Steady livin

Well hello all,

I've been in Italy for about two weeks now and the family that I've been spending time with is great. I've been visiting local places to eat an castles to see as well. This town is a costal town so there are a bunch of houses right by the bay. There isn't a bech to go to it's more like a place to dock boats. The weather has been great and living in a house is better than I remember after being on the road. 

My daily routine involves waking up around 9 and eating some biscuits with hot chocolate. Then I spend the next time reading, walking, or just relaxing. Then around 1pm I get Filippo from his school. We all eat dinner as a family around the table with Marino and Manuella. After we Finnish Filippo and I start reading and practicing English. Then we head to the park. I've made a bunch of friends at that park which is like 2 houses away. So me and these guys have gone around town whistling at girls and eatting focaccia which is a La Spezia special bread that's kinda salty. A couple times we head out to the clubs in the area. 

The coffee here is ritual served in a small shotglass sized coffee mug, it's super strong. The next thing I see is a lot of smoking, not old people or adults but 15 year old kids that go through packets of cigarets like candy. You couldn't be a non smoker here even if you want to. You'll just be a second hand smoker. But I love the closeness between the families here it's like no matter who you are the always want to take care of you. But other than that I've been taking it slow here and I'll most likely be leaving here by the end of next month and go to Central America. I'll be back in Cali around January 1st for all those missing me, because I sure am missing you guys. 

A treat

A treat to myself was remembering all my adventures so far through the words I've put down in this blog. It's as if I can enjoy every aspect of my journey all over again on comand. So I'll try again and again to write little stories in this journal of mine for myself as well as for everyone else. 

 

With my head held high and dressed without any regard to impress I walked from my quickly disposed bike almost as easily as walking away from a bad relationship. All she ever wanted from me was more effort and more of my time, I spent all day with her and barely made any progress, though her only great aspect was that she was so ugly and useless that nobody would take her from me. Our relationship ended when she was no use to me any longer we went through some rough spots and a few hills and right when we were so close to our goal she gave out on me the weight of our baggage was to much. She broke down and cried a terrible squealing cry an could barely continue straight I never knew I would be the one to break her so easily. She had to do it when other people were around they crowded and watched as I tried to make it work between us but I couldn't fix her I was the one to walk out of the relation ship because she just couldn't handle me I was too much.

I walked like a man with a purpose, but in truth I was in no rush I was happy listening to the French chatter and finding my way around. I arrived in a town and talked to some local guys trying to figure how to get to Paris the train was a few blocks away and with a few connections I was halfway there. I had a little layover in arras my favorite snack ended up being a doner or kebab depending on the country I was in, and here it was kebab. Finding my bus was like finding a grain of sand in the desert with my name on it and every body swears they saw it some where. I ended up at the right place looking as confused as possible when I guy asked where I was going, turns out he was headed the same way. The bus driver must have thought it was the end of the world because he drove the whole way without stoping and maneuvering the bus as though it was a go cart. I arrived at my destionation confused at how big the town was Beauvais was supposed to be a small town but ended up being more than I expected. I found the local park and began the routine, nervously because there was voices around I was genuinely confused it's 11pm and people are out in the park. I later discovered the next day I had come across a local refugee makeshift camping spot people running from war and family struggles were seeking asylum in this park. Their stories were all different but they had to sleep and wait for the day they got help from the French government, what I experienced for the past week were these guys reality forced upon them for the next couple months. I met with a guy named DePaul from Africa and he was explaining how he was waiting for his papers so he can work in France. In the morning he told me there's a place to go for a shower and I almost jumped with excitement, for the past three days I was riding my bike without showers so one sounded like heaven on earth. I agreed for him to take me there in the morning and set up my tent with the other refugees. Quite aware of the possibility of danger I was convinced no harm was present unless I appeared to have money wich they were convinced I wasn't and they scratched their heads in disbelief that an American was sleeping besides them. For everyone's dream seemed to be to go to America. There was chatter and laughing an singing till late on the night which is partly was attracted me to the crowd searching for what I missed back in the states. Family.

We woke early and went to the place he had told me about. I attracted a lot of double takes and raised eyebrows. I took my spot in line and grabbed a hot chocolate quite content. After the shower one of the staff approached me and asked me to join him. I went to his office confused, and realized he thought I was in a situation and needed help. I corrected him and told him part of my story and resolved to help out around the place for the shower I received 

After looking around I found my place in the kitchen, get this, making burger patties for lunch. I was happy I could help and was busy washing and setting tables though I didn't feel comfortable eating with my friends I decided to swallow my inhibitions and join with a smile. The girl next to me complained in her native tougne about the food and I admit it was terrible they had to be reduced to this level of living for the time being but others made the most of it laughing and complaining in the same breath. 

