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19th – 21st September 2025: Windmills, Mercury and Castles Road trip {Road Trip & Almadén, September 2025}

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Though work season had started once again, there was a four-day weekend, and I decided to spend three of them on a kind-of road trip. Plane-ticket prices were off the charts even weeks in advance, so I thought that if I had made it to Loarre and Zaragoza, I could just drive an extra 40 minutes and head to Almadén, a place with horrible public transit connections that I have wanted to visit for a long time.

I sketched the itinerary again and again, and due to weather concerns I ended up sticking to the first one I had drafted. The idea was to make a few stops on the way there, one or two on the way back, and spend a whole day in Almadén. I tried to book a “complete” visit to the main attraction in town, the mine, but I was not able to, because they only run it for eight people or more. When I wrote to the Mine to try and understand how that worked, their answer was all caps and felt rude – later I realised it was more of a lack of netiquette understanding. To be fair, it discouraged me a little, and I thought of giving up the whole thing. And honestly, up until the 15th, when the hotel became non-refundable, I was on the line as to whether I really wanted to do it. In the end, of course, I decided to go.

For the first day (Friday), I had drafted a bunch of itinerary options that I planned to decide upon depending on time and tiredness. The only clear thing was that I was to arrive in Almadén in the evening. Saturday would be entirely spent in town, and in the evening I would decided the return day’s stops.

I am always surprised when places that want to live off tourism won’t just… coordinate. Half of the stuff is only open at weekends, and the other half only on schooldays. Most of the restaurants in town were closed and food was pretty much awful in the couple of them I found open. But I saw most of what I wanted to see, so I count the weekend as a success.

19th – 21st September 2025: Road trip & Almadén

14th – 19th July 2025: Loarre & Zaragoza Summer University (Spain) {Dinosaur Eggs Loarre & Zaragoza, July 2025}

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Sometimes I get weird ideas stuck in my head. I usually let common sense override them, but this time the temptation was too great, so I allowed myself to do something slightly insane. I don’t regret it one bit.

Until a few years ago, my work projects rarely extended past June. Lately however, I’ve had to work well into July, which means I have not been able to sign up for any summer university course. Especially, one summer university course from the university of Saragossa Universidad de Zaragoza called Técnicas de restauración en paleontología a través de la preparación de los huevos de dinosaurio de Loarre: Palaeontological Restoration Techniques through the preparation of Loarre dinosaur eggs. Until now, I had been working through both editions of the course – usually until the very same day the four-day course finished. However, this year my last day of work was the day before the course started.

I started mulling… what if? What if I signed up? What if I directly drove from work to the site of the course? What if I did something crazy and went to Loarre? It would mean driving for a about four hours through the late afternoon / early evening of the 14th of July, the day before lots of holiday periods kicked off… right after a whole work session. It was not the best of ideas. It was not the most reasonable thing to do. What if I did it anyway?

I made up my mind – I would do it, sanity be damned. My family also offered to subsidise part of the course and accommodation as my birthday present, too (thanks!). I found out all the information and decided to try for the course on the 27th of April. Now, I just had to wait for admission to open, sign up, be accepted, and pay. It seemed to be a simple process, like any other course I’ve taken before.

Palaeontological Restoration Techniques through the preparation of Loarre dinosaur eggs

Except, it was anything but simple.

Sign-up for the Saragossa Summer University, Cursos de Verano UNIZAR usually opens the first Monday of May. That did not happen this year – because 2025 is special? Once I located the correct website, I checked every day – like keeping tabs on concert-ticket information – until a tiny banner reading “sing-ups will open on the 12th May” appeared. Since enrolment did not open a midnight, I deduced that slots would open at 9:00, so I was ready at the computer at that time. The online forms opened indeed around 9:20, but there were only five courses listed on the website, and none of them was mine. The rest opened gradually, but only as numbers… I kept refreshing the webpage until I finally saw my course just after 9:40. I filled in the information, and the webpage said that I would receive an email with confirmation and further instructions.

That email never arrived.

I gave the university a couple of hours, then phoned them up around 13:00. I was told there was a problem with the system and to call the following day if the email had not arrived. Thus, I called around 9:15 on the 13th of May, when I was informed that they had forgotten to activate sending the confirmation emails but not to worry.

On the 15th of May there was a webpage update, saying that the email that had never arrived held confirmation and paying instructions, so I rang the University again. They told me that they would send the information “manually” and “later”. Maybe. The conversation was not really reassuring in tone. I explained that I needed to book accommodation, and they checked again – I was number seven in the list, which meant I was in. They also informed me that there was a partner accommodation on the website – not really, there was a coding error and it did not display. I told the lady so, and she said she would update the webpage. I asked again if she was sure my enrolment had gone through, she insisted that I was in, and the email would come later. Definitely maybe.

