Back on track (?)

I’m trying to get back on track with my writings now. I haven’t posted anything for over a month and there is so much that has happened really, as you all can expect. We did manage to hitchhike all the way from Bavaria to Komotini in Greece,  where we currently are. We haven’t spent a penny on transport or accommodation, which is grand, but mostly what is truly worthy is the adventure and the amount of stories that I’ve been collecting for the past two months. I obviously won’t be able to write them all down at once here, but hopefully if I manage cultivating a little discipline and patience I can slowly feed this blog with some of them.

Talking about patience and discipline, Saturn is now crossing over my natal Mars-Uranus conjunction and I thought I would die of frustration and boredom. We’ve been at this place just outside of Komotini for about 2 weeks now and there isn’t much to do around here. The guys here are great people, truly nice and giving, but if I spend another month here I would either literally die of boredom or write a whole book. Yes, I’ve been writing a lot lately, which is great I guess. Also spending a lot of time on my own company, which I was craving so much after being full on with my traveling companion for the whole time we’ve travelled. As time goes by I become more and more aware of my need for space and solitude.

I’m also getting ready for the next stage of this trip, flying to Thailand. In two days we are hitching to Istanbul (hopefully not taking longer than 1 day to get there!) and back to having some adventure in my veins. Im truly looking forward.

Holy cows

Ashram/Hare Krishna community in Bavaria and Mars opposing Neptune in the sky. I guess this has been an interesting combination for me, especially because some of my personal planets are being picked up by this transit. I’ve been thinking about all of the religious rules and pondering how much discipline is required in order to achieve some sort of spiritual understanding versus the danger of stiffing up too much of our natural need for individual freedom. I don’t really have any answer yet, but I guess that the atmosphere here and my journey are being conducive to what this Neptune transiting is reflecting now.

One thing that I can say is that some of the beliefs here doesn’t please me very much (or rather doesn’t resonate with me?), like sex only after marriage or women in their period not being allowed to touch the food. My Uranic side can’t really take these kind of things. Too many rules and my rebellious side gets stirred up…

Following the road..

Spending our last night in Mainz in Germany, such a nice city. It really reminded me of Bristol. Maybe because we were hanging out with some activists that go skipping regularly. I’m not sure. We went to a very cool party with Madalena’s friend in what used to be a squat. I felt happy and in a partying mood like I haven’t felt in a while. So many cool stuff happening at the same time. I truly like german people.

Marco, our previous host (such a lovely, amazing man), drove us down near Frankfurt and drop us off at a petrol station on the highway. We got our card board sign out and waited for around an hour until someone finally spoke to us. It was so clear how much stranger people’s behavior get when we are near a big city. People would avoid even to have some eye contact with us. We also noticed lots of posh cars. I don’t think that Frankfurt is a city for me to visit.

Anyways, after some waiting and playing the ukulele, a nice turkish man offered us a ride and dropped us off at the city centre. Very nice of him because his final destination was a few km before Mainz.

Tomorrow we are heading to a little village after Stuttgart. I couldn’t possibly write the name of it right now. But we already have our hitching plan done. We will see what life brings…

Waking up in Germany

Just had my breakfast here in Geseke at our lovely new host’s home. Yesterday we hitched from that little village in Netherlands to here. We had a ride with a lovely german man that brought us all the way here. It was quite special. He came back to pick us up, he couldn’t stop at first because we were standing in such a bad place. It has been quite special to get out into the world and see how many nice people are there. I am also enjoying the sense of adventure and freedom that this kind of trip brings you.

I would also like to state here that the healing centre wasn’t that bad. I did have some powerful healing experiences over there and Im thankful.

We are going to be here for maybe about a week and then probably heading south of Germany. There is an Ashram/community that we want to go to in Bavaria.

Second stop

Here at our second stop and having a laugh with Madalena. Great that we’re both sharing the same ideas about this place that is supposed to be for healing but send volunteers back home if they have too much negative energy instead. The lady here was telling us how extraordinary the healing gardens are and how privileged we are just to be able to walk around them for free (after very strict 8 hours of mainly cleaning jobs?). We are now sitting in the leaving room feeling hungry (dinner is at 5:30pm) but with no access to the food as they lock the fridge and cupboards. A very spiritual practice. Maybe we should try to stop laughing and meditate instead?

Amsterdam…

Here we are in Amsterdam.  We spent most of the day walking around the city and getting wet under the rain. I thought about how much this trip isn’t about tourism. I just could not get myself excited about all of the sightseeing. Everything revolves around spending money, so many stores and cafes and restaurants and silly things to purchase. A bit boring for me at the moment to be honest. But Amsterdam seems to be a great city.

The end of our day was more exciting as we were planing our next step. Tomorrow we are heading north of Netherlands to volunteer in a kind of healing community for about a week. Deciding where we are hitching from and how to get there was the thrill for today.

Then having dinner while Ru shared some of his adventures hitchhiking in Europe was a true delight and inspiration.

One week to go…

This is my last week in London after seven long years.

Saturn, the planet symbolically connected with the process of maturing, has a seven year cycle. I’ve also heard that every seven years our body cells are completely replaced. I truly feel that whatever my mission in London was it has been accomplished. Good to use words like “mission” when Im just about to step into what it feels like a “Hero’s Journey”. Me and a friend are traveling around Europe for couple of months and then heading to Thailand. One way ticket only. Not sure how long we’ll be traveling around Asia. Our plan is to find and live in self sustainable communities on the way.

Yes, I do feel that I might literally shit my pants every now and then. (The classic diarrhea caused by leaving comfort zones behind.) But the dissonance between who I am becoming and the life I had in London only six months ago somehow seems scarier than that. I think I’d rather shit my pants than settle for a life that feels stale.

Curiously, although this trip is about finding myself I already feel a stronger sense of Self… getting ready for the road..