After lunch I headed out into the city intent on trying to get to Paris by train with a return ticket that same day.

Every Day

So my last post should have been from Germany a couple days back. I was planning on catching a bus on the 27th straight to amsterdam. What ended up happening was on that morning, I packed up my tent and started to rush towards the nearest train station thinking that I was going to be running late. I missed the train just as I got to the platform so I had time to think of all the different ways to run to the bus station. 30 minuets later my train arrives and I get off at HBF the central for all trains. I'm ahead by 20 minuets and just a brisk walk in the early morning brushing past everyone else who had places to go and things to see. After a few blocks I slow down happy that I've got time to slow my pace, the huge backpack was a lot to carry down the streets. I get to the station take two walks around the place and wonder what on earth is wrong.. I see no bus or any indication that my bus is supposed to be there. I look back down at my ticket and inspect every detail looking for some kind of error, or typo in the address... Puzzled every thing seems to check out I look again at the date 27.10.2013 I had purchased my ticket a month in advance!! And I was all ready to leave munich tired of camping and walking around seeing the same old sights that I had seen for the past week. Plus the ticket was non refundable so I was at a standstill. 

Choosing to mull over my situation at breakfast I walk back into the city pretty bummed. As I'm walking the drunk guy looks up and asks if HBF is behind me I smile thinking no I'm headed to HBF now hahaha... So I tell the poor guy to follow me and I'll show him where it is. Along the way he tells me his story of how he left his friends in a cab after a night of drinking at a club and how he's been wondering around his own city for an hour lost. I show him to the station and he invites me I've to his house saying that I've been so helpful and I can crash on his couch. I accept happily knowing that a couh will be the best sleep I've gotten all week. He ends up cooking me some dinner an heads to bed and I stay up using the internet trying to figure out my next move.. After some deliberation I decide on a combination of ride sharing and hitch hiking. I leave a note on his table thanking him for the hospitality and head off to my ride share. For €30 this guy drops me some where in northern Germany and I figure I could try my hand at hitch hiking. It was 12 at night when he dropped me off so I was going to crash the night in my tent and try again in the morning to catch my ride to amsterdam. It's freezing cold mind you so after briskly finding a spot in the dark next to the freeway I fall asleep. Not more that an hour after going to sleep I am called awake by the sounds of officers saying Polizie Polizie hello.. Haha in German. Flashlights in my face groggy I wake up to the interrogation all I can muster to say is Nein spreken theDutch. One laughs and ask for my id while another searches through my bag and the third starts the questions again in English. Why am I here, where am I from, how long will I stay in Germany and after the questions he just says So this is like your euro trip eh.. Ok and they all walk off just as sudden as they came into the dark. The next morning I try my hand at hitch hiking I'm there for about 3 hours before I realize I'm on the wrong side of the freeway entrance to the direction I want to go. Head over to the other side and wait another 4 hrs.. I get bored with waiting and make my way into the city and find the train to Amsterdam.

. Most expensive way to get to amsterdam €42 missed bus, €30 ride share and, a €58 train ride. Once in amsterdam it's night time again so I end up crashing in the local park out of sight didn't pitch my tent but rather slept with my bag strapped to my pants just incase someone tried to make out with my bag... Such a big city not too many places to sleep with a tent.

After that terrible night I did all the local activities tried some fresh heniken, smoked in the coffee shops, played pool with travelers, browsed the red light district.

The streets the bikes... Everything I loved about this place just such a cool place to be.

The way that every body gets around and the love for bikes.. There is said to be twice the ammount of bikes as the ammount of people in amsterdam. 

That structure is filled with bikes by the way.

Then there's my bike and how I came to 'own' it. I was really in need of a bike after 4 days in Amsterdam and I wasn't seeing many new things on foot and everyone kept talking about how easy it is to get a bike from a street junkie. Well I wasn't having any luck so far and I really needed a bike. After coming out of a local bar hoping to score a job ( I did but didn't have the right legal paperwork) I was approached by this guy and he was like to man you need a bike.. I said yup and he gave me his bike for €20 no questions asked and that bike I later decide to ride all the way to France. Now when I was in Germany it was my plan to ride from Amsterdam to France to catch a flight in Beauvais to Pisa, Italy where I'm going to stay for two months. But I never thought for an instant that I would settle for a cruiser which weighs more than my backpack and only has 3 gears!!