I went on Google Maps to check for accommodation in town. Loarre is a 350-inhabitant village famous for its castle and since 2019, its palaeontological sites, where around a hundred sauropod eggs have been found. These eggs were the star of the course Técnicas de restauración en paleontología a través de la preparación de los huevos de dinosaurio de Loarre: Palaeontological Restoration Techniques through the preparation of Loarre dinosaur eggs, from the 15th to the 19th of July 2025. If everything worked in the end…

The accommodation recommended by the University was the campsite, but that was a bit out – it meant driving to the village every day, or a 35-minute walk each way. And that would be nice in the morning, but not after the whole day out. I sent an email to a nice rural cottage which never replied. Then I realised that the course actually was held in Loarre only for three of the four days, the last one would be in Zaragoza (Saragossa) itself. I tried to book at the recommended accommodation, but when they had not confirmed within 48 hours, I just went on a third-party site. I booked a place to stay in the heart of Loarre and a hotel near the university in Saragossa. Of course, a few hours later, the recommended accommodation replied, so I had to cancel. I still reserved everything with full cancellation, just in case. Can you tell I had little confidence in the whole process?

Of course, in between, work tried to change my schedule (already chaotic), because someone needed one of my days in exchange for the 15th of July, which I had to regretfully decline. I hope they don’t hold that against me, but after all the planning and the stress, I did not want to give up the chance to take this course to do someone a favour. On the 13th of June (Friday), the sign-up email arrived, with a payment deadline on the 23rd (Monday) – the course fee was 190 € (160 € discounted). I transferred the money right away, since the following day there would be a bank outage. I also sent proof of payment and a copy of the documentation that entitled me to the discounted price. A few minutes later, someone wrote to me to ask for the discount paperwork. I sent it again.

On Friday the 20th of June, I got a phone call from a long number at work. I rang back. It turned out to be an admin from the summer university asking me if I was still interested because I had not paid yet! I said I had transferred the money, sent the receipt, and the documentation. The person on the other side of the line was surprised for a second, then updated bank data or something, and it turned out that my payment had indeed gone through. Magic! Guess who emailed the University again to have confirmation on writing… It should not be so difficult to… enrol in a course from an establishment that has been offering them for literally almost a century.

To be honest, I was not 100% confident I was really enrolled until I saw my name in the roster the morning of the first day. But it was. Actually, that is a bit dramatic, as on the 7th of July 2025 I received an email from one of the course coordinators, Lope Ezquerro Ruiz with some information. In that email, he explained that some people had contacted them to try and organise transportation, so they were offering to drive people from Saragossa or Huesca on the first day, and back to Saragossa for the last session.

The truth is that public transport to Loarre was a nightmare. That is why I had decided to drive, even if I don’t like it that much, especially in the middle of the holiday rush. Had I known transport from and to Saragossa was a possibility beforehand, I would have planned accordingly. I might have considered taking a railway round trip to Saragossa instead of driving, but by then it was too late to rearrange and change the whole accommodation planning. Furthermore, it allowed me to pack for all kinds of eventualities (yay boot space). In the end, it was way more convenient to have the car, so I don’t regret it.

As the day approached, the weather predictions were al over the place. I decided to pack a bag for Loarre, and a different one for Zaragoza (Saragossa) that I would swap, I also prepared an isothermal bag with frozen water bottles, drinks and snacks – of course, the ice would eventually melt, but I had to leave the car outside while I was at work (and when I came back at 15:00, the the temperature it marked was usually 43 ºC), and I wanted to make sure no fizzy drink exploded. I finally readied an extra bag for “maybes” – extreme cold, extreme heat, rain, extra headwear…

Both the village of Loarre and the city of Zaragoza are located in the area of Aragón, a region of Spain which has gained a lot of traction in the palaeontological world due to the impact of Dinópolis and their exploitation of anything that can be even vaguely related to dinosaurs.

One of the things that surprised me, however, was how Loarre wants to attract tourists but does not seem to be willing to carter to them. I packed snacks for dinner because I was not sure I’d find a place to eat or a shop, and I was right. On Wednesday, we were too late for lunch and had to find alternative plans, and the Hospedería decided that they would not offer food in the evening because the cook had hurt her foot.


