Short home visit..

So I went home. I left behind eigth months of fantastic adventure, an introduction to my new free life, and was about to face my old life again. I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for it. To be honest, the only reason I was going home was to see my family and friends, which I preferably would have met some place else in the world. It was really though on me, I spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortable and even crying by the thought of going home.. I wonder why it was so though on me. I guess I realize I should have ventured on this journey way earlier, if not in real live, then in my mind. I realize I didn’t question the ethics of my previous decisions enough and didn’t realize how easy it is to change life paths, both physical (the rest of the world is just around the corner!) and mentally. I realize my old life wasn’t satisfying enough. In terms of doing the right thing, in taking care of the earth, of other people and of myself. Even though at the time I thought it did and I did what I could with the knowledge I had. No regrets. But going back is not an option. I learned so much about the world and myself that I would do things completely different from now on. I guess I’m scared to be sucked into old habits, feel the pressure of expectations of old friends and acquaintances, the pressure tob e sucked back into an established lifestyle I dont want anymore, feel the pressure of consumerism and egocentrism of the western world, don’t know how to handle the overwhelming amount of impulses from an overcrowded part of Holland with lack of nature to quietly retreat to.

But it was time. Time to face my fears and learn from them. Fear of not being able to connect to my friends anymore, not being able to describe what I experienced and how it changed me and my views, fear of not belonging anymore, feeling the ground under my feet on which I always stood so firm slowly crumble away untill I’m floating in thin air. I was scared, and it was painful in some ways but at the same time I enjoyed it too, because it gave me more incentive to go and find out what it is I DO want in life.

It started when I got on the airplane and this way-too-fancy pretty boy (the stewart) spent almost all the flight trying to sell us horrible things like scratch cards (weren’t you always dreaming of that beautiful new car?), expensive perfumes (yak) and unhealthy snacks full of sugar, chemicals and preservatives (can’t really call it food). We landed in a grey and rainy ugly Eindhoven where I luckily was welcomed by my beautiful friend Anne 😀 I was very happy to see her again after I last saw her when we were cycling through Bosnia together. She is awesome and we enjoyed long walks, some climbing

and lots of catching up 🙂 She’s on a very different life path (just bought a house with her boyfriend and discussing whether to chop down the tree in the garden and have a bird folliere), but is always very open to others views and opinions and it felt like a safe environment to start my return, a little breath of air. I spent the night, like I had done so many times in the past, before we parted and I was about to go home, to finally see my dad again, who I have missed so incredibly much.

I was excited, but scared and sad at the same time. So very happy to be able to spend real time with him again and at the same time painful for realizing I couldn’t stay. I was scared not to be able to leave him again once I would see him in real life. He means so much to me. While I am living a life now I can never really make him part of, I intensly hold on to the strong mental connection we have and send him all the love I can send him. I am on the verge of giving up my whole journey just to be around him and it hurts me that my path is not in more physical proximity to him.

It was time for hugs!! Many many hugs had to be given!! I jumped in the car (I dont like these boxes) and drove through heavy rain on busy Dutch highways (so sad) northly. First stop: daddy! I had been quite vague to most people about when exactly I would arrive back home, beacuse I wanted to spend time with my dad first, before everybody would come knocking on my door. The first day together we went for a walk in the dunes where all of a sudden I heared someone screaming my name! Damn! It was Janneke 😀 She was running there and recognized my bright pink hat. I love her so much and was so happy to see her there! That morning me and my dad were discussing where to go for a walk and initially thought of another round but changed our minds last minute.. was it a meant to be?

That day crazy things kept happening. I had told my friend Erwin who doesn’t live too close to Haarlem I would be there that day so we could meet and when I picked him up at a cafe to have a drink with Janneke as well, there was my friend Mariska sitting right there in the cafe, busted! :p (later I visited her at home :)). That night my tango orchestra was playing a quite exciting concert (accompanied by dancers!) and I arranged with my good friend Floor that I could at least join for the repetition to play my saxophone again. I ended up playing the concert though, sweet!