But my cards were delt and this was the best deal for a bike that I could afford so I started my journey after leaving the wonderful comfort of my hostel call the flying pig (such a nice hostel, such helpful people) and I started to make my way down. The first two days were quite good  I was able to travel from Amsterdam to Breda in one day of 8hrs on my bike then Breda to Gent in another 9hr session and finally I'm now in Lille on the third day of 5hrs of riding. Now let me try to paint the picture of how slow I am going on this bike. Due to a couple set backs we have my legs being to big for the bike, both wheels are crooked, the weight of bike and bag, plus the terrible position of the upright riding posture. Made me the slowest bike on the road I had kids, women, old people, a kid with his mom on his back seat all going at least twice as fast as me. And my only competion even though he always stayed slightly ahead of me was this old guy in his electric chair.. I was literally crawling along this path. The miles I've traveled so far estimates to be 190miles.

There were a couple highlights on this while trip that I just need to point out.. One being this ferry no advertisement to this place what so ever but with my phone I managed to find one of the only ways across the river for like 40 miles in either direction. Then the next river problem was in Antwerpeen, Belgium I think.. It's in Belgium but there's this secret elevator just for bikes and pedestrians that lead to a tunnel under the river, I would never have found it unless I asked a local!! 

The number reads -31.. That was so cool i was trippin out the whole time that they took the time to make something like this just for bikers. The ammount of energy that the Netherlands and some of Belgium put out for all the bike roads is amazing you have so much space as a biker in these countries it's absolutely awesome. Well after that I ran into a hidden gem in Gent which turned out to be a wicked college town cool architecture 

And that is my summary up until today the 5th of October. Now for some reflection which really caused me to pick up writing today. The fact that every town I visit without plans on staying in a hotel and rather camping brings me to think if I am like a bum over seas. Seeing new things is really awesome but it's strange how in this position every night once I come to a town I look for the hidden place where nobody will disturb me as I set up my tent and I travel with only the things on my back as my comfort. It makes me appreciate the mundane life I used to have the 9-5 job and waiting in traffic. Not worrying about where I'll sleep and being close to all my family an friends. There's a certain comfort that these certainties have with us that I took for granted when I was back in the states. I sometimes wish for a boring job again to not have to come up with my plan for the next day or look for my next urban campsite. But I'm here and I will live it up!! This experience will probably only happen once I won't say that I'm not going to travel on a crap bike again, I'm just saying I'll try my best to avoid it happening hahaha. Love all my family!! And I miss you guys!! Still trying to figure out my plans for after Italy! I'm looking for places where I can build up some money before heading out again to travel. 

10/5/13

Lille, France

Ok so I went out the next day to try my hand at fate again on my bike and ended up drawing bad cards. All throughout France are the worst cobble stone roads which are really the most bumpy roads to use as streets and the weight of my backpack bouncing up and down on my already tormented bike turned out to be too much for it to bear.  Once I had gone about 10 miles outside the city she decided to break and by decide I mean 8 spokes on my back wheel were broken when the tire could no longer go straight. So I took my bag on my back and ditched the bike and headed on wards. I figure fixing the bike will cost more than I purchased the bike for and it will be redundant to move onwards. So I went and caught myself a train. For tracking purposes my bike broke in Carvin and I got a train in Libercourt. With this ill head to Paris by train and then get a way to my airport by Wednesday morning 9am. I decided to keep my lock from the bike chain.

10/6/13

On the train to Arras

Another Story

I can't begin to explain why it's been such bad luck with these post. I think it's the relaxed weather here or maybe it's something in the beer. Haha well my birthday has come and gone and I spent that day with some very awesome horse farmers in Germany. Here's my cake

Thanks to the opening of beer fest I cant show you any pictures of the family I was stayin with, because I had my camera lost on my drunk walk of shame back to my camp site. Well I can see this is getting out of hand so let's talk facts...

I left my campsite in oxford, England and began my 22 hr bus ride to Munich Germany. The bus ride wasn't all that bad after I found out where the bathroom.. Scratch that where the extremely small cabinet where they placed the toilet was at inside of the bus. I was able to freely talk with all the passengers and makin good company with every body I saw, being away from home put me in the gotta make friends mood. On this bus ride I got from England to France on La tunnel I think they call it haha but it's like a tunnel with a huge train that carries busses and cars under the ocean. That was cool. (Photos in my camera, which I don't know where that is) I arrived in Munich after that long trip wanted to get a good nights rest, so I practically ran as fast as I could to the nearest train out of the city. I don't know if it was the fact that everything on the buildings was a different language or that I could speak that language but I wasn't comfortable in Germany. I was quite freaked out. After some trouble I hit up a local train and headed for a farm on the country side right next to a city called Passau. My host met me at the station and I headed off to her place. Which is huge.

