My only real worry is French, or rather my ability to learn it. I know it doesn’t help to worry about such things I just need to do my best consistently and time will sort it all out. Well I’m going to upload photos over the weekend and try and find somewhere to couchsurf instead of staying in the auberge I’m at until the 5th.

I’m also looking at books to buy, lists of words and verbs to learn, I have a suggested book by the course which I’m buying today, I’ve also found stores stocking English language books but I guess I should pick up French versions. I feel like this is a baptism of fire, but little by little I’ll get there, it’s a lot like cycling I guess .

I have been all over Andorra La Vella the ‘capital’ and have pretty much seen all there is to see, part of me might be hanging on here before I approach France and I know how tough that’s going to be (I’m not talking about the mountains in the way, I mean the larger difficulties of finding work and speaking French).

I have got a lot on my mind recently much more than I can write here or want to write here. But it’s all positive. I just need to stop thinking and start acting I think that would be a constructive first step. All the thinking is just driving me a little nuts. But hey I’m alive loving life here, only 186km to Toulouse. No problems .

I guess I’ll write the next entry from France and let you know how the getting over the final ridge of the mountains went. I’m imagining it’ll be hard as hell but very rewarding to go down the other side.

Aside that I biked up a mountain yesterday, strangely it wasn’t so bad, that sounds odd but seriously I was amazed how easy it was to travel up for 10km on 4-5% slopes. As long as you keep your pace no matter how slow that becomes you’ll eventually get there. I know that now, it’s not a problem the mountains don’t worry me any more, they are more a nuisance that’s stopping me from reaching France.

When I get to France I know it’ll be a shock, I know I’ll need to work hard, something very different to biking hard, I’ll have to study a lot, and it’ll be difficult. But I also know that the rewards will be great and the problems surmountable. Just like the mountains, I have to just keep going, eventually I’ll get there.

I’m guessing that the number of vertical meters climbed over the next few days will be well in excess of 5 kilometres. Strangely that doesn’t freak me out. It’s just a case of keeping on pedalling till I get there. I am looking forward to getting to that summit, though, it’ll be certainly one of the highest points (if not ‘the’ highest point) of my tour. Once I’ve done that I think nothing will be beyond me, I already feel like that, but after that I’ll know.

Well off to do some much needed laundry. Tomorrow I’m off to Huelva then it’s just 242 km to go! Hah! no problem

I hope this wave of optimism lasts, but at present I feel unstoppable!

Aside from that I’ve started applying for work, honestly only sent one application to a place I’d really like to work but I’m now going to hunt for runner ups . So today is about relaxing and building up strength before heading off. Kind of worried but also pretty relaxed about it all. I will be in France when I planned to be, then in Toulouse I’m hoping to find month intensive French courses.

Wish me luck

The Pousadas de Juventude (Official Youth hostels) in Portugal are clean cheap and pretty well situated in most cases. So I’d definitely use them. English is spoken almost everywhere apart from the smallest villages and it doesn’t take long to get yourself understood. The food is cheap compared to everywhere else I’ve been so far (I’ll miss that). But now I’m back in Spain I’m focused on Andorra, a stepping stone to France.

My plan is to apply for work for the ski tourist season, but to improve my chances I’m determined to study and get to an intelligible level in French. As the season ends in April it gives me an excellent opportunity, 7 months of being in France, studying, working and preparing for the next leg across to Italy, Slovakia, Croatia and so on till I reach Greece then I go to Turkey and work my way up the East side back up to Ukraine.

That should take me the year to finish in my reckoning and also should be cheaper than this first leg of the tour, I’ve learnt a lot about what I need, my bike, my limits and how to budget. I think those will only improve.

The main focus now is getting to Andorra and then working out where to couchsurf in Toulouse, plus applying to everyone I can to get a job. But even without the ski work I’m confident I’ll find something somewhere.

I have had an awesome time so far and I know that the future just holds more fantastic experiences. So I’ve had enough of worrying about things, or regretting decisions now I’m just focusing on the future, the next km and enjoying life. Hopefully I’ll see some of you along the way!

It’s been a busy few weeks with a lot going on. I’m not really prepared to write a lengthy post but suffice to say it’s been an amazing time I’ll miss my new friends but I’ll make new ones I’m sure. I would suggest that Portugal is an awesome place to visit. But the Algarve is pretty expensive, go a little inland and prices halve.

It’s all good for biking and it’s 1500 km to Andorra now, so I’m hoping to be in France for early September then I’ll be studying my ass off in French and also hopefully getting a job in a ski lodge. I’ll write up a proper entry in the next few days.

When I left Ciudad Real and headed south over the mountains to Cordoba I entered Andalucía, for those not familiar with the terrain the area around Cordoba and Sevilla (the capital of Andalucía) has the ominous nick name the frying pan of Spain. I can vouch for this one, it is searing hot with midday temperatures at around 45°C on the days I was there in late June. Apparently August brings even more heat, something I don’t want to even consider.

Andalucía is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the most populous and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen such communities of the Kingdom of Spain. It, like all of Spain, has a load of convoluted history (much more than I can talk about here). One prominent and constant feature is the Islamic influence on the region, you get mosques everywhere that have been converted into Cathedrals during the Catholic rule later. Muslim castles (in Malaga, Gibraltar etc) and even some of the names of places still reflect the history just look south of Sevilla on a map and there are a load of places ending in de la frontera. The border towns of the christian and Muslim world.

