Say it three times. Packing packing packing.

There's still one week before I start my trip and I've already decided to start packing. I started to become anxious some days ago, and something inside me is asking me to start travelling as soon as possible.
I was never a light packer, and for the first time I've decided to travel as light as possible.
I started by buying a Osprey Kestrel 48L and it's an amazing backpack I must say. You can adjust almost everything, it's water proof, and it fits amazingly well. If you pack it correctly you can still check it in the airplane in low-cost companies like ryanair or easyjet.
In the end the backpack it's one of the most important things on which every backpacker should spend money with. If you feel comfortable  during your trip, you'll be much happier than if you spend all the time feeling pain.
Then, thanks to my couchsurfers (thanks Amanda and Sarah :p), I found the silk inner sleeping bags. They are comfortable, and you don't need to carry an huge sleeping bag if you carry those things. My advice is for you to find a small and light sleeping bag, and then add the inner sleeping bag. It's a great combination, and it's ideal for camping or even when you stay in a hostel or so.

Everybody faced at least once, the question about what to take with us. If it is too warm, or too cold, or how many sweaters should we take. First rule is, never pack for more than one week, even if you intend to travel for 1 year or for the rest of your life.
Then there's something really useful. A good rain jacket and a softshell. I'm not even going to explain the rain jacket, but the soft shell is water repellent, and extremely breathable.
I don't want to make you fall asleep with all of this advices so I'll stop here.
For now all I can say is that I'm really eager to leave, to start writing again on my moleskine, and to meet amazing friends and new people.

See you soon

Is it packing already travelling?

Today I decided to start planning my trip. It will be a short one for sure, and really really low budget. The first thing I've started asking myself was if I can check this backpack in to the plane.
It's never easy to think about what to take with me while travelling, but in the end I'll stick to the basic stuff, as I want to make this as easy as possible. Thanks to all my couchsurfers, I'm feeling more and more happy about travelling as light as possible.
But now it's time to cook something for lunch :).

New York City

While I was still flying the Atlantic Ocean, I started thinking if all of that could be real. I planned and waited almost 10 years to go to New York and now my dream city was just a few thousand km away.
I wasn't really sure about what to expect from that city, but I was quite sure that it would be more than great.
After landing in Newark International Airport, all started to get kind of blurry. Things were faster, and all the adrenaline running through my veins was making me feel dizzy. Like a weird dream, amazing things started to happen. Since meeting Safiatou, a French girl studying in NY, who helped us getting to Manhattan, till meeting a weird nice guy who found our hotel for us. But I must say that jetlag wasn't helping that much either.

After getting out of the subway, I felt a huge emptiness in my heart once I saw Ground Zero site. I kept my thoughts away from my friend, but deep inside I was crying. You can cut the air with a knife down there. It's huge, it's dark, and the energies you get from there make you feel the biggest emptiness you'll ever feel.

After that, New York was just one of the most perfect places I've ever been to.

Cried in Central Park while ice-skating, peed to a bottle in Times Square during the New Years Eve, met Milda and walked through the city with her, saw the sunset over Brooklyn, took photos, laughed, cried, wet my feet in ice puddles and in the end I had the best time of my life.

Then there I was, flying back home, flying back from a dream. In the end I'll always have New York in my mind and in my heart. I'll always have that special place where I had a great time with Nuno, and with Milda.

Everything starts here

I started actively as a couchsurfer in April 2010, and since then it changed my life for ever.
This blog will be like my personal Moleskine. I'll write here all my experiences travelling or with hosts. In the end I want to spread the word about something that changed my life, changed the way I'll live, and that made me realize what's worth in this little big planet where we live.