It was so nice to join them again and play these beautiful songs I strangely enough still remembered pretty well. After the concert I caught up with some friends who came to watch us play (including Maarten) and hurried up to the next party. My friend Rosaly (awesome chick!) was celebrating a goodbye party because she was about to travel to the Phillipines for half a year to join a fantastic project on marine rehabilitation. She didn’t expect me to be there and my welcome was hilarious. I was very excited and a bit scared to walk in the room, Eva acted like she saw a ghost and there was lots of disbelieve, hugging and crying and smiling and jumping and and and.. aaaahhhhhhh . Writing about this two months later the tears still fill up my eyes and the excitement still raises my heartbeat. It was so good to see them again 😀 I love these girls so much. Rosaly, Janneke, Eva and me know each other from girlscouts. We are all very different but so close. That will never change. Even though I changed. Turned out i didn’t need to be scared of that.

The next weeks were packed. I arrived home in a world where little had changed, even though I felt I changed so much.. hoping to become more like this girl one day :p

Just kidding, but she’s beautiful…

After the initial trying to explain and tell about my experiences I soon stopped trying and just enjoyed the love of my family and friends, which had not changed. Even though I felt like living in another world, the love was still there and I just sat and smiled. I am no evangelist, I have no desire to convince anybody and don’t judge anybody who chooses to live differently , I am on a journey for me, only me, to support my own decisions. And I am very grateful to have the opportunity to experience this. Whoever is interested is welcome to ask and I will be very happy to have deep long discussions (preferably outside and under the stars :)). But if not, that’s fine as well. I enjoyed the warm company of these beautiful people and realized once again how lucky I am to know them.

At the same time I was a bit sad though when I couldn’t find anyone willing to join me on a wild food foraging trip, planting trees in the first dutch edible forest, visit this ecovillage or visit Haarlem’s first permaculture garden. Only my dad seemed to be slightly interested to join me so I dragged him along to visit some people who are starting up permaculture gardens. My dad and I tried to find time to go out walking as much as we could while discussing everything I learned and experienced and I was so so happy to have these long deep talks with him again, like we always used to. We walked on the beach, we visited some exhibition about the future of food (apparantly cheese is very very bad for the planet, damn!),

cooked together,

listened to classical music in silence and dark, went to a beautiful concert in ’t Mosterzaadje where I once as a little girl performed on the piano, basically I just tried to be around him as much as I could. We also went for a walk on the beach, where some stranger saw us and thought it was worth taking a picture of, what a great man!

Not enough though. I (mis)used the time in Holland to work at the cheese shop to make some money. During Sinterklaas-time, yeay 🙂

Making lots of Christmas presents..

Together with seeing some of my best friends time passed way too quick.

I was very lucky that my good friend Michael was in Holland at the time (he had just moved to India),

I enjoyed spending a weekend over at Erwin and Carla’s, and we enjoye another day at the beach,

I got to play another show with my tango orchestra

and I payed a visit to my former colleagues from the police. I went back south to visit Anne again, and this time my beautiful Belgian friend Ricardo came up to join us as well 🙂 And we enjoyed some Duvel beers like we used too 😀

At the vegan cafe I took them they had this great concept where you could pay for a coffee for someone else to take who doesn’t have enough money.

Ricardo bought some ❤ I know this system from the states where homeless people are helped out this way. Fantastic! Not sure it works here though, stacked in the back of an expensive vegan restaurant, but still. Good job Ricardo, you’re a hero!

I enjoyed seeing my brother and sister, even though I felt there was way too little time to really show them I love them. It was great to take my brother to the climbing gym and hope we can do that again on some real stuff outdoors one day. On our birthday we just had a nice quiet family dinner, perfect to me 🙂

I played around with the idea that I might spend more time in Holland next time I visit and how I would use this time to get involved with some of the refugee programs, I would volunteer at the permaculture garden in Purmerend working with mentally disabled (beautiful project!), engage in dumpster diving (big supermarkets throw out so much good food), cook nutritious food for the homeless, help out at the community gardens etc. Many opportunities and ideas to make my life fulfilling and giving.

