The Trip

Ohola, the last 2 days were crazy! I was totally under the impression that my trip back hitch hiking would be so much easier than the first time, because I know a better route now. And in France that was definately the case; I frew through France like the wind, but I got stuck around Dijon and that's where all the trouble started. But let's not get ahead of myself; I would like to write about my experience a bit more in detail, so that everyone who wants to do some hitch hiking, can see this as the hitch hiker's guide for dummies.

So yesterday we left way too late. One of the things that takes the most time when you hitch hike is getting on the highway. Once you're on the highway you can just hop in cars at the gas stations and tell them to drop you at the last one that they pass before they abandon your personal route. We started at around 11 in the morning and I remember the sun was burning at 39 degrees on my skin while we were on some Spanish national way to Perpignan. If you ever wonder about the where abouts of the places I mention, don't be lazy and check google maps! So, we started a bit late, and by the time we got onto the highway it was well past noon.

Before we left we were checking the distances that we had to travel. Cause Iva had to go to Zagreb and I had to go back to Offenburg. Her route was quite a bit longer so she was annoyed with the fact that we started so late because she thought she wouldn't make it to Zagreb before midnight. in fact, I haven't received an email from her yet but I'm sure she'll be fine; before we split up we met this cool dude from Australia who was hitching to Milano, so I told her to stay with him until that point. Anyway, I was rocking the highway of France! Going through it so fast, I was sure I would be in Strassbourg somewhere in the middle of the night, and would arrive in Bad Antogast somewhere in the morning; I could not have been more wrong.

You see, when you hitch hike there are a few things to consider. First off you need to know where you want to go of course, and secondly you need to make yourself a route of how to get there, going over the highways passing the big cities. And the best checkpoints to use along the highways are gas stations for various reasons. You can pick your car, you can go to the toilet, buy food and water, you have a better chance of getting people to take you because of the personal interaction, and people who fill up their car are likely to go a long way.

However, the most important thing is that you know how the traffic is flowing. All the roads are connected somehow, so getting somewhere in your own car is not so hard, but people who stop at gas stations often go in a specific direction; 90% of the people at the gas station will drive in the same direction! This means 2 things: it's very easy to get a ride when you're at the right spot, but it's also very hard to get a ride when you're at the wrong spot. Getting this sense of traffic, - knowing in which way the people are going - is the most important when it comes to hitching. Standing at the wrong spots can take you hours, standing at the right spots makes your trip go as fast as if you were driving your own car. This was the mistake I made at Dijon; standing at the wrong places.

I was stuck in Dijon for 5 hours, starting at around 1 in the morning. It felt like it was freezing out there, so my motivation to ask for a ride became less and less because nobody would go into my direction and it was so freakin' cold! I decided to stay inside for a while, in the end I ended up making an attempt as sleeping for about 1 hour. Then I decided to just go out and keep asking; after all, you won't get anywhere by just sitting inside complaining to yourself about how cold it is. But like I said, nobody went into the direction of Strassbourg, so I decided to go with the flow and head a little bit north. I was thinking to just flow my way back south and end up in Strassbourg eventually. But every time I would go north and stop at the next station, those people would go up north even more! I ended up close to Cologne, which was way out of original route. Looking back at it, I think I made at least 500 kilometers too many!

It was at this point that I started getting desperate; time was ticking and I didn't want to sleep another night outside cause I was tired already. I even remember myself crying out of despair. At least I quickly managed to pull myself together and to just focus on solving my problem. It was then that I met a beautiful woman who offered to help me out. She and her husband drove me onto the highway that was going all the way south to Strassbourg and left me there at the first gas station; she even gave me a sandwich that she had just bought! It was a really good sandwich. Anyway, once I was at the right road on the right side, I flew through Germany even faster than I did through France; hitching in Germany is the bomb. I like the hot ride, fast living gas giving mentality of the Germans when it comes to traveling on the autobahn.

I told myself I was gonna be at Offenburg at 10. In fact I was in Bad Antogast at 10! Now while I'm typing this I'm a really happy panda. I wonder if Iva made it home earlier than I did; it probably won't be much of a difference. Oh and one more thing: sometimes people are not so sure about whether they should take you or not, although most of the time people are really generous and will not hestitate to take you with them. This happened to me in France; the guy had room and was going the right way but was not so sure. I said "what, you want me to flip a coin?" and that broke the ice. It came very spontanious but it's a great line to use if anyone is in doubt of taking you with them.

So now I'm back in Bad Antogast, parted from Iva, and Isaac; I wanted her to take him with her. We'll meet up in October around my birthday. And now, my friends, I'm gonna get some well deserved sleep. Night!

Barca Barca!

A lot has happened since my last post! We conducted the course in Freiburg with Krishi; that was a really nice experience. Every time I see this guy I get more and more inspired to do more, to make better use of my capacities. We also talked a lot about relationships and why women are so hard to please. To be honest at times I grow really tired of Iva. I'm not going into details; that would not be fair, but you can be damn sure that the only thing that keeps me from breaking up at times is my commitment. I believe in commitments as long as it's something worth committing to. The thing is that our feelings change all the time; you cannot rely on them to take you somewhere because you will end up nowhere. It's our commitments that make us go somewhere, but a good commitment is made from the heart. Even when you choose to do something you really love, you will still face ups and downs. A proper commitment is to combine the heart with the head; to walk your path with devotion.

