Reasons to travel while you are young

Since I'm back from my Erasmus I have been traveling non-stop, or at least a lot more than I used to before. And most of the things I hear from people about it is: "I want to travel too", "are you rich?", etc. Answer: Do it, and no of course I am not rich. You just have to make it a priority. What I mean with that is instead of going out every thursday and saturday night, week after week spending 20 something Euros per night, save it, and check low cost websites everyday and if you're lucky you will find flights back and forth for less than 25 euros. 

My dad told me once, I envy you because when I was young I did not have the possibility nor the facilities to travel as you have. And damn, he is right! When if not now is the best moment to travel, I am young, full of energy, curiosity and it couldn't be easier to travel. When he was young if you wanted to travel within Europe you had to pass through long processes and sometimes you couldn't even get into a country. Nowadays, at least in Europe we have the Schengen Agreement which allow al European Union citizens to move freely one country to a other. 

But, it is true, it is easy to say or write it here on a blog and difficult to do. Myself, I haven't been out of Europe yet, but you have to take everything step by step. Because if you are a beginner in climbing, you won't start with Mount Everest on your second day of training right? 

I can't stand those people that spend day and night writing YOLO here and there but I have to say, they are somehow right and true because, You Only Live Once, or better said, you are only young once so you better make it count or you will regret it for the rest of your life. Because think about it this way, this time of your life is the only time you can afford to make mistakes, this is the only time you can afford to do anything you want, this is THE time. Because you will have plenty of time the rest of your life to fix those mistakes, to regret or not whatever you have or haven't done. If you don't do it now, you will end up never doing it, because when you are older you have more restrictions, more responsabilities that would not allow you to make these things.

It is said that how you really learn something is by experience it or by practise, that is why most of the world travelers around the world end up saying that a round the world trip have tought them more then all the notebooks they have used. It is also said that traveling open your eyes and make you face the reality, that after traveling the world, problems we could have back home seems like crap compared to what other people around the world is passing through, and they still have a smile on their face.

And what is most important of all, traveling helps you to find yourself, to get inspired, motivated, to get influenced and to change to a better person. 

At the moment, I recently became 21, and I have so far lived in 3 countries(Sweden, Spain and Denmark) and visited 8 countries but a uncountable number of cities and I am just starting and not planning on stopping. I wish that everybody that reads this posts things about themselves and about their lives and what they want to do with it. And whatever you want to do, just make it a priority and if you can dream it, you can achieve it.

Temps de flors in Girona

This next month of May will be full of travelling, activities, festivals...in other words, I bet I won't be bored.

The first important plan worth to mention is the flower festival named temps de flors in the city of Girona, Spain.

This is a flower exposition that has been held for 57 edition and this spring of 2013 it is reaching its 58th. What is unique about this flower festival is that it is located throughout the whole old town of Girona from the biggest and most famous sights such as the Cathedral to the smallest and hidden cornerns and private patios. Due to its uniqueness mentioned, last year one of the most prestigious and well-known magazines of the world(National Geographic), awarded Temps de flors in Girona as one of the best spring trips 2012, which a other reason why it is worth visiting.

This year the festival will be held from 11th to the 19th of May. And for all of you interested on visiting it or are gaining curiosity about the city of Girona, here is how you can get to the city:

Girona is located north of Barcelona and can be reached from there by bus, train, or one's own car. There is an airport close to the town with a wide range of connections on Ryanair. It is also 98km (61 miles) away from Barcelona.

Girona Airport is 1hr bus ride from Barcelona center. Ryanair mentions "Barcelona" in their description of Girona airport. You can make connection between the airport and Barcelona. There is also an hourly bus into Girona from the airport.

Bus: If you want to travel to Girona from Barcelona city you can take a bus. That bus stops in the center of Barcelona, in Estació d'Autobusos Barcelona Nord (Barcelona's main bus terminal).

Trains from Barcelona to Girona leaves approximately every hour from Barcelona Estació de Sants (with other stops at Passeig de Gràcia/Aragó and Clot). The journey takes 1h20m from Girona to Barcelona Sants and the ticket costs about 8 €, depending on the train type (Media Distancia is faster, Regional is cheaper).

Erasmus Denmark part 3 (Poland)

Traveling is a thing included and a must while you are doing your erasmus, doesn't matter where you are or  for how long, you will end up travelling at least once. My erasmus, in terms of travelling, consist of two main trips: Poland and Amsterdam.

