Once in a life time ;)

A few years ago I reached a point in my life when I just needed a break.  I finished university and I was working really hard but I didn't feel like I was going anywhere. I was tired of everything and everyone and I made a decision, I decision that was going to change my whole life.

I decided to leave everything and go pursuit my dream, travelling. Back at home saving  money was hard, the currency exchange wasn't helping so I thought that the best thing to do was to move somewhere else, work there for a while and like that, I would be able to save money and go travel the world.

First, I had to check my options. I couldn't go to do one of those work and travel deals to the USA that they offer in the travel agencies because you need to be a student. Australia was another possibility but I was never really interested in going there (now things are different).

Until I found the best place for me, NEW ZEALAND.  When I was 12 I watched a documentary about the fauna in this country and I promised myself I’ll go to this far far land one day. So this was my chance, the opportunity to kill two birds with the one stone.

New Zealand has a working holiday visa programme with Argentina and over 30 other countries. This visa allows you to work and travel the country for up to a year, you shouldn't take a permanent job, you can even study for 3 months and it has different requirements depending where you are from.

The difference with this visa is that is not like the ones you apply to to go to the USA, for example. Basically you just apply for a visa, you don’t have a job offer or anything. So that means that it depends on you when you arrive to find work. You go there with a chance and nothing else.

During a whole year I saved every penny for this.  I studied and asked as many questions about it as possible so I was prepared. They didn't ask for much, at the begging you just need to fill up a form and just pay the fee. Oh and because I'm from Argentina I also needed to present and X-ray to show that I didn't have TB.

After you've done all that and you get your place, you should buy your plane ticket, travel insurance and you need a certain amount of money. They specifically say so because you may not get a spot in the scheme or you could be rejected because of not fulfilling the requirements.

But I was young and stupid and thought that “OF COURSE I'M GOING TO GET IT”. So I bought everything in advance, I even quitted my job. I just needed to wait for the date and get what I thought it was, already, mine.

The day was getting closer, but  first it was Chile’s turn. Everybody applied for it, everyone was online and they made the website crash.  Because of this, the date for the Argentinian visa got postponed a couple of weeks. I was extremely excited and nervous.

The day finally arrived. The places opened on the 29^th October 2009 at 8 in the morning, Argentina’s time. I was sitting in my computer ready to do it. I logged in, went to the application link, filled up the first page, saved it and BOOM.  The page crashed, it said that it had too much traffic. So I tried again, filled up the first page of the application and when I tried to save it, same thing happened.

After my tenth attempted I started to panic. I realised I had a ticket out of the country in 20 days and, what if I didn't get the visa. What was I going to do? I couldn't not go, I didn't want people to think I failed. I decided that even if I didn't get it I was going to go and travelled around there until I run out of money, yes yes that sounded like a plan.

Time kept passing by and I couldn't get pass the first page. The worst thing was that I had the Embassy website opened and I could see the numbers going down. Argentina has 1000 places a year for this visa, and they were, at least, a hundred places per hour given.

My parents were with me, my dad took I day off to be there (Yes they are amazing). I was crying and didn't know what to do, I was hysterical, I didn't want to wait another year to apply for it. I was sitting on my bed with my laptop on one side and my sister’s laptop on the other, trying to see if any worked. Four hours had passed and I had made no progress.

My mum kept insisting that I should use my dad’s computer. I was certain that it wasn't going to work, mine was all new it should be better than a windows 98 one.

After over 6 hours I decided to give it a try, I had nothing else to loose. So I sat in my dad’s office logged in, filled up the first page, saved it and OH MY GOD, I was on the second page. I couldn't believe it, that entire time that old computer was the solution.

I filled page by page with my mum on my side double checking if I was miss spelling something. I always ask someone to check when I'm filling up important papers.

Almost 8 hours later, I finished completing my form. The last and most important step was in between me and my dream, paying the visa. You needed to pay it and to get the confirmation for your place to be saved.