I read some beautiful quotes lately, which are very inspiring and a good guideline to find my way:

‘You have a magnificent contribution to make to the more beautiful world your heart knows is possible. It may not make you famous, but you have an important gift, an indispensable gift, and it demands you to apply it to something you care about. Unless you do, you will feel like you aren’t really living your life. You will live the life someone pays you to live, caring about things you are paid to care about. You can make a different choice. […]

The most reliable guide to choice is to follow whatever makes you feel happy and excited to get out of bed in the morning. Life is not supposed to be a grim slog of discipline and sacrifice. You practiced for such a life in school, tearing yourself out of bed for days of tedium, bribed with trivial rewards called grades, intimidated by artificial consequences, proceeding through a curriculum designed by faraway authorities, asking permission to use the toilet. It is time to undo those habits. Let your compass instead be joy, love, and whatever makes you feel alive. […]

At a certain moment it will become necessary for you to go on a journey. It isn’t to escape forever. It is to find yourself outside of whomever your conditioning trained you to be. You must put yourself in a situation where you don’t know who you are anymore. This is called an initiation. Who you were becomes inoperative; then, who you will be can emerge. […] On this path, you are sure to get lost. You’ll despair of finding the answer – and then the answer will find you. Breakdown clears the space for synchronicity, for help unimagined and unearned. None of this advice can be sustainably implemented by a heroic effort on your part. You need help. Seek out other people who reinforce your perception that a more beautiful world is possible, and that life’s first priority is not security, but rather to give of your gifts, to play, to love and be loved, to learn, to explore.’

(http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/a-letter-to-my-younger-self/)

Im slowly getting closer to breakdown, to feeling completely lost and gave up on trying to find an answer. I’ll ride this wave of life and see where the wind blows me, while I always keep questioning myself. And I love, and I laugh, and I enjoy, and I learn and I explore and I love some more, trying to give where I can.

Being back home just hit me in the face with a sort of reality check, social and economic pressure, fast pace and consumerism. It was hard to balance out with my newfound tranquility. Somehow it is much easier to deal with these live questions when you are on the road, experiencing much more freedom (even though I should learn to feel the freedom anywhere anytime, it is in your mind..). There was no time to crystalize all these thoughts out though, the three weeks were over before I knew it and I didn’t even had had the time to see everyone I wanted to see. But my ticket was booked and I was on my way to Australia, off to new adventures!

It took me a couple interesting days to get to the land down under. First I flew to Istanbul (unexpectedly ended up in first class, woohoo)

I picked up my bicycle, my guitar and my stuff

and was very lucky that my friends Katie and Mehmet were back in Istanbul at the time!

Katie met me at the Greenpeace wearhouse, where I had stored everything thanks to my host Ozay, and we spend the day together: cooking, drinks, strolling around, it was fantastic! She was still vilting and made these fantastic earmuffs,

aren’t they great?! Haha so funny. Katie and me have a strong sisterconnection established through some funny crazy adventures and I am sure we will meet again. I am very grateful for this reconnection in Istanbul, it was perfect 🙂

 

I went to the airport late that night, still unsure if I would pull it off to bring my bicycle and my guitar on the plane, but it worked out! I wrapped the bicycle in plastic

and just carried the guitar on. Apparently it was allowed.. On the long flight I watched a couple of great documentaries (including Back to Eden) and read the classic One Straw Revolution. I had two stopovers in China, where the longest (10 hours) was in Ghuangzhou. Wasn’t I lucky!! Yoohoo 😀 I had been in Ghuanzhou the same time three years ago and visited my friend Thomas, who still lives there, yeay! It was perfect: he was free for work (jazz musician) and picked me up from the airport to go out all night.

It was so nice to see him again, see his new appartment, meet ‘Poes’ (the cat I keep reading about in his e-mails), go see some bands, drink some beers, enjoy the midnight street barbecues like we used to and be happy together :p Thomas arranged me a taxi to the airport and I was on my way again, to have the next reunion. With Chris. In Sydney… ‘Hey mate!’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Back to Italy for a month

After feeling uncomfortable with my choice of using an airplane to travel (very unethical), but very grateful i have the opportunity to do it anyways, I landed at Bologna airport and found my way to Enrico’s house.

Enrico I had met on the bus after leaving the Guca festival in Serbia and making my way to Tessaloniki to meet Mario. We spent a crazy night together in Skopje, Macedonia. Bologna captured my interest through all the great stories people had told me about it and I was interested to see some of the projects Enrico was working on, concerning music and migrants. And wow, Bologna is one hell of a city! Without a doubt the most interesting Italian city I visited and the only one I would consider living in for a while. First of all, it is beautiful!

The architecture is stunning, the colours – all orange and red – give the city a comforting warm vibe and with lots students, young people and migrants it is a beautiful colourfull mix of cultures, social projects, warmth, sharing, open-mindedness.

