Archive: March 2010

All of us who love travelling have at one time or another flirted with the notion of abandoning the hum-drum of our daily routines and embarking on that one voyage each of us safeguards within and considers “the perfect trip”. Even so, very few of us have taken a definitive step in that direction. Today, we’d like to share with you Iosu’s experience. Our hero is a twenty-nine-year-old adventurer who elected to leave his beloved Madrid behind in a north-to-south quest of the American continent. Ten months after setting off and just back from Ushuaya, Iosu reveals how he prepared for his perfect trip.

Q. Iosu, for those of us who’ve daily followed your blog, there hasn’t been a single day that we haven’t felt some kind of healthy envy. We imagine, however, that it was no picnic undertaking this enterprise.

A. Well, implementing a decision of this kind was a real headache. I had to sidestep fears, both internal and external; work endless hours to save up the money, and take a detour from everyday constructs which meant skirting whatever it is that our society calls “normal” — such as buying a house, having a mortgage, a car, starting a family… I decided to listen to the pulse of my heartbeat and assume whatever risks presented themselves. Would everything be the same when I got back from my trip? Would I return home or find somewhere else to set up camp? I was overwhelmed with queries and underwhelmed with answers.

Q. When you set out, did you have a clear notion of where you were headed or has improvisation been your second mate and made your destination decisions for you?

A. I began with the premise of crossing the continent from north to south, going against the usual migratory byways via the pan-American route from Prudhoe Bay (Alaska) to Bahía Lapataia (Argentina). Nowadays, it is a system of inter-connected roads that stretches over 30,000 kilometers, joining the whole continent from one end to the other. Ultimately, thanks to improvisation, I covered 45,000 kilometers of roads, from gravel to asphalted surfaces, aboard every kind of acquatic-terrestrial transport imaginable: busses, trains, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, canoes, boats, caravans, you name it. Planes were only permitted for crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Madrid to Alaska and, later, returning from Buenos Aires back to Spain.

Q. Usually, the main motivation for a trip of this kind is more about meeting people than seeing a lot of places. Am I right?

A. Absolutely. It’s all about the human landscape rather than tourist attractions. It centers on dialoguing with others, instead of being tourist-obsessed with accumulating snapshots. Observation takes primacy over furtive glances.

Q. What did you leave behind in Spain when you did this?

A. My job as a journalist. A girlfriend whom I loved, family and friends … To some, my idea sounded like the brainchild of a madman rather than something premeditated.

Now that Iosu’s back, he offers us evidence that there was not an inkling of madness to his decision. He’s made a documentary called “The seam of the Americas”. A trailer follows.

Everybody knows just how useful twitter is when it comes to being up on what’s happening around the world in real time. But, how can twitter help you get the most out of your next trip?

Keep track of travellers like yourself who can serve as an inspiration for your upcoming trips.

Besides sharing travel information via twitter, these people tend to write travel blogs informing you of their experiences and are always ready to lend a hand . We’ve drawn up a list of travellers (er … Passionate Travellers) whom we’ve gotten to know through twitter. We hope the list is hopeful!

Use hashtags to find relevant information.

Say, for instance, a trip around the world is next on your agenda, simply type in: #rtw o #rtwsoon to look up info and exchange impressions with other travellers. In such a case, don’t forget to include the following hashtags in your search: #travel #name of the city you’re travelling to. You just may comr across a weekly cultural lineup, advice from fellow travellers or even other people who find themselves in your same situation.

Contact those persons you think can help you.

If you’ve addressed a direct question to followers and haven’t received a reply, don’t hesitate to get in touch with them directly via (@follower) or by sending them a DM. Keep in mind that on any given day hundreds of tweets are written and it’s impossible to keep track of all of them.

Share with followers your travel experiences.

When you share travel information, very interesting conversations ensue with people who have the same curiosity bug as you. Besides, it’s an unbeatable opportunity for other travellers to get to know your travel preferences and recommend possible destinations as well as experiences for you to live.

Photo by Kaushal Karkhanis

Even though all of us at one time or another has been guilty of being a tourist or acting like one, allow me to dedicate a few lines to answering the question: What in heaven’s name is a tourist?

1) Anyone who’s ever ordered an “authentic” serving of sangría or goulash. You know the type, he or she feels they’re getting down with the locals cos they stopped off somewhere to sample the most typical dish at the most typical place. Truly “authentic” dishes don’t advertise, they sell themselves, and don’t serve as a pretext for opportunists to charge more and offer less. Do your home-based favorite haunts –regardless of which city you come from– ever announced their authenticity? Do they put out flyers or people on the street to draw you in? The question is a rhetorical one. We know the reply: Of course they don’t!

2) Anyone who treats those places visited as if they were monuments, part of the landscape, or interacts with others as if they were hostesses hired by the local tourist bureau. Tourists love to stroll and act/react surprised. They will observe: “Look at that half-naked, undernourished child. Poor thing! Let’s take a snapshot OR “Look at that smartly-dressed exec. I’m sure he’s the director of some top bank.” Living a city for this kind of tourist is no different than visiting a zoo.

