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The trip that made me fall in love with traveling

February 17, 2016 Alex Europe, personal, Spain, travel No comments

I remember my days back at the University when one of the very few safe things I could count on were the little money I had and my parents back home. I was intelligent enough to save something and make wonders with a little. The story that follows was one of them.

I was studying at the University in Czech republic, some 500 km from my home town in Slovakia and the summer of 2007 I decided to go to Spain. To Barcelona, the city I had visited once already but hated it. Why I chose the same place if I didn’t like it remains a mystery to me.

Everyone, both my family and friends were telling me I was crazy to go to Barcelona alone for 3 weeks and without having any accommodation booked.

It was my first trip like that and to be honest I still don’t know if it was my stubbornness, the strong will of standing on my feet or just showing them that I could do it and they were wrong.

The reason now does not matter. What matters though is the fact that going to Barcelona against my parents’ decision was the trip that made me fall in love with traveling. I had only around 1,000 euros with me and no plans for the following 3 weeks.

exploring Barcelona

I found a hostel a 2-minute walk from La Rambla, the main tourist street. If I remember right, it was the first time I ever stayed at a hostel and let me tell you, it was so much fun! Everyone knew me there already, I started giving tips to other tourists about the best things to do in Barcelona and spent nights talking to my new friend – the receptionist from Argentina. It was there when I also fell in love with the Argentinian accent.

Quickly, I changed my opinion about Barcelona. It turned from initial disgust to my favorite city. I fell in love with La Boqueria market, exotic fruit and healthy juices I had never seen before, different beaches close to the city centre, great shopping, good discounts and streets full of life. The famous architecture of Gaudi and the amazing views from the surrounding hills added up the glamour to my visit. I even took some tours with locals in Barcelona.

the views of Barcelona

This trip taught me a lot. I learned to count on something new – myself – even though being very young in the opinion of many. It taught me to enjoy my own company. It taught me that everyone and also everything deserves a second chance because if I chose any other destination, I would probably still hate Barcelona somewhere deep in my heart with no real reason. It also taught me that healthy food is usually more expensive than junk food but on the other hand it gives me more energy.

This trip taught me that strangers can become my best friends (I am still in touch with the Argentine receptionist) and that just a smile in the morning can make up for a beautiful day. But most of all the trip taught me that save some money is always useful and traveling opens not only my eyes but also my heart.

Since this trip, I revisit Barcelona every year at least once … Was it me who gave Barcelona the second chance or it was Barcelona that gave a second chance to me? I would be missing out way too much if I’d never gone back …

Where to eat in Costa Brava

April 11, 2013 Alex Europe, food, photo, Spain No comments

I will reveal one of my biggest secrets here.

I am in love!

I am in love with Costa Brava and also with its food. I usually don’t like the Mediterranean food that much, especially because I don’t eat seafood but the cuisine in Costa Brava got the best out of me.

My last time when staying in luxury villas in Costa Brava, we tried different kind of options when it comes to food – from healthy, to interesting flower meals, to traditional Catalan meals

Check out my favorite places where to eat in Costa Brava:

1. La Calendula

La Calendula in Girona with the owner and the main cook Iolanda who is very good on social media, expecially on Twitter and encourages the guests to tweet. She even has her own hashtag #gastroflors. Iolanda studied biology and all her meals are influenced by the nature. She uses flowers and herbs in all the meals and even picks them up herself in the forest.

The absolutely amazing menu I had there and will never forget:

Marigold tempura appetizer

cold tomato and strawberry soup with fresh cheese and flower petals starter

mint risotto with fresh broad beans with ecologic rice from Pals

Elderflower sorbet

forest herbs infusion tea

Gala de Flors – homemade beer of flowers ( I didn’t try it as I don’t drink alcohol but the oh-my-god faces my friends were making said it all)

cold tomato and strawberry soup in La Calendula restaurant

mint risotto with beans in La Calendula

dessert in La Calendula

2. Emporium

Emporium hotel and restaurant – run by 2 twins, one cooks and the other one serves, is a very special place. Situated in Castello d’Empuries so if you are visiting here, you just gotta have lunch/dinner at this restaurant. One of the best desserts I’ve ever tried (and I am a real dessert freak).