The streets are alive and packed with interesting street art.

The city is full of free projects and events, based on sharing, caring and integrating.

Enrico lives with a Spanish violinist, a Palestinian musician and his shining sister Betta. One night we made a delicious palestinian meal, yummie!

I had the pleasure to live with these beautiful people a couple of days and many things happened! Betta took me to make sandwiches and hand them out to the homeless, dancing in the street 😉

I enjoyed two nights of Arte Migrante, where a great group of migrants shared food and played music

I just love this cultural diversity which gives life so much colour 😀 The atmosphere was beautiful, many people felt free and safe enough to share their music, theatre, poetry with the group.

I was even convinced to sing a song on stage, damn, who could have expected I would ever do that?! They asked me because I had been singing in the house and in the streets all the time. Also, I had been playing Enrico’s guitar in the park,

where I ran into this beautiful lady from Senegal, making these hair decorations, so I decided to get one in the colours of Bologna, a nice reminder of a beautiful inspiring city, which makes me realize the more what makes my heart beat: the beauty of people taking care of each other, especially through food and music.

I shared a lunch at the social centre

and joined Betta to her African dance class.

So much positive energy! A bunch of girls going crazy to the live beat produced by a couple of beautiful very talented men. It’s not so easy and therefore hilarious (the laughing at my own dancing didnt help), I sure need a couple more lessons, but I had a great time 😀

I attended a couple different yoga classes, trying out the different styles possible. One time I ended up in this fancy class with middle-aged women wearing lots of make-up and tight Nike-wear, paying this horrible yoga teacher for private lessons. Of course I am grateful they let me join (with very inappropriate clothing, I carry a very limited wardrobe haha) but decided this was not for me. Another lesson was full of elderly women spending almost all 1,5 hours on just breathing while sun solutations seemed to be too difficult for most. A third lesson was sivananda yoga, which made me very happy! This yoga includes a lot of balancing postures and headstands, which makes it a bit acrobatic. I loved it! My new favourite form of yoga. Together with acro yoga, which I first learned about in Bulgaria, practiced a little bit with Chris in Istanbul and am looking forward to pursue more. Lots of fun!

I also fell in love with Italian sunday lunches ❤ Apparently it’s a big deal and people take a lot of time to prepare and enjoy them together. I had the pleasure to move to the countryside and share the lunch with Enrico’s family: his parents, sister, aunt, two grandma’s, Paul (a fantastic friend of Betta I would meet a couple more times) and Travis.

Enrico was travelling with Travis when I met him in Serbia and it was great to see him again. He was very excited to show me his garden, his homegrown kiwano

and he sang us a song he had written. Also Betta played some music on her ukelele and we spent some time in the sun, playing around, doing some headstands and flips, massaging each other, taking a walk around the countryside and visiting the very traditional little town. Isn’t life beautiful 🙂 The food was amazing, of course I would say, we’re in Italy! Betta and her aunt and mother had spent the previous day preparing home made tortelinnis (so today i was not vegetarian) which was just the starter of a couple hours during fantastic lunch, followed by sweets and some small liqour. Everything was there. I never experienced these grandscale family gatherings and whenever I get invited to one I get very emotional. I realize all families have their problems, but I always find it so beautiful to see the members taking time to spend together in such beautiful ways. Great customs, don’t lose them! I have written it before but I realize more and more the importance of family and I feel so sorry I left them behind… I keep struggeling to find a balance between finding my own happiness and being with/spending precious time with/taking care of my family. How the hell do I combine these two? I spend a lot of time and tears contemplating about this question.. anyways, it’s an ongoing quest of finding balance in (one aspect of) life, which is not to to be resolved but to be questioned again and again..

The next weekend I left Bologna to reunite with Mario in Venice, maybe the most beautiful city humankind has ever built.

I just love strawling around her streets, especially at night, so romantic &lt. It was strange to see Mario again after such a long time, and to find out my love for him had not changed one single bit. Some people just bring a huge smile to your face and warm vibrations through your body the moment you see them and even more the moment you get to hug them again! Oke, actually many people have this effect on me 😉 But some are special (‘special’ preferably pronounced in a retarded way :p) and really touch some deeper level inside of me.

