I'm staying. That's decided. I couldn't have left anyway, so why fighting it...

I think about skipping most of Spain/Portugal, as I already know those, and would like to explore new places. Some dates to consider:

- May 1-4: Bilbao, seeing Aviva
- May 27: Latest date to arrive back in Krk, catching my beloved bikes
- May 28: Vienna for 2-3 weeks

Suggestions? Please!

Together with Emmanuel, I decided to leave the city and go for some nature. A friend told us about this village called Bugarach in the Corbières, the pre-Pyrenees. Some kind of rainbow people where supposed to hang out there, so we wanted to go and see ourselves.

I didn't have a clue what's going to expect me up there, but checking google only made me more curious about going there. Almost as soon as we left the highway, we started to hear those rumours with our proper ears: The end of the world is not going to take place in 2012 - NO - but on April 18th, 2011, the day we arrived. The magical Pic de Bugarach though, is supposed to be inhabiteded by extraterrestials, that would come and save their believers.

It was full moon at that date, that's why people were supposed to be gathering around that place. The closer we got, the more evidence we encountered. Huge colourful hippi busses, people that live in the woods, foreigners having moved here for "the energy of the place". We got excited about what's going to happen tonight. Will the aliens come to catch us? Will we survive the end of the world?

The truth is, we didn't find anything but a lonely frog. Well, not even this, as we only heared it, but didn't manage to catch it. The people living in Bugarach did "not know anything", and "never heard about those things before". Well.

After a rather cold night at the lakeside, we still wanted to try finding out more, and therefore headed to Cubières, where supposedly some people installed a Tipi village. Arriving there, we saw a guy walking along a road with his huge backpack and guitar. That must be a sign! So, Emmanuel started running after him, and it was. Charlie was on his way to the Yurt village, where he was going to wwoof for a while. We joined him, and were nicely welcomed by Louise and Maude. A bunch of people started a kind of permaculture eco-village there, living in Yurts. Very interesting, no aliens though :) They would have been happy to welcome us, but as they didn't make their planning for that many people, their food resources were scarce, and so we were going on....

On to... Carcassonne!!! As I used to play that game extensively for a while some years back, I was really curious to see the place in reality. And it exceeded all expectations. I'm not easily impressed, especially not by so-called "sights", but the Cité de Carcassonne was - I daresay - one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Maybe it was just because I felt like running around in a board game, but it was really cool.

Well, as we didn't have a place for the night yet, and Emmanuel didn't want to squat an abandonned building in the center, I decided to head to Toulouse before the night would fall. No deeper explorations of the walls and towers thus, but still..... I'm so glad I went there!

The hitchhiking race was only the start of a suite of wunderful fun days. In Lyon, staying with Julien, Elsy and Laurent in Casa Bonitawas a good choice. Not being treated like a guest but rather as a member of the house and already knowing the city eventually allowed me to relax a bit, just doing nothing without feeling like I had to acutally do something.

I found out that Mardy, a girl I met at the hitchhikers' gathering in Macedonia last summer, was in Lyon at the time, so I contacted her in order to meet up. She invited me to come over to her place, a squat in Villeurbanne, for a Sunday lunch. What a big surprise when discoverint that Elsy and Julien where going there as well!
So we passed a beautiful afternoon in their courtyard, enjoying delicious thai curry, before hanging out at river banks of the Rhone, playing some amazingly funny games involving various animal sounds.

It was that very day, I decided that I had to stay until at least Thursday, since Julien was organising a Loup-Garou night on Wednesday. The following days go by calmly, hanging out in town or at home, cooking, eating, chatting. One day, we decided to go on a little hitch-daytrip to eventually visit Chatte, one of the places nobody made it to during the hitchhiking race. It turned out to be a really nice tour around some pleasant areas of the departement Isère.

After 5 days in Lyon, I finally made it to Montpellier on Thursday. I am supposed to meet Marie, the girl I was hitchhiking with during the race, but as she was late, I went to see Miguel, who's just living next to her place. He welcomed me with a bottle of wine and some chocolate. Marie joined us later, followed by another bottle of wine and some cheese. What else could you ask for?!

At Marie's place, again, I felt like being her flatmate rather than like a guest. Just like home. Anyway, the main reason for going to Montpellier was a cardboard boat race taking place at a nearby lake. Yes, exactly. Several teams were building boats made of cardboard, (almost) nothing else. It was great fun, and I'm sorry to say that I don't have any pictures of it.

Andrei, the organizer of that event (as well as of the HH race btw), is pretty active in finding new challenges. Therefore, I had the chance to join another great event the following day - a pancake contest. Well, there could be a worse way to start a sunny Sunday than being fed various kinds of pancakes from all over the world (i.e. Breton, German, Maroccain, Canadien, Algerian). And the day continued in the same perfect manner.... There, at Andrei's and Pauline's place, I met Kaja, a German girl travelling with her bike, and she was about to cycle to the beach. Lucky me, her friend had a spare bike, so off we went, to the beach and INTO the mediterranean!

As mentioned before, I decided in Marseille to participate in the
Funny Village Race #2 : Le concours d'autostop d'Evian, a hitchhiking race, more than 600 km across the alps, passing by wonderfully named villages.

About 30 people (15 teams) took part in this crazy but fun adventure. I hitched with Marie, a french girl living in Montpellier. And what else could I say than: We were awesome! First mistaking some directions, as we were basically hitching without a map, and being doubled by some of our most serious competitors, we eventually arrived in Lyon not as the first team, but the one who passed the most, and the most far away villages. As the only team, we reached as far as Puteville and Susville, even finding Montcul. But see yourself:



Unfortunately, we missed out Chatte (Pussy). Going to catch up with this on Wednesday :)

A while has passed since my last post. A lot happened since then. More places, more people, more adventures. Here a short summary of all that...

- One week in Marseille, first summer days, hanging out in T-shirts, learning how to juggle and do it on the streets, earning awesome € 3,22 doing so. Hanging out and doing nothing except listening to minimal piano music with first host Dionysis. Getting drunk and talk about life with his flatmate Antione. Few awesome dinners with second hosts Guillaume and Malina. Decided to participate in a hitchhiking race across the alps together.

- 4 wonderful days with Sylvain and his 6 flatmates, living in a big house with garden in the city of Grenoble. They are kind of a circus. More juggling lessons. More awesome food. Finding 25kg of organic buckwheat in a dumpster and a garbage bag full of fresh bread in front of a boulangerie.

- First indications of exhaustion while spending two days in Annecy. Not doing much there. Improving of glanage skills at the local market. First time saying no to wine & beer.

- Farther up north to Evian, where the funny/crazy hitchhiking race is about to start. Still tired, but not much to do anyway except for looking for a place to buy breakfast at 12:00.

- Added a box for interesting stuff/websites/links/information and whatsoever at the right side. Things I encounter during my trip.

- Arrived in Lyon. Here I am now.