So I put all my credit card details, pressed confirm and… Oh no, not again. It didn't let me pay. I tried a few times but nothing. I started crying, AGAIN, I was so close but yet I had nothing. But while I was crying my eyes out, hating the universe, my mum called the credit card company. They said that they rejected the payment because it was made from a foreign website. As soon as we confirm it was us they authorize it and told us that in five minutes we could try again and everything should be ok.

Those were the longest 5 minutes of my life. I put all my details once more and pressed confirm. Then I read the phrase that was going to change everything. YOUR CARD HAS BEEN ACCEPTED.

After 8 hours of torture, I finally got my place and I couldn't be happier.

The visa wasn't mine yet. But I’ll tell you what happened in the next post , this one got long.

I think every traveller should live abroad, or may be another city, once in his life time. Doesn't need to be for a year it could be for a month or less. But experiences like these are the once that make you appreciate what you have and realise how much you care about your family and friends. It opens your mind. It makes you see the world in a different way.

Thank you for following and see you soon ;)

What's left to do when rain interferes with your plans? EAT

Welcome back people, hope you had a great week. So let’s finish the story I was telling you.

Well, as you can imagine after such a long first day and first night, I woke up the next morning a little hangover. Went down stairs got my breakfast and then went back to bed.

By the time I woke up, again, the weather had changed and it was going to continue like that until my departure. It started getting colder and windy and that made me a little bit lazy to be honest.

I spent more time with Ornella, tried some more octopus, some clams and even more cod, one of the specialities. I tried some Port wine, I did it because it was one of the things that I HAD to try. I'm not a big fan of wine but for my surprise, I liked it. It has a very sweet taste, is perfect to have it while eating dessert or something like that.

Then we spent more time with the guys and I got to meet Susan, a lovely Taiwanese girl with whom we enjoyed a lovely evening telling jokes and stories.

It kept raining and my clothes never got dry. I didn't have a rain jacket or proper shoes, not even an umbrella (I really don’t like umbrellas). So I spent most of the time chatting with fellow travellers in the hostel and trying new food.

I'm recommending every single one of you guys to go visit the Leitaria da Quinta do Paço (Check it out). Daniela, the tour guide, told us about it, it’s supposed to have the best éclairs, a long pastry with a dough like the one they use in profiterole filled with Chantilly cream and with topped with icing. This bakery was inaugurated on 1920 and until now, it uses the same recipes. Everything that they use it’s homemade, the butter, the cream, custard and that makes it a million times more delicious.

The first time, I had a mini berry éclair with Port wine and it was fantastic. Then I went back and had some lunch because they also offer a lunch/dinner menu. For dessert I chose Pastel de Natas, traditional in Portugal. It’s an egg tart pastry and because it was homemade, it had a smooth taste that was just indescribable.

By Tuesday morning everybody was gone and I was by myself again. The rain stopped for a bit so I went for walk through the little streets and along the riverside. Such a beautiful city, I would have loved to do the boat cruise across the 6 bridges but it was foggy so you couldn't appreciate the view. But I’ll leave it for the next time.

Yet again, the rain surprised me so I went back to the hostel. There I met the wonderful Dali, a Mexican girl that lives in Denmark that came to Portugal looking to do some kite surfing. Oh and she also travels with her surfboard.

I took her around the city like when I went on the tour. Once again, we finished in the Éclair bakery. Dali enjoyed a mini éclair and a glass of Port wine while I tried the Bola de Berlim, a pastry similar to a doughnut filled, in this case, with an awesome Chantilly cream with an espresso.

Then we went to the Porto Cathedral, its architecture is a mix of Baroque and Gothic, another MUST for your visit here. There is a small part that you can go and see the tiles for a fee.

All around the city you are going to be able to see this blue tiles on the walls with some incredible designs. Only important buildings, wealthy families houses and churches use to have them because they were hand painted. This wall tell religious stories or sometimes history. Another place where you can find them is in the São Bento Railway Station.