After reuniting and getting used to each other again, making sure it was real and not just a dream, the next day I had the pleasure of making fun of a very embarrased Mario. I was invited to watch him play the lute, dressed as a monk at this medeival manifestation in the small town of Arcole.

I thought it was a lot of fun but Mario was incredibly embarrased which made it ever more funny. I supported him by dressing up like a monk too, (unfortunately there were no beautiful damsel dresses anymore :/).

There were a lot of young guys from the fencing school very enthousiastic about these kind of events, volunteering their free time to dress up and play. They thought me some basics about fencing, which was fun!

The boss walked around like a boss, polishing his gun and shooting it in the air now and then. Every one of them was a real character, I enjoyed it a lot 😀 The only thing that really got me down was this horrible falconers who showed their birds by having them sit on pestals with chains around their paws preventing them to fly away, even though they kept trying.

It was so sad to see, I felt ashamed of my name and considered using the swords to free them. It was disgusting to watch and even more disgusting to talk tothem and hear their stupid justifications for keeping the birds captured (‘we didnt take them from free life, they were born in captivity’; ‘everybody needs a job, this is ours’; ‘we fly them twice a week; one hour!’ etc.); made me angry and nausious. I was about to chop the heads of the visitors laughing at the birds trying to fly away, only to be pulled back by their chains. I never understood what is the pleasure of watching animals in captivity.

Back in Venice Mario was in class during the days and we spent lunches and evenings together. We discovered this fantastic Indian restaurant and a little place ran by migrants, resulting in beautiful dishes from around the world, delicious! We also spent some time cooking together, which for me is one of the most beautiful things you can share, especially when someone is as enthousiastic as Mario 😀

I enjoy cooking so much, I more and more think it could be my livelihood.. Just not in these highclass restaurants anymore, but cooking to share, with or for locals, the poor, the homeless, migrants.. Providing them nutricious meals cooked with love and attention. I solely buy organic and do lots of research about nutrition and healthy and natural ways of living. Trying to ban chemicals from my live and going back to natural ways of living. It is beautiful, it gives me so much pleasure and Id love to share this knowledge and experiences! And Mario was a great partner in crime 😀
He teaches me many things to, like how to be a real person, how to follow your own heart, how not to spend your precious time and energy on things and people that bring you down. We are both on the other side of the scale and we respect and learn from each other and grow more and more close. Very inspiring and heart warming!

During my days i visited Burano island, where all the houses have different pastel colours making it the most beautiful and cheerful island to visit, especially out of tourist season and fantastic in the mist, wow.

I visited this beautiful palace which housed an exhibition from artists from around the world.

The palace was stunning by itself but one artist really captured my attention. Sebastiao Salgado travelled the world to photograph untouched nature (and some tribes) and collected the images in this incredible book called Genesis, I would highly recommend!

I spent hours looking at the pictures of all the greatness our mother nature provides us, damn, she is one hell of a lady, you go girl!

While in Italy, I had the chance to meet up with more friends from Italy, it was incredible how the universe worked together to make it possible to see every one of them during these days. So I travelled to Forli! (I used Blablacar for the first time, great concept!)
I had the pleasure of spending the two weeks of permaculture design course in Bulgaria with Roberto and Valentina, who lightened up my days by lots of love, smiles, hugs, singing, guitar playing and helping me in the kitchen. They are the ones that had transported my bike to Istanbul and they inspired me with their projects like teaching beekeeping to refugees and permaculture to children. I helped them paint the walls of their new room in a beautiful house in the countryside, where they would live together with three other families, sharing the house and the garden, growing their own food, keeping bees,
and playing music. Sounds like heaven to me! A fantastic kakifruit tree was giving us great fruit 🙂

And their honey was delicious!

Even though being together like forever and married since a couple years they still prefer to live together with other people and share the beauties of life. Again, very inspiring. I guess I understand, I love sharing all the joys and privileges given to me, I love taking care of people, and enjoy having people around.

On top of that Roberto took me to a folkdancing class, joy!

Apparently, folkdancing has become very popular under Italian youngsters. They guerilla dance the squares untill early in the mornings. I couldn’t imagine any of my friends from home wanting to join me and enjoyed the opportunity, the warmth and all the people very willing to learn me the steps, whispering ‘mazurka, mazurka’ in my ear as we went along. I wont be taking it up seriously, but enjoyed the experience a lot. Be careful when you try this at home, it might make you a bit rebelious!