Our menu in Emporium hotel consisted of:

chocolate tender pinenuts

tomato biscuit with olive oil and romanin

beetroot cornet with anchovies and mustard – the smallest ”ice cream” I have ever had in my life

mackerel with vegetables and partridge

cod with Santa Pau beans

catalan custard with red fruit, cinnamon and moscovado – dessert

grue cacao truffle

beetroot cornet with anchovies and mustard in Emporium restaurant

catalan custard with red fruit, cinnamon and moscovado dessert in Emporium restaurant

3. private chef Jordi from I cook It

The great thing about Jordi and his wife Ana is that Jordi does cooking workshops and when cooking, he explains what he does and let you cook with him. Jordi is based in Figueres but he cooked for us in the third Charming Villas house.

Lola, Jordi and Leah cooking

We could taste typical Catalan dishes. We started with the simplest dish which sometimes is the best one – pan con tomate. Believe it or not, but it was there where I learned how to make it. Just make a toast, cut a tomato in half and rub the pulp it into the bread until only the tomato skin is left and then use a bit of olive oil and salt on top. Delicious! We accompanied the bread with anchovies and guys also with pork and sausages.

Why tomato bread is so famous in Catalunya? Tomato got to Spain only in the 15^th century from the American continent but it is said that the Catalan cuisine started using tomatoes during the Spanish Civil War when people had not much more than tomatoes to go with bread.

Then Jordi showed us how to make cold Spanish gazpacho soup but not only with tomatoes but also strawberries. Gazpacho is a summer dish to cool down your body, that’s why it is made cold and not hot.

tomato and strawberry gazpacho Jordi from I cook it prepared for us

Jordi also showed us quickly how to make suquet juicy seafood stew but as I don’t eat seafood, he prepared a special one for me with just fish. Liked the combination with the potatoes.

The funniest thing was to learn how to make a very traditional Spanish dessert Crema Catalana (Catalan Cream) that is widely offered in the restaurants all over Costa Brava and also other parts of Spain.

I never realized you have to burn the sugar on top of the cream to caramelize it. Jordi used a heated iron with a spiral shape. You learn something new every day, right?

burning the sugar on top of the crema catalana

4. Compartir

This new restaurant situated in the old tow of Cadaques was my favorite one when it comes to starters and then all the different cheese used in most of the dishes. Founded by three friends who initially worked together in the famous elBulli restaurant, now put all the magic together to create Compartir meals. Very young and friendly atmosphere, together with modern design and lovely staff is all you can find here. And then all the delicious meals, OMG!

I fell in love with this place already when we were served beetroot appetizer with cream. I swear to God this was the best appetizer I have ever had in my life and even containing one of my favorite ingredients ever – beetroot. I could eat this every day, true story! Fish, other pica-pica and the desserts (e.g. the cinnamon-berry ice cream) were of high quality and taste too.

beetroot specialty in Compartir restaurant in Cadaques

anchovies in Compartir restaurant

delicious ice cream in Compartir Cadaques

with the Mayor of Cadaques and the Compartir restaurant crew

5. MOS restaurant

Located just at the waterfront of Cadaques in a beautiful historic building with pretty ceiling, can be a great place to dine out if you are staying in Cadaques and would like something close by. I had fish, vegetables and tasty dessert – a home-made cake.

a cheese plate in MOS restaurant

fish I had in MOS restaurant in Cadaques

6. private chef Lee Pennington

Lee cooked dinner for us when we stayed in Sa Costa luxury villa in Cadaques the first night. I was pretty tired after all the traveling that day so I couldn’t enjoy the dinner as much as I would love to. But the spinach with chickpeas, potatoes and then apple pie with strawberries? I am sold!

