Archives
The road diary of a year spent dancing around the world, written between 2014 and 2018: Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, New York, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan. Dance floors, bus rides, and a great deal of counting every penny — which is where Budget Fury started.
39 posts · translated from French · RSS
I wanted it I'd watched colleagues leave on this kind of adventure before, and while it made me quietly dream, I couldn't really picture doing the same — it didn't seem like a life for me, and…
Seoul: Summer 2017 On each of my stays in Seoul I take "Afro-Cuban/Contemporary" dance classes with Sol . Every year, from the start of June, a special class is set up to build a routine, with a view…
Aix-en-Provence, 5 November 2016 This morning I hate Facebook — and yet I can't stop myself spending at least one* hour of every one of my days on it, and have done for a few years now ( * I think…
Aix-en-Provence, 27 October 2016 I recently finished a book I liked a lot, and which had an almost immediate effect on me: " The One Thing " (in French here ) . The book offers some advice on how to…
Aix-en-Provence, 24 June 2016 Six months after coming home, I feel the need to explain the reasons behind this round-the-world project. It's a story I've told plenty of times already, but writing it…
Paris, 3 January 2016 I'm back :-)! So I've literally gone around the world... It hasn't really sunk in yet. My great fear, even before starting this trip, was that I'd be depressed when I got home,…
I turned to Airbnb again to find somewhere to stay in the ultimate megalopolis that is Tokyo :-) . For my first few days I found a place near Shimbashi station, which was the closest to the salsa…
I smile just thinking back to my salsa nights in Tokyo :-) — that's the magic of salsa and its community. I really did run into some very kind people in that city. On the dancing itself, there are…
Seoul, 25 September Oh, how ironic this title is... yes, I'm going to complain again : I left to go backpacking, I didn't bring many clothes, I don't even have a suit, blah blah blah... :-D But…
Seoul, 25 October 2015 You'll have noticed the question mark in the title of this post? I don't want to start a controversy :-D — this is of course my own experience, but given my stay I sincerely…
Korea, 25 October 2015 Every day spent here offers up treasures of sensation to my palate. It's funny, actually, because you should know that in all the places I went to there was no English menu, so…
The flight This flight lasted 14 hours (my new record) — that's what I had to endure before my first Asian stop :-). But it went very well; among other things I watched "Mad Max: Fury Road" on the…
"Island hopping" means doing a circuit of the islands around El Nido. There are tours A, B, C and D. Each one takes in about five islands — the most popular ones, out of the 45 that surround the town…
New York, 16 September 2015 Today I went to the World Trade Center site in New York. When you arrive, straight out of the subway, you come upon the new "Liberty Tower". It's a magnificent tower, but…
Classes taken in Mexico City, March 2015 Elizabeth and Juan, who founded DF Baila , gave me a run of private "bachata dominicana" classes. I'd been wanting to learn the style for a while and they…
2 September 2015 I've had several requests for advice or information about Cuba lately. So I thought it might be worth writing a post about it. I'd encourage those who have already visited this…
New York, 24 August 2015 I signed up for a "performance workshop" at Alvin Ailey . The idea is to learn a choreography over 7 sessions of 2 hours, and then perform it in the theatre at the dance…
Classes taken in Santiago de Cuba, February 2015 Before I left, several friends had warned me to be careful about signing up for classes in Cuba — there were plenty of good teachers, they said, but a…
Classes taken in Mexico City, March 2015 I was lucky enough to already have friends in Mexico City before the trip. Whenever I asked them which classes to take in their city, one name came back every…
New York, 24 July A tragic event happened last week that affected the New York salsa community deeply. A young woman from the city, 21 years old, died in a car accident in Argentina. She was an…
New York, 19 July Not many surprises on this stay in New York — it's my fourth summer here and I more or less have my bearings. I always enjoy seeing my friends again, and I make new ones too :-).…
Argentina, 25 May The Iguazú Falls are considered unmissable, which worked out well: I had to head back up towards Brazil, so they were on my way — they sit almost exactly on the border between…
Argentina, 1 April to 23 May The blue dollar One of the first pieces of advice I was given before arriving in Argentina was to turn up with a lot of cash on me, euros or dollars. The country having…
Argentina, 1 April to 23 May For those who aren't across the customs of tango nights, I'm going to try to explain a few concepts briefly :-) , while sharing my modest experience of tango nights in…
The weekend of 16 May Right, off for another break outside Buenos Aires — destination: Mar del Plata, a nice little town on the coast. I improvised this trip a bit. Well, I'd been thinking about it…
26/03/2015 Yes, I know, all I think about is dancing.. Right, I didn't go to Oaxaca solely because of this festival , but partly, all the same :). On the congress banners it said: "La capital salsa…
26/03/2015 I finally made up my mind to leave DF for a long weekend in Oaxaca, a city 6 hours by bus from the capital. I took the night bus, after a lot of hesitation. You hear plenty of…
26/03/2015 Not easy every day, the life of a Mexican... whichever way you choose to travel. The metro, buses and Metrobús run reasonably often and cover the areas I had to get around in pretty well.…
12/03/2015 So, you remember that song — well, that's me, ever since I left... Let me explain. While I was preparing for the trip I went through a lot of blogs, which inspired me enormously. All of…
06/03/2015 I've just come out of a milonga (tango night) in Mexico City and I want to share while it's fresh. It was really, really nice — I hadn't danced tango since January and I'd missed it. There…
18/03/2015 Last Saturday I took a walk through the historic centre of Mexico City with Florence, a friend of the family. I really like this part of town — the enormous Zócalo square is genuinely…
16/03/2015 Puente means bridge. It's a public holiday this Monday. You should know that in Mexico public holidays get moved so as to create long weekends — in this case, the day in question is…
A good number of the travellers I met during my stay on the island told me that sadly they wouldn't be able to get to Santiago de Cuba. I understand them — it takes a solid 14 hours by bus to reach…
4 March 2015 This is one of the big headaches for Cubans... The vast majority can't afford a car, so they fall back on shared transport, and it's a puzzle. There are two ways to approach it: You know…
I warmly recommend Cuba. This place is a singularity in the world. In organising a bloqueo (embargo) around the island, the United States surely didn't imagine the situation would end up where it is…
First impression of Havana.. It's like Guadeloupe, only much bigger, with many more people, and they all speak Spanish :-D . Joking aside, there's far more difference than that — the architecture…
There are a lot of positive things about Cuba; the internet is (thankfully?) not one of them. I did manage to get my fix of social media today, at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba. My friend Cindy from…
I went through the travel agency Travel Nation to buy my round-the-world ticket. They have excellent word of mouth and so far it's gone very well. The agency is based in England, but the…
A selection of the questions I've been asked so far: Are you going on your own? (ha, if I'd been given €1 every time I got that one :-D) Yes Why are you doing this? hmmm... why not :-D ? Well, why…
No posts in this category.