 
If you are interested in the “hard science” of what I learnt and will summarise here, I recommend these sources (in Spanish) by part of the course professors:

  • Moreno-Azanza, Miguel; Ezquerro, Lope; Pérez-Pueyo, Manuel & Gasca, José. (2021). Huevos de dinosaurio en las Sierras Exteriores de Huesca. You can read it here.
  • Díaz Berenguer, Ester & Canudo, José. (2024) El Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad de Zaragoza. Revista PH. 10.33349/2024.113.5663. Available here.
  • Pérez-Pueyo, Manuel; de Jorge, Laura; Ezquerro, Lope; Laita, Elisa; Moreno-Azanza, Miguel; Díaz Berenguer, Ester; Núñez-Lahuerta, Carmen; Barco, José; Cuenca-Bescós, Gloria & Canudo, José. (2023). Paleontología de proximidad: cómo fijar el patrimonio en el medio rural. Found here.
  • The museum-lab Laboratorio Paleontológico de Loarre website.
  • The company that manages the private side, Paleoymas website.
  • The Saragossa University Natural Science Museum Youtube channel.

22nd – 26th May 2025: A taste of Malta {Malta, May 2025}

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Last-minute trips are weird. You start looking at an Ireland itinerary, but for some reason hotels are 200€ a night. You check for alternatives and end up booking at a place you had never considered before. In my case, it was the tiny country of Malta, an archipelago with eight islands: Malta, Gozo | Għawdex, Comino | Kemmuna, Manoel Island | Il-Gżira Manoel, Cominotto | Kemmunett, Saint Paul’s Island | Il-Gżejjer ta’ San Pawl, Filfla and Filfoletta. It turns out that Malta is both the country and the main island. Only Malta, Gozo and Comino, that is inhabited – and there are just two people living in the latter.

Malta is located in the Mediterranean Sea, a handful of kilometres south of Sicily. It is one of the smallest, and most densely-populated countries in the world – actually, in the island of Malta you literally cannot tell where one city ends and the next begins. The inhabitants speak English and Maltese (I will use this order for bilingual references, English | Maltese, as I did above with the island names). Malta as an independent country was established in 1964, when it gained independence from the United Kingdom.

Humans first reached Malta during the Mesolithic, around the year 6500 BCE. Due to the island’s geostrategic location in the middle of the Mediterranean, it has been lusted after by many powers and alliances – from the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans to the British Empire and everyone involved in WWII. The successive populations have heavily influenced the islands and its architecture.

My original plan was to stay in Valletta, a fortified city mostly from the 16th century and the capital of the country. However, I only found apartments in basements for a decent price. I finally found a hotel in Saint Julian’s | San Ġiljan. Once that was booked, I focused on what to do and see in Valletta, but the more I read about the island, the more intrigued I grew.

In the end, I decided to balance some landscape watching (22nd and 26th) with historical Valletta (23rd), prehistoric ruins (24th) and a guided tour through the smaller island of Gozo (25th). There were a few things that did not work out as intended, but all in all it was a good trip with lots of new experiences, but a tad of necessary improvisation made it less efficient than it could’ve been. Fortunately, everything that went wrong could be fixed.

29th – 31st March 2025: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Orchestra World Tour in Barcelona (Spain) {FFVII Barcelona 2025}

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My sibling is an avid Final Fantasy fan, or at least of the concerts, and they usually ask me to prepare a trip when there is one in Spain. They tend to be in Barcelona, which has a love-to-hate relationships with tourism. Short-term letting apartments to tourists is more profitable than renting to residents, which is (allegedly) one of the causes of the current housing crisis. Finally, it has one of the highest criminality rates in Spain, and the epicentre of the secessionist movement. Thus, I’ve not planned much the last couple of times we were there, just enough to fill the days. It does not help that my sibling is a cosplayer and we have to haul a suitcase with the outfit.

This time, however, the Final Fantasy Rebirth Orchestra World Tour concert was on a Sunday. I have no faith in the public transport system any more, and Monday had to be requested off anyway, so we ended up looking at Saturday-morning to Monday-evening trip. Thus, I decided to fit in a bunch of Modernisme and other stuff that had been on my list for a while. Also, friends! Because friends are extremely important, especially when big changes are on the way!

I bought tickets for the concert in June 2024, when they went on sale. I booked the hotel in November, but I refused to pay for breakfast, because it was 20 € per person and day, and I was not going to pay 40 bucks for weak coffee and stuff I don’t even eat… And then I did not do much planning until February. However, I knew that at some point I needed to get things organised, else we would spend the weekend queueing to enter places. I’ve seen it happen before…

The train tickets only came out 90 days in advance, and I got them in early February. They were expensive – I had hoped to catch one of the new low-cost trains, but paying for the cosplay suitcase would push it to normal ticket prices. I found an outbound direct train, bit the return one that I wanted was not running, so we had to take a connection – which meant going to Madrid, then backwards on our way back. Oh, well. And on top of that, construction on the tracks triggered delay warnings – which did not come true in the end, good thing I insisted on being at the stations for the earlier time, whether it was the old or new one.

