Traveling as a vegan

Almost 6,5 years ago I started to live as a vegan. To many surprise it has actually not been as difficult as many think it is and I even thought it would be. 
 

Well, the reactions have been hard at times. Suddenly people become food experts and try to make you feel bad about something which is quite the opposite. But no discussions here, just my tips and experiences.

I saw and still see it as a hobby. I learned a lot about food and health since and really enjoyed it, even if  my basic reason was and still is not using other beings as a product, a thing, an object. It enriched my life more than I ever thought possible.

But what about when you travel?!

You would think perhaps that traveling as a vegan is difficult. I haven’t experienced it like that at all and again it's more how people react that bothers me. I’ve traveled to India, Morocco, several places in Europe, Turkey, Brazil and Ecuador since I am living as a vegan. So I dare to say: I am experienced. 

Maybe it's all new to you or still difficult, I hope the 4 points below will help you further.
 

To travel veganlicious:

1. Vegan language

First thing I do is write down and learn words in the language of the country I am going to or am in. Words such as: vegan, vegetables, meat, and: (no) milk, eggs, honey, butter, meat, chicken, fish, wool, leather, animal products and such.

Most of the time I know the words for food, example ‘rice’, ‘bread’ and such before learning any other words in a language.

It’s smart to anyway download a (offline) dictionary onto your phone. 
  
A must-have for the vegan(-minded) travelers among us is the Vegan Passport. It’s great! 
In many languages it’s explained what vegans do and don't eat. There’s even a page, see the image above, where if anything else fails images can be shown.

I have used it many times, also for people who wanted to know what veganism is.

2. To eat or not to eat out

Cooking for yourself is most easy if you want to be sure of eating vegan. Everywhere fruits, vegetables, rice, seeds, nuts and such can be found. Go to the (super)markets and just in case bring that dictionary along.

The ingredients and tastes can be different from what you are used to. In that case be creative, try things out or look up new recipes.

In some countries like Brazil tofu is for example very expensive and hard to find. Also many pasta's are made with egg. Enough other good things you can find. Every country has its unique and delicious things. Like the cacao and chocolate in Ecuador is just hmmmmmmmm... Chocolate with lemongrass! Or I make my own: cacao, cocos oil, stevia or panela and I love inside pure peanut butter mixed with some panela. So simple, so delicious. 

When traveling with the bus and plane, always take something with you, it has happened more often to me that the ordered vegan meal wasn’t there.

Sometimes a bus makes a stop. Everybody starts eating, but the only thing I found was a bag of natural chips to eat. In this case, be prepared or just eat/live simple for that short period.

 

The nice thing was, that eating out in Sao Paulo was hardly any more expensive than cooking myself. So I preferred going out... to a vegan restaurant with almost daily a great buffet.

The best website for finding vegan, vegetarian, veg-friendly restaurants, organic supermarkets and such is Happy Cow. You can read and leave recommendations there, add information or a restaurant.

I have eaten so veganlicious in vegan as well as in vegetarian restaurants. Most of the times the last has at least one vegan dish or could make one. Even 'meat restaurants' can...
In a pizzeria they made pizza without cheese for me, though it inspired them to gossip.
Also in almost every country you can find fries/potato chips, but don't forget to ask about the kind of oil it's fried in.

I try to stimulate and promote vegan restaurants and I don't like to see or smell animal products. Just saying what’s possible. 

I have eaten the best vegan cakes, ice-cream, food in my life while traveling!

3. No! A mistake!

Sometimes something goes wrong. People don’t always understand what being a vegan is means or you are so used something being standard vegan that you make a mistake.

Once in a restaurant they said I could choose between two desserts, but read the menu and one had honey in it. And oil can be meat or vegetable oil. In India for example a lot of ghee, a butter kind, is being used in dishes.

One time I probably ate something which had meat oil in it. Someone gave some vegetables to me and I wasn't thinking. It tasted different and not much later got sick to my stomach. Someone told me it was probably the oil…
Even if all the whole grain bread in bakeries here in Ecuador where I am, seem to be vegan, I ask in every bakery sometimes twice if there is no milk, butter and all in it.

I have a paper with me with all the E-numbers that are not or has a change of not being vegan. http://www.food-info.net/nl/qa/qa-fi45.htm 
Many countries don't work with the numbers, but the names. For the E-numbers/names in English: LINK

4. A vegan among others

I always say infiltrate and integrate...

