Frosty England Christmas

Devon - Cornwall - Somerset - Bristol

Another week on the farm, from left to right: Herding the horses in to the paddocks with my bestmate, fatboy Moby the fat golden labrador; Kate cleaning the horse stables; Church we went to for the Christmas Carols; Leading the ponies into their paddock for the day; Me and Moby doing selfies; View of the farm; The caravan which is my own little private space; Cat on the right, me and the other helpers Kate from Canada, Valentino from Italy and Kate from Russia; Me, Valentino, Cat's mom Copper and Kate at the Church service.

After 2 weeks of regularly feeding animals, cleaning stables, pig pens, bird pens, plucking turkies, ducks, geese, chickens and dressing them, making sausages and burgers as well as selling them at the markets, I left the farm for the time being and spent christmas with Heather's family, from left to right: Christmas night Heather and Kegs slow dancing with a full stomach; Me in my christmas pressie mouse onesy and Dave, Heather's brother; The onesies!!!; Veriti statue on our north coast trip; Kegs being totally shitfaced!; Frosty morning; North coast beach; Same; Me, Heather and Livvie, Heather's sister being silly onn boxing day in Topsham; More of the north coast; Same; Wild ponies on the road on our way back home; Heather in Porlock posing on a cool shaped rock; North coast town; North coast town at night; Bridge across the river; Typical old phone booth; View of north coast.

After the biggest days of feasting and getting totally wasted, Heather and I drove up to Bristol to leave for Edinburgh and celebrate new years eve.  Coming soon is new years video of us jumping in to the river in Edinburgh. Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

Portugal, Spain, Netherlands and UK

Lagos - west coast and inland Portugal - Lagos - Malaga - Amsterdam - UK

The week started with a roadtrip up to the west coast of Portugal for 4 days.  The nights were cold and waking up with frost was becoming a daily routine.  It got cold as we headed further north but still warm enough to sun bath and swim in the ocean.  After 4 days, we finally head back to Lagos where I then spent my last night in Portugal.  I left early in the morning heading to Malaga, Spain where I have booked a flight to head to Amsterdam.  The bus trip took all day and I definitely felt very sad to leave Lagos, my new home, but it was time to go.

In Malaga, I caught up with my good friend Vince who hosted me in Paris and who is now travelling as well.  My flight to Amsterdam was on a Sunday and there was a fiesta then, the roads were closed off and my bus was late and had to go around to finally get to where I needed go.  I got to the airport late and panicked.  Luckily I've checked in online but couldn't check in my backpack, which I was really worried about because I had my swiss army knife, pointy pegs, large sizes of lotion which I was sure I was going to lose going through the security check.  I went through the security scanner feeling so nervous and my backpack passed through the scanner while the ladies in front of the monitor were too busy chatting away, probably whinging about having to work while there is a fiesta happening.  I quickly grabbed my backpack and left towards my gate with a huge smile of relief on my face.

After 3 hours flight, the plane landed in Amsterdam and I met my friend Manuela at the airport who had just landed from Italy.  She invited me to her apartment where I was h hosted generously.  Close to sunset, we went to her band practice and watched them play.  Manuela made my Amsterdam experience really really unforgettable.  At night, I headed to my friend, Lili and Michael's place, welcomed by a big plate of delicious lasagna and spent the night there.

From left to right: Lagos; First night camp inland west coast; west coast cliffs; west coast beaches, same for all 3 photos; our roadtrip car; west coast beach; inland Portugal; inland Portugal; west coast beach; Manuela playing in her band; photo of me beside my wall message in Lagos; Yarran, feeling on top of the world in the mountains of inland Portugal; me and Manuela

I then set off to the airport in the morning to fly to London.  When I got to London, I  immediately took the bus heading to Tiverton, Devon where I was then picked up by my Heather's (my pommy friend who turned out to be living near by)'s mom who took me straight to the farm I am currently volunteering at.

It's been a week on the farm now and it's been hard work but a really new experience and challenge which makes it fun.  It's an animal farm consisting horses, sheep, cows, birds, dogs, cats and ponies.  There were also 3 other helpers beside me from the US, Spain and Australia.

From left to right: me and beautiful Heather; Azure's (Heather's mom) house; same; Farm I'm working at; Beautiful Devon view; The farm

New home Lagos

Spain - Portugal

From left to right: Portimao, Portugal; Camped in National forest, South Portugal; Campsite in Sevilla, Spain; Campsite in Spain on the way to Portugal amongst horses; Portimao; Castle in Portugal; The frost I woke up to hitching in Portimao after waiting for 7 hours then finally got a ride after waiting another 4 hours (we need more hitch hikers in Portugal!!!); Really yummyy and interesting fruit found in the local market; Portimao

Kate, Gabriela, Laura and I rented out a car to go on a roadtrip to Monchique (high moutain seeing north and south portugal view), Sagres (End of the Western world) and beaches along south west.  From left to right: Monchique during sunset; Beach in Sagres; Beach in Sagres; Beach south of Aljezur; On one of the cliffs in Sagres; Same; Beach in Sagres; Same

Spent a week in Lagos making myself at home.  Had a really cute welcome in Lagos, was greeted by a black labrador with a winter scarf around its neck.  From left to right: Cool grafitti in town; Lagos cliffs; View of Lagos from cliff; More cliffs with Yarran; More cliffs; High tide; The rocks are eroting and this is a pedestrian walk and driveway infront of a hotel; More rocks; My gorilla shoes I wore everyday around town that Ben lent me; Flying kite on the beach with Fredrik; More rocks.

After welcomed by the labrador, Ben (one of ShangriLagos hostel owner) greeted me at the door just as I arrive.  Then I immediately felt home and been living in a house with my Lagos family.  From left to right: Cooking and washing dishes together; Snuggled together watching Death Proof; My first night at home; Thanksgiving dinner we did for Kate; Jamming after dinner; Fredrik, Alva and me after walking Phil (papa bear) to the train station; Crazy dress up night where we all then did a piib crawl around town while dancing and singing each way, until everyone was totally drunk of course (luckily most costumes survived the wild night); Cute picture of Gabriela, Kate, me and Laura on a giant chair (like tiny kids sharing a chair); Our beloved rooftop where we love to hangout during the day, sunbathe, yoga, learning the flute, playing the guitar; Fredrik, Maulice and me after walking Jack to the bus station; So, introducing my Lagos family, Maulice; Laura; Jack; Alva; Ryan; Fredrik; Kate; Yarran; Me on top of the world (exactly how I'm feeling); Ben; Alva with Tiago; Paula. Missing out on John's picture.  Sorry John.

