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Tickets for Europe trip:
$20 Greyhound bus from Reno to San Francisco, leave morning, arrive afternoon, then $10 BART to airport for evening flight.
$904 for open jaw flight to/from Europe, on Lufthansa airline, purchased via Kayak through Priceline. Leave San Francisco in evening, 2 hour layover in Munich, arrive Madrid in evening, metro to bus station, late night bus to Granada. Leave Sofia in afternoon, 2 hour layover in Munich, arrive San Francisco in evening. Flight last year was $633, but that was special deal and had overnight layover in London.
Upon returning to San Francisco from Europe in evening, $10 BART from airport, then $19 Greyhound bus, depart at 12:50am, arrive in Reno early next morning.
$135 for Barcelona to Kyiv, same flight and about same price as last year.
Postpone buying Kyiv to Sofia flight until summer.
$55 advance reservation through booking.com for room in Barcelona in May. Barcelona fills up early, so best reserve in advance.
$33/night for 87 nights in Kyiv, arranged with landlady via Viber conversation, same apartment as last year. Paid for week in May through AirBnb, as deposit. Will pay remainder in cash upon arrival.
Moved motels from America's Best ($282/week) to Motel6 ($63/night, would be $375/week) for last 2 nights. Crew of pimps and whores living next to me at America's Best this year, so noisy until 4 or 5 in the morning, then more noise starting in the afternoon. Not sure why I can't get enthusiastic about moving someplace else instead of that dump. Motel6 was very quiet, but I still didn't sleep that well.
Rehabilitated shoulder and worked back to 13 chinups, 11 pullups. Hopefully get to 15 for both in Ukraine. Switched to correct pushup form, hands together versus letting elbows flare out, which was part of what caused shoulder injury, touching chest to floor each rep versus only going down partway, 2 sets of 30 reps versus 1 of 60.
Morning bus to San Francisco, BART to airport, flight departure in evening. Was planning to fast, but fell prey to temptation and ate meals offered during flight.
Transit through Munich. Lots of people in all airports, and aboard aircraft itself, wearing surgical face masks because of coronavirus, but not stewardesses or other flight crew.
Finished baggage collection in Madrid about 00:30. Instead of proceeding to Estación de Autobuses del Sur, caught ALSA express bus to Granada at airport T4, leaving 01:45, arriving 06:45, €47. Might have been able to get €19 regular bus, leaving 1:30 from bus station, but would have had to pay €8 or so for metro trip, so at most €20 savings.
Arrival in Granada. Withdrew cash from ATMS, then waited around until stores opened. Bought food and ate in park. None of the Movistar stores (I tried 4) had prepaid cards in stock, so signed up for Lycamobile instead. 12 GB data, including 6GB roaming, plus 150 minutes calling for €15 for 30 days. Bus 360 to Niguelas, leaving south side of Paseo de Violón, next to Palacio de Congresos de Granada.
Hotels mostly full in Lanjarón, and didn't want to stay in possibly full and thus noisy hotel in Granada, so decided to camp high up. Same patch of forest I used several years ago. Booking.com reservation at Hotel Manolete in Lanjarón for tomorrow, €25.
Very windy last night and this morning, but tarp set up in correct direction to shed wind, though had to get up during night and reinstall one stake. Slept okay. No one at hotel when I arrived and phone number not in service. Took about an hour, but finally found someone to let me in.
Slept poorly, with headache in morning. Maybe flu or coronavirus, or maybe continuation of same mild cold that has been bothering me since sometime in January. Decided to stay another night in hotel. Slept all afternoon and evening. Right shoulder hurting again. Dorsiflexors of left foot sore.
Feeling better in the morning. Walked shirtless much of day. Maybe some vitamin D will help me finally get over that cold/flu/coronavirus. €29 at Hostal Las Terrazas de la Alpujarra. Fell asleep early then woke up at midnight with splitting headache. Back to sleep and woke up at 5am feeling much better.
Feeling much better as day progressed, so maybe fresh mountain air is healing me. €25 at Hostal Fernando in Trevélez.
€20 at Pensión Cadí in Cádiar.
€25 at Pensión Tinao in Yegen.
Beautiful weather past few days: mild temps, clear sky, not much wind. Body feels very good, with almost all cold symptoms finally gone, other than some mucous in sinuses. Hiking shirtless much of time. Tied old pair of socks around neck purse strap to reduce abrasion of skin. Camped at usual spot.
