On the road again (or in the air, in this case...)

[morsla]

I'm about to head off to Barcelona for the ICWSM conference: leaving tomorrow, and getting back in two weeks. I'm mostly ready... that is, I've packed just about everything I can think of, printed (and packed!) a poster to present at ICWSM, and I have a vague idea of where I'm staying. I still feel a lot less prepared than I'd like to be, but there are plenty of reasons for that.

I've never travelled solo in a country where I can't speak or read the local language, so that adds a little bit of stress into preparing for the trip. I'm looking forward to it, but really don't know what to expect. At some stage during the flight (almost 22 hours in the air, with a few hours in Singapore airport) I'll try to work out exactly where to go once I reach the airport, and how to say "I apologise for mangling your beautiful language" when I try communicating via phrasebook.

Money will be a bit of an issue this trip. I'm still yet to see any money in my account from a botched casual timesheet (four weeks of research assistant work), or a thousand dollars worth of registration fees for the two big conferences (reimbursement claim lodged a month ago). That means I don't have the easy safety barrier of throwing money at anything that might go wrong: most of my account has been emptied for the mortgage payment that happens while I'm away, so I will be doing my best to use those budget traveller senses that have been honed over the years.

In the past fortnight, I've had over a dozen people warn me about pickpockets. Most of the warnings come from people who have spent a reasonable amount of time in the city in the past two years, so I'm taking them seriously... Barcelona currently has the dubious honour of being the pickpocket capital of the world. So I'm hoping that I manage to keep my possessions, at least for long enough to consult a map and track down my hostel. Maybe I should write down that address somewhere.

The first few days will be spent in a backpacker's hostel on the western side of the city. During the middle of the trip I'm in a hotel, near the conference. Then there are a few days after the conference, which I have no plans for yet... I haven't booked anything yet, and will hopefully find a good place to stay in my first few days in the city.

So, yeah. Not particularly prepared, this time. I wonder where this road will lead me.

Comments

[lena-supercat.livejournal.com]

I've just come back from my first solo trip to countries where I can't speak or read the language (mostly Germany and a bit in Norway). It turned out to be much easier than I expected - in both countries I found that I could understand a lot of written words that are similar to English, a lot of city areas had signs in multiple languages, and even with people who spoke almost no English, I found that I could get by with phrasebook levels of German and lots of hand gestures. In places like shops, hotels, trains, restaurants, there's a limited range of things the other person could be saying, so if you manage to catch one familiar word, that can be enough to get by. Eg. when the train conductor says something in German which includes "kreditkarte" it's obvious that he wants to see the credit card that I booked my ticket with.

One thing I'd recommend to do if you have a smartphone: download the "City Maps To Go" app or similar and get maps for all cities you'll be visiting. The GPS still works even if you don't have data roaming, so you just need the maps to be preloaded on your phone. That and offline dictionaries were the most convenient thing ever for travelling!

Good luck and have fun! It sounds awesome!

[miss-rynn.livejournal.com]

Get back safely!

[jod999.livejournal.com]

My routine for entering a city is pretty much always the same:
+ The best time to work out how to leave a city is when you arrive, rather than when you are trying to catch a plane/train. That is, if I fly in, I'm probably also flying out, so I sus out the airport and work out roughly where my flight is going to leave from.

+ Pick up a map as soon as I arrive (although I second the idea of a travel app).

+ Time how long it takes to get to the city or the hostel. While not always accurate for travel times, it gives you a minimum idea of how much time to allow when you are leaving.

+ Pick up a business card at the hostel when you arrive (and every other place you stay). Great for showing to taxi drivers when you are completely lost in the middle of the night.

But you know all this, right.

Have a great time.

[drwally.livejournal.com]

I just spent a week in Madrid; comprehension of English is pretty good, and most younger people speak a little.

[virtual-munkee.livejournal.com]

oh u sound pretty prepared to me, Ben! At any rate, you definitely KNOW about the pickpockets, I know loads of people that have no idea about getting around foreign cities safely. Also any gypsy or pickpocket could pick your streetwise smarts a MILE away, I think u will be fine :) I think its a good idea to have a notebook with all your important thjings (addresses, account deets, passport number etc) in it, in case ur wallet gets taken. I also have all my booking details, passport copy etc online in an email to myself so I can quickly get things sorted if things go wrong. oh and a sneaky extra money spot helps so you can get onto the computer or make phone calls, ha!

no really, even attempting to speak spanish will be good. I found it a fun language to mangle/speak, and food was cheap! jamon e queso rolls are SOOO good. and cafes are great, mm churro con chocolates. i found i didnt spend too much on food...now wine, thats different! :P have fun and good luck at the conference!