Week 9, Spanish Familia, addicted to chocolate & how to survive on 5 euro a day. TOTAL 3370 km

After 7 days of solitude between Barcelona and Valencia I was well overdue some two way conversation, all this thinking out loud deserved a response and Valencia would not disappoint. I spent the first night in a backpackers lodge for 12 euro which is always quite disappointing taking into account every ” traveller ” you meet in a backpackers lodge seems to exude the tune of the intrepid discoverer but in actual fact they cruise from slackpackers lodge to bus stop clinging tightly to their bibles ( lonely planet travel guides ) fearing the unknown but regurgitating stories of how they were the first white face this tribe had ever seen man… as they argue with someone over 5 cents out of the euro.

My stay in the land of OZ was short lived as I moved in with a Spanish couple and their friend, I had met Maria hitch hiking through Europe in 2008 and we had stayed in touch, she was visiting friends in Valencia, they invited me to stay for a few days so I obliged. My first real taste of Spanish hospitality as I was floored by Mario’s cooking and Virginia’s humour, I felt like the adopted cousin for 2 days as we shared stories of traditions both Spanish and African late into the night as I tried to wrap my tongue around this beautiful but tricky language.

Valencia to Cartagena would see me get acquainted with the N332 through Alacante where I finally succumbed to the fact that I am clearly becoming addicted to chocolate, trying to keep the sugar levels up (part excuse part reality) quite happy to wolf down a bar of chocolate everyday something I would never do in the past but feel quite at ease with at the moment …grin. Hugging the coast when possible, pitching the tent in fields and courtyards of old derelict buildings dotted through the countryside, fixing broken spokes and flat tyres (do not say the F word) made up the lion’s share of my  time on the road for the week.

Living like a king (eyes of the beholder) and surviving on 5 euro a day in the Mediterranean is well and truly possible and with a bit of discipline and the ability to curb the intense craving of more than one bar of chocolate one can travel down the Mediterranean coast on 5 Euro a day quite easily.

SURVIVING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ON 5 EURO A DAY AND HOW TO DO IT.

2 X Baguette 120 cents

0.5 X Cheese 150 which is 75 cents daily

2 X Tomatoes 50 cents

1 X Cucumber 40 cents

1 X Bottle red wine 80 cents

2 X Mandarins Free from the land

1 X Artichoke Free from the land

1 X Bar of chocolate 110 cents

3 X liters of water Free from Petrol Station

1 X  Accommodation Free on the land (pitch tent where ever you feel is home for the night, provided you dont mind getting arrested as free camping is illegal in Spain )

1 X Travel Free, provided you fancy pedaling your buns off against heavy winds and up and down hills.

Total: Euro 4-75 plus half a litre of blood sweat and tears.

Tip for the week,Once you have popped into a dodgy little bar/café and stolen/borrowed toilet paper to take with you on your adventures by bike through the countryside and once you have found a suitable place to make use of that newly acquired paper do not move your feet once you have started no matter how strange that tickling sensation on the back of your thigh might be !!!