Where Are We?

While we were living with our host outside of Barcelona we also took care of the dogs she had there and Vattie was happy to have a couple of hiking buddies on our rounds. We where mostly in the nearby village and around just to pick trash and we found that there was more trash than we expected. The village in itself was really clean but the trails around it was littered.

We also had a full day in Barcelona, we had no actual plans of what we wanted to do there so our host provided us with a note of things she thought was worth seeing. Some of the things was of course ”La Sagrada Familia” and ”Arc De Triumf”. We also got to see some beautiful parks, and in one of them we saw the ”Cascada Monumental” which was probably the most beautiful structure we saw in Barcelona.

When we got to the beach we decided that we wanted to swim in the sea. This was a problem since dogs were not allowed anywhere on the beach, we managed to dip her paws in the water before we realized that there was a secluded beach for dogs approximately one hour away, walking. It was very hot and we were thankful to have the cooling harness from our sponsors Hurtta. When we arrived to the dog beach there was even a security check to make sure that the dog had an ID chip before entering, more than we expected really but still very good. There was even a water tap with a bowl underneath so that it was easier to give your dogs drinking water straight at the beach. We had great fun at the beach and Vattie loved the waves.

The relationship between the humans and the dogs seemed much healthier in Spain than we first would’ve thought, you hear so many stories of how bad the dog situation is in Spain but that’s not at all what we experienced. In reality we felt it was worse in France! Everywhere you go, any country you’ll meet people who shouldn’t have dogs or not even have animals at all. In France we only met few people who we felt really could take care of their dogs. We found street dogs everywhere we went, we also met a lot of dogs belonging to someone but were running free like outdoor cats would. This provoked a bad relationship between the humans and the dogs in general. In Spain they wouldn’t take dogs on the busses but apart from that almost everything was dog friendly in one or another way. The problem of streetdogs is of course a big one but it has also lead to a society where the ones that do have dogs can include their dogs in their life without bigger problems.

To get out from Andorra and into Spain we had to buy a big cage for Vattie, this presented no problem while we lived with our host outside of Barcelona but while hiking it presented a big problem. We wanted to regroup, somehow we wanted to keep going with this project but with the money running low we saw the best solution in going back to Sweden. As you can see, the water looks a bit colder in Sweden.

Being back to Sweden means we can add Sweden to our statistics after we’ve done some of the Swedish hiking trails around the areas we’re in. We decided to do this now before the winter hits, and enjoy the beauty of autumn. We’re happy that we don’t have to carry the cage with us since it was very ungainly. Our first trail in Sweden was only 5km but we managed to pick 30liters of trash out in the forest only, so we feel like there’s alot of work to be done here as well. We’re looking forward to continue our project on home ground.

A lot of you we met along the way, we told you that our plan was to go to Portugal but as you can see our plan has changed and the possibility of doing so would have made us feel very limited so this was for the best. We are not done, we have only changed our plans. If you have any questions or any advice for us please do not be afraid to contact us! Vi ses!