The next day Roberto and me drove up to a beautiful place with natural hot springs, after exploring some stunning villages in Toscany. I finally understand why the region is so popular! After dropping Valentina at her ayahuasca ceremony and sharing a delicious pizza at the famous square in Sienna we arrived late at night at the hot springs. We had to walk through a dark forest to arrive at the unbelievable warm natural water pools. With only a very small light we hang in the tree, we got into the water in the otherwise empty forest around us and enjoyed the surroundings till four in the morning, so relaxing 😀

We spent another full day in the beautiful hot springs, where we met other visitors, Roberto played and we sang a lot and were invited to share a barbecue with two Albanian girls and their Italian husbands and kids. We couldn’t eat much though because we were going to have dinner at Roberto’s friend Valentina in Florence. The next day I had the pleasure to be part of another Italian sunday lunch which took hours again :).

This time almost all vegan and delicious and including capoeira singing and dancing, before we all headed to a beautiful little organic market in town.

I was lucky to be invited to stay at Valentinas place and explore Florence for a bit. I spent two days walking, walking, walking and some more walking, exploring the city.

Beautiful, yes, especially according to this beautiful couple

but mostly to me another big city full of expensive brands and stores selling things we really dont need for way too much money, meanwhile trying lure in tourists. I ran into a poweryogaclass (which I wont do again). At night there are some nice neighbourhoods with live music in the cute cafes.

The museums of Florence are fantastic and I’ll have to come back to see some more of them. At the time David was mourning the french attacks

The botanical garden was unfortunately closed,

but things like the hospital

and the library

were also a real treat to visit. At some corner I ran into a huge line of people waiting for a very small counter selling fresh focaccias,

which turned out to offer me the best focaccia I ever tasted! So so tasty and delicious 🙂 I enjoyed it while listening to one of many street musicians. Also other artists flourished the streets 🙂

There was only one street i avoided…

I liked this street better 🙂 via del sole for sure!

Florence has a high reputation, but I figured out I’m just not a citygirl anymore. I was very happy when my friend Fabio, who I had met in Sarajevo, suggested to go hiking the Via degli Dei (Walk of the Gods) from Florence to Bologna together.

It’s a 2200 year old roman pathway through the hills and forest of Tuscany back into Emiglia-Romania.

We met at this nice little library cafe, where I was listening to a live Brazilian band and I couldn’t beleive my eyes to actually see him again! Such a beautiful person 😀

we shared such a special time together in Sarajevo and that night we spent some time reliving our memories.

The next day it was time to start another adventure together! We started walking the otherwise empty path through very misty forests, which had layed us a beautiful red carpet of fall leaves, making us feel like real VIP’s!

I was so happy to be back in nature again that I started singing ‘ I’m in heaven, I’m in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak, but I seem to find the happiness I seek, when we’re out together dancing cheek to cheek’ and so we did, we danced cheek to cheek in this stunning surroundings, supported by this beautiful old couple we found enjoying the forest and each other as well. Not being distracted by all these impulses, lights and noises from the city we had very deep conversations where we listened to each other, not just hearing the words, where we saw each other, not just looking, where we felt each others emotions, thoughts and intentions. It was so real, so warm. We recited each other poems and shared the enthousiasm of the beauties of mother nature, feeling timeless and very connected to everything and everyone right there, right then.
We enjoyed the kakis we picked from a tree that had been saving them for us, thank you!

We experienced that where you can walk through the big city all day alone, never having any contact, we made friends easily with the few people we stumbled across in the forests.

Allessandro was walking near this monastery

when we met him and without any doubt took our offer to come walking with us the next day, isn’t that great!

With darkness falling and us not bringing a tent or sleeping bags, Fabio and me had to find a place to spend the night. We started spreading the word that we were looking for a place, but did not get a spontaneous invitation. We were sent to the only hotel in town which asked 70 euros per person, no chance in hell! We tried some churches but the pastors were not around to decide on the issue. Then Fabio had the fantastic idea to walk into the Casa di Popolo (house of the people) where a lot of youngsters were hanging around. We spent some time in the bar, talking to the guys and pretty soon someone lend us his tent, we were offered to use the coushins from the couch to sleep on after closing time and another guy called his mum to bring us blankets.

The owners of the bar were a young couple offering us drinks, dinner and midnight chili/garlic pasta (as tradition)!