I put together a tentative itinerary waiting for the weather forecast, and the week of the trip itself, I booked tickets, including the transportation card – which was a nightmare. I really don’t understand how or why cities have decided to get rid of regular transport tickets. The ten-trip ticket has disappeared, and buying a one-way was prohibitive. Considering how many trips we would get, it made sense to get a 72-hour tourist ticket, since it was impossible to register to get a normal card… I also organised where to leave the luggage, since the hotel is next to the venue, and that is more than a bit out…

Spoiler alert though: we did not get pick-pocketed nor robbed, unless you count the insane tourist tax at the hotel, and we did not take forever to do the check-in.

29th December 2024 – 1st January 2015: New Year in Vienna (Austria | Österreich) {Vienna, Silvesterkonzert 2024}

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The year 2024 marked a jubilee in my family, and my parents had always talked about doing something crazy when it came. And the time came and we did something crazy. This trip did not go as I would have planned, and in general I would have done quite a few things differently, had I been on my own. However, it was not a “real” trip, it was a family celebration. A complicated one, at that. My parents are both in their 70s and they cannot keep up with a schedule I would plan. Furthermore, they had been in Vienna more than once before, while my sibling had never visited, and I was there in 2017. Thus, a lot of balancing and compromises were needed. I would have made different choices, but after all this was my parents’ celebration, and they had insisted on paying for everything. I think that gave them the right to choose and veto.

We actually started preparation on the 1st of January 2024, almost a whole year in advance. That’s when we started looking at companies to make the trip – and attend the concert. The one everybody watches on TV on New Year’s Day. That concert. In Vienna. At the beginning of February, we signed up for the ticket draw lottery – though, as expected, we did not hit. Chances were extremely slim, but higher than zero.

At that time, we had narrowed possibilities down to two online companies that could get us there. At the end of February, we decided to ask in the travel agency my parents prefer, Viajes El Corte Inglés. There was indeed a trip option, but apparently the tickets for the concert were obscenely expensive, so my parents decided that we should settle down for the second best – the Silvesterkonzert on the 31st, which has the same setlist and musicians. When they say the concert is a once in a lifetime experience, let me tell you that it is.

Around June we had a family meeting to try and make some plans. My sibling stated they wanted to do two things – visit the Spanish Riding School Spanische Hofreitschule, and eat Sacher-torte at Café Sacher. One of my parents had said, half in jest, that they wanted to go to the restaurant where the old TV series Kommissar Rex kicks off – I found the restaurant for them, it was the DO & CO Vienna. My other parent wanted to go one of the palaces. Unfortunately, they kept confusing the Schönbrunn Palace, the Belvedere and the Hofburg. I never got to know which one it was. Neither parent cared about the Sacher nor the Spanish Riding School, though. Thus, I negotiated that we could have one evening separated so my sibling and I could do those things. It was reluctantly accepted on some parts, gladly on others.

Once confirmation had arrived in April, I had set alarms all around on the dates we could start booking for the different events and activities, so we could start moving after things were decided. We ran into a bit of an impasse, because one of my parents wanted to book everything in advance, but they also wanted me to take care of things – those things are not compatible at the same time. My other parent wanted to let everything flow and improvise – not the greatest idea for peak season. I booked the Spanish Riding School on the 23rd of June, and for the Sacher Café on the 3rd of July. My parent booked DO & CO in September and I managed to convince him to book a funny restaurant he wanted to try in November.

We made a general plan for the 29th, full plans for the 30th, and it was decided that we would improvise on the 31st. I did not find this too wise, but I went along with it, because I felt that it was not my trip So even if I wish we had been in another hotel, and or I had bought a little good-luck piggy in a Silvestermarket, or that I had been at the Stephansplatz for the New Year fireworks, it was all right. I would have made some different choices that would have made the whole thing less stressful, though. But it was all right.

20th – 23rd October 2024: Three Cities in Belgium {Belgium October 2024}

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I got to first see Starset when they collaborated with Hyde in 2018, and then D****e talked me into attending their concert in Antwerp in 2023. I decided I liked them, so when they announced a European tour with another stop in Belgium, I resolved to go attend that concert. To be honest, I had bought flights for this trip before fitting the Türkiye circuit, I never expected two multi-day trips so close to each other when I planned for this.

The concert was on Tuesday the 22nd of October, at Trix, the same venue in Antwerp it had been in 2023. That was awesome, because Trix is in a sort of community centre, with cafeteria, toilets and a roof over your head, great for the Belgian weather. My first idea was getting a flight on Monday the 21st, but it turned out that flying on Sunday the 20th was much cheaper, even considering an extra overnight stay.