Best Europa Afriquana Roma photos 2013

Espana Roma with Nuni

Sevilla - Granada - Cordoba - Sevilla

I arrived in Granada straight from Sevilla on Monday. I checked in to a hostel and was quite amazed with the quality of facilities they have there. It definitely felt like a 5 star hostel. I spent a couple of days cruising around town and also visited Monachil Waterfalls which landscape's reminded me of Atlas Mountain in Morocco.  The water was icy but I went for a swim anyway.  Need to toughen up for 'Loony Dook' Scotland on new years day!!

As I was walking back to my hostel from the waterfall, I saw this familiar image of a person and it turned out to be Nuni (one of my best friends from Indonesia)!!!  I was so surprised and couldn't help myself from screaming and basically jumped on her in the middle of the crowded streets of Granada.  Nuni is probably 3/4 my size so we almost fell down to the ground.

From left to right: Local dudes flamencoing for fun; On the top og the hill at sunset (sacromonte); Monachil Mountains; View of Al Hambra on top of the hill; Granada city centre; Sacromonte with some caves that people live in; Santa Ana; View of Cathedral from top of the hill; Interesting cafe at Sacromonte; Granada city centre; Another view of Al Hambra from top of hill before sunset; Swimming at the fountain of Monachil mountains; Cathedral; Monachil bridge.

Since I have no travel plan, I started to join their crazy schedule. They were planning to travel all over Europe in a month. I could only keep up to Sevilla. So, the next day, I travelled with her and 2 of her friends to Cordoba.

We got to Cordoba in the middle of the night, so I didn't have much energy to spread out my nylon tarp on the bed to prevent bed bugs, and sure enough, there were bed bugs! Argh!!!

Cordoba is a much smaller town than Sevilla and Granada, so spending 3 days there was definitely enough.  Cordoba has the oldest mosque in Spain that has been converted to a church, it was free for visit from 8-9am, so we took the opportunity and got up early in the morning. All 4 of us then travelled to Sevilla together and when we got there, I was their tour guide because I know the town pretty well now.   We spent the whole day walking around town until they had to leave to Portugal in the middle of the night.

From left to right: Castle wall in Cordoba; Buidling; Statue in the plaza centre of town; Us having tapas; Roman ruins in middle  of town; Arch de Triumph of  Cordoba; Market place; Church; Funny pic of Nuni; Cathedral at night; Photo of us; Me and Nuni in middle of town; Inside mosque now cathedral; Same; Buidling..

Since then, I been staying in Sevilla for more than a week now and the weather is starting to get too cold. So, I am heading off to Algarve, Portugal relying on the weather forecast saying it to be a warmer place than Sevilla

Afriquana Sevilla Roma

Map of trip Marrakech - Sahara Desert - Sevilla

In the morning, we got up early to start hitching to Marrakech.  After a few kms of walking, a ride and finally sticking my thumb out for 15 minutes on the highway, a car heading directly to Marrakech stopped.  We got to Marrakech at about 3pm and found ourself a good cheap hotel.

In the afternoon, as we were walking around the markets in the Medina, people didn't seem to be as pushy and rude as they were in Fes.  I felt quite happy about that, also many foreigners were wearing tangtops and shorts, so I felt comfortable.  At night, when the Jemma El Fna came to live, the square was full of food stalls.  So many people were asking us to dine at their stall, some were really pushy and rude as well, so I thought 'I spoke too  soon'.  Even worse, one of the waiter abused us verbally after we ignored him, Emmanuel got so angry and faced him and he said after we left him "I not scared of you! I kill you!" Wow! What a way to attract costumers..

Unfortunately,  we had to stay longer there, we spent the week fighting our cold and diarrhea.  In the hotel, we could hear everyone else coughing and sneezing, we thought we needed to get out of Marrakech asap.  After a week, Emmanuel decided that he didn't feel safe with me hitch hiking in Morocco, even with him.  I was very disappointed to hear that, especially because I do love hitch hiking.  But he meant well and it is for my own safety.   So, after he felt better, I left Marrakech to go on a 3 day tour in the Sahara Desert while Emmanuel planned to head to Spain and we were to meet again in Spain.

(From left to right: Cobra dancing through music (I feel so sorry for these reptiles, they must be totally drugged to be so dosile all the time); A tomb we visited but not wanting to see the actual tomb even after paying for it considering there was 300 people in the queue and you can only stand infront of the door to take pictures; The so called 'Eiffel Tower' of Marrakech which is a mosque; A nice intricit design of a door at the palace; The roof top of our hotel where we like to chill; The courtyard of the palace (typical riad design with water element in the middle for cooling system); Huge nest of birds on top of a building beside the tomb; Meet blacky, my little mate at the hotel; Part of the tomb; Entrance door 

I left Marrakech at 7am.  The drive going through the Atlas Mountain was mind blowing.  It is such a dramatic landscape.  We visited the Kasbah world heritage which was built in the 11th century.   It's a pretty amazing architecture, considering the whole village was made out of mud.  We were dropped off to have lunch and to visit the cinema museum, because Morocco was the place where a few famous hollywood movies were made.  Lunch was overpriced and blend, I also decided not to go to the museum,  feeling that it will not be worth it, like the food at lunch.  And sure enough, it wasn't.

We spent the night at a really beautiful place callled Dades Gorges.  The landscape around Atlas Mountain is very overwhelmingly dramatic and spectacular.  At the hotel, we hung out with a couple of Berber guys who lives in the village.  We had a drumming session together.

The next day we headed off to the Sahara desert, almost everyone were starting to itch, apparently the hotel was full of bed bugs!  It was the worst thing ever!  We stopped by for lunch and seeing the overpriced menu, with Vlasta, who is from Czech, I had fruit and biscuits for lunch plus dates that were readily available for us to pick from the tree beside us.  Since then we became best mates.

Then we headed off and got to the desert just before sunset.  We rode our camels as we watched the sun go down.  Right beside our nomad tent is a really big sand dune known as Erg Chebbi, it seemed easy to climb so we tried to race up but as I started climbing it felt impossible.  The sand was so soft and it was very steep, to give you an idea, it's about 75 degrees.  It was tiring and a huge effort to get up the top but I had to do it because it may be my only time in the Sahara desert. I finally got to the top, out of breath and super exhausted.  I dropped down lying on my back and looked at how much stars there are in the sky.  It was really nice, so quiet as well, I couldn't imagine being lost in the desert walking on that sand.

