First part of my Spaintour!

Finally, after a long time and several people were begging me, I will start my blog with my Spain-trip from February to May 2010.

I wanted to stay longer time in Spain since my last school year. After finishing my apprenticeship in January 2010, I started travelling in Barcelona at the 21th February. All my plans were almost failed, before I started it, because I entered the wrong train to Berlin. But because of my patient mother I got my flight in Berlin, thanks for that again.


And the first thing I saw in Barna was a sticker at the airport supporting the 'no pasaran'- demostration in Dresden (so I still felt home ;))


In Catalunya it was a lot warmer than in Germany, and the first thing I've done, was walking trough Barceloneta. Surprisingly I came into a karnival celebration. Very funny, with samba bands and not this silly german stuff. I spend my first evening in the 'Bar Mariatchi', a bar where musicians (Che Sudaka, La Pegatina, Manu Chao, Manana Me Chanto, La Kinky Beat,...) meet and tourist are unusual.


During the next days I have been on the Tibidado, the highest point in Barcelona, then in the Parc Güell, I made a guided tour trough the Barrio Gotic and visited a concert (Zulu 9.30 and La Kinky Beat) with the Brazilian Luiz who I met at 'Bar Mariatchi' two days before.


The day after the concert I left Barna by bus to Madrid!
In the morning of the 24th February I headed to Madrid, without a plan where to sleep (I hadn't a plan too often :D). So first I was searching an internet point to find hostals in Madrid. After a long and rainy walk I found a youth hostal and I shared a room with three italian girls. We had dinner together in a nice and delicious tapas bar.


The next day I drove to my first helpx-place near Cadalso los Vidrios near Madrid. But before I visited with the italian girls the 'Palacio Real', where the kings of Spain lived in the present. Later leaving the bus in the right village wasn't that easy, but spanish people are very helpful. In Cadalso a neighbour of my helpx-host Houston picked me and three other helpers (Maja from Finland, Laura from Australia and Tara from Canada) up. Because a lot of rain the days before the roads were so bad, that we had to walk the last 15 minutes, we have been to heavy for the car. After the arriving we girls talked a little bit and went to bed.


The work begun on Thursday, Houston showed us his property, explained how we can help and we decided what we would like to do. That is a good way, that the helper always gives the best and don't get bored, because we were always free to change our work. After daily 6 hours of work, we spend the time reading, drinking tea, learning spanish, going for a walk (and in my case: drawing).

myself, Laura, Houston and Tara

He built a very interesting house. We had a compost toilet and had to safe water. But that wasn't dificult because of special mechanisms. He also used only electricity from his own solar panels and wind generator. Lot of days we had sun and much wind, so we could all recharge our mobile phones, ipods and computers and also use the toaster and the ofen. To heat the house he used gas and also wood from his own trees. He told us also about the big hole behind his house. Our first thought was, that he wants a swimming pool, but wrong, this was the beginning of a huge green house. He said something with fishes inside, so that the water circulates from the soil to the fishes and back, but my english level didn't allowed me to understand all :(


The weekend 5th/6th March was my Madrid-weekend. I had a look to the typical things: Parc del Retiro, Prado, Plaza del Sol, Museo Sofia Reina, Estacion Atocha, El Rastro and so on. On Saturday night I also went to a concert. A couchsurfer invited me, but couln't host me. Anyway, the concert was so much fun and I met a girl there from Leipzig, she was an Erasmusstudent in Bilbao. The band was 'Limando el Serrucho' which made funny Ska, Reggae and Funk music.

After finishing the work at Houstons house, I spend one more night in Madrid with Laura and Tara. For this last night I found a couchsurfing host for us. We cooked for Fede and I think it was the only time his kitchen was used ;P


Before I drove to Santiago de Compostela we three girls tried 'Churros con chocolate' for breakfast. Very tasty, but also very heavy and sweet for the first meal of the day. The bar was very cute, only spanish people, because it was near the house from our host and the quarter isn't interesting for tourists!