Hitch hiking France and Germany

Written July 21st 2009
After Pamplona Juan and I were a touch addicted to each other and wernt quite ready to let our adventure end. We played house with many ideas of where we would go next but in the back of my mind I knew it wouldn't come to fruition as I was heading back home in a few short days. Then an odd thing happened and I missed my flight. It was an honest mistake that left me with a great reward so I ate it up. Rather than sit around Spain and mope about it (although I'm sure that would have been an unlikely option as well) Juan and I decided to hitch hike through Spain and France, and end our trip in Germany. It was fun, loads of fun. We got from Spain to Germany in just over three days (great time) and met insanely amazing people along the way. If your every doubting the good will of human kind I highly suggest taking yourself on a good little hitch hike around a few countries.
Our first stop in France was Arlles where there was a gorgeous little photo festival that I wish I could have stayed longer to enjoy. We ended up getting into Nimes that day where we couch surfed with a wonderful family (my first experience surfing with a couple and their young children). The following day we found ourselves surrounded by another beautiful family in Lyon who picked us up after seeing we had waited for quite a while. They were awesome; they drove us for quite a long while (always a treat) and offered to take us home and spoil us. Of course we couldn't resist and were soon in their gorgeous home stuffing our faces on a delicious meal and showering our dirty bodies (an offer that may have been more of a request lol). It was such a gracious gift and I wish I could have thanked them more. We kept going as far as we could that day and ended up making it to Dole where we finally called it quits around midnight and set up our sleeping bag in the ditch for a few hours of sleep. And few it was, in two weeks it was the worst sleep Juan and I both had. It was really cold and incredibly misty; we both woke up not exactly in the best moods and both soaking wet...not fun. Fortunately that morning we got lucky with a huge ride which brought us all the way to Strasburg where we crossed the border into Germany. That always seemed to be our routine, something really good followed by a touch of bad luck. This car was definitely our stroke of good luck as it took us as far as we made it the previous day in just one short ride. At last we were in Germany. The first day we went to Frankfurt but only ended up spending one night there (another stroke of good luck as we actually found a CSing host willing to take us in at midnight). The next morning bad luck was among us as we woke to a dreadfully powerful thunderstorm that was sure to make our day interesting. And interesting it was as we were picked up by our first bad ride, a friggin horny ass truck driver that wasted our time and I'm pretty sure was ready to make stew out of us by the time we finally stopped. Thankfully we got away unscathed and had a great story to tell.
You know, traveling like this can be really hard. You get worn down and defeated quite easily and the days can just drag on forever. Somehow Juan and I made it through two weeks with no issues and only taking a couple hours each to have our cranky time. No fighting, no annoyances, complaining, disagreements, or leaving each other. We got along beautifully and had some serious fun along the way. Im lucky I stumbled into Juan during my travels, he made them so very special and I am grateful I got to keep him as my travel partner for so long.
We finally made it to Berlin where we set up shop until I was heading back to Calgary. Berlin is a great city, it is beautiful and seems like a place where you can be exactly who you want to be (as original or mainstream as your little heart desires) and there is no judgement. I love what my eyes saw. The culture, history, monuments, houses, people, all of it was just really neat. If I moved to Europe that would totally be a place I could live. During our stay there the ever so social Juan introduced me to many of his fabulous friends (a few of them that we were lucky enough to stay with a couple nights as well). Juan also took me all around the city and was my personal tour guide because as with many European countries he once lived there as well. The monuments, the Berlin Wall it was all just crazy intense. We didn't speak about it at all, there was nothing to say. It was just overwhelming to know what the country used to be like many years ago, to think of what happened in the exact spot I was standing - it was intense.
One day Juan took me to this treasure of a place. It was a little area called Tachelles and it literally made me silent. Every piece of surface was covered in art (mostly graffiti) and the talent just overwhelmed me. There was so much to see that I actually started getting anxious. Artists are a different breed, do you know what goes through their minds? I just stood there thinking about the speed of the million minds that painted this building, artists upon artists desperately trying to paint their way to some outlet. I loved it but it made me want to sit in the middle of the floor and just cry. If I moved to Berlin that would be where I would live. I would be a squatter in the basement and go upstairs everyday to soak up then dispose of all the energy I get from that place. It is indescribable.
Berlin was hard to say goodbye too. I really enjoyed it there and didn't feel like I spent a drop of time that I needed too in order to discover the place. There are a few things I am looking forward too when I get home though. First, for two weeks Juan and I would go to the grocery store and buy a loaf of bread and a thing of meat and cheese. We also got a yogurt drink, a chocolate bar, and a case of nectarines to munch on through the day. Every single day that was our meal for breakfast, lunch dinner, bedtime snack (terribly healthy I know) but I am looking forward to going home and having a pantry full of food and some good ol home cooking. Yum my mouth is watering already. Secondly would be a bed. I haven't had a bed in weeks, floors, parks, ditches, the rare couch, and any other flat surface has been where I've slept but I cant wait to sleep in my own bed again. Laundry is also something I am incredibly excited about. Laundry around the world is quite interesting. Whether it was a man washing my clothes in a river or me scrubbing them in the bathtub, laundry was never the same. I have often found myself daydreaming of my clean, delicious smelling, non-wrinkled clothes, and I'm sure others have thought the same while standing much too close to my temporarily homeless traveling butt. But yeah those are the things I missed the most on my trip. Other than that its been perfect and I'm already concaughting where I will be going next.
Germany was lovely and I'm sad to leave. My whole trip was perfect and I am so very grateful for it. I really couldn't (or wouldn't) ask for much more. So now I'm off to discover "home", I wonder what that will hold...