After the course ended, we immediately left the next morning to Barcelona. We figured we wanted some more tan out of this summer, so we chased the sun all the way into Catalonia. Yes indeed, Barcelona is not Spain; whatever that means. But Barcelona is a wonderful place, a really nice city that you must have seen at least once in your life! It's got shops, restaurants, clubs, bars, museums, and also nice parks. It even has a beach, but the Spanish aren't too familiar with vegetarism unfortunately. We stayed with a guy who had a really dirty house, so we cleaned it before we went to bed; it was simply too dirty to live in, even for me! I remember the floor was covered in dust and under our bed were 3 used condoms from his house mate who did not live there for centuries. But once it was cleaned up, the energy in the room was so much better; a little bit of effort can really transform a place.

So how did we get there? Hitch hiking! It's a great way of transportation. First off it's free and secondly you get to meet a lot of different people. In fact, it's quite fast too, because it only took us 24 hours and 11 different cars to get to Barcelona. And we didn't even take the fastest route. I remember in the night I fell asleep in one of the cars so we ended up in Montpeiller. You have to understand that when you hitch, you should go from gas station to gas station; stay on the highway where the traffic is at, don't get stuck in some city. It was the middle of the night and I really didn't feel like sleeping somewhere in the open, so we walked along the highway to the first gas station. Fortunately, someone from the highway patrol took us with him and he dropped us off at the first gas station where we took another ride. It's quite an adventure!

To get back on track; after a few days of Barcelona we decided to go to this small village at the sea called Cadaques where one of our friends from YWC was staying. She gave us a really nice room with a big bed where we have been staying for a few nights now. I got myself hurt on those spiky black thingies in the sea, and I got a burned back from the sun; I'm a typhical tourist. I enjoyed the place a lot though, spent too much money on the great food that they offer here and tomorrow I'm going back to Bad Antogast. Iva will be going back to Croatia since her visa expired yesterday. So we will be seperated until october; we decided to meet up aroud my birthday and go somewhere together. Isaac will be going with her for these 2 months; I'm gonna miss him!

Also, I lost my phone on the way to Barcelona, so there is no use in calling me or sending me messages. If you want to tell me something just send it through mail. I'll get a new phone soon enough so don't worry, and I still have my dutch SIM card. It's just karma; what can you do. Shit happens! Bad karma is taken from you when it does, so just be grateful. Money you cannot take with you to the next life, but karma you will take, whether you want it or not; so live a good life, even if only for the sake of your next one.

Make that bitch happy

It's been a while since my last post isn't it.

It's funny; I have so much to write about that I simply don't know where to start, and for sure I will forget about alot of things that are worth mentioning. Anyhow, just to get that out of the way, we're doing pretty good here in Freiburg. We've moved to a few places since we came here, we're now at our third address and saturday we'll leave again. At first I saw this as a bad thing, but now I realize that moving around all the time is actually a good way to get to know new people. And we need to get to know as many people as possible because we need to build up a strong network. Networking is everything; in fact you don't even really need to be able to know things or do things yourself, you just have to know the right people.

Getting people is most important for a seminar. You can have a nice hall and everything well prepared, but in the end it's the people that make a seminar so beautiful, because they get to experience something completely new which is often gratefully taken. Since our budget here is so small, we have to spend a minimum amount of money on things. Now and then we go for the market to ask for free food; you'd be surprised to see how much you can get by just asking. It's not seldom that we go home with a few bags filled with food for the rest of the week.

You cannot be afraid to ask favours, especially not when you realize that it is for a good cause. You don't ask for these favours for just yourself, but for everyone. Acts of generosity do not move from one person to another and then stop; they move on, they bring a positive pulse to the world.

Be generous, it will surely come back to you. Everything you do affects you. What you will get in life, and what you will not get. Today we managed to get a hall for free for the duration of the whole course! There was no way we could've afforded to rent anything so I'm very glad that we succeeded in this. It was not so easy because most places close in Germany during August because that is when summer holidays start. But we managed to get a place in a dance school; it's very nice, one of the teachers there actually offered me to take a ballet lesson so I thought: Why not?

So tomorrow will be my first ballet lesson ever! I would've never thought to be ever practicing ballet, but fortunately I can still surprise myself. It is a week until the course starts, we just need people now and a teacher. We'll pull it off, for sure. I have a good feeling about it. Also we managed to have some companies sponsor our flyers. We got about 1500 colour printed flyers for 30 euros on the spot! The guy at the copy shop gave us a huge discount and we definately have the best flyers of all of CLP. I'll be keeping it in my USB stick as a trophy.

I really wonder what will happen after this course. It will be my third, so maybe I will get the tape and the manual and become a full teacher. Who knows? I know who! Always with a big smile on his face because you don't know what's coming, and that's what makes it fun. Anyway, what I do think to know is that after this course I'll be taking a small vacation with Iva to where ever. You see, women are still women; they can never make up their mind. First it was Paris, then Barcalona, then Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, Malta, I'm starting to lose track on the latest developments. So I'll just wait until the moment is there and see what she wants. I don't really mind where we're going, I can feel at home anywhere; as long as she's happy.

You should watch Chris Rock about relationships, just type it onto youtube and you'll find a hilarious show about...relationships. Just know that when you look in the mirror you oughta say to yourself "fuck you, let's make this bitch happy".