Vagabonding

[DaveT]

I have been stuck on a small island in the Caribbean my whole life now, and it's time to move on.

Which small island?
Want to swap?

[mjh]

Silly question I guess but still something I've been wondering: Is it totally unrealistic to try and train (maybe 2x/week) while trekking/vagabonding? Insights? As lame as it sounds, I'm nervous to lose all the gains I made in size/strength and would love to keep it up, but would also love to do some vagabonding, etc.

This sure is a great thread.

In answer to this question, and in my limited experience, it is unrealistic if you're on the move all the time, unless you embrace bodyweight workouts.

But if you stop and stay in any reasonably large city, think of it as a challenge, and excuse to explore, and a way to meet some cool people. For example, if you go to Hanoi in Vietnam, why not try and track down this guy's gym? First step is making a friend with good English who can translate for you... you'll find in most places that they'll go out of their way to help you find what you're looking for. It will certainly take you off the tourist track.

You'll probably find yourself in some really interesting, old school, run down, but amazingly fun gyms. Lots of cool stories about the mental dudes that took you out drinking after the workout. You may even run into some broken down Russian oly coach in hiding from the local mafia chief or something equally as crazy.

Wouldn't it be a cool experience to do a workout at this gym?

[rere]

That looks like a cool gym, I could fashion a squat rack of some sorts too.

[Mehdi]

The Silver Route was, in pre-Roman times, an itinerary used for seasonal migrations between the south and the north of the peninsular West. A Roman road began to be constructed in the IInd century BC, in order to connect the cities of Emerita Augusta (Merida) and Astorga, and it became one of the most important routes of communication on the entire Iberian Peninsula. Even today many of the Roman constructions, like bridges, fortresses and miliar stones (granitic rolls that indicate the miles) and ‘mansios’ (places for travellers to rest, and origins of some of the present populations) are still standing up, resisting the passage of time.

Route is 1000km/600miles. Stopping in bigger cities like sevilla/caceres/salamanca/leon for 2-3 days then ending at the beach in Gijon, leaving from Santander. Expected budget is less than 2000€/3000$ for the 6 weeks.

Many reasons I'm doing it, but keep improving social skills is big part of it.

[MikeD]

That looks amazing. I can't help but thinking, and this might just be the fact I've lived in a relatively safe place my whole life, but how safe would it be to do this? Especially traveling alone?

[Mehdi]

Worst thing that could happen is that someone tries to rob you I guess. I'm going with minimum money (using atm's), just a bag with cheap clothes, won't be wearing expensive stuff like watches, even considering going without camera (for the sake of light backpacking though), etc. And if someone would try to rob, I'd just give them what they want.

People are usually afraid of stuff that never happens. My parents have been telling for about 5weeks now that I'm crazy and what else (not the first time, used to it). But I'm not keeping all that negative stuff in my head. People are all the same deep down and they want to be good.

Also, although I'm going solo, there are more people who are doing these walks, so I'll most likely encounter people on the road.

[Rokku]

If you think about how people hike the Appalachian Trail solo all the time without bad things happening (and actually making good friends along the way), I think the worse Mehdi should worry about is meeting friendly people

Good luck on your trip, Mehdi - I'm jealous.

[vibragreen]

I have been stuck on a small island in the Caribbean my whole life now, and it's time to move on.

Which small island?
Want to swap?

The Bahamas. In the smelly capital. It's not as great as people make it out to be. And yes I would swap with you

@mehdi, If you're going to Spain do you know enough spanish to get by? Or do they have a strong English speaking population?

[Mehdi]

I've been in Spain several times, and from my experience they're not good at english, not even good at french. I'll be in the rural part of spain most of the time, so that will make it even worse.

But I started studying spanish in april this year. 1-3h spanish daily (pimsleur, learn spanish like crazy and most of all michel thomas). I understand 80% of what someone says in spanish now and can have convo's with people without much problem. The french obviously helped to get it that quick, but I highly recommend michel thomas.

[SardusPater]

Yeah, in Spain I haven't found many english speaking people.
I ended up hanging out with English/Danish/Norwegian/French/Wtf people, and that was fun.
Even being italian I couldn't understand a word the locals said. I guess I'll have to study spanish.

By the way, speaking of vagabonding, I only did a 2 week interrail in Eastern Europe. Me and my friends had the idea just three days before, so it was quite an adventure, even if it's nothing compared to what I read in this thread
We traveled in Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland.
We stayed a lot in Hungary, because we happened to be there during the European Swimming Championship. Me and my friends were all ex-swimmers or water polo players, so...
Btw we paid only 4€ to see the championship (in Italy that would have been 40€), and we ended up next to the families of the italian swimmers.

There was plenty to see, as many of these are "ex-rich" countries, spoiled by their recent past.

[vibragreen]

I haven't really gotten a chance to read in depth into some of the links Mehdi and others have posted. But how do you deal with the basic problems of long travel by foot? Where do you sleep at night? There can't be a hostel waiting for you every night? Do you have to carry a tent and sleeping bag? How do you get three meals a day? You won't always be near food or have the money to purchase food? Just some logistical questions.

