La gran deaceleración - Die grosse Entschleunigung

About this blog

This blog's title is "La gran deaceleración", which means something like "The Big Slowdown". After some years of working especially the last year was hard and stressfull. When my working contract at university finally ended and coincidentally the contract for my apartment in Vienna two weeks later, I took this as a sign and went on to a journey to and in Latin America, as this has been a dream of me for many years.

My journey is guided by one of the principles of sustainability: slowing down. Being on the way. Experience what comes along. Another guidline for me is to try travelling the most ecological way possible.

For the beginning of the trip two friends an me went to the south of Spain for our traditional spring ski touring week. This time we chose the Sierra Nevada near the city of Granada. After some marvellous days in the Sierra and after getting to the top of the Mulhacen, the highest peak of the iberian penninunsula, we went to the andalucian coast for two days of fishing. Together with my two companions I went back a little bit to Barcelona, where I have been studying about seven years ago. After Barcelona I went to Madrid to visit my brother who was doing an Erasmus at that time - only to get with him back to the Sierra Nevada for another weekend of skiing. My next destination was Cadiz, where I took the ferry to the Canary Islands, namely Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where I was staying about four weeks to find a sailboat crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Due to the wrong seasons only few boats left this direction, but I found another boat that brought me north to the Azores, passing other Islands as Lanzarote, Graciosa, Madeira and Porto Santo. After visiting the marvellous archipelago of the azorean Islands my only chance to get further was taking an airplane, what led me to Montreal where I had the chance to meet some friends. From Montreal I took the bus to go south passing through New York and New Orleans to finally reach Mexico and after a four months of travelling my original goal: Latin America.

When people ask me about where I am going I always say: Patagonia, now knowing that this far goal is maybe out of reach by the way I am travelling...but just beeing on the way is almost as good as getting finally there. And the people I met and experiences I gained so far enrich my life in a way I never could have imagined before.

It is the journey of my life, and this is the blog about it.