phaenomenal (or an attempt to escape money)

Help Ron spend Christmas with his mum

phaenomenal — 2011-10-19T17:16:00Z

Today, I´m trying to help my friend Ron, who´s been travelling almost without money for the last two years. He´s in Europe right now, wishing to spend this Christmas with his mum back in Guatemala.

Here is his message:

"
So, after being in Europe for more than a year and spending Chirstmases with awesome people I think it's time I spend the Christmas with the woman I love the most: my lovely mum.
I know 700$ is a lot of money (it's about 500€) but the ticket is expensive and I want to buy her a nice present.
You can donate 1€, 2€, 5€, 100€! ok, maybe not a hundred but whatever your budget allows you to. EVERY single euro is VERY welcome!
In return I will send the photos and videos of the reunion.

I hit the moneyless road practically two years ago. I left Guate with 400$. I hitchhiked my way through Centeal America to the States where I worked to earn enough to travel to Europe. There, I completely ran out of money and had to figure how to survive because I came with a one way ticket. Ever since I've been traveling almost without money. Always hitchhiking, CSing, sstaying in strangers houses, everywhere night caught me. If you want the detailed story, you can check out my blog: http://nomadicforever.blogspot.com/"

If you want to contribute, just click below!

¡Chévere!

phaenomenal — 2011-10-11T04:27:00Z

...

Greeeeeen and culinary SANTANDER!

phaenomenal — 2011-10-03T22:41:00Z

Wide-eyed through winding streets on the back of a motorcycle... I don't think I've ever seen that much green. The beauty of this place is beyond words.

Yesterday, I visited the pittoresque colonial town of Barichara. On today's agenda: la cascada Juan Curi, an amazing waterfall.

Apart from that, I got to taste quite a few new things, especially some exotic fruits:

hormigas culonas - big ass ants, a Santander specialty

panela con limón - kind of a lemonade made of panela

guarapo - an alcoholic drink made of panela

mango biche - green mango with lemon (I skipped the salt)

chirimoya - another fruit

jugo de lulos - juice made of another fruit

hojaldre con bocadillo - a pastry filled with something made of guayaba

yuca - a potatoe-like root, also known as manioc or cassava

San Gil

phaenomenal — 2011-10-01T15:10:00Z

After a nine hours overnight ride, leaving the indeed notoriously chaotic, disgusting bus terminal of Cúcuta behind me, I find myself in a completely different world. The town of San Gil is known as the extreme sport capital of Colombia, but for my part, I'm just lying here in a hammock, a couple of kilometers outside the center, looking at the lush green hills around, listening to the nearby river and the birds in the trees, smelling a thunderstorm approaching. It's a little paradise here, at Andres' place. He moved here from Bogotá four years ago, and lives now in his simple finca together with Gala and Chiara, his dogs.

My weekend couldn't have started any better. At 5:30 in the morning, Andres picked me up at the bus terminal, taking me to his beautiful place on his motorbike. After an early morning coffee and some Colombian cake/cookies for breakfast we set off again to the town market, where he introduced me to the San Gil specialty of Batido kind of a very sweet and eggy milkshake followed by fruit salad Colombian style with condensed milk and topped with grated cheese.

After that breakfast, we went on our tour around the market, where I felt like an alien just another time, surrounded by fruits and vegetables I've never seen before. I want to try them all!!! But for now, apart from well known pasta ingredients, we just get some Lulus, which interestingly look like what I know as Khakis. We'll see (& taste)!!

Cúcuta

phaenomenal — 2011-09-30T15:02:00Z

Cúcuta is a hot, muggy, filthy, crime-ridden city. The only reason coming here is to cross the border to or from Venezuela. If you must stay overnight consider staying in nearby Pamplona instead.

I indeed only went there to cross the border to Venezuela. Four times to be precise, in order to get my working visa, because my university was unable to send the documents soon enough to get it done back home. Therefore, I also had to stay overnight. Altogether three days I spent in that wonderfully described place.