Pamplona

I didn't blog about the last leg of my journey so I thought I would do that before it all escapes my tiny little memory. I threw an add on couch surfing to find someone to accompany me on my journey to Pamplona. A Spanish punk named Juan wrote me back and offered to be my hitch hiking companion there. Hitch hiking in Spain, humm, give me something I haven't done before and Im in. Now this could have very well been a terrible mix; hitching with a guy I don't know in a country i've never been to and unable to speak the language, but I had faith and it payed off because it was wonderful.
Our ride was short, safe, exciting, and very entertaining with the the company we found. And Pamplona, well that was just wild. I heard it is a city that typically has two hundred thousand people but during San Fermin it becomes a city of a million people. I didn't doubt this at all as every nook and cranny was absolutely flooded with people. It was mad, like nothing i've ever seen. Every singe street, park, and building was packed with people shoulder to shoulder. There were little mini cities within the big city that had everything a person needed to stay right in the area and was designed to fit their "type" (punk, festive, rave, authentic, etc), although most people only needed/wanted alcohol, cigarettes, and the authentic San Fermin get-up in order to survive for the week. It was one big party that literally did not stop, at six in the morning people are still going just as hard as they were at noon, well minus the hundreds of people lining the edges of each street, passed out or yacking their cookies in every direction but still "awake" and pretending to be a part of the action.
Throughout the days were great too. Every hour had a different event whether it was bull fighting (which no I didn't attend), concerts, dances, or competitions. Mind you through most of the day the city would die down just a touch and the parks would mound with people trying to catch up on sleep for the evening. And that folks is where you would find me. Sleeping in the park for four nights among endless strangers that filled that role of best friends. I remember when I was little and going to school in Brooks at Griffin park. Every few months we would have those giant slumber parities in the school gym. Everyone would bring there sleeping bags, Robert Munch himself would come and read us bedtime stories, and then we would all wake up to a pancake breakfast. Pamplona reminded me of that, I suppose the only difference was the breakfast cause I'm pretty sure even Mr. Munch was somewhere in the crowd.
Now for the big disappointment...I did not run with the bulls! I desperately wanted too and tried my hardest but missed the gate by seconds (I will forever resent Juan for that). I was so pumped up and ready to go. By that point many of our friends had gone and their adrenaline filled stories filled my veins with a touch of jealousy so my mind was made and I was going to run. But NO, the gates had to close and I did the walk of shame back to the stands to watch everyone else enjoy the action. Is was insane. Can you imagine being trapped in a narrow little street, surrounded by hundreds of people who practically leave you immobile and then having a dozen bulls released to uncontrollably chase you. Just absolutely wild. Peoples legs buckling and falling over in fear, men crying and desperately trying to climb over the fence back to safety, and then of course the adrenaline junkies that are trying to touch the bulls for good luck and are paying the price soon after. The run didn't go well that day. A young girl got her legs torn off, many people got tossed around the way a child bounces their toys off a balcony, and a young man was killed. It was really intense to watch, crazy that is some peoples version of fun, scary that is MY version of fun. And with that my time in Pamplona was over. I got my fair share of fun and new experiences for sure. I danced my butt off non-stop for hours every night. I met some crazy people, I saw things that blew me away, and I smiled for four days straight. It was good, it was wild, it was a perfect reminder of why that isn't my lifestyle anymore. Oh Pamplona you gave me fun, thank-you, thank-you and I hope to see you again - only next time ill be running.

