Thanks for waking my wanderlust

[Marticus]

Hey! I’m currently a boring middle aged white dude living out the normy life in Ohio. Decades ago I hitched across country, up and down the West Coast (anyone remember Redwood Summer?), Texas, and then bummed around Mexico quite a bit. Then I lived in Spain for a couple years where I explored abandoned villages in the mountains on motorcycle. I’m grateful for those past adventures but I feel like I’m not quite done yet, and discovering StP has awakened my old wanderlust.

I’ve been a bike nerd for years, riding to get around town and commuting miles to work nearly every day. Last year my son and I did our first overnight tour on the Little Miami Trail in southeastern Ohio. I really want to do more long-distance bike touring, especially in more inspiring parts of the world. I’m starting slow though. I’ve been scheming to do some stealth camping overnighters in nearby parks soon.

So thanks for this great resource and inspiration to embrace the long-dormant wanderlust!

 

[Raggamuffin]

Sounds like great past travels! Keep on the rejuvenation journey!

 

[numberonenumberreader]

Bike trampin is hella fun and fulfilling! Enjoy your time!

 

[Matt Derrick]

I'd be interested in hearing more about your time living in Spain if you wanted to share.

 

[Marticus]

I'd be interested in hearing more about your time living in Spain if you wanted to share.

Anywhere you can ride a bike or motorcycle up into the nearby mountains and explore abandoned villages and medieval castles ruins is awesome, and Spain is full of places like that if you leave the crowded touristy coastline. Or at least it was 20 years ago. I wrote a little about it here: Question - What's your dream? - https://squattheplanet.com/threads/whats-your-dream.43827/post-320193



I first moved to Vinaroz, a small fishing village surrounded by the Valencia orange groves. The village outskirts had recently exploded with German and French retirees and their chalet subdivisions overlooking the Meditarranean. I lived with a friend I had made during a summer semester in Valencia and her girlfriend. I joined their orange-picking crew and humped bushels of oranges from the trees to the truck until my shoulders were so soar. My Spanish sucked and nobody spoke English, but people were incredibly patient and willing to take the time to explain jokes to me.

One thing that really struck me was how well they lived just on farm labor income. They rented a chalet where you could see the Med through the picture window, nice middle class furnishings, plenty of time to cook incredible food, drink good wine, etc. It was easy to earn enough, and you didn’t have to work that much. People always had time to stop by y fumar un porro, or go to the café and talk for hours. There were cheap passenger trains all throughout the country so you didn’t need a car to get around, especially if you’re able to bike tour.

Of course, all this was 2 decades ago, and I know things have changed. But I don’t know how much. We moved back the states about a year before Spain adopted the Euro and when we went back to visit about 3 years later everything cost a whole lot more. Our friends told us the switch from the peseta to the Euro was the perfect reason for all the shops to suddenly jack up their prices. Nobody knew how much the Euro was worth and it didn’t even feel like real money yet.

The thing I miss most about Spain is the sense of community. People live in densely populated cities and villages with small shops, bars, markets, churches, and restaurants everywhere. You’re outside all the time, and you spend time chatting with neighbors, shopkeepers, acquaintances and friends just on the way to run an errand. Kids are outside running around, groups of punkies hanging out in the plaza with boxes of half decent wine. Senoras chattering as they leave the gothic chapel where the leathery pinkie finger of some 800-year-old saint sits in a little nook behind the alter. It’s so much healthier than this weird online shut-in life we all living here in Merica.