I met a guy called Austin who had just been studying international law in Cairo, who gave me some interesting insight into how the architecture worked, like all the points where the elements combined from the cardinal directions and formed fountains sending water towards the heavens etc. After hearing that every place I went I saw more and more of what he meant and it brought a whole new interest to every Muslim building.

The whole of the coast is a massive tourist destination which has spread houses everywhere in an almost binge like fashion, massively built up areas dominate over beautiful cathedrals and parks. Really that’s where the problem comes in. There is a distinct dichotomy in the area. You get everything here from beautiful empty roads to screaming autovia, which while you’re allowed to bike on in some cases are pretty damn terrifying. In worst cases they don’t allow cyclists on to the roads halfway along but don’t mention it on the actual autovia only on the entrances so suddenly you pass an entrance and notice that you’re not supposed to be there anymore with no idea how long that’s been in effect.

Contrasting the beautiful modern clean tourist areas if you walk or bike just a little way out you can usually find litter covering the streets,  dilapidated buildings, sometimes windowless and packed with yet more rubbish and in the worst cases slums that look more like the favelas of Brazil than in a developed country (trust me, go to Sevilla and drive to the north section out of town you’ll see what I mean). There is a huge unemployment problem in Spain too at around 17.5% if I read the news report right. Yet goods still remain quite expensive unless you hunt around.

I don’t write that to put the place down, it’s been fantastic down here, you can meet every kind of person under the sun, from friendly locals in rock bars in Sevilla who invited me back to their home to party till the sun came up, to students who met up with me in Malaga and wandered around town just because I was an interesting person. The whole south section along the coast is more of an English colony than a tourist area. Out of 5 people I asked for directions none of them spoke Spanish (I asked in Spanish first) this wouldn’t be so bad but one guy had lived there 5 years.

The Terrain is mountainous in almost every direction and is pretty hard biking although east of Cordoba towards Sevilla is at least pretty flat. bordering the coast is mountain after mountain. Tyring to avoid motorways (the main routes that weave through them) is almost impossible without taking long detours or hard biking roads, on the plus side you get some fantastic downhill stretches that go on for 10-15km, pure joy.

Bull fighting seems to still be hugely popular round here with posters and banners letting you know about all the events. There also seem to be constant fiestas ranging from free to crazy expensive. Pubs are everywhere. Honestly I don’t know how they all can survive given the sheer number of them, licenses in most small bars run to 3 but you can often find yourself staggering into your hostel as other people are coming out to work.

I also should mention another cycle tourist I met called Brian who did a different route to me around the same area. We randomly met at a garage between Marbella and Gibraltar and parted ways today he’s off to Morocco while I’m heading to Portugal. He’s a great guy and we put the world to rights discussing the difficulties and successes of cycle touring in Spain. I wish him all the best in his tour I’m sure he’ll have a great time.

I’m going to try and write up what I think of places as I visit them from now on along with other mental stuff this is after all about the journey and I hope people will maybe visit some of the great places I had the pleasure of finding on my minor roads as well as the big cities. So I’ll tag posts like this with ‘travel guide’ as I go on. So hopefully I’ll do a write up Cadiz and all that’s inbetween when I get there .

This doesn´t mean I´m about to stop. Even living abroad for a few months is part of the journey not the destination. Certainly though I am wondering how the future will be, how long will I be on the road. One thing is clear, money seems the least important thing in my life now. When I was earning good money I never felt as satisfied as I am at present. In fact it seems the less I have material wise the less stressed and happier I feel. What is the phrase again “the things you own, own you”? Possibly this is just simplicity at work. When you only have to worry about your next meal and the road ahead things are certainly simpler. Obviously when you get a job that changes, you have responsibilities a schedule of work, time is taken away to generate funds, but if I´m working just to move on again then I can cope for a time. In the future I can see my home / flat / apartment will be pretty spartan in nature.

So my plan is Portugal for now, then Andorra I know where I´m headed, I know what the plan is, I have a direction. But part of me is constantly wondering a few things;

1. Where I am going to stop?
2. When is that going to be?
3. What am I going to do when I finally reach the destination?
4. Who am I now and who do I want to be?
5. Why am I doing this? (usually on a mountainside in blistering heat to be fair)
6. How will I answer any of the above?

I don´t have an answer to any of these questions I think their similar questions to the ones I had when I was at work. Does everyone have them, aside from minor variations? Does anybody know how find the answers? Well anyhow I´m off to explore locally see if I can get any inspiration and maybe meditate again later. My blog entries seem quite repetetive recently so I´ll end on a travel note.

I biked to Malaga and I´m on my route back to Gibraltar due to the routes that are available I´ll have to backtrack as far as Sevilla before heading to Portugal thankfully this is only 3 or so days away but it´s worth learning that you should look at the big picture before deciding a route. I´ve met some fantastic people during my little detour and so I´m glad I took the time to do it, plus the places I visited are as beautiful as they are interesting. I would suggest taking the time to see Spain to anyone there are many spains though, depending where you go you´ll see something entirely different, I would suggest the less beaten path is the more interesting but don´t underestimate how nice it can be where the locals can understand English