Stunning Greece

Athens - Evia Island - Athens - Styra

At the end of January, we said our farewell to Athens. It was a nice and warm day for a winter in Greece. As the ferry arrived in Nea Styra, we were picked up by our host and taken to a little village called Styra, where we plan to live for a month. In a little quaint house, where the previous owner seem to have a large interest in churches, we drop our backpacks and make ourselves home. We have longed for the peace and quiet and the serenity of the country side. A breath of relief as I inhale the freshness of the air of this little village that's surrounded by mountains.

Styra, Evia Island, Greece, our current home.

After spending the first week of January in Athens, we rented a car and went for a road trip from Athens, middle of Evia island and along the coast, through the mountains to the north side where Edipsos was the place we aimed to be. Edipsos is a town where there is hotwaterspring coming out of the mountain and running down to the sea. We went down the beach where the hotwaterspring falls from a big rock. The feeling standing under the water fall was incredible, where the lower part of the body is chilled by the coldness of the sea and the upperside is extremely warmed up by the hotness of the hotwaterspring.

First night of our roadtrip in Dikastika, mainland Greece.

Along the road through mountains in Evia Island

Hotwater spring water fall on the beach, Edipsos, Evia Island

North of Edipsos watching the sunset, Evia Island

 While staying in Edipsos for a couple of nights, we found some time to look for an eco community called 'Free and Real', which we were extremely interested to witness and experience how the community works without money. Unfortunately the village is not active during winter. But the experiences and views we went through looking for the village was amazing.

On the way to Steni mountain to get some fresh water passing the beautiful dancing flow of Starlings, opening up like curtains as we pass by.

On our way up the mountain, Evia Island

Curious about a cave north of Edipsos, Evia Island

 On our way south heading towards Athens, we passed Chalkida and headed further south where we ended up in Eritria and went in to a small island and an abandoned place called Island of Dreams. As we were looking around the area, we heard little dogs whining and barking. The sound came from a little church and all these little cute puppies were lining up against the gate trying to get our attention. There were 11 of them and we fell in love with them, so we stayed two nights there. While camping there, we also took the opportunity to visit Steni, where the taste of the fresh water coming out of the mountain is dense and sweet. It was one of the best tasting water I've had.

On the way south of Evia I

On the Island of Dreams, with Fluffwuff. SO CUTE!

Snow White, Panda, Fluffy, Beige and Jamie in Island of Dreams, Evia.

Leaving the dogs behind was really sad. I really wish we can take them with us, especially Fluffy and Fluffwuff who were the smallest and fluffiest ones amongst the others. Yes, we named everyone. Nosey, Mama San, Snow White, Beige, Jamie, Cersei, Panda, Caramel and Chocolate. After a week of living in the small car, we came back to Athens and stayed there for 2 weeks, taking the opportunity to meet up with my friend who I met from my last trip in Sevilla, Spain, as well as visiting Platonos Akademia. Our host also took us on top of the marble mine hill where the old marble road heading to Acropolis began.

Infront of the Parliamant building in Sintagma, Athens.

Platonos Akademia, Athens

Parthenon from Monastiraki, Athens

Cool grafitti on the way to Platonos Akademia, Athens

Another cool grafitti 

Little monastery from the cave on the marble mine mountain, Athens

More news from me coming in a month time. 

Sending my love to you. 1ove <3

In and Out of the Schengen Zone

Bulgaria - Turkey - Greece

As we put in our bags through the scanner on the border of Turkey, I thought to myself Wow, finally out of Europe now. The weather is still as chilly as Bulgaria, but the air of change being in another country is obvious. Large flags with red background with the moon and the star coloured white are flapping on high poles. 

Beautiful Hagia Sofia Museum infront of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul.

After a few hours bus ride, we finally got to Istanbul and found a nice place in Taksim square to stay for a couple of nights. We're not fans of the city, so staying a few nights is enough for us. We were planning to continue east but the Universe led us back to Europe which resulted in us heading towards Athens. 

Somehow we have been led here, perhaps to experience the incredible Economic Warfare that is happening here in Greece. Our eyes almost fell out of our sockets when visiting the supermarket and getting basic food needs. The prices are equal to twice more expensive than prices in the UK and Sweden, which are the most expensive countries I've been to so far. 

Keeping Plato and Socrates company in Athens. Oh and not forgetting to mention Hermes.

One thing I must mention before ending this blog is the beautiful magnificent mountain Rhodopi. Our trip from Devin to Plovdiv was coloured by the amazing view of mount Rhodopi stretching through the south part of Bulgaria.

Rhodopi Mountain, Bulgaria

Now, I shall end this blog by wishing everyOne a new gregorian year of extensive experiences that will lead us all to further growth and enlightenment. We are One.

Spreading my love to you from Athens. 1ove <3

Ciao Serbia Ciao Bulgaria

Rtanj - Belgrade - Sofia - Varna

The snow was falling in to the warm car that we were sitting in. I looked out the window with tears in my eyes watching Lady and Popsy the dogs running along the car as we left town. Thanks to our lovely host in Rtanj, Serbia, we decided to stay in the house for almost 2 months. We thought we were going to live there longer, but it felt like it was time to move on. There are still so many places to go to.