Thorns on trail worse than ever, especially descending from Puerto de la Ragua. One spot almost completely blocked, though able to climb on top of shrubs to get past. Maybe carry pruning shears next year. Would have to carry from USA, since hard to find for sale in these small towns. €30 at Hostal LaBella in La Calahorra.
Like last year, managed to scrounge up 3 days food in local store, so no need to hike to Alcudia de Guadix. Camped at usual spot, pine plantation 15km from La Calahorra.
Another warm day hiking shirtless. Camped 11km past Charches.
Beautiful weather continues. Camped at usual spot 2km past Narváez.
USA has blocked travel from Europe due to coronavirus, Ukraine has blocked travel from Italy, situation becoming serious in Spain. Hopefully, things improved by end of May so I can fly to Ukraine then as planned. Paid for 2 nights at €25/night at Hostal Casa Grande in Baza.
Ukraine blocking all inward travel by foreigners starting this weekend.
Paid for 2 more nights at hostal, while waiting for news about corona virus.
Decided to remain in Baza. Whole country will soon face restrictions due to corona virus aka covid-19 and I don't want trouble with Guardia Civil. Plus don't know situation with hotels further on, whereas this place in Baza is cheap, quiet and comfortable,
Lots of crazy speculation on internet about covid-19 virus, but not much actual news. My disgust with humanity has never been greater: we are truly little removed from our ape ancestors in terms of intelligence. No wonder I increasingly prefer to spend my time alone in nature.
Mass insanity, followed by gradual return to mental health, may be needed to develop "herd immunity" against future eruptions of mass insanity, same as covid-19 pandemic will only die down after enough people catch it and recover to create herd immunity against that bodily illness. Herd immunity against mass insanity is needed, because there will definitely be future pandemics and we can't continue to react hysterically like we're reacting now.
Hotel owner gave me face mask this morning to wear on my daily trip to the supermarket. Most people there also wearing masks. Must have been some notice from city authorities about this.
As of Thursday (19 Mar 2020), Covid-19 removed by Public Health England from list of High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) because of low mortality rate (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid#status-of-covid-19). So panic about basically nothing. Plan now is to invest all available cash (currently about 40% of net worth) into stocks on Monday.
Police warned me for doing inverted rows in park.
Replaced pullups and one-arm inverted rows in park with inclined one-arm rows, using rope tied to column on porch of hostal. Same system as when camping, except tree or telephone post as vertical support then. Inclined rowing has several advantages over pullups (better at strengthening rear shoulder and improving posture, less callous buildup, easier to find vertical support than pullup bar) so I'm considering switching permanently, not just when no pullup bar available. Just do pullups once monthly as test of strength.
Some woman in a car rebuked me for walking in public because I wasn't carrying a shopping bag.
More convinced than ever that covid-19 no worse than bad flu, same as I first thought several weeks back. (Though seems like months rather than weeks, but then time drags in solitary confinement. Which is not a bad thing necessarily, since life is objectively short and so the longer it subjectively feels, the better, at least for those who enjoy being alive. Those who don't enjoy being alive can commit suicide.) On the other hand, hysterical reaction to covid-19 is no joke. Many will lose their life savings or businesses and there may eventually be a surge in violence, including suicide or self-violence. Perhaps society needs this. People have had things too easy for too long. Last big war in Europe ended 75 years ago. Perhaps society needs something equivalent to a great war every other generation.
Sorry I'm not in Ukraine. Definitely need to arrange residency there. This permanent travel lifestyle is too fragile, and of the various possibilities for permanent home base that I've investigated and currently consider as viable candidates (USA, Spain, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Bulgaria, Ukraine), Russian-speaking Ukraine probably best overall for me.
"Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe."—unknown, sentence from today's Russian language lesson.
"If you want a safe compass to guide you through life, and to banish all doubt as to the right way of looking at it, you cannot do better than accustom yourself to regard this world as a penitentiary... Amongst the evils of a penal colony is the society of those who form it; and if the reader is worthy of better company, he will need no words from me to remind him of what he has to put up with at present. If he has a soul above the common, or if he is a man of genius, he will occasionally feel like some noble prisoner of state, condemned to work in the galleys with common criminals; and he will follow this noble prisoner's example and try to isolate himself."—Schopenhauer.