Coming home...

So I’m in London now and have one day until I am back at home. That wonderful, awkward word...home. I hate going back. Of course I am excited and cannot wait to see my family but it is so hard to leave. It is hard to put away the travelling life, to walk back into reality desperately trying to hold on to the spirit that s grown and knowing it doesn’t take long until “home” breaks it down. Crap I shouldn’t write blogs in moments like this.
I am so so grateful and blessed for my last little while of seeing this beautiful world on my own. India gave me passion, a little place in the world that made me fall hard and desperately in love. India stole my heart and I am still not sure what I will do about it. London gave me reality and a quick reminder that I must choose my world carefully in order to be the girl my heart is guiding me to be. Ireland gave me stillness. It gave me beauty that was so unimaginable where I literally felt my words slip away and my mind become so calm. Spain was my freedom. It gave me a community and atmosphere to let go and enjoy. France left me thirsty with a real desire to go out and quench that thirst, to find undiscovered land in my mind again and again. And Germany brought me a piece of me again along with a pinch of shame. Shame for not teaching myself more (history, geography, languages) and me in the sense of being just a bit more raw and a lot more attentive to my adventurous spirit. Each country just taught me so much.
One thing that is difficult about going home is telling people about your trip. Some people don’t care, some don’t understand, and the ones that do care and do want to know about it leave me tongue tied and unable to condense or communicate all that went on. Overall my trip was beautiful and reckless in so many different ways, I’m not sure if I can explain it any better. There were times I felt cracked open and spit out, then times where I’ve never been so sure of myself before.
Throughout this last trip I became really good friends with myself again and also made some new beautiful friends along the way. Oh my goodness did they teach me. Each one of them like little angels perched up and waiting for my arrival, already aware of the gifts they needed to bring to my spirit.
Each step I took in a new country was beautiful. How was I chosen to be this lucky girl that gets to wander the earth and sing happy songs?
Soooo to answer many of your questions about when will I come home, settle down, and get back to reality. Well, I have my own concept of all those questions and I have a funny feeling my view is different than many of yours (what else is new). Settling down for me is settling my heart and I have no idea where that will be, but wherever it is it will be my home because home for me always has been literally where my heart is. Calgary, BC, Thailand, India, its all up in the air right now but I will “settle” at “home” in one of those places soon. And reality, well, I don’t have the technical description in my pocket but the way I think of the word is what is real. What is real in my world is a passion to travel, to discover, and have spice in my life. I fully intend on continuing to discover my reality cause quite frankly I love it. My reality, my settling down is beautiful, fun, and realistic, AND its what I choose for my own path. There have been so many people say to me it is time to come home and get a job, get serious with life. Hello? Anyone know my past? I’ve been “serious” since I was WAY too young, Im just enjoying it now. I sure hope that for as many people that I have had tell me that, I have just as many that pinch me and get me going when I have sat still for way too long. Discovery is fun, you should try...

Happy Birthday to ME...

Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to the girl who waited far too many years to be this excited for a birthday. On my birthday I have so many wishes for myself and so many beautiful moments to look back on during this past year. This year has been beautiful and tragic, and tragically beautiful. Last year as I sat around blowing out my candles and making my birthday wishes not once did I envision myself to be where I am today. The unanswered prayers that I thought would break my heart turned out to bless my soul. Oh birthday girl you have so much to look forward too.

New friends, new life ventures, new challenges, new talents. Finding foreign paths, healing a broken heart, laughing till I cry, risking myself more. Becoming friends with art again, finding a new thirst for my spiritual journey, adoring my own company, visiting far away lands. This year was so delicious for me! As I look into this next year I have learnt one very important lesson, don't look too far. My path was designed far before I was even conceived, why the heck have I spent so many years stressing over it. This next year, good, bad, or indifferent will be exactly what it was meant to be so my birthday wish for myself is to just enjoy the ride.

Twenty six has now come and I am excited for the next twelve months. There is a fire in my soul that just wants more. The ambers have always been burning and I have always desired a stronger flame that would help fuel my fire to change my world. I don't know why or how but this year that flame ignited and caught like a wild fire. I am so very much ready and looking forward to this year. Endless adventures, lessons, and smiles. I have no idea what is in store but I do know I will make it beautiful.

So happy birthday to the birthday gal. May your year be filled with so much love, memories, new experiences, courageous goals, laughter, family, and sunshine, and may your smile continue to shine tomorrow as brightly as it does today.