We had to get back  down for dinner then after that sat around the campfire listening to berber music, which includes drumming and singing.   Of course, not able to help myself, after a few songs, I joined in.   So we jammed.  Four of us from the group slept outside, it was really nice and quiet and cold, but worth it.  I slept after counting 12 shooting stars.

The next morning, we rode the camels back to the minibus during sunrise.  Then after that it was a long trip back to Marrakech.  I spent the night walking around the market and main square with Vlasta.  The next day Vlasta and I planned to check out Ourika Valley but time was tight so we ended up walking through new town Marrakech which was really nice.  Walking through the new town felt like we were in a  different world.  Such a big difference to the old town.  I'm glad the Sahara trip brightened up my stay in Morocco and spending the last few days cruising around town in Marrakech was a really nice way to end roaming Morocco.

(From left to right: All 4 photos are the dramatic landscape of Atlas mountain, check out on the first picture how the dramatic change from the background the mountain has snow and in the foreground is a really dry and hot climate almost desert. The road was pretty windy and awesome as well; Overloaded truck?; The world heritage Kasbah, village made out of mud; 2 pics of cliffs that were surrounding us, felt like I was in the 'never ending story' movie; Me and Brittany my camel, look alike? I hope not; The guys in the tour, Vlasta (now one of my bestmates on the right); Berber guy in the heritage village; Camel toes!!!!; Beautiful serenity Sahara; Sunrise above the sand dunes; Camel ride! Yeehaaa!!!)

Early in the morning,  I caught the plane to Sevilla, Spain.  It was very hard to find a hostel in Sevilla because of the long weekend they are having and also that weekend was the gay pride celebration in Sevilla.  I came on time for the fiesta but not organised enough to book a bed beforehand.  Luckily I came early in the day so I was able  to get a bed at the place I was staying before.

I walked all day around town and just enjoyed my personal time and space, enjoying everything that happened around me, the people I meet and spent time with and of course the beautiful atmosphere of the city.  Sevilla really felt like home.  The more I stayed in Sevilla, the more I fell in love with the city.  The last night I was there, I stayed with Domingo who was my kind and very knowledgeable in Spain's history host.  He gave me a tour around Sevilla and at night we had tapas along with a breathtaking Flamenco performance.

Today, I'm off to Granada.  Another farewell to Sevilla, but I'm sure I will be back there.  Granada, here I come!!!

(From left to right: Sevilla, I'm home!!! All saint Festival in Seville; My new greek friend Ranya; The fine art museum; More fiesta; The tobacco industry; Arheological museum; Sevilla at night; Plaza de Espana; The largest wooden structure in the world; 2 pics of plaza de Espana (now for you starwars fan, does this site remind you of 'attack of the clones'?, apparently it was shot here); All saint festival was also gay pride day so the horse was rainbow coloured; Me infront of plaza de espana; Last night in Sevilla, went to a flamenco show with my host, Domingo, it was breathtaking, have I mentioned anywhere how I love Sevilla?; Part of archeological building in the park)

Afriquana Europa Roma

Trip from Portugal through Spain to Morocco

It was a Tuesday morning and I have prepared myself mentally and physically that I am capable to hitch hike on my own that day.  I walked out the door of my host's flat and walked to the metro station to get to the outskirt of town.  The metro was closed, apparently that day they were having a strike.  So I had to wait for an hour amongst other hundreds of people trying to catch the bus.  It was a bit of a hassle, but I finally got to the bus station where it gets me across the bridge out of Lisbon.  I monitored my GPS so that I can stop closest possible to the petrol station beside the highway.

After getting off the bus, I walked 500m to the station and found out it was all fenced off.  I thought 'ok, you can do this!'.  I looked for the safest and most discreet fence to climb over, which I did.  I threw my bags over and climbed after.  With a big smile on my face feeling proud of myself, I took my 'Faro' sign out and walked to every single truck at the station.  Unfortunately none of them were going my way.  Bugger!

So I walked to the start of the exit of the petrol station and hitched from there.  A truck stopped but was going another way but insisted that the way he'll go will eventually get me where I want to go.  I thought to myself, 'gee, he's persistent'.  I didn't like the sound of it at all and said 'nau, i wait, obrigado'.  He was pissed off and climbed back on his truck.  Weird!

A few people stopped but they were only able to give me short rides, so I had to refuse even though I was starting to feel fed up after standing there for 3 hours.  An hour later, Pedro stopped and said, 'I'm not going to Faro but I'm going to Sines.  Which was perfect because I have organised a host a few kilometres south of Sines at Vila Nova de Milfontes.  It was a nice ride, Pedro was a really fluent english speaker so we talked about a lot of things and also congratulated him for being my first ride.

I got to Sines late at night and too late to hitch to Milfontes, so I stayed the night there.  After my experience the previous day, I was losing motivation to hitch hike.  The next day, I took a bus to Milfontes with a big guilt on my shoulder feeling like a total failure.  I wasn't proud at all but I couldn't find a motivation either.  I got to  my host's place in the afternoon.

At night, I cooked dinner for Sylvain who lives in an awesome mediterranean arabic style house with so much decorations from around the world.  We had really good conversations.  Sylvain's a barefoot runner and our talk that night really inspired and motivated me to continue on hitch hiking.

From left to right: A portugese style architecture in Sines; Trees farmed for the barks to be used as wine bottle corks; Beautiful Milfontes; Milfontes beaches, Portugese road; Algarve (Lagos); Sunset in Milfontes where I had dinner; Beautiful Lagos; Beautiful rocky Miilfontes beach; View from Sylvain's roof top; Sylvain on the right and his mate Falco on the left; Sylvain's nicely decorated house; Very simple bus stop in Portugal

After staying for a couple of nights, in the morning Sylvain dropped me off at the round about where people normally hitch. In 5 minutes I got a ride with a really nice couple of Portuguese guys who were heading south.  That day I travelled through almost every town in Algarve and decided to stay the night in Seville. I got to Seville at night and immediately looked for a hostel and got a bed. I spent almost the whole night at a place where all the locals like to hang out.  It was a really nice atmosphere and the fact not many people can speak English but still can have a great conversation with me, goes to show how warm and friendly local Sevillans are.  It also really inspired me to learrn to speak Spanish.

The next day I got up really early in the morning full of energy and walked all over the city all day long and met so many genuinely really friendly and warm people everywhere. I absolutely love Seville, the whole city really made me feel like home. In the afternoon I met with Sandra and Richard who are really good friends from Australia. We spent the whole night enjoying Spanish food and atmosphere. It was such a great night!