Having dinner Lee Pennington cooked for us in Sa Cista luxury villa

spinach with chickpeas

7. El Celler de Can Roca

You won’t believe me but we did visit the second best restaurant in the world – El Celler de Can Roca! It was founded by three brothers, Jordi, Joan and Josep Roca and the restaurant was awarded the third star by the Michelin Guide. We had a little tour of it to see the behind the scenes, how busy everyone there is to make every experience there the best ever! We were also lucky enough to enter their wine cellar. OMG, so many wine bottles!

in El Celler de Can Roca

truffle balls in El Celler de Can Roca

8. La Barretina d’Orfes

This restaurant situated in the little village of Orfes. This restaurant doesn’t have a website and is pretty non-existent on social media too but if you find your way there, you should definitely pull over to get the most traditional Catalan food here. Very rustic, but so delicious. It is not the best place for the vegetarians though. But meat was pretty tasty (I had chicken and fish as I don’t eat red meat)!

one of the meat dishes in La Barretina d’Orfes in Orfes village

PS: If you want to taste the most delicious vegetarian paella ever, ask Joan 🙂 It was as finger-licking as big it was!

the biggest vegetarian paella we had in Sant Mori castle

PS 2: If you are staying in Cadaques, or anywhere close by, and would love to meet up with the most handsome guy of the whole town, go to Can Rafa and ask for Rafel 😀 He can really cook as he did cook for us in their wineyard Celler Martin Faixo. Loved the white beans and the tomato bread with anchovies, my favorite there (I mean after Rafel’s pretty face :)) And the whole family of Martin Faixo are sweethearts!

traditional Catalan dishes we had for lunch at wineyard Celler Martin Faixo

Unwelcome animals in hotels and houses around the world

December 13, 2012 Alex animals, Costa Rica, Europe, Spain, Thailand, travel No comments

Being from Slovakia it does not make it easy to get used to things one cannot find back home. Living in an apartment on the 6th floor for 18 years meant I hardly ever saw any unwelcome animals inside (not talking about pets now). Yes, from time to time we could see a big grasshopper but we’ve never figured out how it got so high. Beside mosquitoes, wasps, bees or some cute little birds (mostly sparrows) very occasionally we could also spot a bug. I have heard a mouse or a little rat could appear in a Slovak house but never met any face to face yet, thankfully!

I am a huge lover of animals and like them so much our encounters sometimes make me cry of happiness and fill my heart with a gratitude. But insects, rats and some other animals just do not belong into the house or any other accommodation, I think. That being said, I’m afraid you can easily imagine my face each time I find an unwelcome animal in hotels or other type of accommodation I stay in when traveling around the world.

The worst to me is to see an animal late night, during the night or early morning which brings back my insomnia and maybe even some paranoia.

a huge green fly in Costa Rica

The first time ever I was disgusted by such a thing was when I used to live in Madrid during the University. We found a cockroach in our apartment on the 4th floor and it took three people to kill it with a thick telephone book. Also one night coming back from a party it was dificult not to step on a cockroach when crossing a road as they were just all around. I still have goose bumps and a horrible look on my face when I remember it.

I had many bad experiences with cockroaches ever since. Once in a cute hotel in Mexico, my room was just next to the swimming pool on the first floor so I could just open my door and jump into the cool water. I just took a shower after swimming and heard a tick tick noise when walking out of the shower. I saw 2 cockroaches passing underneath my room door and one headed straight into my open suitcase with clothes. I was terrified. I ran to the reception still with just a towel around me and half wet and scared the receptionist – a guy younger than me. He must have thought I was out of my mind or something. He just took a spray and sprayed it over one cockroach that was already leaving my room. It just turned over and died with its legs up. The second cockroach was more of a problem. The receptionist had to take all my clothes out of the suitcase, including my underwear (ouch!) and find the cockroach that then jumped out as if nothing so the receptionist just stepped on it. The end of the World War III.