Love ME

Barcelona so far...

Ahhh Beautiful Barcelona, its the life! Ive got no complaints in this lovely city and I am very much enjoying my time here. From the day Ive arrived though I have been in lazy mode to the max. Lounging around on the beach, browsing around the shops, and parking my butt in a park to journal has been about the summary of my trip so far. Every country I have been too has been a ton of fun but also very busy. I'm grateful for that because I have been able to see so much of many different parts of each country, but coming to Barcelona I made a conscious decision that I'm going to relax even if that means I don't make it to see all of the famous landmarks. So relaxing it is...

Barcelona is beautiful but once again not what I expected. I did think it would be a lot more Americanized than it is and I thought that for sure more people would speak English (not very many people do at all here). As imagined the beaches here are amazing. Volleyball, dances, fires, topless ladies, men in speedos, hundreds of people frying in the sun, its all so typical for a Spanish beach and I adore it! Fingers crossed my tan will be delicious when I get home. I cant say much about the people here cause I really haven't talked to many but who I have met have been wonderful to me (the girls here are so nice). My CSing hosts have been really great too. I stayed with Cristian, his parents, and his 93 year old grandmother and really enjoyed my time there. Cristians family did not speak English so we were not able to communicate well through words but the actions we came up with to tell one another about our days or ask each other a question was definitely a sight to see. Cristian was so good to me. He took me to the beach, shopping, to see some sights, to a disco; he really wanted to show me a good time and succeeded. Ive only been at Edwards house for one night but I know I will adore him. He is definitely completely off the wall and hilarious and at the same time super hospitable and mellow. I'm excited for the rest of my stay here.

Tomorrow morning I head out to hitch hike my way to Pamplona to see the running of the bulls. Hitch hiking is ¨forbidden¨ here and I have no idea where I'm going so I'm hoping the guy going with knows a little more (mind you I have no idea who he is and wont find out till were on the road so lets just keep our fingers crossed lol). The streets are flooded with people in every direction so the plan is just to bring our sleeping bags and camp out in the parks with everyone else. I'm so excited and ill try my hardest to remember to come home and blog all about it!

Sending my love from Barcelona....

Beautiful Beautiful Ireland...

Tonight is my last night in Ireland and I am missing it already. This trip has been so wonderful for me. My CouchSurfing host was just awesome and he made Ireland such a treat for me. Kevin planned out a full week on the road tenting Ireland, he took care of all our gear, picked out some touristy spots and added in many favourite places of his own. When I first decided to visit Ireland I did not envision this would be the way I would see it but I cant think of any better way now.

Soooo, Ireland. Holy man it is crazy beautiful here. We were able to drive so much of the Southern and Western areas of the Country and it was crazy gorgeous. The green, the mountains, hills, sheep, stone fences, cliffs, the coast; it was all very close to how I envisioned it (minus the palm trees and surf beaches) and it really did take my breath away. Im not exactly the most vocal person about some things, especially when I am in awe I just like to be in my own mind soaking in all that is around me. Im sure Kevin wondered what the heck I thought of his home many times but it was just so hard to talk about. You can only say “its beautiful”, “wow” or “I love it” so many times before it just becomes redundant. The fact was it was too pretty for me to put words too. I love Ireland.

During this trip we spent most of our time in the South West part of the country. We drove for quite a few hours every day visiting many small towns and villages along the way. The three Counties we visited were Cork, Kerry, and Clare. The regions within those that we saw were Beara Peninsula, Lakes of Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Dingle Peninsula, and The Burren. Some of the great places we were able to stop and see along the way were Cliffs of Moher (absolutely stunning), some beehive huts, Priest Leap, some gorgeous lakes, Aries (the most remote village in Ireland), Healey Pass, Gap of Dunlow, a huge ring fort, castles (including the Blarney Stone Castle which I did indeed kiss), Dunbeg, Slea Head (the most Westerly point in Ireland), Dunquin Beach, of course some Cathedrals, Lihinch, Ailwee Caves, Poulnabrone Dolmen (the most photographed site in Ireland), and we even stopped into a pub in Doolin to see a traditional music session (which I really loved). The list could go on and on really. Needless to say we did lots of fun things and visited some great places along the way. Ahhh I have loved this trip and everywhere I have visited!