I've met great non-vegan people, who cooked vegan for me or went out eating vegan with me. It can be nice and smart though when you are especially traveling for a longer time to meet or stay (through Couchsurfing for example) with other vegans.

They can help you out, give tips for certain places, recipes and foods. 
Not having discussions or having to cook in a kitchen with animal products, meat smelling pans ruining your food, is also a nice reason. 

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I focused on vegan food in this blog, but living as a vegan is more than food.
In Brazil for example, I found vegan, non-animal-tested, shampoos and soaps.

I've found that traveling as a vegan isn’t hard at all. Especially if you see it as a hobby, as fun, you will find and enjoy more vegan things than you thought possible.

Your tips, experiences, questions, remarks below the blog are more than welcome. 

Traveling with a baby

As a single mom it hasn't always been easy traveling with a baby. I have a stroller, two backpacks, a small and a big one, and not to forget a gorgeous heavy baby. 

You learn to ask for help and be creative. 

I travel less, less far at once and slower with a baby. Finding work has become more difficult than when I traveled alone, for I need and want to take my baby with me to work. 

So far: I cleaned, gave private English classes, did some typing, sold some of my pen-drawings, sold secondhand clothes (I asked people to give clothes they weren't wearing) and sold homemade banana muffins.

I'm experienced in traveling with a baby for only 4 months now. Still, I've learned a lot already!

Check out my Viv Stuff page to know more about me and my way of living and traveling.

 
Things to think about when you travel with a baby

I tell you my experience, but all babies have there own characters and needs. So:

1. Listen to, 'read', your baby 


My baby-girl was almost 5 months old when I started traveling with her. It has become so much more easy since. She cried more and was more restless at the beginning. 

I feel that her getting used to traveling, in combination of her getting older, changed that. 

2. Things need time

Do not rush or force anything.

When you travel, your baby sees most of the time many new places and people. 

My girl likes change and loves meeting people, but reference points besides me makes her more relaxed and enjoy the change more. That makes her smile when coming back 'home'.

3. Daily reference points

For example: same walking route, same house and room, same toys, same people, same restaurant, etc.

You may like to see many things and you should never forget yourself... your happiness shines and your baby picks that up... but do not forget the first point I made. 

Very important is not what you do, how many things you see, but how you do it. Stressing, hurrying through things, over-stimulation is not good for a baby.

4. Try not to stress, to hurry

This is anyway important, but while traveling where everything is new even more so.

Sometimes it's difficult to avoid things. My baby-girl cried so much in the plane, especially during landing. Her ears hurt like crazy. I couldn't breastfeed during landing, which can help, for she had to sit on my lap with her face directed from me. 

I let her suck on a small blanket and put my hands over her ears. But it was difficult as a mom! I almost started to cry myself from frustration.

Also with the bus the pressure on her ears were a problem and that's why she also cried a lot in the beginning of our travels. She got used to the altitude change after a month. This mainly because of a lot of going down and up the hill with a taxi to and from the place we were staying.

She can't stand the heat. It stresses her out. You could tell by her getting red, sweaty and crying that she was overheated. 

Where we're staying now, it's much cooler and since she seems much better. 

Where it was hot I used a hand fan sometimes, which helped a little. But due to mosquitoes and sun she had to wear long sleeves. She drank hardly any water back then and especially not too cold. If your baby likes swimming... or use a wet cloth to cool her or him down. I always have drinking water with me, especially when I can't immediately breastfeed it's handy. 

5. Try to avoid your baby to stress (physically)

Take the necessary precautions.

Even if I hardly used the baby-bed that was specially hung in front of my seat in the plane, it was still useful for the few times I did.

I payed an extra seat in the bus, just so I could put her down sometimes. Especially convenient when you're traveling as a single parent.

6.  Extra seat/bed

Sometimes it's worth the extra costs. 


Just be aware that when using cloth diapers not everywhere you have immediate access to a washing machine. But a pan or a bucket and cooked water does the trick as well.

Some places clothes dry slow. Where I was it was rainy season and I also couldn't hang the clothes in the sun that sometimes came out... it took 4 days to dry!

Plastic diapers are sometimes handy while traveling. 

I'm so happy I mostly breastfeed. It's real easy while traveling. Nothing to heat up, prepare, to make dirty, no extra weight... 