Plan to de-escalate lockdown in Spain finally announced, but exact schedule not yet decided. Not clear when I'll be able to fly to Ukraine. Probably not until July.
Hostal owner gave me another free day today. So one free day per week, because weekly tenant. USA motels have similar pricing.
Walked to/from Cortijo Santa Olalla, about 9km south along GR7, so about 3.5 hours round-trip, including 30 minute rest break. Get up at 5:30, calisthenics and yoga, leave hostal at 6:15, rowing calisthenics using tree in forest, rest break, back before 10:00, so within time slot allocated for adult outdoor exercise. Then shower, rest in bed until noon, since 10:00 to 12:00 is time slot for elderly, trip to supermarket, shorter than usual walk back to hostal. Will continue with this schedule henceforth. In theory, I could leave town at 9:00, spend entire day in mountains, return after 20:00 when second time slot for adult exercise begins. However, I don't want to be out that long. 3.5 hours walking in nature is enough.
Most of Spain now in phase 1 of reopening, with stores and sidewalk cafes allowed to open. However, some provinces, notably Madrid, Barcelona and Granada, still in phase 0. Baza part of Granada province.
Noticed worn boot lace. Cut out worn section, melted ends with match to stop fraying, tied pieces together, reinstalled with slightly different lacing pattern. Need to add spare laces to packing list.
Province of Granada now in stage 1 of de-escalation, so small stores and sidewalk cafes open. Bought two pairs boot laces, one pair to replace originals, second for repair kit.
UIA finally cancelled flight to Kyiv and gave me promo code. No flights available until July. Picked Saturday, July 4 as new date. Used promo code to upgrade to ticket allowing changes, in case July 4 proves inconvenient. Notified hostal in Barcelona and Airbnb hostess in Kyiv of new plans.
Slept poorly, so decided to skip both morning exercises and hiking.
Again slept poorly. Skipped hiking again, but managed to do morning calisthenics/yoga.
Granada province now in phase 2, so I can walk in mountains whenever I want. However, early morning is cool and uncrowded, so probably I'll stick with that.
Hiked with owner of hostal this morning.
Andalucía, Murcia and Communidad Valenciana all phase 3 as of today, but movement between regions still not permitted, so I'll remain in Baza until next Monday. Not that anxious to move on, since I get enough exercise and time in nature with my 4 hour morning walks.
Finally left Baza, after 95 nights in hostal. Camped at usual spot amid pines before Benamaurel. Fuentes turned off because of covid-19, so will be buying water at stores or else carrying more than usual. Headache in afternoon, worsening into evening progressed.
Headache continued all night into morning, though slept well enough. Headache gone after bowel movement and morning exercises.
Bought food and water in Benamaurel. 25€ at Hostal Montecarlo in Cúllar. Feels good to be hiking town to town and camping again, instead of just day hiking. Temps 28°C, which is warm but not much worse than warm spells in March. Main problem is long days. Today's sunrise 6:48, sunset 21:34. Forecast of 33°C next week, for long shadeless stretch from Cieza to Elda.
Noisy disco music until 01:00 in the morning. Maybe this place operates part-time as a brothel. Got enough sleep despite noise. Camped in pines 2km before Orce. Drank 1L at hostal and 1.5L with breakfast. Carried 4L out of town (plus .6L in bottle primarily used for cleaning purposes), drank 2L with lunch, 1L in evening, so 1L remaining.
Able to read Russian language webpages and also Chekhov with little difficulty, so my skills are definitely improved over this time last year.
28€ at Hostal Ruta del Sur in Huéscar.
Was alerted this morning that Ukrainian International Air (UIA) cancelled flights from Spain to Ukraine for all of July. Submitted request to UIA for credit voucher. Bought new ticket with RyanAir for $79, leaving Barcelona July 10, arriving Boryspil at 21:45. Changed reservation in Barcelona and notified hostess in Kyiv.
Camped in forest about 10km from Huéscar.
€25 at Hostal Puerta de Andalucía in Puebla de Don Fadrique. Bought food for next 2 days.
Picked up water in Cañada de la Cruz, camped at usual spot 5km further on.
Drank 7 liters today: 3 carried from Cañada de la Cruz, 4 picked up at fuente about midday. More than necessary, since temps only about 30°C. But plan on 6L/day henceforth.
