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Go on a hike.
No, seriously. Mountains, lakes, forests, rivers, meadows, whatever it is. There's so much out there to explore in the natural world, and I believe that spending an afternoon sitting in an alpine meadow overlooking a crystal-clear lake, eating a cheap supermarket sandwich, is the perfect way to appreciate and reconnect with life.
I knew that after I left Paris, the next major city on my list I wanted to visit was Barcelona. However, the thought of taking a high-speed train through France to arrive in one day wasn't that appealing. It kind of defeats the purpose of a Eurail pass, which allows you to take as many trains as you could want. Plus, I was ready to get out of a city environment for a little while.
So, after browsing my map, I found two spots where I would stop and stay a few nights, on my way to Barcelona.
First, I visited the small town of Carcassonne, in the south of France. The name popped out at me because of the popular board game with the same name. If you've ever played, then let me tell you, the actual place is just as picturesque and ideal as the little images on the tiles, if not more so.
Carcassonne sits adjacent to this massive medieval castle city, which is super pretty and has apparently been featured in many movies, and is the main attraction to see. Just be wary of the higher food prices within its walls. Funnily, the first thing I saw once I entered the castle was a store completely devoted to selling the board game. I guess it's only natural.
I didn't spend too much time in the city, and soon I grabbed dinner and picked a spot on the grass outside the castle, overlooking the town, to eat. Soon, I met a man named Yoan, who was born and raised in Carcassonne, and he told me that he came to this very spot almost every day, to unwind after work and watch the sunset. We exchanged many life stories and talked about French politics for a while until the sun set, where we parted ways and I headed back to the hostel for the night.
Carcassonne store in Carcassonne
On my only full day in the south of France, I decided I would rent a bike, and do an extended bike trip to a nearby lake called Lake Cavayère. Carcassonne is situated on the Canal du Midi, which cuts across the entire south of France, connecting the Atlantic ocean to the Mediterranean. I figured I'd bike out to this lake, go for a swim, then head back along the canal. A nice long loop. After chatting to a British couple named Mark and Este in the slow line for the bike rental, and noting down their recommendations for stuff to do in Barcelona, I set off.
Though I started on nice paved country roads, Google Maps quickly routed me along some very narrow, dirt farm paths. Each time I took a new turn, I thought it couldn't get worse, but each time it did. At one point I was on a path less than a foot in width, in the middle of a forest, which also happened to be private property. Google seemed totally fine with all of this though! This was by far the most action that my little rental bike had seen in its lifetime, and I'm lucky that it survived the journey relatively unscathed. After about 5 miles of getting lost in a maze of private farm paths, I finally emerged back into civilization, right by the lake.
Google maps did its job, I guess.
Deep in some private property in the French backcountry
At the hostel in the evening, I met a solo traveler my age from Tanzania, named Harry. He showed me his cost-saving dinner hack: tabbouleh (a middle eastern grain salad) from a supermarket with some canned tuna salad on top. The whole thing was 3.50 euros, and enormously filling. We ate back up at the same spot I was at the day before, comparing life between Tanzania and Boston. There is a slow and relaxed feel out here in the country that simply hasn't been present on my trip so far.
Dinner at my spot
I decided that my second stop before Barcelona would be the tiny country of Andorra. When I was younger, I was obsessed with learning and memorizing all the countries of the world. I guess it was my way of partially fulfilling my love for travel when I was still stuck in a classroom. Andorra was always this cool fact I could whip out, like "did you know there's actually a small country in between Spain and France?"
Ok, so I knew I wanted to go there. Now the question was, how?
See, Andorra isn't on the European rail network - there are no railways in the entire country. That makes sense, given its location nestled high up in the Pyrenees mountains. For me, with my Eurail pass, trains are the most cost effective method of transport, and I was trying everything I could to get to the country that way. There's a tiny French town called L'Hospitalet, near the Andorra border, which I was intending to take the train to, but the sheer amount of connections, as well as the need to take a bus from there to the city - which only ran late at night - made it much too complicated. I gave in and got a direct bus from Toulouse to Andorra La Vella, the capital city.
It was my first time on a bus during my travels, and if I were to do a European backpacking trip again, I'd probably drop the Eurail pass and opt for buses instead of trains. On average, they're cheaper, just as nice, and often more accessible.
After riding for a couple hours through the French countryside with the Pyrenees growing ever closer in the distance, the bus entered a long tunnel through a mountainside. When we emerged, I suddenly found myself up close and personal with these mountains. The trees formed a blanket over the landscape, in every shade of green. Little towns with red roofs dotted the valleys, and a lone, stubby church spire sat atop one of the smaller mountaintops. As I got further into the region, the mountains started to grow taller, and the trees gradually faded away, like a scraggly beard, giving way to tan and light gray rock faces. With the arid climate of the Iberian peninsula, these immense mountains have their own distinct personality, and are unlike any other mountain range I've seen. I definitely recommend visiting them.
Soon, I passed the small town of L'Hospitalet as the bus precariously climbed higher along the switchbacks. Up there, herds of tan and white cows speckled the alpine wildflower meadows like freckles. After crossing the border into Andorra, it was only 30 minutes until I arrived in the capital, Andorra La Vella. I never wanted that bus ride to end.
The only hostel I could find in the country, though, was in a different town called La Massana. The thing I quickly realized about Andorra, even though it's very developed and modern, is that Google Maps weirdly doesn't show the public transport within the country. I felt stranded in the capital for a while, seriously contemplating walking all the way across the country with my bags. It wouldn't take that long, given its size. However, since most people speak English, I soon learned that you have to get a separate app called FEDA Mou-te to access public transport within the country. Once I figured this out, it was pretty straightforward to get to my hostel.
Andorra La Vella
In the morning, I took a brief pit stop to do some street photography in the surprisingly large and bustling capital city. I didn't include any of that work here, you can find it on my Instagram. Then, I hopped on the L4 bus, which - in only 30 minutes - took me across the entire width of the country to the trailhead of a hike called Estany de Juclà.
Roughly 10 miles, this was an out-and-back hike which took me up a winding mountain path that felt straight out of Lord of the Rings. At the top was a crystal clear alpine lake. It was actually crazy how clear the water was, and yet it was so deep that I couldn't see the bottom. Sort of freaky, I couldn't help but imagining that the Loch Ness monster's Andorran half brother was living at the bottom. Spending my day alone in nature really made me feel free, and helped me appreciate how truly massive the planet is, and how much more of it I have yet to see.
I believe that if all the politicians of the world took a mandatory hiking trip to an alpine lake, the world would be in a much better place. I think they truly just don't appreciate what they're missing, and what they're destroying. When you're up in Andorra, with nothing but the mountains around you, it seems impossible to me that anyone would willingly pass a law harming the climate.
So yeah, it's been a fun week. I think, for the rest of my trip, I'm going to take occasional breaks in between large cities to spend time out in nature. It's very fulfilling, and spices things up.
I think everyone should get lost, once in a while.
See ya,
Mark
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