My July 2019: An intense month of travel

July has been an intense month. It started in Russia and ended in Spain, and inbetween, I visited five other countries and three overseas territories, all while finishing up my BA thesis.

Goodbye Russia

The first two days of July were sadly my last two days in Russia. After working and living with an amazing bunch of people for five weeks, it was incredibly hard to say goodbye. Mikkel, Bri and I left Stepnoye on the 1st, leaving the others behind for two more weeks of work. After driving three hours to Chelyabinsk with Natasha, we spent the afternoon exploring the beautiful city and eating our way through several dishes of delicious Ukrainian food!

Russia was an amazing experience, and I have actually decided that I want to learn Russian now as I plan on returning again and again and again. I’ve always been interested in Russian, so why not start learning it? I’ve been doing lessons on Duolingo every day since then!

Back home in East Jutland

The way home from Russia was long and tiring, but it was so great to finally see my family and kittie again. Ellie has grown so much and I’m the proudest aunt in the world!

I spent five days at home continuing on my thesis and just being with my family.

Living in the Stone Age for a week

A summer without a Stone Age gathering isn’t a true summer, so of course I was off to the annual European Stone Age Gathering this year as well! This year, it was held in Ertebølle in North Jutland, Denmark, close to where my dad’s aunt Ninna lives. My friend Solveig and I spent a night with her before borrowing her car to go to Ertebølle.

The gathering was awesome, the best one yet if you ask me! We had so much fun doing all sorts of handicrafts, enjoying each other’s company and creating all sorts of crazy outfits for the first annual Stone Age catwalk, which Solveig and I planned! It was a huge succes and I’m already extremely excited for the next one! Ninna came to visit one of the days which was wonderful, and on the last day, I got myself a Stone Age tattoo made with flint and charcoal (well, sort of.. it didn’t really stay in my skin hehe). Now I’m just counting down the days for next year in the Netherlands!

The trip through Southern Europe begins

On July 16th, after spending one day at home repacking my stuff, I set off on another summer adventure – travelling through Southern Europe for four weeks. I flew from Copenhagen Airport where I happened to be at the same time as Eva, Erin and Jim got back from Russia! I surprised them by waiting in the arrivals hall – and boy, you should have seen their surprised faces! Such a great moment.

My journey started with one afternoon in beautiful Milan, where I explored the city center, before heading to San Marino the next morning. San Marino was incredible! Such a beautiful and underrated country! Did you know that it’s the least visited country in Europe?? It doesn’t make sense considering how incredibly scenic it is! I spent two days there, exploring the elevated capital and enjoying the magnificent views of the countryside and the surrounding Italy!

Back to Milan I went to catch a bus to Nice, France. I stupidly had decided only to have ONE day for both Nice and nearby Monaco (why Melissa???).

I got up early the next morning and caught the train to Monaco and spent the next 4,5 hours exploring this strange microstate. I really liked the views from the Old Town, but Monaco is not a place for me due to the greed that’s visible all over the wealthy city.

Afterwards, I got back to Nice and spent the next few hours exploring its city center and falling IN LOVE with the city. What a place! I was in complete shock as I’d originally thought Nice would be – well – overrated. It’s big and busy, which I don’t usually like, but it just has such a great atmosphere and it’s incredibly beautiful as well.

By the end of the day, I was absolutely exhausted, but I had a night bus to catch to Barcelona, so I couldn’t quite relax. Thankfully, the staff at my hostel from the night before where I had left my bag let me have a shower before venturing off to the bus station!

I got to Barcelona in the early morning and had seven hours in the city before catching yet another train – this time to Málaga. Barcelona is my least favourite city in the world – I didn’t like it at all when I first visited in 2015, and I also didn’t like it in 2019. Oh well. I have promised the city that I will come back though, mainly because I still haven’t seen the famous Park Güell. Maybe third time will be the time where I learn to like it?

I had one full day in Málaga, the first city I’ve ever visited in Andalucia. Málaga was nice, especially the beautiful cathedral, but it just felt like a holiday destination to me.

From Málaga, I caught a night ferry to a very interesting place – one of the Spanish exclaves in North Africa, Melilla!

Melilla was a great surprise. I loved exploring its old fortress walls, enjoying the seaside atmosphere and talking to the locals who were surprised to see a tourist in their city!

I was supposed to cross into Morocco after Melilla, but I had planned a rather intense schedule, and by the time I got to Melilla, I was already exhausted. I decided then that I would cut Morocco from my plans and take it slower. I had planned to travel around Morocco for five days, and then go back to Spain via Ceuta, the other Spanish exclave in North Africa, but five days just isn’t enough to fully explore a country like Morocco. I will come back some other time for sure though!

Cutting Morocco from my plan meant that I had to spend an extra day in Melilla, which I certainly didn’t mind. I spent that day hiking out to the infamous fence separating Morocco and Spain, and separating refugees and migrants from their dreams, and thinking about all the privileges I have simply because I was born with a powerful passport in my hand. The world is not a fair place.

So back to Málaga on the night ferry I went, and then I took a bus to Algeciras, known as the ugliest city in Spain! I only stayed in Algeciras because of its proximity interesting places like Gibraltar and Ceuta, which I intended to visit. I spent my first evening hanging out with a bunch of other travellers, one from Germany and three from Switzerland, all of whom were on their way to Morocco (oh, the irony, hehe!).