From left to right (all taking place in bonito Sevilla) : Flamenco dancers; Me on the tiled 'couch'; Bank Holiday fiesta, parade of drummers in awesome costumes; Cool Spanish Moorish style building which is a theatre;  Ladies banging on pots and pans on sttage for the fiesta; Love this building; Me with my favourite Richard and Sandra (Uncle John and Aunt Yoko); Thick chocolate churros after tapas and gelateria; Another bonito building; Bull fiighter statue; Sevilla view; Bonito architecture; Small  part of the biggest Cathedral in the world; Burger vending machine, very popular in Spain, I dare anyone to try one; The super grande Cathedral, can't get enpugh of it, such a complicated design and sooooo big. 

Early in the morning, I left Seville for Morocco. After a bus, ferry and a stuffed grand taxi ride and also a help from truly superbly nice Spanish and Moroccan friends I met during the trip, Emmanuel and I finally met again in Chefchaoun.  We were planning to spend a few nights there until the end of Eid Adha which is the sacrificing lamb/goat/cow day.  We thought the thick red colour blood everywhere in town would be very dramatic with the blue town.

Two days before Eid Adha, I got a message from Ouma, a host I organised in Fes.  She welcomed us to join her and her family for Eid Adha.   We thought it was a much better option because it is a family celebration and it would be nice to experince the culture with the locals.  So the next morning, we hitch hiked to Fes.   It was my first hitch hike in Morroco and it was easy.  We only waited for a car to come by and straight away we got a ride.  It was very lucky too that Hatim was going to Fes to celebrate Eid Adha with his family.

When we got to Fes, we met Ouma at the bus station and she took us too her family's house.  It was a nice local atmosphere with her family all gathering together for the big day.  In the morning, we saw the sheeps on their stairs.  I tried not to get too attached with the sheeps so that I don't get upset when the time comes.  At 10.30am, the professional slaughterer came and started what they had to do.  It was a really quick process which was great.  Straight away the liver and heart were made into kebabs and barbecued in the living room.  It is a Morrocam tradition to have barbecue inside the house like the nomadic way of cooking in the tent.  We looked around the neighbourhood and everyone was doing the same thing.  It was a very smokey day.

From left to right: Goodbye for now Spain, I miss you already; First landing in Tangier, Morocco; cactus fruit (note to self: never pick it yourself, only buy in market); the blue city of Chefchauon; decor of hotelwe stayed in at Chefchauon;  City view of the blue city in the morning; an amazing view of turquoise lake with red mountain on the way to Fez from Chefchauon; Medina gate in Fez; cool 13 century architecturein Fez Medina (oldest Medina in Morocco); view of Medina; typical Moroccan style building; nice architecture; me and Ouma (our lovely host) in front of sheep slaughtering action on Eid Adha day; me and Emmanuel taking sheep to the butcher to get cut; me making friends with Ouma's cute little cousin who is wearing a Moroccan berber traditional outfit.

After a couple of days stuffing ourselves with food and walks around the city, we head to the Medina and spent the night there.  After dealing with the craziness of the Medina, we hitched south towards Marrakech the next day.  We had a really nice long ride with Meriem and Akhmed up to Casablanca, who also treated us for lunch which was really nice.  After that we had another couple of rides to Settat, where we spent the night because it was getting dark.

Settat is an interesting small city where not many tourists go to, so it was very difficult for us to find a cheap hotel there.  We didn't have any option but to bite the bullet because it's impossible to camp in Morocco, with wild dogs and plenty of homeless people roaming around.

The next day we set out hitching to Marrakech.  Marrakech, here we come!!!

Europa Roma part 4

Sitges to Malaga then north again to Portugal

We loved it in Sitges and decided to stay longer.  After 5 days in this chilled out yet lively town, we started to hitch again.  At the service station, Miko picked us up.  He was an interesting guy who speaks 5 languages and was on his way to court to translate a case at El Vendrell.  He dropped us off at a petrol station and from there we got another ride with a couple of guys who were heading to Calafell beach.  Calafell had a unique character, Emmanuel would describe the place as 'a time warp to the 70s', because it seemed like nothing had changed since then.

We stayed for one night and saw fireworks again marking a beginning of a festival which we didn't stay for.  In the morning, we got up early to start hitching down south.  In Spain, it's  important to do long walks and standing in the sun early in the morning because around 12pm, you feel like you'll melt.  I guess that's why Spanish has siesta around that time.  Hitching in Spain has been impossible beside the road, so we have always been trying to hitch from service stations which gives us a chance to talk to people and because relying on 2 second physical judgement hasn't been working out well.

From left to right: Sitges beach; Santa Tecla festival during the Catalan independence anthem; Fireworks!!! Love it!!; Parade; The Spanish king and Queen and Moorish King and Queen; Me as close as possible to the fire crackers, love it!!; More parade in Sitges; Calafell beach; Old school transportation in Calafell; Calafell sunset

We got a ride with a funny non English speaking middle age man to Lleida and basically relied on body language and mimes to communicate.  Going towards inland of Spain seems like it was like going inland Australia, drier and hotter.  Having lost interest with the atmosphere and environment, when we were dropped off at the petrol station in Lleida, we crossed to the east bound to  hitch back to the east coast which was not easy to do because not many people passed through the area.   We finally got a ride with a couple of Brittish girls who were heading to Barcelona.  They dropped us off at the cross section of the north and south bound where we were persuaded by Fernando to visit Tarragona (which is where they were heading to) because it is bonito (beautiful) with Roman ruins and it is not a big city.  Although we were targeting to head further south, we were totally sold by the idea!

We had a little tour around the city as we got there, then got dropped off at the entrance of the old town.  We were glad to have been persuaded to go to Tarragona, it is a spectacular place and definitely bonito.  We also found a place to camp which had an amazing view of the Roman castle, thanks to our "Commando extraordinaire", Emmanuel.  The next day, we walked to the old town and found out that on that day every entrance to museums were free. Perfect timing! Again! Hitch hiking serendepity strikes again!!

The next day we tried to hitch out of Tarragona which was a little bit of a pain being a rather large scale city it turns out.  After going back and forth due to some miscommunication, we ended up at the petrol station at the highway around Altafulla where we met a brittish couple and spent most of the night with them.