Here's my plan in the rough rough works. I am going to travel to England close to the boarder of Scotland. Go up through Scotland, then back down and catch a boat somehow to the isle of man. Once there I'll see about catching a boat to Ireland. I'll do some trekking across island then maybe catch a flight back home. I haven't worked out how long it'll take or what I need. I could use some input on this.

Also if anyone has any must read sources such as what Mehdi had posted in his original post please post them. Thanks

[JasonLB]

This is something I have been giving a lot of thought to recently. In fact, I've become almost stir crazy over the passed few months. The desire to travel was instilled in me a few years ago when I took a short camping trip up to the High Sierras of California. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station in Lone Pine, a small town in the Owens Valley at the foot of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. As I was pumping gas, a backpacker crossed the highway coming from the direction of Mt. Whitney, introduced himself to me, and asked if, by chance, I was traveling north. I explained that I was going south, but, because his accent and appearance had me curious, I asked where he was headed. He went on to explain that he was visiting the US from Australia and had traveled to Yosemite with some friends. After a few weeks of hiking and camping in the park, his friends had decided to drive north to Reno, Nevada, while he, to my amazement, decided to hike, by himself, south along the entire length of the John Muir Trail. The trail's elevation ranges from 11,000ft to 8,000ft, it's over 200 miles long, and runs through some of the most pristine, untouched, and thoroughly wild land left in the US, full of bears, mountain lions and brutal weather (even in the summer months). As if hiking that weren't enough, he took on the challenge without the slightest idea how he was going to meet back up with his friends in Reno, several hundred miles to the north. Simply amazing.

And then, last summer, a close friend decided she wanted to move to Greece for a while. She saved up some money, bought a plane ticket, and without any idea where or for how long she would stay, flew to Athens. She ended up on a small island in the Aegean, got a job on a dive boat, rented a small apartment, and lived there for three months. After returning home, she finished up her degree and, two weeks after graduating, like mjh, moved to South Korea to teach English, where she currently lives.

Really inspiring stuff if you ask me. With only one lift to live, it seems a complete waist to have never experienced different places and cultures. There's just so much out there to see... I just need to take that leap and step out of my comfort zone...

[randywv]

Someone said something about going without a camera to avoid having it lost or stolen and taking up space: Dont bring a camera, but DO buy disposables and mail them to a friend while you're on the road when they're full!

I haven’t been vagabonding properly, but I did uproot and move to Germany where I work in IT for an American company that has a contract with the US Air Force. The pay is good, and I get some benefits that help make it easier to live comfortably. The American community is huge here in Germany (and there are other big ones in the UK and Italy), and there are opportunities to work at fast food joints and other places on base that cater to the Americans. You could come to germany and work at a gas station on the air force base, but you’d be in germany and would have enough money to get by - as well as take the train to anywhere in Europe for weekends… I’ve been to Italy, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, the UK, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, and I plan on seeing more before I’m done. Granted I usually just do the rat race shuffle, but my weekends can be a cheap trip to somewhere really cool .

I am planning on really vagabonding in a few years. I want to finish my Master’s degree first since I can get money from my company for it atm, plus save more and possibly buy some property that will give me a small steady monthly income while on the road. I play guitar and sing, and I can usually earn some money with that if I look around for a place that wants some live music to bring people in off the streets. I’ve seen some small places in Ireland that draw tourists like flies when there’s live music paired with Guinness on tap… There are some great ideas here for other sources of income – even things I would enjoy doing for a week or month just to have the experience. On top of that, I like the idea of working on a cruise ship or working as a roadie with a band on tour – jobs that will provide travel expenses as well as room and board, even if they take away some of the free feeling of going where you please and when.

On strength and travel – Naked Warrior is a good book to consider buying and using when on the road – it’s about using bodyweight with low reps to build and maintain strength (considerable strength, think one legged squats and one-arm pushups with varying inclines). The wwoofing (work on organic farms for free room/board) might also be good for training – just volunteer to do the heavy lifting! Farm work builds some tough hombres...

Good luck to everyone, and congratulations to those of you who’ve already made the leap!
Randy

[HOBEL]

a good book on this subject is timothy ferriss' the 4 hr work week.

vagabonding really works well when your self employed. its been my experience that corporate jobs arent gonna let you run amok on their dime. so either being self employed business owner or a vagabonding worker.

i know of 2 friends that do this habitually with families in tow across the U.S. BOTH end up staying 2-5 yrs at any given job in their profession. one owns a huge rv and thats how they travel and live and the other actually puts down roots goes thru the problem of selling homes etc to get on with venturing.

i have mixed feeling on this- doing the vagabonding on a family level as opposed to husband and wife only or friends

[vibragreen]

I have been saving up money for my trip. By this time next year I hope to be boarding a plane to London UK. I'll spend around 4 to 6 months between backpacking and staying with friends and acquaintances. I am only concerned about how much money I should save. It's a bit too important to leave to trial and error.

EDIT: Has mehdi gone on his trip to Spain? I haven't seen him around in a while.