I played chess and we had such a nice night with these guys, very happy to be meeting them there in this very small village with nothing else going on there. Strangely enough most of the people we talked to on our way never heared of the Via delli Degli and we didn’t find any others to join our quest. We spread the word though, the word of this incredibly beautiful path which made us so so happy.

We concluded how great a feeling it is to be no one in the middle of nowhere, which is actually the middle of everything. So much more rich than the nothingness of the busy cities. We enjoyed the power of mother nature which changed her moods several times a day. The path was guided by red and white marks, which were sometimes a bit unclear

and had gotten us on a detour on the moon before. This time we weren’t sure where to go and while trying to figure this out from the field covered in mist appeared these hunters just emptying their guns while walking towards us, yayks, scary! In my mind I waved a white flag but the dogs were already with us.. It was like in a movie. Fabio, it was very nice knowing you.

The hunters turned out to be very friendly and showed us the path.

All day we hardly met anybody and these guys came out of the mist exactly when we needed them. How can I not beleive in the universe when these things happen to me so many times?! The more I let go, the more I see the signs of the universe taking care of me. Once I stop taking control of my life, I feel there is some other force doing just that, with suede gloves and warm intentions. Im learning to really see, my eyes and all my other senses are opening up and I feel the luckiest girl alive and cannot thank the world enough tob welcomed to it. My very rationalistic and sceptical mind has been forced to soften up and my whole being is softening up with it. My friends make fun of me for becoming a hippie and I laugh. I laugh, I laugh and laugh and smile to the world, for it is beautiful!

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The next day Allessandro ran us over the mountains,

so we completed our track of that day by 1.30 already. We took our time, did some sightseeing around and started looking for a place to spend the night. First we considered an old abandoned van (like the magic bus!), then I found the keys of one of the chalets at a closed-down campsite, but Allessandro did not agree so we hitchhiked to a campsite that was open. The most adorable old woman showed us the dormitory with bunkbeds and smilingly served us a warm and romantic dinner near the fireplace (who knew dinner could be so romantic at a campsite?!).

I told the guys it would be my first night in 9 months paying for sleeping (I forgot the one hostel with Anne in Split), but I didn’t care, as long as Allessandro was happy with the place, it was good. Somehow -the universe again-, we realized the next day on the road that the lady had forgotten to charge us for the sleeping and we had only paid for the food. Next time I meet her, I will pay double! When we woke up Allessandro had already left and Fabio and me were on our own again. The pace dropped down drastically, since we were to distracted with all the beauty around us all the time 🙂 That afternoon it was Ray Charles guiding us with singing lines like ‘even lazy jellyfish do it – let’s fall in love’ (Fabio’s favourite). After days in the mist, the sun suddenly came out, just when we passed the Via del Solle 😀 and just before finally meeting with our dear friend Venus, showing us her beautiful colours.

She was covered with an orange and red carpet, and when we reached her the sun was setting and leaving an orange, bright pink gloom in the air, before the stars would come out to shine on us (Ella Fitzgerald: ‘stars shining bright above you – night breezes seem to whisper I love you – birds singing in the sicamore trees..’).

That night I arranged a couchsufring adress in the town of Sasso ‘Ugly’ Marconi, wow that town is horrible. We walked more than we expected and hitchhiked the last part to make it there exhausted and all. Our host was not supposed tob e back before 22.00 so we tried to find a nice place to have a little dinner. It didn’t exist. But the pizza was nice! 😀 We ran into a bar where there seemed to be the only party of the year and the people were very nice and inviting. Even the major was there offering us more pizza and welcoming us to his ugly town. After some nice chats we finally walked towards our hosts place, while playing the harmonica in the streets. On the way I realized I had made a mistake and asked this guy to host us the next week, oopsie! Again, I think the universe helped us out though, because we decided to take our chances and walk over to his place anyways, where a man opened the door and tol dus he never heared of our hosts name. It was a false adress! Telling him this on the couchsurfing chat he never responded to the fact that the adress was wrong but told us he would be home now and we were still welcome to come over, very very strange. I contacted Enrico in Bologna, who luckily had place for us to stay that night. We hitchhiked our way there and were very soon picked up by Boudistic Mario who had seen us on the road when driving home and had turned his cart o bring us in the opposite direction of where he was going.