We started to hitch late morning the next day and having not much luck with Spanish drivers, we saw a French car drove in the station and our eyes lit up with full of excitement and hope.  Sure enough, they picked us up and took us all the way to Valencia.  We stopped at a petrol station and hitched from there.  After an hour waiting, we finally got a ride with Tomas who is Polish and was with another hitch hiker, Floureyant.  Luckily he had a big van, so he was able to take us as well and also it was a really long ride all the way to Benalmedina which is south of Malaga.  Floureyant came along with us to look for a place to camp.  It was11pm and was impossible to find a camp spot because the whole place was full of resorts and fences around every property, even public ones.  The only upside of this place is that you don't have to look down constantly while walking looking out for dog shit.

From left to right: Beautiful sunrise as we woke up on Benalmedina beach; Relaxing and watching a stormy sunrise after a rough time; Picture with Picasso; Hostel in Malaga, love the grafitti; Roman theatre; Bull fight arena; View from castle after jammin with Spanish guitarist; Random live music for Malaga's lively weekend; Malaga beach; Odevalis, Portugal

We ended up having a restless sleep on the beach.  The next day, Emmanuel and I decided to go our own way because I wasn't ready to hitch hike in Morroco yet.  So all three of us parted that day.  Being clueless where to go and what to do next, I ended up staying in town again and experienced a rough night and morning due to drunk tourists and a thunderstorm but luckily was able to get out of the situations in one piece.

I was itching to get out of that crazy town and was definitely ready to leave Spain.  So I went to Malaga where I was able to get a bus scheduled for the next day to Lisboa, Portugal.  After what had happened the night before, I thought I should give myself a break and stay in a hostel.  I had a really good deal and met really cool travelers who a few were on almost similar journeys with me.

Staying 2 days in Malaga was definitely worth it!  I found out that it was the town where Picasso was raised and I visited his museum.  On top of  that, there were so many amazing sights to see as well.  It was a really comfortable place to be in for a solo female traveler like myself being able to easily talk and make friends with people around.  My favourite dude I randomly met was a spanish guitar player on top of the castle who I jammed with while resting after a long hilly hike.  It totally made my day and changed how I felt about Spain!  (Next mission, MUST GET A DARBUKA!!)  At night, I left for Lisboa and got there at 7am Portugese time.  It was an hour different to Spain.  I had made an arrangement to stay at Luis and family of 7 for a few nights which was located in Odevilas, a couple of kms north of Lisboa.  During my stay, I have been spoilt with really good homemade Portugese food and tour to the city and Mafra.  After Lisboa, I will be doing my first solo hitch hiking trip which will be covered on the next chapter..  Excited and anxious at the same time!!  Hope Potugal isn't as hard as Spain.  Fingers crossed everyone!!

From left to right: My wonderful hosts in Lisboa; An old monestry in Odevalis; The toilet in Mafra palace used by the king back  then, very fancy; The church in the Mafra Palace; Mafra Palace; Mafra Palace; Wild hogs head; Funny man with his dog on a bike in Lisboa; Lisboa city view; Gigantic pumpkin; Church in Lisboa

Europa Roma 3

From Italy through France to Spain

After a great birthday night with Pietro, in the morning he dropped us off at a cafe on the main road.  15 minutes in the rain, we were picked up immediately by Guido who was a cop but off duty.   He took us to his holiday house up in the mountains.  The whole village had a really unique typical mountain house style, stone on the bottom and wood on the top, they were very photogenic as Emmanuel would put it.  It was raining heavily, but we spent almost the whole day with Guido.  He bought us lunch at a local restaurant which was superb (another awesome birthday lunch).  He then dropped us off at a petrol station and gave us a crystal that he got when moutain climbing around Aosta. We were then picked up by a man and his daughter in 15 minutes.  We definitely thought that Italy was awesome for hitch hiking.

As we had away from the mountains, it was starting to get difficult to get rides but we managed to get up to Bra through Torino at night and camped there.  We didn't manage to get dinner because it was 11pm when we got there, but there was a tree full of ripe pears which we had instead. Free food!

In the morning, we tried to hitch away from Bra which took us HOURS! So we have up on Italy and decided to go back to France and head to spain.  Luckily we were picked up by Frederico who invited us to his house and gave us home made pasta for lunch and let us have a shower.  His mom and he were heading towards the border of Italy and France that afternoon, so we came along with them.  They dropped us off at the tunnel where we started to hitch again and was picked up by a father and son French who were heading to Cannes.  Viva la France!!

from left to right: made friends with Shampoo the dog on the way to Chamonix; Chamonix glacier; bday drinks with Pietro and friends; Aosta valley (5 to 8); lunch with Guido

We got to Cannes late at night, so they dropped us off at the petrol station.  It was a bit of a hectic and tiring night because of  the windy road on the mountain, I took some nausea tablets and was totally knocked out!  Bad call!  We had dinner and decided to try and hitch some more at 10pm because we couldn't find a nice place to camp.  We got a ride straight away who took us to another petrol station which was bigger gas station near Marseille.  I had no energy left so Emmanuel went off looking for a camp spot and ran into some people who did the ring scam again to him.  Unbelievable!  They take every opportunity they have.  We finaly got a perfect spot to camp that was hidden from everything so we could have a good night sleep.

The next morning, we continued on hitching trying to get to Spain.  After a few rides, we ended up in a place called Avignon, which apparently was a place where the Vatican City was for a while.  It was a cute little town, with a really big castle surrounding the old town where the pope used to live and the Avignon bridge that was half destroyed caused by some battles and flood.  We spent the night camping in a quiet little spot close to the river and walked around town the next day.  I found a really nice patisserie that had really delicious looking cakes, and decided to get my birthday cakes there.  They were the best cakes I've had, it was perfect!

From left to right:  Town Frederico lives in Italy, very cute; Italian town in the mountains;  Met a fun French when hitching in France, if only he had a bigger car; Avignon;  Avignon bridge;  Trying to hitch to Spain

After exploring town, we continued on hitching towards Spain.  Twice in a row, we saw other hitch hikers who were on the spot where we wanted hitch.  Rule of thumb is never hitch on the same spot with another hitch hiker, you have to be at least 1km away.  We ended up getting a few rides with a few interesting people until Narbonne, France, where we decided to stay for the night.

We had a pretty relaxed morning and hitched after lunch.   Wiki Travel and a few people said it would  be hard to hitch in Spain, so that day Emmanuel tried approaching people because it would be easier.  Within 10 minutes we got a ride with a Spanish man who was on the way to Barcelona.  Spain, here we come! Finally!  It was quite a long drive but we had interesting conversations.  Juan dropped us off at the petrol station north of Barcelona because we weren't interested to go into the city.