I drew a plan. On the 22nd, I would arrive in Brussels via Brussels Airport in a red-eye flight. There, I would visit a bunch of places I missed last time, most related to Art Nouveau. When everything closed, I would take a train to Bruges and have a walk to see the lit monuments. The next morning, I would see Bruges, then head off to Antwerp, where I would stay the other two nights. In the early morning of the 23rd, I was to take a train back to Brussels, and in the early evening leave though Brussels South Charleroi Airport. It mostly worked out, in the end, despite the weather not agreeing and me catching a really bad cold. Oh, and changing a whole day’s worth of my plans a couple of days beforehand.

I bought a bunch of online train tickets for the itinerary – Airport to Brussels, Brussels to Bruges, Bruges to Antwerp, and Antwerp to Bruges, which were conveniently stored in my phone. I also got the bus ticket from Brussels to Charleroi. I checked the train lines, the underground, and made all my planning decisions. I booked my parking – or so I thought, there was a problem with it, but I got it sorted before leaving. I was all set, the only thing left was the Art Nouveau pass, but I did not want to do that until I was there, so I could make reservations for the sites according to how long it took me to visit them, and how the underground connections were.

And then, a couple of days before leaving – Wednesday the 16th I think – I was rewatching the fantasy series Supernatural. Despite its… questionable writing after season five, it’s a comfort thing. Back during the pandemic, I was following a lot of the actors in it, but as Twitter became X, I kind of stopped paying attention. One of the characters in Supernatural is the angel Castiel, played by actor Misha Collins. Castiel might be one of my favourite characters, not only of this show, but from television in general (again, despite questionable writing decisions). He has a heavy plot line in season 6, and after finishing an episode, I thought something along “Oh I wonder what Misha’s doing now,” and I went to on social media to check. And I found that he… was going to something called Hero Comic Con in Brussels, the 19th and 20th of October.

And then I decided to attend Heroes Comic Con, rearrange all my plans, because if destiny is pulling such a stunt, who am I to ignore the stars aligning?

2nd – 11th October 2024: “Turquía Única” – A circuit in Türkiye {Türkiye, October 2024}

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At the end of an already crazy, crazy work period, I had a very bad project. I determined to spend all the income from that one project on a big trip. However, at the same time, I was too exhausted to do a lot of planning. I decided to book a circuit, and since China was about 7,000 € above my budget, I ended up choosing to visit Türkiye. It also felt like a good moment to do so, before tensions in the Middle East escalate even further than they have, and while the country is still somewhat laic and not the Islamic Republic it seems on the path to turn into.

I booked my trip in August for October as that was when work would be over for the year. The only thing left was crossing fingers for good weather, and survive work till then.

Overall, the experience was on the wrong side of disappointing. The tour I chose looked good on paper, but it turned out to be badly managed and even more badly implemented. I’m not even a food-driven traveller, but none of the places we visited offered much in regards of Turkish dishes except the same sweets over and over again. Most hotels were falling apart – literally – and in the middle of nowhere, so when we arrived there around 18:00 at the latest, there was nothing around to explore. On top of that, pure bad luck this time, my flight connection were rather inconvenient – I arrived late on my first day in Istanbul, and left early on my last, so there was no way to enjoy those days.

One of the big problems I ran into was the diffusion of responsibility, as I booked a trip from Viajes El Corte Inglés, distributed by MapaTours and implemented by the local Oxin Travel, whose guides were… let’s say lacking.

I was excited when my travel agent called to give the documentation, a couple of weeks before the adventure started. There were some errors in formatting, and a reference to a photograph which was not there – I tried not to worry about that. A link can easily break when paperwork is prepared for printing. It was a sign (or a metaphor) for all the small things that would go wrong, I see now.

I am aware that I come from an incredibly privileged place, complaining about a nine-day to Türkiye. However, I paid for a service I did not receive, and that miffs me. On top of everything, the single supplement was 400€, because Türkiye does not do single rooms whatsoever, almost 20% of the total price excluding extra day trips.

I booked a circuit named Turquía Única (Unique Türkiye), which started and ended in Istanbul. The itinerary included Ankara, the region of Cappadocia, Pammukkale, Izmir, Pergamon, Çanakkale, Bursa and back to Istambul. I landed on the 2nd and returned on the 11th, but I was only up and about between the 3rd and the 10th. I also made the mistake of booking the optional Istanbul day trips trying to avoid long queues at ticket booths and monuments.