Otherwise, maybe a small hand-mixer is handy to take with you, depending on the age and child a fork will also do the trick, or even chew the food yourself beforehand... the prehistoric way.

7. What's handy and necessary to know and have with you

Be careful with food and water. Like salads are usually washed with tap water, this isn't always drinkable, especially for foreigners.

It's also smart not letting your baby touch (stray) dogs and cats, depending on the country you're in. 

Think about what you should take along. For example, do you need a (baby) mosquito net, a hat, long sleeves and trousers, a swimming diaper, something against sunburn or when there's snow, extra (dry) socks and so on.

There's a lot of discussion going on about vaccinating or not. Look up what's said to be relevant when you travel to a specific country and area.

There's a lot of good information online, also against vaccinating, and then think if you find it really necessary or not.  

8. Health

I have a big, white, blue-eyed baby. This causes a lot of attention in a country like for example Ecuador, where I feel babies are almost seen as public property. 

One time I was almost fighting a woman who wouldn't take no for an answer. She persisted in holding her.

I don't let strangers make photos of her or let them hold her. I have to protect her privacy and from too much attention. Some people however just don't seem to understand or care. 

One time she started crying, because of who and how someone hold her. The woman just didn't seem to notice or care and really had to persist her of giving back my baby to me. After that I started making some 'rules'.

Here in Ecuador you can get a red necklace or baby bracelet with a red evil-eye in it, which is believed to protect against evil. That's why, when people see it, they will think twice before touching your baby. I noticed a little bit of difference while she was wearing it.
(I got one for free, and I heard a red ribbon or string will also do the trick.)

Every culture is different. For example they think here she is a he, because she doesn't have earrings/pierced ears, which every baby-girl gets when almost just born. 

Nice thing, I find, is that it's not boring for babies here and many keep polite distance, especially after me saying something about them touching my baby. 

I am happy how helpful people can be, but sometimes you just got to ask for it.

Know that at some places they ask you afterwards for money if they help you. For example helping you getting your things into the bus. 

9. Cultural differences

Do what feels right for and according to you! It's your baby, you are the parent and no one else!

Last but not least: enjoy your time together! 

This sounds so simple and logical, but it isn't always the case. Sometimes you have to work on it. 

Living in the 'here and now' is a good thing, but making photos for memories and buying some typical traditional baby-clothes of the country you're in, is something you wont regret. 

10. Fun

Traveling cheap/with hardly any money

Some of you already know: in June 2012 I gave up everything to start traveling, officially homeless, without bank-account and health insurance.
 

With 550 euro in my pocket, which I collected by selling some of my stuff, I started my travels. A lot happened. For example: getting pregnant and becoming a mom...
But before that, I was hitchhiking through Europe and working in the cities on my way... to wherever and whenever I felt going. Well, as long as my budget allowed it.
 
I will sum up five things on which I saved a lot of money on and not only that: gave me much joy. I met a lot of great people while hitchhiking and Couchsurfing. Many great adventures!

You get the premier of parts of my far-from-finished book 'Without Borders', which I was writing during traveling through Europe. The names are fictitious for privacy reasons.

In italic lay-out I share those personal stories with you, the ones that are more relevant follow after the more basic information. So, if it's too long for you, and you are in a hurry to travel cheap, you can skip them.

Enjoy, get inspired and make your own adventures! And if you haven't yet, read also after this one my previous blog about traveling and working.

How to minimize your costs:

Well, I have heard great stories about how people not spend any money at all while traveling. I just love trying out veganlicious food and going to a cafe with (new made) friends. But just so you know, it is possible!


1. Sleeping

- Couchsurfing and other hosting/surfing sites

- Friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, colleagues and strangers

- Housesitting
- WWOOFing
- Hostels

- Tent or just a sleeping bag

  

There are more websites for surfing (and hosting) people all over the world. Couchsurfing is the most famous one and I have used it a lot. Also it works great just to meet people for a drink. 

I've also stayed with friends of friends through Couchsurfing, or colleagues of my father, or with people from my work, or those I just met at a restaurant, etc. I stayed one month at my chef's place for example. I even asked strangers on the streets. One very friendly guy I hitchhiked with bought me some bread and brought me to a hotel and payed. Some people just really like to help you out.

Other possibilities are house-sitting. You take care of someones house while they are away on holiday or to visit their home country. In return you take care of their plants, dog(s) and/or cat(s). 