€25/night at Pensión Nevazo in El Sabinar. Probably stay here 2 nights, then in Calasparra Friday, so arrive Cieza Sunday. If arriving Cieza Friday, stores in Pinoso closed Sunday. If arriving Cieza Saturday, stores in Cieza closed Sunday. Pensión has good wifi in bar but signal doesn't reach rooms. Lycamobile gets off and on connection in room, no connection in town park, good connection at edge of town.
Overcast and much cooler temperatures, like 28°C high for day. Camped at usual spot. Ukrainian International Air sent promo code for €197, good through June 2022.
Bought food in Moratalla. Camped in usual spot. Small flies very annoying morning and evening, but able to protect myself with headnet.
Spotted 3 fast moving adult ticks on ground while doing morning exercises. Crushed them all between rocks. Did tick self-inspection then and again later at hotel but found nothing. €40 at Hotel Primavera in Calasparra. Temperature 29°C today with high of 36°C forecast for next 3 days. Worst part of heat is waiting for sun to set. Didn't have that problem today because of hotel, and past few days were only moderately warm, plus canpsites were shaded, but tomorrow will be brutal. Monday will be even worse, because absolutely no shade. Delaying would only help slightly, since temps will be over 30°C for most of July in this area.
Hospedería San Sebastian in Cieza closed both Sunday and Monday, or possibly closed indefinitely, since impossible to understand woman on phone. Casa de la Campana several km west of Cieza, and apparently easy to reach from GR7, but booked solid Sunday for special event. Discovered all this on my way out of Calasparra. Called Hotel Primavera and fortunately they still had one room available for tonight, though different from room I was in last night, for €50. Then made reservation for Monday at Casa de la Campana, few km outside Cieza.
Drank 2L with breakfast, carrying 6.5L water, 800g bread, 200g peanuts, 2 oranges. While stopped for lunch, noticed nymph tick on boot. and yet I was seated just off road on cleared ground baked by sun part of day, not at all what I usually think of as tick territory. Temps maybe 37°C. Camped in Barranco de la Murta, about 20km from hotel in Calasparra. Very good site: barranco oriented north -south with steep earth banks on either side plus trees, so shaded both afternoon and morning; not visible from road; easy to create flat spots by pushing earth around; no vegetation in bottom of barranco so no ticks. Camp here regularly in future. Headache in evening, from heat.
€72 at Hospedería Casa de la Campana, 10% "genius discount" on booking.com versus €80 hotel quoted on phone. Made reservation In Abarán for tomorrow and will also try to stay indoors Wednesday, since forecast of 36°C then in Pinoso.
€44 single occupancy at Mesón del Moro in Abarán. Passed some road construction workers: much worse to be digging trenches in 36°C than hiking.
Bought medical insurance through oberig-sg.com to cover covid-19 illness in Ukraine, $31 for July 10 through Oct 31. Lots of problems with payment via credit cards. Initially tried Ally, which put transaction on hold as possible fraud, possibly because no travel notice on file. Merchant interpreted hold as decline, so transaction left pending. Later had to call Ally customer service to get this resolved (convert hold to decline). In the meantime, tried BankOfAmerica instead, but then had to call their customer service to get phone number on file for fraud alerts updated to Google Voice number, since bank was still using USA mobile number, which I can't access in Spain. Anyway, insurance company sent me PDF which appears to meet all requirements set by Ukraine. Several people in Facebook say they have successfully used similar PDFs from this insurance company to get through passport control. Will try to print this PDF onto paper before flight.
Notified banks of travel plans for Ukraine.
Slept poorly, perhaps because agitated by problems buying insurance yesterday evening. Did morning pushups and squats, but skipped yoga. Drank 2L with breakfast. Left hotel at 7:00, carrying 4.5L water plus about 600g food: bread, cashews, fruit. Two hours on highways with light traffic, then one hour on back roads to connect to GR7 at Casa del Alto (about 2km east of where GR7 crosses under autovía), so about 15km. Then 18km to Torre del Rico, and another 9km to Pinoso, or 42km total from hotel to hotel. Arrival in Pinoso at 18:30. €36 single occupancy at Hostal La Cañada. Made booking.com reservation for tomorrow in Monóvar, since continued high temperatures forecast.
