Tavelling Solo...

There's a place where I travel when I want to roam, and nobody knows it but me. The roads don't go there and the signs stay home, and nobody knows it but me. ....


Finally, more than a couple of months before the travel bug caught me last month, I was on my way to the Embassy of Spain. There have not been many morning when I rose with the sun, with anticipation and nervousness, praying fervently for something I had desired. The thought to go wandering by myself all alone in a complete God Forsaken country with little idea of what to expect or do was the first one that entered my mind. How or why such a wonderful idea finally transformed into a trip to Spain might have something to do with the fact that I had never been to mainland Europe and some more with the simplicity of logistics. Finally it did not matter for Spain was as far as I could go away without being bothered by anyone else and that was the whole point in the first place.

What I did not envisage during the grand plan though was the wealth of information that I will gather along the way, though I have little idea of how to put it in use. Additionally a little research on backpacking trips provides light to the lives of a magnificent lot who have lived this way not for a week or month but for years on end. I found a couple who are traveling in Spain on 20$ a day which comes to 14 euros a day. Their plan is to cover Spain on Hitchhiking and tenting in farms and backyards. Will they manage to achieve their journey, well I really hope they do but that is besides the point. What matters is the attempt and the belief that it is possible. Further research showed that a round the world trip in a year required a little less than 36000$ which though a big number is not unreachable a dream. I can go mad simply thinking of roaming all around the world like a vagabond or just having the local beer in each country, city and town makes me dizzy.

This someone might call as escapism or day dreaming, but the fact that it just can be possible one day, some day is enough to make a bad day go by and to think that I am actually taking the plunge may be with baby steps but still a plunge it is and my dream of being a vagabond will come true if not fully then atleast partially for a fortnight and that is what matters I guess in the end. What I shall see and experience in the mean time is (without bragging) fantastic. Just the thought of being in the hometown of the mind boggling Dali, or amidst the magnificent Goya impressionist and amazing Picassos seems surreal. Add to it the cities of Barcelona and Madrid and the quaint little towns like Ronda and Toledo or places like Cordoba and Granada which are throbbing with history and I seriously wonder how can no one envy this.

The plan is simple, dreams are big and I am embarking on the journey as a solo traveller. The date is 1st October - Wish me luck and do bear with the barage of posts which are to come on this topic sooner rather than later.