A personal recomendation that I give you as a reader is, if you are going on erasmus and you do not travel to a place because of the money, don't because this is a once in a lifetime and you know that famous quote that says: "you regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did", so don't thing and live. 

They day had arrived it was October 9th and 4 portuguese guys, a spanish and I were heading towards Poland. We arrived in Krakow there after a fast hour something flight from Denmark. But there was still a 3 hour train travel waiting for us as we had decided to spend two days in the capital city of the country: Warsaw, which was a really good chocie.

We had rented a flat for two nights, so as soon as we got installed we decided to meet up with a portugese friend of them so he could show us around a bit. It was pretty late so we went to the search of a resturant with traditional dishes We ended up eating Pierogi in a small but really nice resturant in the old town of Warsaw. After dinner, we went home, had a few bears and decided to rest as the tomorrow was expected to be a long day...

Here is the recepie of the pierogi for who might be intrested in it: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pierogi-polish-dumplings/

We woke up early in the morning in order to visit as many things we could in one day, and we sure did. The good thing about Warsaw is that it is really easy to travel free on the urban buses as they are always full and nobody is watching and that allowed us to travel pretty much around the city at the moments we was tired or just were to far away from a place to walk.

The main tourist attractions we saw includes: the Royal Castle, the Old Town, the royal gardens, the national football stadium of Poland(being from Spain and Portugal that was a must visit on our list) and what I liked the most: The gardens of the library of the University of Warsaw

View on our back from the centre of Warsaw showing the palace of culture and science the highest building of the city

The night had arrived and we went out partying in a club called the park, in which they had a erasmus party(perfect for us), but what we just found there was spanish, portugese and polish people. It is said that Poland is one of the most visited erasmus destination from people of our countries and in that party we could really notice that, still though it was a really great party.

The day after it was october the 11th and 5 days in Krakow were waiting. We arrived and met up with a French friend who was waiting for us there. In Krakow I can not actually remember everything we saw or did but some of the sights we saw includes: Main Market Square with St Mary's Basilica and the Sukiennice Cloth Hall, the Wawel Castle, also we went out of the city to visit first the old concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau and the  Wieliczka Salt Mine.

I have to say though, Poland is really a country that surprised me, all in good aspects. It is cheap, friendly really beautiful and its food is delicious. I had not even had a thought about going there before me erasmus and now it is really a country I wouldn't mind at all visiting again. 

Erasmus Denmark part 2

Finally we got installed in our rooms but there was plenty of stuff to do. The first one, FOOD. Two starving 20 something years old guys with no food at all, so as there were not that many people around at that moment we decided to try to find a supermarket. The first one we managed to find was a LIDL, we got our supplies for a couple of days which includes obviously healthy erasmus food such as pizzas, burgers and pasta.

The subsequent days were a non-stop of "nice to meet yous" as everyday a new person was coming until around the first days of september the whole accomodation was full. Around 60 students from different nationalities full of excitement at the same time as fear of the unknown. The first month was a lot about that, getting to know everybody and specially through the parties, because like it or not, for a few it was difficult to open up to a other person at the beginning wether it was because of the language or just because of the shyness. But when alcohol is in between it helps a lot and everybody loses its shyness and speaks all the languages fluently. There were people from everywhere Spain, Portugal(these guys will be mentioned more than a few times while my blog will be focused on my time as Erasmus, because believe me, they are worth to be mentioned), Germany Hungary, Rumania, China, Italy, France, Austria, Australia, Poland and the list goes on. 

Now after written a couple of paragraphs I realize that I don't remember so much about the first month, at least not so much details. I do remember though a lot of drinking, because that is what a erasmus is about, partying. During the first month at least twice a week we were out partying in the city, in the same accomodation which in my opinion were the best parties in the city or in other student accomodation. A thing worth mentioning is that if any of my readers wants to go to Esbjerg as a student, believe me, sct. Georgs Kollegiet is THE place to be. As mentioned I don't remember a lot of specific details about the month of september, but there was one special "party" that made my think: Oh yeah, I am really on a Erasmus! That was sportsday or sportsdag as the danes would say. You may ask yourself, and what is that? Well sportsday  is basically doing all kinds of sports(football, baseball, voleyball...) starting early in the morining but with one special condition, almost everybody started to drink in the morning non-stop during the whole day. And I thought what the hell, let's do it. Actually, my first football match I did not even remember it... A lot of other games were played before going out or during the party nights like beer pong(champions with my friend), ring of fire, the piramyd and a bunch of others.