Tenting around was lots of fun. We headed out and found our own places (rather than camp sites) and especially during the first few nights we had gorgeous spots around the coast where we were completely secluded and left with only the beautiful land; I loved it, it was peace at its finest. We had one really bad night where there was a bit of a wind/rain storm and I woke up eating the top of the tent, im pretty sure Kevin still hates me for sleeping perfectly through the night when he was awake for nearly the whole evening. Our last few nights we didn’t set up shop till really late so we ended up camping out in farmer fields. Those were interesting nights surrounded by cow patties and slugs, and having the farmers wake us up wayyy too early telling us to move along. Anyway, the whole tenting bit was definitely the way to go; we had so much fun and made lots of memories with our night time cookouts and laughing our way to sleep.

I would like to think it is the norm but Im betting I got very lucky with my CS host. Him and I had such an awesome week together, we were able to see so many places and experience so much of Ireland. The two of us are very similar in many ways which was really great; we are both fairly mellow with a really nonchalant attitude about what we were going to do or where we were going to go next, he made for a great travel partner. I spent every waking minute with the guy and didn’t even hate him near the end, for those of you who know me and men that kinda speaks volumes. But yes the two of us shared many many laughs and lots of life stories. I am grateful he came into my world at this time and Im glad we were able to teach each other quite a bit over this short time (oh how I love learning). Anyway, I will definitely miss Ireland when I leave but I will also miss Kevin a lot and having such a great friend around all the time. Thank (tank) you a million times over Kevin for all you did for me during this trip, you really did make it special and I appreciate you so much. When I am lost in life I will look for my own red and white poles to guide me, I hope you do the same and I hope they don’t turn yellow or blue along your journey.

Its not just Kevin though (although I do think he is bizarrely nice) but the people here are lovely in general. The men here are such gentlemen (im actually pretty sure when I decide to get married ill be moving to this neck of the woods to find me an Irish man). Every time I walked down the street and there was a man walking towards me he would move out of the way and say “mind the lady”, and each and every time that would happen I would giggle to myself feeling so spoiled and special. Its funny but you forget at home that that is once the way men treated women, it feels so good. I cant get started on the whole Irish men bit but I will say I love them, I felt like a lady the whole time I was here and only met the most respectable men, it was great. I loved the random conversations too, people just wanted to chat to you about nothing forever, it made for a slower way of life and I really fell in love with that especially near the end. The towns here are adorable, the streets are lined with colourful stores that are hundreds of years old; they still shut down on Sundays and they still welcome you with a smile and a hello each and every time you walk in, ah its lovely. Aside from the terribly weak coffee I did not have any complains about Ireland, it is a wonderful place in this world with some of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes. I am so grateful that I was able to visit here and make many many beautiful memories from this journey. Goodbye Ireland you will be dearly missed!

Driving around the world...

Driving in different parts of the world is always interesting. I took a few videos of traveling in the countries I have visited lately and looking back on all the them makes me smile so much. The last two are from when I was in India, one is of us on a Rickshaw and as you can see we are going about a mile a minute in the loads of people, the other is us having a little giggle on our first sleeper train. The one in the middle is from a road I fell in love with in London, and the first video is from of me driving on the wrong side of the road in Ireland. It was so much fun, Kevin and I just laughed and laughed forever. Oh a quick forewarning about that video: I had a little slip of the tongue and Kevin quickly followed suit so if you dont want to hear the swearing please just dont watch the video (a quick disclaimer for my family). Anyway I hope you enjoy the videos of my crazy transportation around the world as much as I do.

My travels with Kiya...

Written June 27th 2009

Throughout my travels many people have passed in and out of my mind. This or that will remind me of someone or make me wish I could share that exact moment with a certain person. For some reason though, one consistent person has remained on my mind, Miss Kiya Jade. I have just missed her so much. In India there were so many itty bitty babies that reminded me of Kiya, in England there were the smallest baby gravesites everywhere and obviously it reminded me of Kiya but also made me weep for the mothers all around the world who have experienced pain like my sisters, in Ireland there are dozens of sheep and bunnies in every blink you take – which are the two animals that remind me of Kiya (its too long to explain why). I had a dream the other night that Tiffany and Kiya came to pick me up from the airport, that’s how it would have been and those are the small things that I am really longing for. I got so caught up with how everyone else was handling the death of Kiya that I never really validated my own pain as an Auntie who lost her niece. I really miss her; I wish I could see her grow. I want to know who she would have become, what kind of lady she would have been, how close the two of us would have been. I am sad for that but I am so grateful that I see her everywhere right now. I feel closer to her here for some reason and it gives me such a feeling of comfort. I have really enjoyed sharing this trip with Kiya and I am excited for the two of us to continue on in this journey. Six months babe, that’s a long one; I miss you baby girl.