zwei: 2008

The sun is shining and you are wearing sunglasses, shorts and a t-shirt. It is warm outside. It is even warmer inside. Inside that is a car without airconditioning. Actually is it so unbearable hot that you might expect to die of inner drought any second. To make matters worse there is not even a breeze of air moving. Because the car is not moving either since you are stuck in traffic jam in a small coastal village. It is summertime in Spain and you are on a low cost road trip heading down south along the Costa Dorada (coast between Barcelona and Valencia) towards Valencia.

(Jogger at the beach of Barceloneta, Barcelona)

(Graffiti in Murcia)

(Cat in the shade in Granada)

The low cost part of the voyage basicly insists of the following: a camping equipment with a tent, a camping stove with kitchen surroundings, a sleeping bag with camping mat and the will to live less luxurious than you are usually used to. Since you took the car out of reasons of convenience and comfort you take in the money saving aspect by avoiding expressways with road charges and therefore save gasoline by driving slower or sometimes not at all like in longterm traffic jams as mentioned before.

(Graffiti in Valencia)

(Towards Granada)

This way of travelling might not seem very attractive and sometimes it actually is not but in the end you going to experience a country and its inhabitants in a way that you will hardly get to know by spending your vacation in a “Club Med” or likewise. Taking the coastal line between Barcelona and Valencia as an example, there is one camping resort next to the other filled with mostly German, Dutch, English and French tourists followed by one incredibly ugly mass-tourism concrete-beach jungle also called hotels next to the other also stuffed with German, Dutch, English and French tourists. In between these two types of coastal area there are sometims nicely small villages with a glimpse of Spanish identity. And as you sit down to take a coffee you become aware of the other guests speaking German, Dutch, English or French. As you finally pay your coffee your mood is getting close to being pissed-off because you are being charged by an English speaking waiter the tripple amount of money that you would normally pay in any bar or café in Spain.

(Stencil in Granada)

(Graffiti in Granada)

Of course there is added a slight exaggeration to this anecdote but the general situation in this part of Spain is like this, not to mention the Costa Blanca (coast near Alicante) which is supposed to be even worse.

(Graffiti in Granada)

Back to the low cost life, stuck in the traffic jam with an outside temperature of 38 degrees (Celsius). After a while, the traffic dissolves and you reach the Ebro Delta. There are miles and miles of sandy beaches. The landscape is impressive and the Mediterranean Sea incredibly beautiful. The best part of this is that you can find hardly any people populating these fine sandy beaches. You drive back into town, buy food for lunch and dinner and buy a parasol since you have already been sunburnt for more than two consecutive days. For safety reasons you ask a native if there might be any problem with the police, camping on these beautiful beaches without permission. He friendly negates and gives you some hints for the best and loneliest places to stay and wishes you a pleasant trip. You go back to the recommended spot, push the parasol into the sand, lie down and enjoy beach, sun and water. You spread the picnic blanket, cut some Chorizo (typical Spanish sausage), open a glass of olives and a bottle of whine and start cooking pasta for dinner while the sun is setting. And in this little piece of paradise there is nobody else present which gives you the impression of being in a dream rather than in real life.

(Relaxation and enjoyment at the Ebro Delta)

All of a sudden the dreamy bubble bursts and you finally realize what your error in reasoning was. You are on a delta of a river which means that there is much humidity. And much humidity combined with warmth equals millions of mosquitos. So the nice romantic dinner at the beach turns within seconds into a run for life of an unevenly more powerful opponent which leads at first into the car and at last into the ocean relieving your body with a cool sensation from thousands of itching point on your body.

(Camping at the Ebro Delta)

In the end you enjoy your meanwhile cold-gotten meal and drink cheap but tasty red whine while staring at the fantastic sky with millions of stars glowing at you and bringing you back into your bubble of paradise.

(Stars at the Ebro Delta)

("Stars" of a bathroom in the Alhambra)

As you might have noticed travelling at low cost includes many disadvantages or colloqually spoken “pain in the asses” but after all, those moments make life beautiful, special and enjoyable and will make you never forget your voyage. Of course, heading from Barcelona through Valencia, Murcia, Granada and back again, you will experience and see a lot more than a short story as told before but pictures are the better way to illustrate the beauty of the sights and places visited in Spain. The only recommendation I want to give is to visit the Alhambra, the former moor castle in Granada. This masterpiece of art and arquitecture impressed me with its beauty like neither a church nor any other building in Europe ever did and shows how highly developed the moor culture was already nearly 1000 years ago. Strangely enough that the Spanish people don’t seem to acknowledge the moor occupation of the Iberian Peninsula as a part of their own cultural history. At least my impression left me believing that the moor influence is still noticeable in their culture, especially in Granada where the occupation lasted about 700 years.

Alhambra