There are even special sites for it, but also check the cities special (gringo) websites, or special Facebook pages and such. And of course: ask around. 
 
You could do WWOOFing, which I've already mentioned in my previous blog. Working on a farm for lodging and food. Or work a bit in a hostel, in exchange for a free bed.

Are you very adventurous and like being outside, in nature? You have special outdoor sleeping bags with which you can even sleep in the rain. 

If you can't or don't want to search for anything free, check out: Hostelz.com.  

The biggest dorms in hostels are most cheap and staying more days gives sometimes discounts. Don't book online, it can cost extra, or there has to be a 'special', but search on the site I mentioned and then Google the hostel's name and find their direct contact information.

Rent your place at home temporarily to some-one, or leave it all behind like I did...

We are eating watermelon. I've been in Graz for already a couple of days now. A small city, which for me is a mixture of the Marburg in Germany, also in the center a hill on which a castle, and the Vienna in Austria that I know. Smaller than Vienna and less picturesque than Marburg. Both places don't really do it for me, but the combination makes it actually good. 

Mathew is my host. After a few days, a lot more than that, he is my best friend. A straight guy. That's new. I was hoping that at least one time in my life this would happen and now it has.

Immediately I felt so open and relaxed towards him. But somehow I keep a little bit of distance as a precaution that no tension will come between us. Therefore I sometimes look away from him while we talk about love and above all the grief that it can cause.

/ 

It will be my second night in Maribor. I almost hitchhiked back, because I had no place to stay for the second night. 
The third place I walk in is an eatery. The waiter outside looks shortly at me. He seems a helpful person. So I take once more courage and walk towards him. 

"Can you speak English?", I ask him. "Yes." I tell him my story and that I would like to stay one more night in Maribor, but that I wasn't able to find a place through Couchsurfing for a second night. "Do you know Couchsurfing?" Again a yes follows. "Do you know anyone perhaps?" He asks me to follow him as he walks into the eatery. He talks Slovenian to whom I assume is his chef. She looks at me briefly and it seems to be a 'yes' right away. 

I introduce myself and she says something to the man sitting at the table nearest to us. The waiter says that I will get the key and have the apartment to myself tonight. Grateful I write down my phone number for her and she gives me hers. They make clear I should follow the man, which seems to be her boyfriend.  

It's a ten minute walk in which he expresses his surprise on how I live and travel. He says he would never dare doing what I'm doing. I look at his muscles, which tells apparently nothing about someones strength.

Once inside the building we have to take all the stairs up. When we're in, he shows me around. It's a small, clean and nice apartment. I'm even allowed to make use of the computer. He is trying to log-in with the password she gave him. However, after several attempts he still doesn't succeed and gives up. "Never mind", I say, "thank you already for so much!"

He leaves. I doze off on the couch. Not long after I hear someones trying to open the door. They are both there, coming to log-in. I almost feel guilty for so much help, but I feel that they like to do it for me. I glance at her. I can tell that she's a powerful woman, a fighter and that she appreciates me and understands my want and need for freedom. 

"Do you need new sheets for the bed?", she asks. "No, it's just fine... or are you really dirty?" She laughs. They leave me with some bread they specially brought with them for me. 
I immediately let myself slide tired, but satisfied, onto the chair and check my emails and chat with my mom, my ex and whoever I feel like sharing with what just happened. I am overexcited. It worked! And even more easy than I thought it would.  

2. Traveling

- Hitchhiking 

- Walking

- Bike

- Car-sharing

- Bus, subway, train
- Plane

Hitchhiking has been such a great experience for me! Met so many interesting and very helpful people. All with their own unique stories. Couples, families, business men, friends, young, old, happy, sad, rich, poor... 

In some countries it's more easy to hitchhike than in others. It's smart to look up some information about hitchhiking beforehand and ask some experienced people for advice. 

When you are a woman and/or traveling alone, it's most of the time more easy to get a car ride, but you also have to be a little bit more careful. 
When you're a guy, having a cuddle attached to your backpack, being shaved and (also for women:) not wearing sunglasses, all helps for example to look more friendly and trustworthy and for a car to stop faster. 

Check this site out: http://wikitravel.org/en/Tips_for_hitchhiking And for a hitchwiki map, check here: http://hitchwiki.org/maps/ 

I walk a lot when I am staying in a city, even the huge ones. Even with my baby-girl. I have walked many, many kilometers. Someone said I should put a meter on that stroller, just to see...