Everytime i am still flabbergasted (I love that word :p) about all the kindness people have in them! It turned out to be an extremely long day when well after midnight we made it to Enrico’s. 90 km walking in three days, we did it and it was great!

The next day we strolled around town and spent a considerable amount of time watching a guy on a plaza trimming down a christmas tree. He was doing this all day and the tree kept getting smaller and smaller. Regularly he would come down his ladder to smoke a cigarette, walk around the tree and decide it wasnt small enough yet. Passers-by stopped and looked at the man, leaving the plaza again with questionmarks still daggling above their heads. We looked at the man, at the passers-by and enjoyed the show, wondering whether it was real or part of some artistic idea. We finally left the square with questionmarks still above our head. So enjoyable 🙂

We ran into Paul, who I had met earlier at Enrico’s family sunday lunch. Paul is beautiful. Fabio is beautiful and togehter we experienced a beautiful day. Paul took us to the library where we snatched a table to have a small lunch, which resulted in a lot of rumour since the librarian didnt agree with us eating there, while the other people around didnt care and we tried to change the atmosphere by smiling and offering food, it was fun :). We transferred to a nice little vegan shop where we ended up reciting each other more poems from the heart, drawing and writing each others notebooks and ‘shaping the world the way we want it to be’ (quote Fabio, recited by Paul). I was happy to see Paul again and he was happy to see me, so he could give me a print of the pictures he took when we were at Enrico’s family. I was so touched! He’s a great photographer and inspiring soul. We met again that night after I said goodbye to Fabio, who had to follow his own path again. Enrico had invited us to a beautiful courtyard garden where the African community had cooked and offered their delicious food and drinks, before the African music and dancing started. I just love love love immigrants, for they bring so much richness to the world. Lets all spread and welcome each other!

Meanwhile I had contacted Nick, who I stayed with in Como many months before. We had such a great connection that we had kept in touch and Nick had told me so many times to go to Bologna. Now I was finally there (and he was right, I love this place!) and he managed to meet me there too!

We spent another great night with him, his brother and some friends, happy we could make it work to meet up again. The next morning we shared a breakfast near the train station where I was picking up Mario. Wow, I ended up meeting all my five italian friends from all over the country in Bologna, my favourite city of Italy for its cultural and social richness. So nice!

I didnt feel like going back to touristic Venice and Mario wanted to get out of the city too so we spent the day hiking up to San Luca sanctuary high up the hill.

All the way from the sanctuary down back to Bologna, 666 pink and orange arcades kept us dry from the now heavy rain. My knees were a bit swollen from all the tough hiking by now and the rain was getting worse, so we decided not to meet with Paul anymore but make our way back to Venice. I’m starting to feel at home there. Mario and I enjoyed cooking together and also discover some great places to go out, like a little refugee run diner which is now Mario’s favourite place in town 🙂

Even though I got sick (probably a combination of the extreme cold in his bedroom and the emotions of going home in a couple days), we spent lovely nights in town. We went to see a (horrible) show in the Fenice theathre, which is such an incredibly stunningly beautiful place to be, we felt very underdressed.

We literally got in on a last-minute ticket (15:29 says the ticket) and were able to see a Mozart opera for only 10 euros. The opera was pretty bad (a woman playing the main characters male role, many tasteless modern scenes etc.) but the place was fantastic and we had a lot of fun together. Another night we went with his teacher and some students to one of the islands where a medieval concert was played, more beautiful than ever. Goosebumbs! On sunday we went to church where Mario sings Gregorian music during the service. They showed us the basements covered in pastel wall paintings, a great place to perform some ceremonies… We practiced a little acro yoga and juggling (not at the same time :p) and fantasized about his grandparents house in the mountains of Abruzzo, which we unfortuantely didnt get to visit this time. Well, something we can still do next time I find the wind blowing me back to Italy (I sure want to explore the south part of italy one day!).

And then the month had ended. Another four weeks of great adventures, many things happening, beautiful people and beautiful new experiences. A time to remember. Memories I will always carry in my heart. My sobby heart. Sobby from the thought of seeing my family and friends again the next day. After eight months on the road. I had very double feelings about this and wasn’t sure I could handle. Many tears had been shed the previous days. Confused. Total confusion. But hey, there we go! Breath in, breath out, I can do thissssssssssssss

 

 

 

 

 

 

&nbspp;