The day to day routine here was that we wake up for breakfast at 8:30 everyday. 

After that we head out to the stables and pick up all the shit from the 25 different horses in the stables. 

Then we feed them hay. All the walls you see even in the first house picture were repainted white by myself. After feeding and watering the horses it's kinda like break time or we work on our own project mine was painting. Then we have a hot lunch kinda like a dinner in the middle of the day. Each day was a nice surprise of a different German cuisine. Then I take another free time and we get back to cleaning and feeding the horses around 6pm. End up eating a cold dinner at 8:30. Although they said it was very German to have a cold dinner and hot lunch, me and Michael think it's just a farm thing. He is also a workawayer. That was what I did for two weeks. Then my birthday came around and we all celebrated with that cake. But that didn't mean we stopped working that day... Every day is a working day for a farmer. To kill some time I bought this book in the local town it's such a great book.

I recommend it to anybody looking for a good story. I also had time to read Robinson Crueso.. Which took me the same amount of time it took me to read Shantaram.. Even though Shantaram is close to 1000 pages. I was going for a 7 day record and succeeded. I am looking for good books to get into so please do suggest some titles for me.

Micheal and I headed out on the same day because I had overstayed my welcome haha I think I got on her nerves not knowing where I wanted to go or how long I would stay so she kicked me out after two weeks. I took the time to go with Micheal to passau and drink the local brew.

We ended up staying in a hostel over looking the whole city.. In what seemed to be an old castle.

Oh passau is know for three rivers that connect. What a cool place, the people love sausages here and beer so we had some good fun. 

After a night we both took the train into Munich and I came face to face with the city again. Although this time around it wasn't as scary. 

Once I got there I took my time to find a campspot (not a campsite mind you, a spot) for my tent and then I began to explore, I arrived one day before Oktoberfest so the crowds at the train where intense. But I would have to say I don't like these trains better than London's, they are slower and it took me a while to get the hang of the backwards system compared to London these trains reminded me of headphones that stay in your pocket after a couple minuets and they are all tangled up. 

Found these people playing some cool games.

Some people surf on the river!!! I think they made an artificial wave.. Since there's so much water it just continuously flows all day.

Beer day!!!

These halls are full of singing, chanting, pretzels, beer, laugher, and women. Every body is dressed to the German traditions. 

The count down till the beer comes on the first day is epic almost like New Years, the beer is serve at 12oclock after the Mayer taps off the first beer and the cannons go off! Met some British guys and joined in on the fun. We ended up playing cards and telling jokes for 3 hrs before the first beer was consumed. I had a local next to me tellin me that I shouldn't drink like it's a competion because these beers are sooo strong for the festival.

After two liters of beer I was making funny faces for my camera and laughing and cheering with the rest of the guys.

I have Better pictures on my camera but shortly after this photo was taken I sauntered off into a park and never saw my camera again. I couldn't tell you if I dropped it or it was stolen. 

But enough reminiscing after I found out I had to go back and take some proper photos for you all!! 

Old and young alike dress up 

The whole place is a lot to take in but just Imagin a carnival and then add 6-9 huge beer cafeterias scattered around and that's what Oktoberfest is.

Every beer hall is dressed up with horses standing out side and bands playing inside, you can hear people singing from where I was.

And for now this is what I've been up to. In a couple of days I'm going to be going to Amsterdam on a bus and make my way to Paris on a bike then I'm off to Italy in a plane for a new program I found out called au pair. As you know I left without much  cash so, this will be one of my many jobs over seas. It includes taking care of a kid, and you get room, board, and a couple bucks all while staying in the country of your choosing. Yesterday I had some plans to go straight to Italy but I think I'll enjoy a long bike ride through France, Belgium and the Netherlands. I'll be armed with a mad and a compas plus what ever bike I find in Amsterdam... I find my self singing On the road Again every time I embark on a new journey. I've also been keeping patches from each country I visit and putting them on my backpack. Well then 

Ciao 

Till next time.

Highlights of England

     First off id like to apologize for the scarcity of my last few postings. Currently I've been camped out in Oxford, England, i'll explain why later but for the past few days ive been trying to come to terms with where i am and get a grip on my situation. So without further adieu let me begin to recount from London where i left off.

After getting off at the Airport i found my way to a very expensive train ride into the center of London. Arriving ive realized in each new place has always put me in a new country or even a new area puts me off balance. Like im having to learn every thing new for the first time. But strangely enough it has landed me in brief but interesting excursions for the first couple of hours i walked in a big circle of where i had come out of the train station hoping to come to grasp with where i am and where are the interesting places to see are. what I came across was some place called the London Museum. Which i decided to enter simply because it would cost a pretty penny to get inside so i bypassed this and took a look around.