We cruised around to find a camp spot and got our dinner.   Prices of food in Spain are definitely cheaper than France.  Yaaay!  We found a nice spot on top of a hill where we were able to see almost the whole town.  We had our dinner and enjoyed the beautiful sunset and saw behind us that the full moon was rising as well.  It was a spectacular view.  The only weird thing about the campsite is the amount of snails there were considering the climate is so hot and dry.  When we got up in the morning, snails were climbing on our things.   Yuck!

We packed our stuff and to lose abit of weight to  carry, since I have hiking waterproof shoes now, I've decided to get rid off my sneakers at the campsite.  We headed back to the petrol station where Juan left us and hitched a ride with a Moroccan man Hatim.  He was heading to Manresa where he lives and we just tagged along as long as it's not a big city.  He dropped us off at a potential place for camping and it turned out to be the perfect camping spot.  Emmanuel found us a really well hidden spot really close to the river, tap water, fig trees with ripe fruits and 2 minutes walk to Aldi.  It was the best camping site we've had.

After staying and resting for a couple of nights in Manresa, we packed up and headed towards the beach. We had a ride with a couple of women who were cousins to Sitges, south of Barcelona. It's a bit touristy town but pretty down home so it was nice to hang out with beautiful warm weather, so we've decided to spend a couple of days there.  Apparently another hitch hikking magical coincidence happened, that we turned out exactly on the day of the town's major festival of Santa Telca.  Perfect timing!! Having a very festive moment.  Pictures to come in next blog.

From left to right: rainy italy; first home in spain; snails going crazy in hotdry spain; Spain graffitti;  Bye bye sneakers; Local kids picking figs next to our camp;  Emmanuel swimming in river; Goat attack in the afternoon;  Our home in Manresa; View from the river; Sitges; Sitges cathedral;  Figs we picked in Manresa; Our camp first night in Spain

Europa Roma part 2

After spending 3 nights at St Antoine in our beautiful 5 star accommodation beside the river, Pierre, being the unbelievably kind person he is, picked us up to take us to the highway so we could start hitching to Paris.   We were dropped off on the ramp off the highway heading towards Caen where the morning was very foggy and cold.  We stuck our thumbs out for 10 minutes until a man stopped for us and apparently was heading towards Paris.  It wasn't as perfect as plan, because we wanted to stop by a town for the night first to get internet and confirm places to stay from the 'bewelcome' website.  But having to take as much opportunity as we can while hitching, we bit the bullet and came along for the ride all the way to Paris.  It was a really nice and interesting ride with Marc, who is a doctor and very fluent English speaker.  We even were given lunch when we stopped at the service station, including cookies from Le Mont St Michel which I have been curious to try when I saw Japanese tourists in Le Mont lining up to get big bags full of these cookies.

We were dropped off at the round about of Arch De Triumph.  As we were saying goodbye to Marc, he gave us a rock melon that he thought we should try because it was very sweet.  Marc's so nice.  What a sweetheart.  After admiring the Arch De Triumph, we sat down to enjoy our melon and a man came over giving us a ring that he found which may belong to us but insisted we take it anyway.  Being confused and surprised to have a 'golden' ring with us, he came back a few seconds later to ask for money for the ring he gave us.  We gave him money that he wasn't happy with and took the ring back.. WEIRD! Super weird! Anyway, turns out this ring scam is common in Paris, along with other stuff.  That day we couldn't imagine sleeping in the park with lots of scammers and pickpockets around the city, we'd feel really restless and worried in case someone steals our things.  So we tried to get some internet and checked our accommodation situation straight away.

Luckily we had a response from Vincent who was happy to have us on a short notice.  We walked 6 km across town with our bacpacks to his place.  It was a hot day, 30degrees celsius, so we were sweating alot.  Not complaining about the heat though. Altogether, we stayed about 4 nights in Paris and had a great time with Vince.  We met at night most of the time and learnt how to drink spirit the French way. Paris was interesting and tiring at the same time.   So much walks and places to visit, we tried to visit as much places as we could.

From left to right: Apples from Pierre's garden; Our last morning at Pierre's house (photo 2 & 3); Eating melon in Paris before we almost got scammed; Arch de Triumph; Vincent and us; Notre Dam Cathedral, Paris; Pompidou building, Paris, walking towards Vincent's place; Photo with Egyptian princess in le Louvre; Pantheon building, Paris; French kiss under Eiffel tower; Emmanuel and his twin

The morning we left Paris, it was pouring down rain.  We took the train to  get out of the city into the suburbs and hitched from the train station.  The morning was a bit frustrating with the rain and also because I was having my annoying migraine.  But once we got to the petrol station on the highway, we didn't even have to stick our thumbs out.  We had Mohammad offering when he assumed we needed one to the edge of Reims and in Reims, we also had Gabriel a.k.a Angel Gabriela offering us a ride to our destination, which was Strasborg.  It was a pretty long drive to Strasburg, but luckily Gabriel spoke fluent English so we talked about many interesting things along the way.  Not just an interesting ride, we were also catered almond cakes and apparently the car that Gabriel was driving is used for a film set to drive the stars around.  So we were basically in a town car.  We got to Strasborg at 9pm and we hooked up  with my friend Gilles who we stayed with for a couple of nights.

The next day, we walked around town, enjoyed the atmosphere and admired the Notre dame.  In the morning, we went with Gilles as he was heading south to another town for work.

We got off just on the north side of Strasburg.  It started to rain when we were hitching that morning and my shoes weren't waterproof, so I got out a couple of plastic bags and wrapped them over my shoes.  'Bricolage', as the French would say. A few minutes later, we got a ride from a woman and her son who were heading to town. There was a bit of a miscommunication that went and we ended up being dropped off in the middle of town.  We then ended up walking across the border to Kehl, Germany assuming for Frankfurt.  We tried to hitch from there for hours while it was raining and ended up taking a bus to Sand.  In the rain, we tried to look for a good spot to hitch but couldn't find any place safe that was heading to Frankfurt, so we ended up hitching back to Strasburg.  From Strasburg we got a ride with Veronica close to sunset and ended up  being invited to her place for the night.  Veronica lives in Obernei, it's such a cute little touristy village.  We had a few glasses of wine and had a little tour around town.

After a very goodnight sleep, we got up and were given a surprise of the best croissant we've had in France.  It was sooooo GOOD!  Veronica then dropped us off on the ramp heading south.  We had a few short rides and due to another miscommunication, we ended up in the middle of a town called Me......... where Emmanuel bought me a water proof hiking shoes.  We then walked a few KMs to find a good place to hitch and after a few rides, we ended up on the road exiting Besanco in the dark.  We were going to  camp there for the night but had not yet eaten dinner.  So we thought, lets try hitching a ride in the dark, since there was nothing else to do anyway.