Besides, it's a healthy way of getting about. It's a good way of getting to know a place. I knew a city after two weeks better than someone who had lived there half a year. 

Sometimes you can get cheap bus-tickets that you can use for more days. Like in Berlin, buying more tickets for the subway at once was cheaper ... well when you do pay... (It wasn't me!)

I was lucky that I got fly-miles from people, which made my flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, really cheap. But I also recently found this very interesting site about traveling and how to find for example much cheaper fly-tickets: http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-tips/travel-hacking-guide/ 

Just know, if you have time, sometimes making more stops and/or starting in another country, and first taking a bus or whatever, can save you hundreds and hundreds of dollars/euros/etc!

I have many great hitchhiking stories to tell... over a drink, outside with a nice fire or on Skype, but for now I only share one of my favorite written ones:

The sun is already low and it's finally cooling down a bit. I let the rays of sun lower my eyelids, making me peer through the thin openings onto the road. Silence.

A car. I open my eyes a bit more to take a better look. I see at least two silhouettes inside the old rusty red car. Looks like men. I do not raise my thumb. They drive by slowly and the men turn their heads with the speed they are going and keep looking at me. A look that would give a shiver down my spine if I wasn't that used of pretending they can't do me anything. I don't want to know what is going on in their heads right now.

When they are gone, I shake the withheld shiver off of me.

Again silence.

Two big dark green jeeps come in sight, I automatically put up my thumb. As if the army would take me with them. That's probably not even allowed. 
I see them coming closer and see that there is also no place for anyone extra. Would be cool though... maybe one time... 

The men are well shaved and with an alert but friendly look on their face. We laugh shortly at one another. I nod, like a man would do to his fellow colleague. My backpack behind me on the ground, my black clothes, my straight back... for a while I feel like I'm understood.

No, now I do not feel a combination of being tough and naif, as I felt before. I am someone with a purpose: adventure, and I will survive whatever! After a long day I finally feel how a sense of security relaxes me, along with a breeze it refreshes me.

Never ever thought something like the army, that has to do with weapons and wars, would make me feel so relaxed.

3. Eating

- Dumster diving (also known as garbage picking, containering and skippen) 
- Cook yourself

- Exchange work for food

- Free drinks/food at supermarkets, during exposition openings... or just dance like me and get free drinks of the bartender. ;)
- Markets

Also ask small stores at closing time if they are going to throw away anything and if so, if you can have it. It's not always allowed for them to give it away, but you can try.

Cooking for yourself is cheaper than going out of course, but try to cook also for someone else in exchange that that other person pays for the food.

I, for example, get lately two lunches for one hour of English class I give to the owners of a restaurant.

Markets are many times cheaper, especially at the end of the (market-)day. Sometimes you can just say "it's too much, but I'll pay... " This depends on the country and person in front of you if it works. But bargain! 

When you're staying longer at one place, sometimes buying a bigger amount of something is much cheaper. 

Ask your host and/or locals (through CS for example) for tips where to get the best buys. 

If you ever buy food you don't like... had it ones in Brazil... give it at least to poor people. Do not throw it away, you can make someone happy with it!

Yes, I want to at least try this once, also to just add a new experience to my list. Also, if I am ever really in need while traveling, I know I can survive in a 'healthy' and environmentally friendly way.

/

Somewhat in the after-pain of disappointment I return back to my couchsurfing host, a spontaneous and energetic well curved Romanian girl. I tell her about the for her unknown way of getting food. Curious, she wants immediately to take a look in the neighborhood.
 

By midnight we find a place which isn't closed with a gate or anything. We look in the containers and find between discarded strawberries two apples. We score! 

We walk back with both an apple in our hands. I can't stop giggling. She looks at me slightly puzzled and asks why I laugh. "'Cause it's my first time, first things are special and it's just funny walking with an apple here in the middle of the night." She smiles and nods in agreement.

/

She comes walking towards me. She's tall, her dress swings around her voluptuous body and a flower decorates her blond dyed hair. 
We greet one another. Soon we're talking about traveling, about work, about vegan life. Yay, she says, as we are the first. 

We stand in front of the ice cream place that has organic and also many vegan ice cream. This morning they're giving it away for free. We are waiting a little impatient until we are allowed inside. "Uh, pear, oh vanilla soy ice is finished, um, then lets take the raspberry." 