Our last day in Rtanj, Serbia

During our stay in Rtanj, I managed to climb the mountain four times. Each of the climbing experiences were all extremely different and interesting with different and interesting companions as well. 

Ara, one of the dogs who kept us company walking up Rtanj the first time.

Fluffy, posing on the top of Rtanj on our third climb.

Coming back to the big city felt quite dramatic as it was an extreme change. Rtanj was so peaceful, quite, with millions of stars in the sky at night, fresh water straight from the mountain, and -my favourite- pitch black nights. Nothing like sleeping in the pitch black light.

After staying a few nights with our friend in Belgrade, we continued on traveling south to Sofia, Bulgaria. 

And now, we're in Varna, beside the black sea.

Varna Beach, Bulgaria

Serenity in Serbia

Amsterdam - Budapest - Belgrade - Rtanj

In the beginning of October, we continue travelling south to avoid the cold. We spent half a day in the bus and arrived in Budapest feeling quite exhausted. So we stayed there for a week and found out that Budapest has more than 50 hot water spring, also that apparently Count Dracula was prisoned and his headless body was buried under the Buda Castle.

Hot water spring, Budapest

The beautiful colours of autumn in Budapest

After our enjoyable and relaxing stay, we continued our travel to head to Bulgaria. But we wanted to visit Belgrade for the day once we found out that Nicola Tesla's museum was located there. We caught a train from Budapest to Belgrade. The train stopped at the border and we had our passports checked.

I almost got in to trouble because I've been staying in Europe longer than I can, but with all our wits, we succeeded to pass with no problem. At this moment also, we realized that Serbia is not part of the European Union, which made me decide to stay in Serbia for a longer time.

So we stayed in Belgrade for a night and gave our respect to Nicola's museum. Then we were brought to a three sided pyramidal mountain called Rtanj. We were planning to stay for one week before heading to Bulgaria. But it appears that we have grown attached with the place, especially the dogs that we now love dearly.

St Sava Church, Belgrade, Serbia

Tidying up the remaining tents from the temporary refugee camp, Belgrade

Rtanj, Serbia. The three sided pyramidal mountain.

So, the question is, is Serbia my new home now?

September to Remember

Five cities in one day: Gothenburg - Malmo - Copenhagen - Hamburg - Amsterdam

There's nothing like celebrating my birthday in Amsterdam, coloured with Lots of Indonesian food, great smoke, awesome company and ending the month with meeting an old Indonesian friend of mine, Pipit. It was perfect, absolutely perfect! Thanks Silvana for having us once again in Amsterdam, our home. <3

Refeeding in Gothenburg after 21 days waterfast

Brake (Unterwesser) - Gothenburg - Varberg

This would be my third time now traveling to Gothenburg. It seems that Gothenburg is starting to become my home. After starting to eat for 4 days with a very discipline refeeding with watery fruit in Brake, Germany, I traveled back to Gothenburg to reunite with Mats. Fruits in Sweden are definitely so much better than Germany, so I'm glad to be back here.

Coming back to Sweden, my craving for tasty food took over me, so I ended up having delicious tasty salty food for the rest of the 5 days in Sweden. Then ended up having a bloated face and legs, apparently because I was having too much sodium which my body was not prepared for. Lesson learnt!!!

So I stopped having salt and replaced it with lemon and yet, my craving still took over me which made me eat so much, more than my body can take. I made a mistake of having too much acid in my stomach, which I ended up throwing up all night. Again, lesson learnt!!!

After the experience I had, I really learnt this time. So I had a watermelon fast for the next three days and that healed the balloon looking face and legs, as well as my poor stomach.

So far, from the experience of waterfasting, I realized how easy it was to waterfast and how hard it was to break it. Refeeding is definitely one of the toughest thing to do in my life.

21 Day Waterfast in Sweden and Germany

Gothenburg - Jonkoping - Gothenburg - Bremen - Brake (Unterwesser)

I'm so happy to say that I've finally finished my 21 day waterfast yesterday. It definitely was not the easiest thing to do. We were beside a lake in the forest at Jonkoping, planning to spend 21 days of our fast there, but the weather turned out to be extremely horrible. It was definitely not a pleasant experience. So after a week in the forest, we managed to gather some strength to head back to Gothenburg. The first week of the fast was quite tough as hunger and the thought of food was dominating my mind.

The second week wasn't so hard. I was starting to get used to the fact that I haven't been eating for more than 7 days. During the second week, there was a lot of moving around with the backpack, which felt extremely heavy at that time. Finally, I got to Brake (Unterwesser), Germany, to spend the rest of the remaining days of fasting here.

The third week was tough for me as my body felt so much weaker each day. Walking to the nearest shop which was 500m away from the place I was staying was one of the most exhausting thing I have ever done in my life.

Today, I broke my fast with a slice of watermelon to have every 2 hours. I feel much more energized now.