISIC cards and Hostelling International cards, plus designing some fake Press ID, so as to be able to save as much money as we could.

Actually it was a funny thing because we were planning to pretend that we belonged to a media corporation to be able to get in for free on museums, and other places and we designed this Press cards with pictures signature and seal, and my cousin who back then was living in Venezuela send me a very low quality picture through the internet (ICQ- back then) that I resize to make it fit on our Fakes ids.

Actually now even though I really look around I couldn´t find my own ID but I did find a model of the "new one" that some friends of mine recently used around Europe just one month ago and it looks like this..(Telefe is one of the biggest media in Argentina)

we bought the Eurali-Pass, because in that year yet there were not the cheap flying airlines that now make backpackers save so much time and money, so we had to make all our backpacking trip with our big backpacks (of course, because each time you go on a new ride you know how to take more in less space), and taking one train after the other.

No more Diving for me!, Backpacker of land... not water.

2007-11-12T23:54:00.000-08:00

That´s true sometimes you really think you are into something that will change the way you want things to be but then after some time you realized that what you used to consider really important slowly faded away among the passed days. But still I had my experience, and kept travelling for several years to Venezuela but staying on the beachside of the water. Later on Backpacking in Costa Rica I felt the will to try this diving thing for one more time but somehow I ended up snorkeling on some islands close from the Montezuma´s beach but I will post more about that later. Still here I have a nice picture of that place.

This little part of paradise is on the southern Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica, beautiful beaches, no sunset (maybe the only bad thing about this place), and small shops and cabins to stay and relax the laid back atmosphere full of backpackers that come from all over the globe.

Venezuela, Learning how to Dive

2007-10-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

Back then I remember each summer travel to Venezuela with my parents, and being to little to start diving but big enough to understand what I was a missing every time everybody, mom, dad, uncles, brother, would go to the beach for a diving session while I was waitting for them in the surface...Until the day come...

If I am not wrong it was the year 1996 when I did my Scuba diving course, back there in Caracas Venezuela, attending to this class where they woul teach me how to read the different tables, or security issues for a safe diving... containing all my emotion and excitment until the graduation day came, doing my final exam in the beach.

The place was about 4 hours by car from Caracas, so after the long ride me and my mother got to the place where I was supposed to do my final exams along the whole weekend.

The thing is that although I didn´t make everything perfectly, and almost drown twice because it wasn´t really clear for me what to do in certain situation I received my Open water Scube Diver license, ready to start a Scuba diving way of living that would last.... just one more sumer Hollydays!!!.

Venezuela, Family is moving again

2007-10-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

So for the time being, life seemed to be all right, going to school all year long until the summer came knowing that my friends and family living in Mexico back then where waiting for me and my family to visit them and get stuffed with some Taco´s and Chalupas.

Here is a picture of some of that incredible food, but to be honest this picture was taken when I returned to Mexico several years later to those family trips when I was backpacking. Actually this is a Tlayuda some kind of bread with meat cheese, spicy sauce, some more spicy sauce and spicy sauce.

The story starts when in 1994 the summer came, and I remember myself ready to start packing all my stuff to visit Mexico (yet as family trip, but backpacking adventures were about to come), and my parents telling me that we were going somewhere else, far from Mexico, closet to my country. Destiny: Venezuela.

This beautiful country as I remember it back then before this cover dictator called Hugo Chavez got to the government was something unique, and before anything here are some interesting links to get an insight of it.

Some history of Venezuela, and a really interesting blogs talking about the actual situation there written by Daniel who is living there.Venezuela Blog

Moving on I remember my first encounter with the Caribbean world, with hot and very humid weather all year long, and strong rains that wouldn´t calm down the heat that was almost annoying. Going to my family´s house and driving to the beach on the weekends...and I remember that by that time I was completely in Love with the Beach something that I didn´t have back at home, and would radically influence my decisions of Backpacking destinations later on.