The next day, I went to Gibraltar, the British Overseas Territory bordering Spain and the Mediterranean. It was a really interesting experience being back in my beloved Britain, but in a warm climate! I really enjoyed the familiarity though. I spent the day enjoying the beautiful views from The Rock, exploring a cave and befriending the inhabitants of The Rock, Barbary macaques – the only wild monkey population on the European continent!

The next day, I caught a one-hour ferry to Ceuta, the other Spanish exclave in North Africa, which was – surprisingly – a very different experience from Melilla! While Melilla had felt more African than Spanish, Ceuta was the opposite. It felt like any other Spanish coastal city, except for the lack of tourists (although still more than Melilla, where I was the only one I saw, hehe!).

In Ceuta, I explored the city center and hiked up to a fortress on top of Monte Hacho!

Back to mainland Spain I went, and after one more night in Algeciras, it was time to explore more of Andalucia. Córdoba wasn’t on my original plan, but because I’d cut Morocco from the plan, I’d decided to replace it with Córdoba and Sevilla so I could see more of Andalucia.

Córdoba was a beautiful surprise. I spent two days there, exploring the romantic streets with beautiful flowers everywhere, visited the famous mosque-cathedral and took a trip out to Medina Azahara, the mini Persepolis of Spain!

The last two days of July were spent in Sevilla, the largest city of Andalucia, which is known as the most beautiful city in Spain! I have to agree that Sevilla is incredibly beautiful.

I loved exploring the castle and giant plazas with colourful architecture, and seeing the view of the city from above at the cathedral tower. I also experienced flamenco for the first time in Sevilla – and it was free as it was street dancers! Best way to see it if you ask me, as even though they were amateurs, you could see how full of passion they were!

Destinations visited in July 2019

• Stepnoye, Chernorech’ye and Chelyabinsk, Russia
• Hov, Skals, Ertebølle and Farsø, Denmark
• Milan, Italy
• San Marino, San Marino
• Nice, France
• Monaco, Monaco
• Barcelona, Málaga, Algeciras, Córdoba and Sevilla, Spain
• Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish Morocco
• Gibraltar

Highlights

• Finding beauty in Chelyabinsk, a city that is otherwise known as industrial and boring – but I really liked it!
• The Stone Age catwalk – what a GREAT evening!
• Hanging out with my dad’s aunt, Ninna.
• Meeting Eva, Erin and Jim in the airport – them on their way home from Russia and me on my way to Italy!
• Discovering the beauty of San Marino.
• Finding an unexpected love for Nice.
• Discovering Melilla, the most interesting of the two Spanish exclaves in North Africa!

Challenges

• Leaving the amazing team behind in Russia!
• Getting a flat tyre in Ertebølle – ooops. It happened on the first day, but it was fixed a few days later, and we didn’t need it while we were there anyways.
• The difficulty of getting to San Marino with Flixbus. I had booked a bus to Rimini, the Italian city that connects San Marino with a bus, but instead I was dropped off in the outskirts of Riccione. So I had to walk 2 km to the train station, wait an hour for a train to Rimini and THEN I could finally get on a bus to San Marino!
• Rushing through Nice and Monaco – hello, bad planning!
• Almost getting pickpocketed in Barcelona… Two young boys tried to trick me into stealing my bag, but I had a firm grip on it. Instead, I saw them steal from a sleeping guy across the park. A guy shouted at them, but they ran off….
• Coming face to face with the wall that separates Morocco from Spain, Africa from Europe, in Melilla. It’s a tough reality to know that people have died there trying to cross into Europe, while I – because I was born in Denmark – can cross safely into both sides of the fence if I wanted to.
• The exhaustion I felt from the Southern Europe trip – too many places in too little time. I will never plan such an intense journey again!

Most popular post

• My June 2019: A month of excavating in Russia – My recap of June was popular in July!

The other posts

• Stepnoye from above: Through rivers and rocks to Утиный Нос – A beautiful hike with Eva on the Russian forest steppe!
• Chernorech’ye II: A diary from an excavation on the Russian forest steppe – Details from our excavation in Russia!

Most popular Instagram picture

This picture of beautiful San Marino got lots of love!

Vis dette opslag på Instagram

This is San Marino, the least visited country in Europe. I don’t understand why! The entire country is perched atop a mountain rising high above Italy, which surrounds it completely. Hands down one of the most beautiful countries in Europe 💛 #visitsanmarino #sanmarino #micronation #travelsouth #worldtraveller #exploremore #wanderlust #traveladdict #travelstoke #openmyworld #passionpassport #peopleofnorth #shetravels #womentravel #goexplore #globetrotter #letswander #liveoutdoors #makeadventure #mytinyatlas #travellife #naturephotography #naturelife #glt #gltlove #politiken_rejser

Et opslag delt af Melissa Cherry Villumsen (@melissavillumsen) den 19. Jul, 2019 kl. 7.10 PDT

Coming up in August 2019

August started with the last ten days of the Southern Europe trip, bringing me further into Spain and to Portugal for the first time.

I will go back home on Saturday and spend two weeks at in East Jutland with my family, defending my BA thesis and attending my dear niece’s christening.

At the end of August, I will be off to my beloved Nuuk, Greenland, again!