Porto is registered World Heritage Site by UNESCO, that’s why the façade of the buildings, the height of the house are more or less all the same, is like they are stop in time. But that is what makes it such an interesting and stunning city. I love the old looking buildings for some they look “ugly” and “dirty”. For me they tell you a story, they are the proof that there was a past that needs to be told.

There is a lot more about Porto, a lot more to see and a lot more to tell. Next time I’ll try to go during the summer so I can enjoy the sun and swim in the sea. And who knows, may be I try to blend in the crowd and take some surfing lessons. But that’s going to be another story.

So I’ll keep you posted and I hope you all have an amazing week. If you like my blog, share it with your friends, you can also follow me on Facebook. See you soon =).

Who's ready for some Port Wine?

Welcome back my dear followers. As I was saying last time, in October I went to a new place, Porto the second biggest city in Portugal (country nº 23). It was a short trip from Saturday early morning until Tuesday evening, nevertheless I made the most of it.

I arrived there and from minute one I was amazed. The airport is really big, clean and well organized. The directions around it were easy and clear. I got out and went straight to the underground station, which is actually outside. If you wanted you could even walk down the tracks but, of course, I wouldn't recommend that.

I soon as I step on this city I just fall in love with it. Don’t know why really but it just happened. I took the metro to the hostel. I got off on the station that I was meant to. As soon as I got back out it was just breathe taking, the streets, the houses, the cathedral. I felt like I travelled back in time.

I didn't follow the directions properly and I got lost =P. After asking around, I found this lovely, very modern hostel with welcoming staff that let me leave my things until it was check in time. So then I decided to go out and explore.

I went to have breakfast, had a coffee with a ham and cheese croissant for only €2.75, so cheap, fresh and good. After that I just wondered around. They've got a heritage tram, this old school tram that goes around the city and the driver is dressed accordingly with an old school hat.

I ended up on a long road full with shops and restaurants, Rua Santa Catarina. One thing that I like about Porto is that it’s on a hill so the streets are all up and down, I wouldn’t cycle but it’s a good walk, and, depending where you are standing, it gives you a nice view. I was at the top of the street so I could see a “sea” of people across the whole road. It was a Saturday, so it was a busy day.

After a while, before heading back to do check in, I decided to go for lunch. I wanted something small, I wasn't hungry. I stopped in a small shop and read their menu, trying to find something new and local to try.

I found this dish that sounded good and it said it was a popular snack there. So I ordered a “francesinha”. As soon as they served it to me I realise this wasn't going to be a light meal. Francesinha consist of two slices of bread filled with different types of meat, mine had sausage, ham, bacon and beef, it’s covered in melted cheese and it has a sauce on top. It comes with chips on the side and, usually, a fried egg on top. Lucky for me mine didn't have that last part, if not I don’t think I would be able to walk afterwards.

I decided to go back to the hostel and finally check in. Oh my God!! This is the best hostel I've ever stayed, until now. I was surprised by the facilities, the price and everything that they offered. It had great reviews so I made the right decision when I chose to stay there. But I’ll talk more about the hostel later on.

Something else that the hostel offered was free tour guides around the city, they've got one in the morning and another one during the afternoon. So I thought it was a great idea to go and enjoy the day.

Our guide is called Daniela, she was going to take me and two other girls, Ornella, an Italian girl that recently graduated from university and was travelling around Portugal; and Ning, an Indonesian/Australian girl that was travelling around Europe for a few months.

We were going to go all around the “new” part of Porto. We went to the main spots, Avenida dos Aliados, the spectacular Rail station Sao Bento, the Clerigos Tower (which gives a great view from the top), Centro Portugues de Fotografia (built on an old prison), Capela das Almas (with an amazing façade). We saw the old hospital, a very impressive building, a very cold and old looking.