In addition to water listed above, drank 2L from fuente at Torre del Rico plus 1L after showering, for total of 9L (.5L of carried water was for washing/emergency drinking), yet urine still often dark yellow. But at least no dehydration headache. Felt lightheaded while waiting to be checked into hostal and had to sit on floor briefly to avoid fainting. Similar dry heat on southern Pacific Crest Trail, but that was in April both times I hiked that section, so shorter days and much cooler nights, plus I was only walking maybe 32km/day then.
€50 at Apartamento Completo in Monóvar. Made additional booking.com reservations for next three nights in Elda, Castalla, Alcoy.
Perceptibly milder temps than past few days, with some clouds and even a few drops of rain. €48 double occupancy room (all that was available on booking.com) at Hostal Carrizo in Elda. Before checking into hostal, bought food for tomorrow.
Skipped morning exercises entirely, partly because tired due to insufficient food yesterday and then broken sleep last night, partly to allow earlier start (at 6:30). Then left smartphone behind in room: first time I've ever done such a thing. Ate in nearby park, then waited outside hostal until 7:00, when manager opened up and let me in to retrieve phone. Did calisthenics during lunch break. Bought food in Castalla for tomorrow. €30 single occupancy at Hotel Caseta Nova a few km outside Castalla. Really spectacular countryside hotel, especially for price. Huge room. Only negative was noisy air conditioner.
Slept well and did morning exercises as usual. Drank 2L with breakfast, carrying 4L plus about 450g bread. €36 at Hotel Savoy in Alcoy. Last day of hiking in Spain for 2020, and perhaps last day hiking anywhere in Europe for 2020.
€10 train to Valencia. €20 single room at Hostal OnDormiré.
Bought bus ticket for Barcelona.
Skipped morning exercises other than calisthenics. I turn off air conditioning about 6am, then room warms up and saps me of energy. Try doing exercises earlier tomorrow. Printed insurance policy and boarding pass at locutorio. RyanAir has sneaky rule that says €55 fee if boarding pass not printed in advance. PDF of insurance policy should be sufficient, but printed anyway just to be safe. Bought city shoes for €44.
€31 bus to Barcelona. Metro €2.40 + €5.15 tomorrow. €49 for room with shared bath at Cal Ganxet. Originally paid €40 in January through booking.com, then another €9 tacked on when I asked booking.com technical support to help with third date change, because their system wouldn't allow either me or owner to make change (original date was May 27, then July 4, then Aug 1, then July 9). Not sure about reason for extra €9 but happy to have one less thing to worry about and so didn't bother complaining.
Prepared primary and spare smartphones for Ukraine. Airport almost empty: very spooky feeling. No problems at Spanish passport control, despite overstay of 90 day visa. Flight to Kyiv on RyanAir, leaving 17:00, arriving 21:45. Plane less than half full.
Arrivals to Ukraine coming from Spain required to spend 14 days (or until negative test results received) in self-isolation, using location enabled smartphone app to verify presence in apartment most of day. Self-isolation rules allow 2 hours daily to visit food stores and pharmacies, so not too bad, less bad than during strict lockdown in Spain back in late March. Almost no one wearing masks on street in Kyiv, and people in stores wearing masks pulled down below nose. Evidently, people here not taking covid-19 too seriously and police not strictly enforcing rules. Welcome change from oppressive situation in Spain.
Arranged for Dila laboratory nurse to visit me at home on Monday, to collect covid-19 test specimen. Negative test results received by email late Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I asked lab to forward results to Ukrainian Ministry of Public Health. Around noon Wednesday, I received notice on smartphone app that my self-isolation was cancelled.
Total of 133 nights in Spain, including 1 initial night on bus (1%), 12 nights wild camping (9%), and 120 nights in hotels (90%). 95 of nights in Baza, during covid-19 quarantine. €2971 total hotel expenses, or average of €25/night for nights in hotels.
€185 on hand upon arrival, €4800 from ATMs (not counting ATM and currency conversion fees), €49 credit card charges, €930 on hand upon departure, so €4104 total expenses, or about €31/day for 133 days (including transportation within Spain, but not flights to/from Spain).
In July, I flew from Spain in Kyiv. Ukraine and remained there through Oct 2021. Restrictions related to COVID-19 mild in Ukraine compared to Spain: obligatory masks in subway, stores and cafes, no large events like concerts or theatres, but otherwise everything as normal.
Total 12 nights camping for 2020.