I haven't had that much time to write because I having exams but a wanted to write a short post just mentioning a bit more about my time as erasmus. Also to mention that in a couple of days I will be flying back to Esbjerg and stay there for 5 days and re-experience my time there, which I am looking forward too.

PS: If you are a fan of drinking games or just want to know otherways to get drunk or have fun, here are a few links you may like:

How to play beerpong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIZ9bZoi3c

How to play ring of fire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzt9wBLrj-U

PS 2: Sorry about the sort post. I just wanted to post again because it had been a while, next one will be longer and more informative ;)

Erasmus Denmark Part 1

It all started a long time ago when I hadn't even started the university when a friend told me about this Erasmus experience of his and I got so into it that I could just not wait to get my chance to do the same.

Years passed by and finally the day had come, it was time to choose destination. I ended up choosing Denmark as a first option and my following ones were Poland and Austria. I managed to convince a friend of mine to choose Denmark to and maybe we would get lucky and get the same destination and guess what? We did! We both got addmited.

Unfourtunelly we knew it full of excitement by the month March, when the experience would't start until end of August. Good thing though is that we had plenty of time to organize the trip, the paper work and to say farewell to all our loved ones.

The day had arrived, it was a 19 of August I will never forget, and we had decided that the best way to go to Denmark was by car. So there we were, two 20 years old guys, with a small Peugeot 206 fully packed and prepared to go to Denmark.

THE ROAD TRIP

There we were 2000km of road and passing by 4 countries to arrive to our final destination: Esbjerg.

The first day we decided to do as many km as possible to pass by France past, after around 4 bottles of water each and 900 km of driving in the heat of the summer  reaching at some points 43 Celcius degrees, with decided to make our first night stop in Nancy. Unfourtunelly at that point we focused only on our goal to reach Esbjerg as soon as possible and did not make a lot of tourism on to road, but from we saw, I would say Nancy is a pretty nice city.

Day 2: With even more excitement than the first day, if that could be possible, we ate breakfast and went back on track on our way to cross our next boarder, Germany was waiting. Our goal that day was Dortmund and after a few hours of driving we had reached it. It was in the middle of the day and we had plenty of time, what we hadn't counted with was that the reservation of the hotel we(I) had made it for the day before and we couldn't check in. So then, we decided to continue on the road towards the next city, and with a reserervation for that day, Hannover was waiting.

We arrived  in the mid-afternoon, checked-in and decided to visit the city, not what we had expected though. Our impressions of Hannover was a dark and a bit scary city, because the first street we walked was one full of prostitutes and the second one had no light, so a bit confused, we ate and went back to the hotel, to fill up our body for our last stop before Esbjerg and our last hope to make tourism; Hamburg was the choosen one.

Day 3: We woke up early wanting to reach our goal and finally visit a city during day-time. After only a couple of hours of driving, we reach Hamburg, we checked-in and finally did some tourism. About Hamburg I can just say: Sehr gut! I really enjoyed the city: beautiful, full of life, lots of different tourist attractions... What I also enjoyed about the city is the fact that even though it is a big and a quite metropolitan city it is full of parks and green areas.

So finally we found a city we liked, visited all we had time to, enjoyed a great fast food meal and went back to the hotel because the next day our final destination was awaiting, oh yes! Esbjerg here we come.

Day 4: Taking our time to wake up, we ate breakfast in the hotel, took a shower and left Hamburg with a smile on our faces because we knew that a few hours from that moment our beloved erasmus would begin.

So full of excitement we hadn't experienced on the road before, singing our lungs out and enjoying all the landscape around we finally reach Esbjerg around 14:00 more or less. We than got ourselfs to the University to get the keys of our accomodation(Sct. Georgs Kollegiet, what a place!), singed the papers and decided to install ourselfs but there were only one problem: we had 3 differents keys and we tried them all the possible ways and could't open the doors, luckily one of the already installed students good out of her room and with signs and banging the doors we managed to caputre her attetion and finally got in, with a thanks and a fleeting presentation we went to each others room, open them and threw in all our luggege. We made, we were finally Erasmus students.

Sct. Georgs Kollegiet from the outside and inside

2013, looking good so far

I wanted to be very constant in this blog and post as much as I coild, but at the moment I have to much to do and to less time.

Anyway, I wanted to make a post talking about the travels I have done so far and what's ahead from this year 2013.

Looking past the first months of the year I've visited so far:

January: Eisenach and Erfurt in centre Germany.

Two very unknown sites in Germany compared to the big tourist cities such as Berlin, Hamburg or Munich.