One of my favourite places is the gardens of the Crystal Palace. We arrived there at closing time so they almost didn't let us in but we were able to enjoy this wonderful place for 10 minutes at least. It’s a big park, gardens everywhere, little corners with fountains. Then there is a place where you can get an amazing view of the river and the bridges, on the far end you can see the sea. We got there during sunset so the colours made everything look even more beautiful. The Crystal Palace was replace in 1956 for a huge dome pavilion where they held concerts and sports events.

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon, we stopped at some small markets in different places of the city. But by the end of the tour it was late and we were hungry. So we decided with girls to go try something new.

Daniela recommended us to go to Canelas do Coelho, a small restaurant that serves petiscos, some kind of tapas. We decided to share some octopus, cod, small ribs and some beef and pork, while we had some wine and caipirinhas (not really Portuguese, it’s Brazilian but it’s my favourite).

Ning was staying in another hostel so we agreed to meet back on the pub crawl that night. A pub crawl is where they take you out to different pubs/bars, usually 3 or 4, and then the night finishes in a nightclub where you can stay until closing. It also includes some drinks on each place or discount price, depending on the city and the company. For me this is a great, as I travel by myself I don’t like going to a nightclub alone. With the pub crawl I get to know new people and we all go out as a group.

At 11p.m. they picked us up, we were also joined by other people from the hostel like Gabriel, from Peru and his friends, Sebastian and Moritz from Germany. When we all got together we were a big group from different hostels, our receptionist João came with us too.

We first had some beers in some kind of park. You've got some bars but they were selling drinks outside. It was really crowded, a lot of local people, and it was so cheap. A beer for just €1.

After that we went to 2 more bars were we enjoyed some more drinks and good old music. The third place was really crowded and super hot but it was a great atmosphere. The third bar was my favourite but we had to leave and go to final destination. The nightclub was bigger than the other places that we've been. We continued to have fun, dance and have a couple more drinks. Cheap drinks, nice people, good music what else can you ask for??

We called it a night and went back to the hostel with Ornella, when I checked the time is was past 5 in the morning, time to go to bed.

This was just the beginning, a busy first day. Next time I’ll tell you how this trip ended and I still need to show you the awesome hostel I stayed at. So don’t put your backpack down just yet, we are still travelling.

Who wants some Spanish omelette??

Don’t think I forgot about you guys, once again I'm really sorry for disappearing but hey I'm back.

So as I was saying after Paris we took a night train to Madrid, Spain. This journey wasn't going to be as smooth as the previous one because we had to change trains after the boarder. We didn't know what to expect because it was the only train we could find, so fingers crossed.

The first half of the ride was alright, nothing special really. We reached the border, we got to our next train and oh no, it wasn't a night train anymore with cabins and a nice place to sleep. No, no, it was a normal train with seat, extremely uncomfortable ones. Usually it was me taking care of the papers, the passports, checking directions and making sure we got wherever we were going. But that night my Aunt Silvia was holding everything because when they asked to check our tickets I was sleeping.

So yeah we finally arrived to Madrid, got off the train and, as usual, I double check that we had everything before leaving the station. I realised that we didn't have our passports or train tickets, then my aunt remembered she left it in the pocket that you've got on the seat in front of you. She rushed in the train, check what she thought were our seats and couldn't find them, so she got really nervous and she came out freaking out saying that they weren't there anymore. So I went in, staring at her, walked to our REAL seats and find the missing documents. What my aunt forgot was that we couldn't get off from our wagon, so we had to get off the one behind it.

To be completely honest, I don’t remember much of Madrid. It is a big city, a capital, which remind me a lot of Buenos Aires. We were only there for a day and a half so there’s not much for me to tell.

But then we took a day trip to one of my favourite places, Toledo. An amazing town with medieval architecture, small streets and a beautiful Cathedral. You can also go visit the castle, of course there is a castle what medieval city wouldn't have one, I LOVE castles. We spent a day here, just walking around and enjoying the view. It was just so beautiful, everywhere we looked it was unbelievable. Definitely a city that I want to revisit and keep searching for new things to see.