Venezuela had this amazing people always happy, heavy beer drinkers, Baseball fans, and very nationalist back then in the good sense of the world. In there was the first time I had the chance to buy cheddar cheese (yeap, the one that goes in Mc donalds cheeseburger) in the supermarket... and I remember it was called FACILISTAS, that could be translated as Easy-Ready. I also remember being a big fun of this chocolate called Ovomaltina, that was Tube like a tooth paste tube filled with melted chocolate, something that I haven´t found since my last visit to that beautiful country, and apparently still exists there cuse I´ve found this picture.

So far this are the few memories I´ve got of my childhood plus some memories of Diving courses, visiting some Islands like Isla Margarita and attending to my family´s weekend club named Puerto Azul where there was an amazing Swimming pool with glass borders (that´s not me), and Bahia de los Piratas. But probably this are some random souvenirs of my memorie before I started Backpacking alone seeking to discover while I was already closer to be a grown up.

Mexico, first visits no Backpack...YET

2007-10-23T01:32:00.001-07:00

Some years after my several visitis to USA, including the most importnant ones such as the ones when we visit Disneyworld and Disneyland (that for a 4 years old kid would mean the world), the first new destination was set. My mother´s sister and all her family decided to move to Mexico because of my uncle´s job so there we were all planning to change the route for that time being. So still we would make big bags, with lots of unnecesary stuff, that before starting to Backpacking wouldn´t look like that... and get started moving further north for us that we where traveling from south america, but in terms of hollydays moving south from the usual USA to the new and beautifull Mexico.

This might have been the first time in my life when I realized that besides my home town, and Mickey mouse there was a huge world out there to visit and see, sometimes a world that could be very similar to the one I was used to live in but in certain points completely different as well.

Going into the little details and the chilly culture that they have in Mexico, I remember how my cousin used to eat this sort of fruit candy called Pulparindo that it was a candy spicy as hell mixed with some salt and they were in love with this thing. And for my Argentinian standards of taste it was almost like a punishment to be given one of this and eat them as a proof of good manners from my side. The funny thing is how much we change with the years, and now I can say that I really like this candy, and even more when I got to Backpack to mexico several years later alone, I would by this stuff regulary.

Those happy years visiting mainly Mexico City or DF as people call it there lasted for the time they worked there. Now I remember some many other good stories about those trips with my family that maybe later I´ll be posting, some trips to Isla Mujeres, Cancun, Pirate´s Boats, etc.

Backpacking, just a start

2007-10-22T03:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, here is the deal... I´ve had my time backpacking around there for a long time and now it´s on pause because of some new opportunities and all those things that you listen around about trying to see what happens trying something different,... but hopefully I´ll start moving around soon. Meanwhile my Backpack is waiting for me taking a rest from India´s Massala smell, Colombian jungles, Mexico´s spicy food,etc.

In my experience travelling since I was a little kid with mom, dad and my brother that were really into that before changing the car, or doing fancy stuff, because they had this passion inside themselves. So practically all my life I´ve been travelling, if it wasnt with my family by myself with my huge backpack looking for that thing that you can never clearly define but you know is right there in your next destination. That feeling that you share when you meet some other backpackers from other side of the world with the same sparkle in their eyes while you talk about backpacking trips around the world.

So it all started as a little kid travelling to USA, to visit some family (a long way for an Argentinian boy - South America for those that never heard of it)

DISCLAIMER
Here is a link with the basic info about my country and a cute Map
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107288.html

Well writting then about my first trips to the states, getting to understand and see how the whole thing of traveling worked, such as seen mom and dad sited on the living room of our appartment discussing about dates, prices, hotels, bags etc. At that time backpacking was only a discovery to be made. At this point my parents were trying to get me in all this things with my only interest on having their confirmation that they would take me to toys´r us to update my nintendo games collection(Nintendo like that not WII- Getting old Maybe).

So it went like this for some years until some family things happend that would change the whole concept of hollydays for me.