Eisenach, a what I would almost call a big village, is the home of the musician Johann Sebastian Bach which is with the castle of Warburt its two biggest international tourism attractions. It is located in the centre of Germany in the state of Thuringa and by the time I was there, not so many tourists was seen.

Castle of Wartburg, Eisenach.

Erfurt though is a quite bigger city, capital of Thuringa but still, has no competition against the big German cities. But that is also its beauty, the unknown and not seen from many tourists, which makes you get closer to the city and its people and of course, THE BRATWURST from Thuringa, which by the way, 1 word: DELICIOUS!

In February, I went back to Germany again and visited both cities again, which was pretty great, only inconvinient and recomendation: do NOT visit it during these two month, my god its cold!

The month of March is pretty similar to the two first month, traveling once to Germany visiting Eisenach and Erfurt but with a little change; I made a small weekend trip to visit one of my favourite  cities, Barcelona. Its beauty, people and climite is something that will never make I could never bore Barcelona because there is always something new to do.

I had company this time and had to take her to all the main tourist attractions of course which includes Sagrada familia, la Rambla, Port vell, la Barceloneta...

I brough her too, to one of my favourite parts of the city: El parc de la Ciutadella. This parc is located a few minutes from el Barri Gotic and la la Rambla and it is, if the weather is good, the best spot in the city to grab a couple of blankets and chill during the afternoon.

Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona.

And that is what my traveling this year has been so far. But as the summer is approaching weather is getting better and better so is the traveling:

This month of April I'll make a small trip to Esbjerg the 5th biggest city in Denmark, to visit friends that I made during my time as a Erasmus student there, which I will explain in future posts.

Later in May there will be Germany again where I will visit the same places and will be going to a holi festival of colours which I am pretty excited about.

During the summer months I will be working in Lanzarote in the Canary Island , which I hope to explore entirely while I am not working ;)

In september again it will be Germany and there will there be a small difference too, hopefully I will make a small trip to visit Berlin for the first time, which I am pretty curious to know.

As far that is all I have planned at the moment, but I am pretty sure that a bit of more travelling will be going on this 2013 which I am looking forward too.

Any suggestions of places to visit in the destinations I will visit?

Top 3 travel movies to get you going

As mentioned in my first presentation post I am a big movie fan. That is why I decided to make my top list of travel movies(not THE list, but my favourite ones).

I believe that even though there are a lot of great tourism advertisements, there is nothing that can promote better a destination then a film. Because these, have the fascinating way to inspire and excite a viewer towards a destination no type of advertisement can.

Because isn't right that most of you have had the feeling after watching a movie that you may have though " I would love to be in that place right now" or that you get more curious about that place and you make a bit of research of it.

So without further ado, here is my top movie travel list:

1- Diario de motocicleta (The motorcycle diaries).

  

The motorcycle diaries is based on the true story of when Ernesto "Che" Guevarra and his friend Alberto Granado travelled across South America initially by motorcycle. The movie shows the evolution of "Che's" character and how he discovers himself. 

The movie is a inspirational story of how one of the most influential people that have ever lived and it shows his evolution as a person in this story. 

The film also shows you breathtaking scenaries from South America that will, for sure, not dissapoint you. It is, in my opinion, a must see in travel movies. 

Movie trailer: ´https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwtZgBFKlzs

2- Into the wild

 

Based on the true story, Into the wild explains the how Christopher McCandless  after graduating University  decided to leave all his possesions, donate all his money to charity and change his name in order to  embark himself in a journey towards Alaska, into the wild.

This is in my opinion the  #1 travel movie to make you think, as it shows how a guy walks out of his privlieged life in search for adventure. It is extreamly inspiring, motivating and breathtaking. Along with beautiful landskapes of the USA and a amazing soundtrack that will make you just fall in love with the movie.

Movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwtZgBFKlzs

 3-Slumdog Millionaire

Kumal Nayar, a orphan kid from India,  is a question away from winning the highest price of the indian version of  "who wants to be a millionaire?".

The movie shows how through different and amazing journeys a uneducated kid could be able respon right every question  in this quiz show.

In comparison with the two movies mentioned before, this movie is not exactly about the act of travelling, but it shows you a inner part of culture and way of living in India never shown before.

This is a must see, not just in the category of travel movies, but in the overall category  due to the story, the scenaries, the characters...everything.

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Movie trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzbwV7on6Q

 The list is really short but and I know there are a lot of more travel movies that could be included, but I just wanted to post my top 3 I believe  could be classified as masterpieces. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to add some movies in the comments.