11th – 14th September 2024: A trip to Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera and Puerto Real (Spain) {Escapade to Cádiz, September 2024}

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I used to live in the Cádiz area when I was younger, and since life is complicated, both living and leaving there were hard. Thus, although it is a beautiful area, I had never been back until this trip. I was never brave enough – I feared that the bad memories would be too much to deal with.

However, this time around, I had a long weekend and I decided to rip the bandage and get there. There was a piece of paperwork from my time there that had been misplaced and I had been trying to get there to fix the issue online to no avail. It is a long trip, but I thought that if I took a train after work, I would “waste” the afternoon / evening travelling, and then I would have three days to (re)explore. So I left on Wednesday the 11th and returned on Saturday the 14th, both in the late afternoon – leaving me with two days and a half in the area. Even if it was back to school season already, prices were crazy, so spending Saturday night over there would be too expensive – I later found out there was a congress in Cádiz, and an event in the Jerez F1 circuit.

I bought trains from Madrid to Cádiz with a change in Seville. In the outbound trip, I had seven whooping minutes for the change, and for the return journey just about an hour. However, I still had to get to and from Madrid, so in the end it was three trains and around eight hours on the go each time!

Spoiler alert – everything went well. Except the commuter train tickets.

15th – 17th June 2024: London for Kamijo’s “The Anthem” {London, England, June 2024}

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I first saw Kamijo in Barcelona in 2018. The reason for that was that tickets came through around my birthday and neither them nor the upgrades were expensive, it was easy to get there, and I thought I would support a V-kei artist in the country. I was not expecting to like him as much as I did – it probably had to do with the brief interaction we had when he “sang” to me. The next year, I joined the fanclub and attended two shows of the Persona Grata Japan tour with a fanclub ticket. Then Covid struck and I just let membership lapse, because there was little disposable income and even less chances to make anything out of it.

At the end of 2023, Kamijo announced a new Europe tour, and I weighed out France or England. I decided on London due to easier language, worry about the Olympics creating issues – price gauging, controllers’ strikes – and because the French fandom can be too intense for me. In February, I rejoined the fanclub with a cheaper “four-month web membership” so I was able to access the pre-sales on the 19th. I managed to buy a “VVIP” ticket, which included first priority entrance, a meet & greet, a solo photo and a signed poster for 152 €.

I checked for planes and accommodation. Flights were okay, but hotels were stupidly expensive. In the end, I could not find anything reasonable in my usual areas, so I decided to just book two nights at the closest hotel I found near the venue. It was still stupidly expensive, but I thought it would be convenient. When I had time, I checked for stuff to do, bought a few tickets, and just a couple of days before leaving, I had a credit-card scare. Because what would a trip be without a hiccup? But I needed a mental break, and this long weekend was it…

Thus, I was off to London.

1st – 3rd October 2023: London (England) {Miyavi in London 2023}

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Probably three trips to London in a little over three weeks are a bit too much combined, but both Miyavi and Yoshiki seemed to be planning around the same schedules, and their European dates ended up almost overlapping. I have to admit I did consider Paris for Miyavi, but in the end, the conditions on Ticketmaster were weird, and I decided to attend a concert in a country where I spoke the language – and considering Paris’ current bedbug (ew) problem, I’m extra happy I did. There were announcements regarding strikes and problems with trains and undergrounds, so I did not set my plans too hard in stone.

Except, you know. The Return of the Samurai Guitarist, because Miyavi is one of those people that makes you feel that all is good with the world, even if just for a couple of hours.

The concert was on Monday, but I had decided to take a plane on Sunday for cost-effectiveness, and because I was wary of travel issues. I booked one hotel from Sunday to Monday near a major station, and another one for Monday to Tuesday, next to the venue. I made loose plans and I got on my way.

17th – 22nd July 2023: Southern Italy

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Back in May, I booked myself a small trip to the south of Italy. A long time ago, I was in the ancient city of Pompeii (and climbed Mount Vesuvius), and for a few years now, I’ve wanted to come back. I had not really looked seriously into it because affordable flights felt either too short (two nights) or too long (five nights). In the end, I made the calculation that maybe one day for Pompeii, one for Ercolano (Herculaneum) and two and a half for Napoli (Naples) might work out – arriving Monday evening and leaving Saturday late afternoon. I found an reasonably-priced hotel close to the station for the five nights, and then life happened as it usually does. This meant that I ended up without a definite plan – just a few basic bookings – and I seriously miscalculated how rough around the edges Naples really is. Despite it being an area with a “bad rep”, I wanted a hotel near the station to facilitate getting to both Pompeii and Ercolano by train, and because I did not want to connect to a second means of transport when I arrived in town at night.