We stuck our thumb for only 2 minutes when a car stopped for us.   A girl was happy to  take us to a station on the highway, but after talking for a bit, she invited us to stay at her place.  There, we met her mom, sister, friend and boyfriend.  We had a great time.  It was such a nice experience enjoying the night with such an open and cheerful family.

From left to right: Petit France, Strasburg; Notre Dam Cathedral, Strasburg; Cute Mideivel building; Silly photo of me; us and Gilles and housemate; Rainy hitch in Sttrasburg; Wet shoe with bricolage waterproofing doggy bag; Walked through border of France and Germany; Night in Obernia; Our lovely Veronica and us in the morning after a goodnight sleep at her 17th century flat

In the morning, we were dropped off at the tollgate of the highway where we waited for about 2 hours then moved to a service  station on the highway.  We had a few nice rides, then ended up getting another crazy ride.  We stopped in the middle of the way because we didn't feel comfortable.  We continued on hitching in Bonjou Jileu til 10pm, then gave up and found a place to camp near town.

In the morning we continued on hitching trying to get to the highway towards Italy.  We got a ride after breakfast, and a few more rides until we got to the Chambeuy, which is just in alps area.  This was the first time we saw mountains in Europe.  The glacier on it was incredible.  The view was spectacular!  After lunch, we read a bit about Italy and on wiki  travel it was said that Italians are the least people to pick up hitch hikers.  Hmmm, after our experience in France.  We just had to find out ourselves.  So we hitched to the tunnel and to the tunnel and through it, we got rides from the Mont Blanc tunnel workers.

When we got to the other side, we were definitely in Italy.  The sound of people speaking was different already, buildings were slightly different.  We then walked to the service station to  get a map and hitched from there.  We stuck our thumbs out for 30 seconds and someone stopped for us already.  Pietro, our first Italian ride and wiki travel, proven wrong already.  Pietro invited us to stay at his place which was really nice.  It was the night of my birthday and I was having the best birthday because I was dreaming about Italian food and drinks and a night out for my birthday and it all came true.  Another magical experience of hitch hiking.

Route France to Germany to France to Italy

Europa Roma

Map of our Europa Roma trip Chapter 1

Our trip to Europe started with our hitch hiking trip from Nowra, NSW where I ended my work on Friday noon.  We've been preparing our bags to be as light as possible resulting with 5 set of clothing, mattress, sleeping bag, swag, tarp, pegs, personal hygiene stuff and first aid kit totaling to an amount of 10 kg all together.  Felt very proud considering it's our home now.  That's gotta be the lightest home to live comfortably.  On our way up to Sydney, we had a few interesting rides to Budgong, the next day from Bomaderry to Wollongong, then from Wollongong to Bathurst the day after and as we hit Sydney, we caught trains to Redfern and the next day to Marrickville to spend our last night in Australia.  We had a great trip up as we managed to spend time with families and friends.

From top left to right : Our lightweight home; Farewell morning tea at office; Callala Bay, Jervis Bay NSW; Baldhead, NSW; Redfern, NSW; Farewell drinks at Bank Hotel, Sydney

We planned to go to the airport at 4am for the 9am flight so that we get allocated seats in the emergency exit.  We ended up waking up 2 hours late, panicked and rushed out the door that ended up getting stuck abit as the key to the door was jammed! ARGH! After 5 minutes, we finally managed to get out.  We ran up to grab a cab and immediately got one when we reached the main road.  We ended up getting to the airport on time and got seats in the emergency exit.  Our total of 35 hour flight with Southern China airline was a pleasant experience.  Totally recommended if you're looking for a cheap yet comfortable flight.

We arrived in Amsterdam early in the morning, put our bags in a locker and cruised around the city the whole day.  We felt that spending a day in Amsterdam was enough for us.  In the evening, we caught a train to the outskirts of Amsterdam ending up in Zaandam (north of Amsterdam).  We found a nice area  to camp just outside Region College, which is an area of trees beside the canal where sheeps were on duty to cut down the grass.  The next day we hid our bags amongst the high grass and visited town.  Holland was funny with their must pay toilet policy and diffiiculty to find taps.  The urban design is very orderly also which made the country quite tricky to hitch hike.

From left to right: Amsterdam Canal; Emmanuel in Amsterdam;  One of the old house that's gone wongky due to the sandy soil; Ship that went to Indonesia when the VOC monopolised Indonesian's economy; Zaandam Canal; More Canals; Our home for the weekend in Zaandam; The long line to see the famous Anne Frank's bunker; Colourful Dutch style hotel; Holland with its 2 level bike racks; Our home for the weekend in Zaandam

Our first hitch hike in Europe was from Zaandam to Den Haag aka The Hague.  We had a ride from a Russian Dutch who was driving to Amsterdam but happily drove us to Den Haag.  What a nice dude!  He ended up dropping us off on the beach where we spent almost the whole day before meeting my friend Lili.  We had our first swim in the North Sea.  It felt sooooo good, after not showering for 3 days.  After meeting Lili and Michael, we walked to the national park of Den Haag where we spent the night.  It was a really nice park, with well maintained greeneries and water, again, orderly and neat.

We woke up in the morning amongst trees, close to the canal with beautiful white swans.  After  breakfast, we tried to walk towards the highway to hitch but there were no shoulders and it was impossible to hitch safely.  So we ended up catching the train to Delft and hitched from there.  Our second hitch in Europe was with a very interesting man who is an expert in nano technology.  His name is Carel.  On our way to Rottterdam, he invited us for coffee at his place and met the rest of his family including his teenage son who came out last with cloud of marijuana smoke around him.  Nice! Carel seems like a cool dad.

He then dropped  us off at a petrol station that leads to Belgium.  He used to hitch hike and suggested that petrol stations are the best places to hitch in Holland.  At the petrol station, as we were enjoying our loaf of bread, a Scottish guy named Kevin came over and got us meat, cheese and chocolates because he couldn't stand seeing us eat just a loaf of bread.  What a guy!  Afterwards, we then had a ride from a father and son who dropped us off close to the border of Belgium then continued on hitching a few rides until we were on the border of France.  It was getting dark so we camped in the small village close to the petrol station beside a yard where there were a couple of miniature black sheep.