We get a huge amount of ice cream on our cones. We walk a bit more before we sit down on a bench. Then we talk on, sometimes distracted by the delicious taste, from where we had left.

(Best ice cream I ever ate, by the way.)

/

We meet in front of the sex shop. Agnes is also there. "Yes", I tell her, "I have a flashlight with me, I found it quite easy at my host's place". She has a key to the door that leads to the corridor where the storage space is with the waste of the supermarket. (Are you still following me?)

"How did you get it?" She tells me that there are several keys going around, however, that the lock of the other supermarkets waste storages have been changed lately and that she doesn't have the new key yet.

The light doesn't work. She opens the container and the smell of waste meets us. I shine with the flashlight in it while she examines the content. She is much longer than I am and can reach deeper. She finds many useful things. I also start grabbing what I can. We get a loaf of bread, coffee, a plant and some other non-plant-based things.

Agnes is quiet for a change. 

The cover of the container falls on our heads. "Ouch!", we both cry. "That's happened before", she says. I say," let me hold it, while you look". She rips open a few garbage bags to see if there's anything usable inside. 

Our bags are filled as we walk out, into the bright light. 

4. Wearing
- Ask around for free clothes

- Buy second-hand

- Buy at shops with bulk clothes or when there's a discount

I didn't even ask for the stroller, but my host said I could have it. I asked my friends on Facebook if someone had a small backpack... got a fantastic good one. 

Many times when I meet or am staying with women, I ask if they have anything they aren't going to wear anymore, and if so, if maybe I can have it. I've gotten so many good and even never worn clothes because of this. Just recently, I got great expensive quality clothes from the woman I am staying with.

Be alert with second-hand, because in some countries it's way too expensive! But believe me, free clothes when traveling is easy to find. I even sold this way for a short time second-hand clothes, just by asking around and getting nice things, giving me a bit of needed income.
 
So, you can sell the things you do not wear, or trade it or give it away.

Lawrence stands in front of us and takes off his underwear. Naked he looks for another underpants and puts it on. "Well, well", says Brad, "a free show!", and watches with me. Distracted I nod. 

Brad enjoys my smile. Can't help it, but feel like a kid in a candy shop... a feast for my eyes. 

Lawrence hands me his underpants he just took off. Brad gives me his just bought and still unused T-shirt and gives it to me. I put it on, together with my big walking boots and my jacket. The still wet clothes I put in a plastic bag. 

"You look weird" Brad says. I can not help to think I look actually very artistic and cool, with my high-blond hair in a mess... And that's how I say goodbye to them.  

(Getting a free man's underpants... my kind of souvenir. ;) But not something I would advice... well... but just want to say, you can be surprised how clothes comes to you. ;))

 5. Sight-seeing

- Free entries: museums (special offers), galleries, festivals, bars, etc
- Free walking tours

A lot of big cities have free walking tours. They ask/hope for a tip though. 

Just be creative. Enough fun to have without paying any or hardly any money. Instead of going to a bar, buy a drink at a shop and sit in a nice park and get your vitamin D for free! :)

At the tourist information offices they many times can give better city maps for free than the standard ones. Just ask for it. You can of course always ask them if they know nice things to do for free or cheap.

Mathew's roommate works in the cinema and I can go for free with them to the new Batman movie. It's in German though. Who cares?! As if i am listening to anything that's said... with such a sexy actor, who needs to?

/

Angela and I shiver from the cold. I, because I'm still sweaty after dancing and she, because her open shoes and bare legs. 

We watch how the view over Graz becomes slowly visible, while the morning commences, silencing us after sharing our very personal stories. We just breathe the fresh air in and out.

I try to support her as she tries to put on her pantyhose. We want to see the sunrise and walk ourselves warm by walking a few circles on the top of the hill. It's already 6 AM and we are very tired. 

It has become totally light, but the sun is still not up and we decide: another time. We walk back, down the hill. I am overcome with sleep, my legs heavy from all the dancing but I feel grateful for her relaxed spontaneity. She takes her bike, gives a kiss goodbye and I start walking, well more stumbling, the opposite direction, towards my 'home'.  

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Thank you for reading my tips, my stories...

Links, tips and your own experiences are very welcome to share below.
Hope you share my blog, gracias!

Love,
Viviane

Note: a blog about traveling as a vegan and a blog about traveling as a mom will follow soon.