Well, the city itself wasn't by far as bad as it sounded, and as my flatmates made me believe. In fact, there were some pretty nice corners, the streets are full of life, and the people I met were extremely friendly and helpful. I got picked up from the airport, was taken out to a vegetarian restaurant. I stayed with Cecilia and her husband I forgot the name of, the parents of Martín, director of Antonio Narino's seat in Cúcuta. In the house, there was also Jessica, their niece from Venezuela, Manuel, Martíns son, Carolina, the navela, and a very talkative parrot called Roberto. All of them took perfectly care of me, gave me a place to sleep, fed me, took me whereever I wanted.

That was the good side. The other side was harder to bear. First of all, the unbelievable heat, that even at night doesn't drop below 35°C. No way doing anything else then suffering all they (and night) long. Some streets are really more than busy, rather loud and hectic at times. Together with the heat so comes the continuous noise of honking cars.

Simón Bolívar is ubiquitous. Everything is bolívariano. The bakeries, the universities, the markets, streets, restaurants, sights, museums.... and we are not even in Venezuela, the self proclaimed country of great progress yet.

And then, the seemingly neverending story of getting my visa done. A history of bureaucracy, of people's goodwill, of power and of money.

To give some examples...

I had to enter und exit Venezuela a total of four times. In theory, every time you do so, you have to get an exit stamp from Colombia, an entry stamp in Venezuela, and vice versa on the way back. But don't think leaving the Bolivarian Republic is for free....

One time, Mister Complicado Consulado the nickname Martín gave him asked for an additional stamp on my contract issued by a notary and of course, paid. The next time I went there, he didn't even look at it at all.

Then, he wanted the University to cynicly said certify that I know German. Therefore a paper had to be written back in Bogotá, signed by the national director, and sent there. A pity there was one word too much on that paper, so sitting in the consulate for the third time, I was supposed to get a new one.

On the last day, we were altogether four people going to Venezuela, trying to make me stay and work legally in Colombia. The consul himself, deeply questioning me how I want to know I really want to stay there for a year, was just the icing on the cake....

A new chapter starts

phaenomenal — 2011-09-23T14:23:00Z

One year in Colombia!

Should I stay or should I go now?!

phaenomenal — 2011-05-10T16:21:00Z

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

Where should I go next?

phaenomenal — 2011-04-22T09:03:00Z

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!

Hippies, aliens, and a fantastic game city

phaenomenal — 2011-04-21T10:21:00Z

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!

Sunny times, hilarious moments

phaenomenal — 2011-04-20T12:36:00Z

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!

From the ass through their holes, bitchtown, and sucktown to my ass and finally Lyon

phaenomenal — 2011-04-10T21:54:00Z

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 :)

Retracing my steps

phaenomenal — 2011-04-10T21:27:00Z

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.

Upcoming?

phaenomenal — 2011-04-07T15:13:00Z

I was thinking about what to do next. After France. The following idea came to my mind:

Once around the Iberian peninsula...

Somewhere over the rainbow

phaenomenal — 2011-03-30T21:48:00Z

This song has become the soundtrack of my trip. It seems to follow me whereever I go. The last time, it turned up in the following:

Cirque de Marseille

phaenomenal — 2011-03-29T21:48:00Z

this story is not complete.... this story is just a fraction....

My host Dionysis has just the right name for what happened the night I arrived in Marseille.

I got company.

We might get arrested for what we are going to do tomorrow.

I have a tight schedule for the last few days:
- juggling lessons
- ukulele lessons
- hiking up to Notre dame de la garde and up and down the Calanques (awesome btw)

And a lot of other things to do like hunting for a Kazoo.

We are going to be a juggling gypsy band. At the moment we are rather a ridiculous freak show with a broken guitar.

We are going to participate in a crazy hitch-hiking race across the alps.

We are going to Grenoble, Annecy and Evian-les-bains.

this story is not complete.... this story is just a fraction....