All dressed up with nowhere to go!

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Question: Have you ever hoped on a plane knowing exactly where you’re going but having no idea where you’re staying? If you haven’t, try it one day. It’s an interesting experience…

It’s one of those small things about travelling that until you’ve actually tried it you won’t really understand what I’m talking about. Imagine for a moment arriving at an airport or in a town without a map, your iphone’s not working, you can’t speak the language, its late and you’re lugging around 25kg of bags. Where do you go and what do you do? If money’s not an issue and you’re on a holiday you simply hope in a cab and say take me to a nice hotel right? What about if you’re on a normal budget and you’re on a long term trip…interesting question hey.

I remember when I left Australia last year I had my first 2 weeks planned out like a military style operation. I knew exactly where I was staying, what I was going to do and when I had to be somewhere else. As each day went by I become more and more relaxed about these issues and it wasn’t long before I was happy to go with the flow and see what happens.

By the end of last year it actually became fun doing this way but of course when your single and travelling by yourself your priorities are different and at the end of the day you don’t really care where you stay. Sometimes you hit the jackpot and other times it’s a case of this will do for one night and I’ll worry about finding something else better tomorrow.

Well without even thinking about it, 18 months on I jumped on a plane after leaving Australia and did just this. Admittedly I spent a week in Germany at a conference on the way first which I had no choice but to find proper accommodation for in advance as those things are full on, but after leaving Cologne once my conference was finished it wasn’t until I was actually sitting on the plane in transit to Spain that it occurred to me that I had no place to stay when I arrived? Crazy hey.

And the ironic thing was that once I realised this I wasn’t even worried about the fact that I didn’t have accommodation (even though I was arriving at 10pm at night), instead I was more interested in the fact that it never even occurred to me to worry about not having accommodation. I suddenly realised that the events of last year had totally desensitised me to this type of problem which I found really fascinating.

In terms of the actual solution it wasn’t a problem either. The place that I wanted to end up was a three hour bus ride away (San Sebastian) from where I landed (Santander) so I simply caught the airport bus into town which was only 5 mins away, walked a couple of blocks, found a cheap room for the night and headed off early the next day to Sans Sebastian. Simple!

Anyway as I said, if you haven’t tried it before it’s a tough one to explain. In saying this I have picked up a few tricks along the way that might help if you ever want to try it one day yourself;

- Try and get to your destination before dark. It’s not just about being able to see where you are but shops, businesses and tourist centres all tend to close after dark. It’s just a lot easier when others are around to help you.
- Stick to the main areas and the centre of town. Don’t head of in weird directions if you don’t know where you are it’s just not smart. Wherever there are people there is usually accommodation.
- Learn some words such as room or hotel and how to say thank you. Locals are generally very helpful and it’s amazing how a friendly they will be with a few thankyous on the end of every sentence.
- Don’t stress. I’ve you need a break or a rest have a coffee. It can wait always wait 15 mins no matter what time of day it is. Perhaps you’ll strike it lucky and the waiter will speak English… you never know.

And finally so that this blog has some nice pictures to accompany it I’ve attached some pictures from San Sebastian in Spain. This is one of my favourite places in the world and I just spent 4 weeks there in a great little apartment which is a whole other story and maybe something for the next blog. Sans Sebastian gets a VERY HIGH travel recommendation from me for any who loves food, wine and great scenery. It’s the second time I’ve been there and trust me it won’t be the last.

Cheers,
Nate

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Comments

[Alec Neave]

San Sebastian and other things
You have touched on a topic that I love. What I call impromptu travel. Sudden idea? Place to visit? Just go.Just do it. What is the first thing society tells you? Plan it? Have you ever seen a child plan anything? Thats why they have such fun. By the time parents and society have finished with the young mind we are all prisoners of the welfare state and welfare thinking. Its when you stop being a child, you stop dreaming. When you stop dreaming, the fairies and goblins disappear and the magic of not knowing is gone. The human is built to discover. If I was to ask you when have you been happiest? What would you say? When you were looking forward to what you thought was magic--- a dream. In your school days, the holidays? And often when the holidays arrived the dream bubble burst because the magic of 'dreaming' had gone and you faced reality which usually was not the mahgic you dreamed about? You are following your dreams. Your fairies and Alice in Wonderland. Never let anyone take that away from you. My father never grew up. Until the day he died he loved young people and the madness of their wishes and hopes and aspirations. I chose the words for his epitaph on his headstone: "HE WHO NEVER LOST HIS CHILDS HEART!" Never lose your dreams. May you dream forever and never wake up. Anything is possible if you have the heart to follow that dream long enough. You may not want to be Walt Disney but you can make YOUR dreams come true. You DAD and your mate away from home. Proud to count you and Chas as friends. Alec.

[lilian]

travelling
Nate , that's what I did exactly in 1998 when I backpacked the Continent with 2 other female friends. Arrive by train , take a flyer from people advertising their digs and take potluck! In Italy once we did that and the digs were !!!!! so the next day we split and walked the streets to find better sleeping quarters. We decided which was best and moved over there. That was a magic trip noting organised just arrive in a town and find something to our liking. You know us by now - nothing planned just go!! Never forget the "Flying Pig" backpackers in Amsterdam - very interesting