After Toledo we went to our last destination, Barcelona. We stayed with my cousins, well they are not actually my cousins they are my cousin’s cousins but we grow up together, so you get what I mean.

We finally had a nice comfy bed, a great bathroom and homemade food.  During this last week of our trip we enjoyed car trips to nearby towns and a nice tour around a great city like Barcelona.

You've got a lot of things to go see here. We went to the Park Güell, Palau Güell and the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (one of the biggest icons of the city), all designed by the architecture Antoni Gaudí. They are all weird looking, some kind of modern architecture with ceramic and stained glass. It’s cool, I would totally recommend it.

 

We walked down the Rambla, went shopping and I also went to the Aquarium with my cousin, Agustina. We saw a dancing water show in the Magic Foutain of Montjuic, which is a very interesting thing to go see.

They took us to Sitges, a town just 35km away from Barcelona. It’s known for its Film Festival and Carnival. We spent a day walking around on the beach. But, as I said before, it was winter so we couldn't enjoy the sea because it was too cold. But we did have a coffee while we enjoyed the view.

In Barcelona I also have one of my oldest friend, Candela. We used to go to school together but after Argentina’s economic crisis in 2001 her mum Marisa decided that the best thing was to relocate to Spain. So this was my turn to go see her, back then she visited Argentina once a year.

So we arranged to meet and Candela and her then boyfriend, now husband, Sebas picked me up and showed me some new places. We first went to Montserrat, a multi-peaked mountain. Here there is an abbey that hosts the Virgin of Montserrat Sanctuary. The view was amazing and there also was a little market with local food, I just remember having some delicious goat cheese.

After that they took me in the car and showed me some vineyards. Sebas is an oenologist, he studies viticulture, the whole process of the wine making from the vineyards to the selling of it. So we were driving around the hills and we stopped in a small restaurant, very local, very simple and just awesome. The menu was in Catalan so I didn't know what to choose so I told them to decide for me.

For a starter I had calçotada, which is some kind of grilled green onion and that you then dip it in romesco sauce, a nut and red pepper sauce. I even had to wear a bib to eat it, which is fun. For main course we had some sort of sausage that I don’t remember. For dessert we had crema catalana, a custard base dessert with cinnamon and citrus peel, similar to the crème brulée. Of course we had wine, and the specialist was the one picking one, so we had some nice rosé.

After almost an entire day out, we went to Candela’s house. I saw her mum, Marisa and her brother, Ramiro. We haven’t seen each other for 3 years, so it was really nice. They were really welcoming, as usual, they had a table with a lot of food, lots of different cheeses and different types of sausages and some pa amb tomàquet (my favourite thing ever), which is bread with olive oil brushed with a tomato mixture, which is amazing. We enjoyed a great evening together with Paco, Marisa’s husband, and they told me more about the Catalan situation and about trying to be independent. A lovely family which I care a lot about.

I couldn't thank enough to the Devoto family for being so welcoming and caring. I had an amazing time and I loved every second of it. Luis, my uncle, used to work at the port so we had a lot of fresh sea food, lots of bread and Spanish omelette. But the trip had to come to an end so we took a flight back to Rome just for a day.

On our last day we went and took some more pictures but unfortunately when we were on the metro going back to the hostel, just hours before taking the plane, somebody stole my camera with most of the pictures of my last week. Sadly doesn't matter where in the world you are there’s always people like this. The police was friendly and helpful but they couldn't do much.

So we headed back to Argentina and as soon as we landed they there were, my parents were waiting for us. And that’s when I told my mum “Next time I'm going for longer”.

Spain is an incredible country with a lot of history and is very different depending on the region you are visiting, people are friendly and the food it’s just amazing. So if you haven’t been there yet, put it on your list because you are not going to regret it and to be honest it’s not even that expensive.

Next post is going to be about my latest trip. At the beginning of October I went to visit a new city, a new country. So hold on guys I swear it’s worth it =).