My flight was due on the 17th of July at 18:30, but it was delayed. Right as I was boarding around 18:45, I got an email stating that my credit card had been denied at the hotel, so unless I provided another one within two hours, the booking would be cancelled. I would be in the air, so I needed to do it on the plane itself. Truth be told, my credit card is due to expire in August, so I don’t know if the error was on the hotel or my bank’s part. Fortunately, upon landing there were no further messages, and as I waited to disembark I tried to access my banking app – to no avail. That made me a tad bit stressed – even if I had cash, I wouldn’t want to get stuck abroad without a working credit card again. My bank has this thing for making all my cards stop working at the same time.

I had booked a ticket for the airport bus, that took merely 15 minutes to get to town. The line, however, was stupidly long. As we waited, taxis and gypsy cabs offered rides, but I did not trust those. The first bus left, and the second one arrived shortly after. It filled up, and there were two groups in front of me. The driver claimed that he only had space for one, so I gleefully claimed “one!” and went ahead. People on board called me lucky, people off board probably hated me.

As we drove off into the road, the first thing I saw was a rat, and that should have been a hint. We stopped off at Plaza Garibaldi in Naples around 22:20, and I did not take 10 minutes to get to the hotel – but boy, they felt long. The city smelt like urine and fishmonger ice, and there were lots of people hanging out who looked up to no good. I finally reached the hotel, the debit card worked, and I had bought a sandwich at the airport so I could have a snack. The air-con worked, and I managed to get the shower working. Things were looking up.

I’ve seen Naples described as charming and chaotic. In principle, I agree with the chaotic part. It has nice things, but it did not feel like a nice “welcoming” city – I would not really call it dangerous, but maybe dodgy or sketchy, and always on the lookout for a naïve tourist to scam or pickpocket. I was not really scared, but uncomfortable more than a few times, which made the whole trip a bit tiring. I decided not to wear headphones to pay more attention to my surroundings. In general, the plan was to start off early in the mornings and be back at the hotel with dinner and drinks in the late afternoon, which turned out to be a good idea. The hotel was small and noisy, but clean, with nice staff, and it became a little refuge, because this is not a town I wanted to go out to take pictures at night of.

Side note – on top of everything, I got caught in the middle of a heat wave – so just assume that from the beginning to the end, it was hot, and I was dripping sweat, unless I was underground. I mean, not even the Archaeological Museum has air conditioning in all the wards… but it does in the basement, which holds… the Egyptian collection. Go figure.

The city of Naples – Napoli in Italian – dates back to a settlement-port established in the 8th century BCE. It was refounded by Greek settlers in 470 BCE and it has been continuously inhabited since then, despite the constant threat of looming volcano Il Vesuvio – Mount Vesuvius – and its temperamental eruptions. There are records of about 50 eruptions, the most famous being the one that buried down Pompeii in 79 CE, though the volcano has been quiet since 1944.

Originally part of Magna Graecia (a network of Greek colonies in in Italy), Naples quickly became one of its most important cities. It became an ally of the Roman Republic against Carthage and it eventually became a Roman colony and part of the empire. Emperor Nero performed in its theatre in 64 CE, it is said that an earthquake hit as he did – he explained that it was the gods clapping at his act – it was in reality a precursor of the year 79 eruption.

After the fall of Roman Empire, the city was captured by the Ostrogoths, and later by the Byzantine Empire. In the year 661, the Byzantine Emperor granted Naples the right to be self-governed by a local Duke, which yielded to the Duchy of Naples and its eventual independence. In the year 1137, the Duchy was annexed to the Kingdom of Sicily, of which it became capital in 1266. In 1282, the Kingdom of Naples was created, though at that time there was a dependency of the Kingdom or Aragón and the city eventually became a part of the Spanish Empire. In the 17th century, Naples was the second-largest city in Europe, and it became the epicentre of the Baroque style.

In 1714, the Spanish “lost” Naples, and for a while it was ruled by Austria. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Naples and Sicily combined to become the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. After 1861, Naples became part of the Kingdom of Italy as part of the Italian unification. This marked the beginning of the decline of the city. Naples was the most bombed city in Italy during WWII, and the first to rise against German occupation. In recent years, it has had issues with waste management, Camorra organised crime, corruption, poverty and high unemployment.

In 1995, the Historic Centre of Naples was declared Unesco World Heritage Site, due to the great number of historical monuments of standing importance – archaeological sites, churches, palaces, castles… Naples has turned to tourism as a source of income, both legit and not so much. Different attractions are managed by cooperatives that employ local people at the same time they open historical sites for visits – which is of course good, but the downside is a lot of guided visits and places you can’t see on your own.