 Here is where i sat down for a while to catch my breath from carrying such a heavy bag. I soon realized the small and steady stream of local people that are always walking about and find this place that im wondering through to be their home so i had to capture the picture. The two people sitting down seemed like two complete strangers at first. the guy had come first with his book and some kind of jug of juice and started reading away, alittle later the girl sitting across from him came to fill up those jugs, in the cart next to the red door, with water from a hose. Then they began to talk like old friends. I almost laughed at how the visual oddity came to be.

 This next set of cycles was taken after looking at the London museum it was sort of an outside expose of difernt artist views of the london bicyclist. Which let me tell you!!! There is a bunch of bikers in this town. I wanted so bad to go into the closest store and buy the nicest bike i could find to join them.

Random, Interesting art just outside the London Museum.

After the first few days of wondering around London i realized that my favorite thing was the TUBE (London's subway system) not only is it extensive throughout all of london. But how clean it is kept, the amount of people that file through. Its such a brilliantly simple system to comprehend that tourists have to try their hardest to get lost.

To begin you start by finding anyone of the many underground symbols for the tube. Enter underground and find your way past the Ticketing system.

Which allows only one person past per ticket. The Tickets are based on a couple of things. One you can buy just a plain one way ticket (expensive!!) which is judged by a zone system on the cost. Basically the less zones you pass through cheaper your ticket will end up being. Because most of the tourist attractions and shopping centers were in zone 1 and 2. I ended up spending a day getting "lost" in London.

Roughly 20 lines to choose from. To top it off each train runs in 5 min intervals or less. When you get off one train there is the easiest directions to the wayout or your next train, which is all color coded. Here are some pictures from one of my many journeys

You can say i was obsessed. Only negative was no Bikes.

Ok well ill add more stories in another post bust for now here are some of the routine photos that i took.

So much smaller than i expected

These guys were my favorite

this guy is in both photos haha...

Buckingham Palace

Hampshire Courts

I should tell people why i decided to come to Hampshire courts and what was so upsetting about the whole place at the same time. I came for the Maze which ended up being so small that i was quite upset and i paid the full admission to get into the whole palace only realy interested in the maze and it ended up that i could have acceced the maze without paying the full price of the whole Court. Which i didnt find to special, besides the fact they kept up the palace quite nicely i felt that there was way to many tourist for my liking. Get this Once i came up on the maze the asked me to pay to get into the maze.... Beyond words. I left. Kinda angry.

I guess i should add the 3 French girls. Which i happened to meet at t he hostel i was staying at in an area called Camden. Kinda like the hipster, long beach shops meet Venice beach sorta outdoor fiasco. Back to the girls which were the nicest , funniest, merry company i had so far. They were in london just to go shopping for two days and were spending their free time sight seeing while they were in town. They were originally from Lyon.

The reason they look so tired was because they had decided to sleep in when one of them had an earlier bus ride back to France that morning. So from the train station we ran for 8 blocks dodging pedestrians and cars.. all while asking for directions to this Victoria coach station. Being the gentleman that i am i offered to carry the huge shopping spree filled suitcase this girl wanted to take back with her. So if you can imagine the sight of 3 french girls being chased by a black american carrying this huge suit case through the streets of London, you too would have given a second look as to what in the world you had just witnessed.

 We spent the rest of the day just the 3 of us walking around looking at the changing of the guards, big ben, and Westminster abbey. Just having a great time.

 Some cool pictures inside this cafe call Pret a Manger, there is also one of these shops on probably every block in London Kinda like our McDonalds.

After our day was done we headed back to the same bus station with similar issues, they thought we had arrived 30 minuets early, when in actuality the bus was already headed out the station. I started laughing so hard as i ran to stop the bus with the two french girls trailing behind me. What an exit!!

The next few days were typical, just killing time. When i was headed through a park i was hit by a colossal rain storm and took shelter in the conveniently located shop.

 I was now in Oxford, England because of a promise with a guy i had met i expected to meet him here but i ended up being left behind. So in light of that i was now in a prestigious college town. So i took in the sights.

 Every thing here is like a castle so humongous. I had no intention of using the hostels in the area for 5 days s owith a little searching i found a nice quite area i could lay down my tent without being noticed.

 Ruth and Tobi enjoying some breakfast while taking in the sites of Oxford. On my search for a breath taking view they said i had found it. I had seen the area in a post card and thought it would be a nice place to enjoy the morning. It turned out that i wasn't the only one.