I am not even going to start about all the different bugs I have seen in hotels and houses around the world. I don’t even know most of their names.

Costa Rica was one of the countries that trained my patience and dealing with disgusting feeling when seeing all those unwelcome animals. As most of Costa Rica is covered by rainforest, expect ”weird” animals you are maybe not used to. At least I am not. Huge green grasshoppers, lizards of every kind and colour, lovely blue-coloured crabs (at least these were beautiful), millions of ants (some of them bite and even get into your bed) and flying insects were what I got to see every day in my hotels and villas around. But as well very pretty humming birds that I found in my shower or bedroom.

a lizard in the sink in Costa Rica

a big grasshopper

Once on Koh Lanta in Thailand I was sleeping and heard a weird noise coming from under my bed. I found out there were little frogs that maybe didn’t want me to be alone. I had to sleep with a shirt on my head not to hear them.

a frog in my house on Koh Lanta

Unwelcome animals in hotels or houses when traveling around the world don’t have to be something you won’t like. I remember we had a lovely visitor in my friend’s house on Koh Phangan (a Thai island) one night – a fat blue bird.

a blue bird on Koh Phangan

Do you mind to find unwelcome animals in hotels or houses around the world? What was the weirdest one you have ever seen? Where?

My experience hitchhiking around the world

December 5, 2012 Alex Argentina, Europe, Malaysia, Slovakia, Spain, transport No comments

I am not a person who goes hitchhiking a lot. When I am alone it feels a bit weird and I am not used to it, I guess. And also, it is no secret that I have no patience. So even waiting for a few minutes makes me nervous and, or I just want to jump in front of a car to make it stop, or just to take the dumb hitchhiking idea out of my mind and go to pay for any kind of transportation available.

But there is still a bunch of places where I did hitchike and I would like to share my experience with you.

1. Snina – in my home town in Slovakia I hitchhike pretty often but it is always with my mom only. When we go tomy grandparents house in a village 10 km away and we don’t make it to catch a train/bus, we hitchhike. I don’t think it has ever taken us more than 5 minutes because many people know us here so they stop to take us. We also hitchhike when going to the Rybniky swimming pools in summer or to the closest town Humenne.

2. Spain can be tough for hitchhiking, I learnt this when trying to hitchhike in Madrid but it deserves a whole separate story.

3. The only other time when I hitchhiked in Slovakia was back in summer 2005 when me and my best friend of that time decided to hitchhike to Madrid. We just spent 5 months there during Erasmus scholarship at the University and just after a couple of weeks back home we missed our friends so much we wanted to go back for summer. The only problem was that I ended up in Italy instead of Spain then.

4. Ipoh – Malaysia. Ipoh turned out to be a hidden gem not many tourists know about yet. I don’t even think I have seen any other tourists during my 2 days in Ipoh and the looks I was getting from the locals just proved it. One of the most beautiful things one can do here are no doubt the temples just outside of the town. I did take some buses but also did hitchhiking to get to the rest of the temples. It was around 10 minutes to make an Indian guy to take me to Kek Lok Tong temple where I was headed. He even waited there for me to take me back to Ipoh.

hitchhiking in Cameron Highlands

5. Cameron Highlands – Malaysia. I spent just 2 days of my holidays in Cameron Highlands but I would regret it for ever if I did not bother to visit at all. The mountains are such a marvelous place to visit with all the fresh fruit, beautiful flowers and butterflies, tea plantations and strawberry farms. I knew before I went there it was very popular for hitchhiking so I just stuck my thumb up between each 2 destinations on my bucket list. Absolutely easy to stop even the first car coming. The only small problem I had was to get to BOH Tea Estate so I walked there but on the way back a car with a young couple stopped to ask me if I needed a lift.