From left to right : Den Haag beach, Holland; Den Haag fancy hotel in front of the beach; Our home in Den Haag; Delft, Holland with its orderly and neat road; Delft Canal; Our home in the border of Belgium and France; The miniature black sheep beside our camp; The cute trees (reminded me of Hobit land) close to where we camped; Hitchin a ride at the petrol station (border of Belgium and France); The Canadian monument we visited with the Belgiums; Me and the Belgiums on the monument

In the morning we continued on hitching and got a ride with 2 keen historian guys who were visiting memorials in France, so we tagged along to see one in Vimy Ridge which was a Canadian memorial and parted at a small town in Beaumont.  We looked around for shops etc but the town was so small we couldn't find anything.  So we walked towards where the Belgium guys were to get a ride to the next place they were going to visit.  As we walked on the very quiet road, a man stopped for us and was a fluent english speaker.  Francois his name is.  After we got to know eachother, he invited us to stay the night at his house in a small village called Colincamps with his wife and mother in law who were also good english speakers.  We had an amazing time there, he introduced us to the best cheese and the best wine I've ever had in my life which didn't give me any hangover at all.  The wine's were Bordeaux, Burgundy and a couple more that I couldn't remember the names.  As far as I can remember, I was quite drunk that night.  The next day, Francois took us to a couple of memorials, gave us cheese, sausages and wine for a picnic.  He then dropped us off at the main road toward Amiens.  What an amazing guy he is.  It was such a perfect experience for an introduction to France.  Funny we thought, because in Holland and Belgium, we were always warned that it will be impossible to hitch in France and that French people are not very friendly.  After meeting Francois, seems like they were proven wrong immediately.

On our way south, we had a couple of weird identical rides, which were from a couple of guys who were young and crazy.  We rested for the day after such a dramatic experience from wonderful magical morning to crazy rides in the afternoon.  We camped just on the river bank of Abbeville.  So far our main problem for camping in Europe are the stingy nettles and blackberries, although blackberries were edible so they're not too bad.  In the morning we got a ride with Arnould who took us to Mers Le Bains where we ended up staying the whole day and night.  It's one of the most beautiful town I've ever seen.  Extremely beautiful architecture with the style callled 'Belle Epoque', the beach which we swam in was very unique and beautiful as well.  The beach was covered in smooth small stones, had tide that comes up really reallly quick and had amazing cliffs on each side.   We felt like we were in fairytale land.

From top let to right: Sticking thumb out to stop Francois; Albert church in France; Francois's nice garden in the morning; Photo with Francois and wife; British monument; Picnic given by Francois in the field outside Albert; Our home for the night in Abbeville; Hitchin the next morning in Abbeville; Ride to Mers Le Bain with Arnould; Asked Arnould to drop us off when we saw people lining up outside a bakery in Mers le Bain

From top left to right: Row 1 to 4 are pictures of Mers Le Bain, beautiful town and we watched the sunset as we had dinner (baguette, sausage and camembert); The rocky smooth stoned beach; Lying on the rocky beach which felt like having a massage; Our home for the night with a beautiful view; City light view from our camp

The next morning, after enjoying croissants that melted in our mouth and a fresh from the oven baguette, we continued on hitching while walking up the hill over to the main road and got a few rides until we reached Caen.  Caen has one of the biggest castle in Europe and amazing cathedrals that survived the D-day.

We camped just beside the castle that night and got up early in the morning when I started to feel drops of rain on my face.  It turns out it was a bit of a false alarm but it was good to get up anyway.  We spent the whole day in Caens admiring the buildings and how fashionable people are, even the homeless people are stylish there.  Can't wait to see what Paris is like.

The night after leaving centre of Caen, we camped close to the highway so that we can hitch easily in the morning.  We had a couple of nice rides with a few ladies until Villedieu les Poeles.  From there we hitched on the highway and had a police car stopping and asked us not to hitch on the highway, but they also gave us a ride to our destination which was awesome!

From left to right : Pictures 1 to 3 are photos of the beautiful Cathedral; Picture of wedding ceremonies where wedding convoys go around town and make loud noises; Picture of castle; View of castle at night from our camp; Emmanuel with the cops who gave us a ride to Le Mont St Michel

We got to Le Mont in around after lunch.  It is a really beautiful castle in an island that has medieval style houses within it.  On the top of the castle is a church.  It's a pretty cool place and full of tourist.  In the afternoon, the tide was rushing in so quickly, you could tell the difference by minutes.  When the sun was almost setting, we went back to the main land and set our camp amongst corn fields close to an animal park called Alligator Bay.  It was such a tiring day and lots of moving the last week.  That night all I could think of was a nice hot shower, warm bed and warm food.  But we really had to restrain ourselves to save money.  So stuck with bread and cheese.  So far, from the way we are living, we've been able to spend not more than 8 Euro each a day.

We decided to go to the quiet west beach area where we could rest for a few days before heading to Paris, so we started to hitch the next morning just outside of town towards St Malo.  A local man who actually lives in Le Mont St Michel picked us up and as we were telling him we wanted to go to St Malo to have a swim because we hadn't showered for a week, he invited us to have a shower at his place and that we could come with him in the afternoon as he was heading to his other house in St Malo then.  How perfect!

We were astonished as the car went into Le Mont, because vehicles weren't allowed to go in there accept buses and local cars.  We felt like VIPs when we were in one of the medieval style house while watching tourists walking around the castle.  Not just a nice warm shower, he also made us delicious salad, roasted pork and potatoes for lunch.  It was heaven.  After lunch, we drove to St Malo where he showed us around and helped us look for a campsite but no luck because the town was too crowded.

We asked if he could take us outside of St Malo where we could find a more quiet place to camp a couple of days and instead he offered us to stay at one of his place on the river bank outside of St Malo in a town called St Antoine.  I was so speechless when he took us to this '5 star accommodation' right in front of the river that had a million dollar view and fruits growing in the garden, showed us the house, gave us the keys to the house, said we could stay for the week and left us alone.  I couldn't believe it, what I dreamt and fantasized about the night before all came true the next day just because we met Pierre on the right time in the right place.  This is the magic of hitch hiking and why we love it so much.

From top left to right : First 2 rows are pictures of Le Mont St Michel; Me infront of Le Mont; Photo of  St Malo where Pierre took us for a tour around town; Photo of us with Pierre; Photo of Pierre's place in Le Mont; Inside Pierre's place in Le Mont; View from inside Pierre's house in Le Mont; The house Pierre let us stay in for a couple of days in St Antoine at the river bank near St Malo; Our home for a couple of days in St Antoine; The view from the 5 star accommodation we were given by Pierre