3) Anyone who hits the ground running — and heads straight for the local souvenir shop to pick up his “I was in Lanzarote”, “J’taime Paris” or local football team T-shirt. Regardless of what you think of someone who falls in love with a city he or she has just met, a T-shirt does not denote your kinship with a city; on the contrary, it has the opposite effect. You’re sending signals to all who see you, informing them that you’re a tourist which is how they’ll treat you.

Photo by: Sebastían-Dario

4) Anyone who would never list photography as a hobby, but suddenly fancies his or her natural talent for capturing the most touching and tender moments on film, including grass growth at some public garden. This kind of toruist is so busy leaving no stone un-photographed, posing before/beside/behind any monument as proof of the good time he or she is having, that they never quite get around to even knowing which city they’re in.

5) Anyone who when meeting up with a local, say a taxi-driver for instance, asks the same two questions (usually after having knocked back a few). First on the list is: What’s your favorite team? And should the listener play along, follows up with a second question that usually centers on: “Hey, just how pretty and hot are the girls around here anyway?” When this unsuspecting tourist gets hit with a fare three times the going rate, seismic shocks take over. Then again, he may be too tipsy anyway to consider the fact that perhaps a local might not be up for chit-chat which debases the resident female species.

This week we’ve received a super surprise. Sara and Maria, two impassioned trourists, decided on their own to breathe some new life into ExperienceLess, the movement we launched last summer to dramatize our belief that the most fun, genuine and special experiences are those that travellers live with local folk at the destination visited.

Following is a video taped by Sara and Maria during their Erasmus jaunt in Deutschland. Without a doubt, it’s these kinds of spontaneous, interest-free initiatives that make the work we do here at trourist all very worthwhile.

Now, let’s see what Maria has to say about this experience:

Q. How do your parents feel about your dedicating “study time” to rummaging through dumpsters for carton, writing up messages and parading through the streets of Cologne with them?

A. First, they thought we’d lost it, it was like … isn’t it a bit dangerous? But once we explained why, what ExperienceLess was about, etc. they gave us their unconditional support. They know I like to travel and live new experiences and they’re thrilled at being able to watch the video over and over again.

Q. You look bundled up in the video. What was the temperature on the day of your experience?

A. It was one of the coldest days I’ve known in Cologne, it was exactly 2 below zero centigrade. We ended up with feet, hands and faces all frozen up. Luckily, we later came across some hot chocolate.

Q. With that kind of cold, what drove you to become experience-hunters?

A. I imagined myself in sandals, bermudas and a backpack sitting on the ground like you guys did in Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Istanbul. Once in Cologne, however, I realized that searching for experiences would be considerably more complicated in a city covered by snow during Jsnuary and February. Even so, this didn’t dampen my desire to seek real experiences … since I was also curious about how people have fun in a place whose weather is so different than my own. In any case, if I had to do it over again, I’d definitely do it in the summer when there are more people out on the streets.

Q. How did you feel when people gave you invaluable advice on their town?

A. After tons of stares, comments, laughter and even indifference … you finally feel good that someone wants to share some of their free time with you. It’s nice for people to tell you what they like most about their city and want to share it with a complete stranger.

Q. I’m sure there were some funny moments. Would you care to tell us one?

A. We laughed so hard when a boy told us about his favorite disco in Cologne, which Sara and Lisa just happened to know and always called the biggest electronic-music dump in all Cologne.

Marcos is an ol’ university mate. Nowadays, he has a chance to open and close his travel bags quite a lot, sometimes for business, other times for pleasure. Recently, he got in contact and told us “Thanks to Trourist I met a woman from New York on my last trip to the Big Apple.” This sort of news stamps smiles on our faces and makes us feel that what we’re doing is really worth something. Marcos shared his experience:

There are so many people who’ve visited New York that the information regarding what places to hit in the city can be overwhelming. I was planning a trip there and the thing is I only had four days! I wanted to experience New York but not just see the usual tourist traps. I felt from the start that hooking up with a native New Yorker was key. Unfortunately, all the people I knew there were going to be out of town during my travel dates, so I thought that Trourist might be able to help.

I checked out people who live in New York, and without hesitation, sent off an e-mail explaining what I was looking for. Bingo, A girl offered to show me her city!!! Right off, we began corresponding to discuss us what I was seeking during my visit, got to know each other a bit and set up meeting particulars concerning date, time and so forth. One morning Rachel came around my hostel around 11 am to pick me up and, despite both of us being neophytes at guiding or being guided around, we both got what we wanted.

She’d already come up with a plan for the day. We began by visiting some little-known art galleries in Chelsea, moved on to a sports complex with a driving range where New Yorkers hit golf balls into the Hudson River, next up was Chelsea Market (a small market inside what used to be a giant factory) and many more sights. The day concluded with a dinner at a popular pizza parlor under the Brooklyn Bridge, which I never would have found on my own. We had such a good time that we agreed to meet another night at an alternative part of Brooklyn with a girl friend of hers.

The best part of the whole experience was not the assortment of places we visited, but the things she told me along the way. Among others, those things that she normally does with friends, places she used to go as a kid, why people buy dogs in New York and so on. Different things. This was the real side of the experience and, frankly, it could not have been a better one. Not only did we have a fabulous time, but we’ve continued to correspond and she’s thinking of visiting my city! Without a doubt, New York would have sized up very differently had I not contacted Rachel.

New York lived it & loved it by Marcos