I arrived late on Monday, and I had decided not to book Pompeii for my first day, just in case there were delays. I decided to dedicate Tuesday 18th to Naples (which lead to discover that the Archaeological Museum closed on Tuesdays), Wednesday 19th to Pompeii, Thursday 20th for a half-day trip to Ercolano, and the rest of the time to Naples itself. If I had done a bit more research and timed things better, I could have fit another half-day trip. However, on the bright side, this meant I did not become too tired.

24th – 26th March 2023: Brussels & Antwerp (Belgium) {Belgium, March 2023}

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Situated in northwestern Europe, Belgium is part of both the Benelux and the Low Countries (an area historically a bit wider, including parts of France). It is a Constitutional Monarchy, a former colonial country and an early adopter of the Industrial Revolution. The official languages are Dutch, French and German – I mostly heard French – but people switch to English without any issue or problem. The country might be best-known for hosting many European Union institutions – Belgium was one of the founding members of the alliances that gave way to the current UE: the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and the European Economic Community (1957). Today, Brussels is home to the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, which was in session; that meant a lot of security and police. Something I noticed was that in general, Belgian people are extremely nice – albeit firm when they need to be. Not just… polite, but nice. It was almost uncanny, I kept expecting people to want something in return.

I took a long weekend out to fo some sightseeing in Brussels, meet my friend D****e, and attend a Starset concert in Antwerp. Even if there were a bunch of unexpected bleeps, most related to weather, most went fine, and I was able to see a bunch of cool things.

26th December 2022 – 2nd January 2023: Egypt | Miṣr [مصر]

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Egypt 26th December 2022 – 2nd January 2023 written with a pyramid and the sphynx as background


 
I suppose I am not really qualified to talk about “once-in-a-lifetime trips” considering how I came back from Japan 2012 craving for more, and before Covid hit, I managed to go back several times. For a long time, Egypt has been a destination in the back of my mind, one that I thought was too unattainable on my own, both financially and because I’m weird and single and all.

The stars aligned, in a very weird way I guess, and I made the – maybe self-caring, maybe selfish decision – to seize the moment and take the chance. And thus, with the help of Father Christmas, I went to the cradle of civilisation. The trip was booked through Viajes El Corte Inglés and its tour operator Tourmundial in Spain, and implemented through Galaxia Tours in Egypt. From the beginning to the end, the trip was good, really good, in spite all the issues that could have clouded its development. However, and even if I did not see everything I wanted to, there is no crazy urge to come back.

In a way, I felt a bit like a cashcow, in another like someone a bit on the immoral side. The good thing about the local agency is that at least some of the money we paid stayed in the country. I know that at a couple of times I let myself be “scammed” and paid more than I had to, and other times I put my foot down. All in all, I feel it was a good trip, I scratched a lot from my bucket list, and I geeked out, climbed the inside of a pyramid, and saw Abu Simbel. The level of “achievement unlocked” feeling is unbelievable.

The package consisted of several parts: an arrival day (26th December), three days on a motorboat on the Nile (27th – 29th December) with daytrips and excursions to visit different sights, a transition day (30th December) with a visit and the flight to Cairo, two days in Cairo and its surrounding area (31st December and 1st January), and a final return day (2nd January).

10th – 14th September 2022: Jordan | Al-ʾUrdunn [ٱلْأُرْدُن]

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Jordan, 10th - 14th September 2022


 
A few years ago my parents took a trip to Jordan, which ended in one of them repatriated to the hospital due to a medical emergency the day before visiting Petra. In 2022, as Covid wound down for a bit during the summer months, they stated that they would like to return in order to get over the bad memories, and gather the courage to travel internationally again. I joked that they should take me along for “bodyguard services”. They decided to do so, and invited my sibling along. This is I guess our whole-family trip since… 2000. And since it was what my parents wanted, they called the shots, purchasing a packaged tour to Jordan | Al-ʾUrdunn [ٱلْأُرْدُن]. While these are not much of my thing, it is true that they might be the best – and possibly safest – way to visit the country; our particular tour had positive and negative aspects to it, as it often happens in life.

Our tour included hotels, transportation, tickets to the attractions, breakfasts and dinners – without drinks. We had to pay for lunches and any other drink, and these were usually programmed into the trip, leaving us without many options anyway.

11th – 13th August 2022: Non-weekend weekend in England

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When, back in May, I decided to book this trip, I was surely not anticipating the chaos in the European airports this year, nor for sure the England transport strikes. I did not foresee that the Palace of Westminster would suddenly cancel my visit, nor that it would be through my Westminster Abbey reservation that I would be informed of trains cancellations. I did not know that I would have to buy a last-minute bus ticket and miss half of a tour… Lots of things went almost wrong, but in the end, most everything worked out.