6. El Calafate to Perito Moreno glacier. It is not cheap at all to take a bus with one of the travel agencies to take you from El Calafate to Perito Moreno glacier and back. I met up with an American girl in El Calafate with who I traveled together already for a bit before and we said yes to hitchhiking. I have to say our local friend Pablo warned us saying

You will not get any car going to Perito Moreno as just organized buses go there. But if you still want to try, go early morning.

So we listened to him and around 9 am we were already at the outskirts of El Calafate taking turns with a thumb up. I lost all the hope after 30 minutes as it was definitely the longest hitchhiking I have ever done. At that moment I sweared to myself I was never going to hitchhike again and I have not ever since. At least not until December 2012. But in the end a huge truck pulled over. Yes, 4 crazy Argentinian guys were staring at us with their mouth open, but come on, some 20 euros saved on the bus was worth it. It even turned out to be a perfect day at Perito Moreno glacier.

I know some people do hitchhike regularly. The friend I went to Perito Moreno with is one of them. Another friend, Arne, I met as well that day hitchhiked most of the route from Argentina to the US.

What is your experience hitchhiking around the world?

6 things to do in Caldes de Malavella

November 23, 2012 Alex Europe, Spain, tips, travel 2 comments

Caldes de Malavella is a charming town in Spain very close to Girona airport, 81 km from France and 89 km from Barcelona. Being a small town, it still offers its visitors a lot of different things to do. Surprisingly, there are more older people visiting but I would love us the younger ones find out about this hidden gem too.

6 things to do in Caldes de Malavella:

1. thermal baths. The town has been known for its healing thermal water since the Roman era. There are a few thermal baths here nowadays. Go soak in Balneari Prats which is my favorite one, get delicious dinner there, enjoy in-room jacuzzi in Acqua room and pamper yourself every day with a different hydrotherapy treatment. I hope you get time to try a shower massage. I swear you won’t regret your time spent there. Just check out how I enjoyed Balneari Prats.

so happy about the in-room jacuzzi

thermal water swimming pool at Balneari Prats

2. drink thermal water. The sources of thermal water in Caldes de Malavella are not just good for rheuma and circulation, but also have digestive properties. You can walk the streets of the town and find a couple of fountains around. The famous one is the Fountain of the Mine with 60 Celsius degrees mineral water.

drinking thermal water in Caldes de Malavella

3. history. If you want to get a bit of history during your visit, in Aquae CALIDAE (old name of Caldes) you can do that. Visit the remains of the Roman baths in the city centre and find out more about how it all started here with the thermal baths. Yes, already the Romans were using the properties of the mineral springs in the area.

next to Roman remains

remains of the Roman baths

4. walk. I always say that walking you will keep fit when traveling and also see the most. And in Caldes de Malavella there is a bunch of beautiful buildings everywhere around you that you just cannot miss. Modernist, ecclectic and neoclassical buildings can be found here not just along Rambla Recolons boulevard.

Casa Rosa in Caldes de Malavella

5. churches and castles. In the town itself there is St. Stephen’s church built in the Reinnasance and also Sant Grau.

Castle Malavella from the 11th and 12th century (the town got its name after 2 castles – Caldes and Malavella) with its Saint Maurice chapel are definitely worth visiting if you stay for a few days. The best time to visit is 22nd September during the Feast of the Saint when you can go back in histor and see the traditional Sardana dance.

hermitage Sant Grau in Caldes de Malavella

6. Camp of the Dolls. Ever wondered what to do in Caldes de Malavella once you have visited everything else? In spring and aumunt every year just outside of the town, the archaeologists gather to keep digging for important Pleistocene animal and fossil remains. The old volcanic area became extraordinary archaeological site in Catalonia due to the fact how well-preserved all the remains found here are.

And a bonus thing – please watch the sunset. This place is great for those pinky sunsets you usually see somewhere at the beach 🙂

beautiful sunset in Caldes de Malavella

colourful buildings of Caldes de Malavella

Find out more reasons why I fell in love with Caldes de Malavella when I visited in September 2012.

Thanks to Costa Brava tourism for making this trip possible.

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