Happy Holidays!

What a poser.

Bilbao baby!

I made it to Bilbao! After Jean-Phillipe decided to leave a few days early, I decided to leave with Petra and hitchhike together as far as . . . well, whatever the name of the place she wanted to go was. This gave me 4 days to get across the entire width of southern France then down into Spain and Biblao.
The first leg of our journey took us 4 hours. Not bad for Petra because she knew she was going to arrive that day. For me it was a bit more stressful because we´d only managed to get a fraction of the way that I needed to. Then in Foix we (plus another hitchhiker we bumped into) we found some French arachists who were going to Portugal.

SWEET!
So I just rode with them all the way to Bayonne and then spent the night in my tent. Then the next day we got up and went to meet some of their friends. I ended up living, eating and drinking with these guys for 4 days first in a squat, taking breakfast at 2 homeless shelters, then 3 days on the Atlantic coast. When eventually we did leave and get to Bilbao 2 days late and at 10:30pm, June was waiting for me in the station. We caught the metro back to her place and I showered and did some laundry. The next night we went out for an explorative walk and rented a movie. A movie which still remains unwatched because Bilbao seems to have a disproportionately large percentage of pirate pubs! We hit 3 that night before coming back home and going to bed.
The next day we went to a fantastic juggling convention full of young hippies from all over the place! It was awesome, with tall celings, enthusiastic young jugglers, a bar, sleeping upstairs, rope acrobatics, unicycles, everything. If you´ve seen it in a circus or ever wished you had, it was at this convention. All held in a fantastic 4 story squat, complete with vegetarian kitchen on the 2nd floor and climbing wall on the 3rd.
That evening we went to see a show and before hand one of the hosts started talking to me about my moustache. June told her I was Canadian so she started talking to me in French. Then later on during what was a FANTASTIC show full of ´Just for Laughs´caliber tricks and performances, they started giving out prizes. The last prize she started asking for the Canadian guy with the moustache she liked. I didn´t understand a word of it, but June said she was looking for me so I stood up. When she saw me she ran over, jumping over seated people (remember there are 400 people watching this show) and came over to me, gave me a pink toy bicycle, kissed me once on each cheek, and held my hand aloft saying something about being the Canadian d'Artagnan.
After that everyone at the conference knew me, and after the show lots of folks came up and patted me on the back, or congratulated me, or maybe insulted me, who knows, I don´t speak Spanish!

All in all it´s been a damn fine week. Let´s hope next week can match it!

Right on time

Today is Tuesday and as promised here I am, about to write a fantastically compelling entry to my blog. Buckle up folks here we go . . .

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is my posse. From left to right they hail as follows . . .

JiPi - Short for Jean-Phillipe, we all call him Jean-Phillipe. He's the man that organized this place. It's an old house and he's renovating it in an ecologically sound way. We're helping. So far that consists of flinging muck made of woodchips and chalk powder at the walls. We call this insulating.

Jeneviéve - An integral member of the cast, Jeneviéve is from Québéc. She's the kind of person that makes you wish you had a stronger sense of national identity. She's fun, friendly, a great cook, and tons of fun to be around. It wouldn't be the same without her.

Grayson - The most kick ass dude on the scene.

Petra - The 2nd Petra I've met abroad. She's a Somerset girl educated in London with an accent that very consciously sounds nothing like that of the area she was born. Her culinary ability is worthy of praise and her predilection towards doing the dishes is a very welcome addition to our little gang. It's also good to have another Anglophone in the crowd, just to even things out a little.

This is a picture of my on the first day of my arrival in Chalabre. I guess I was a little excited to be here.

Damn

Ran out of time. Was going to make a great post, but sadly I need to give up the computer. Next time I'll have internet is Tuesday.

Check back then.

Back in Belgium

For those who don't know (and those who read my blog. This means you Clayton.) I've just returned to Belgium from Amsterdam. After my last experience hitchhiking I decided to just take the bus. (Last time took me 5 hours to get 2 hours up the road and it was hailing and cold and dark so I just gave up and took the bus and then the train. This time I just paid €5 more and took the train all the way in.

It was sold out on the internet, but when I arrived in person it only had 5 people on board, so I managed to get a ticket (discounted again because I'm under 25 ;) ) with no problem at all.


The trip took 5 hours so I slept a bunch. Then in Leuven I found my friends weren't home so I asked a stranger if she knew of a pay phone. She didn't so she took me back to her house, baby strapped to her chest, and let me use her phone. No answer, so I went to the pub ... for 5 hours.
In my defense I only had 6 beers (not even pints) over the course of 5 hours. To my detriment it was Duvel which is 8.8%, so I was a bit toasty when some granny started to chat me up in French. Fortunately my friends arrived before she could buy me another beer and she left. Then we left.


After arriving chez mes amis, we played 'Sing Star' on the play station. Turns out I suck. Then everyone left so I'm currently alone in a flat in Leuven, Belgium. It wouldn't be so bad if the T.V. was working but as far as I can tell I just have to wait for technical problem to be solved. I could read, or journal but I've been doing that a shit load today in that pub and I'm not really up for it again.


In other news I got a new Camera in Amsterdam!! It was priced €150 but I got it for €100 with 2 free memory cards. Not really cheap but it's good to have a camera again. Here is one picture. I don't know how to change the picture quality on my camera so everything is too big to upload all at once.

Curly Q

After much contemplation, and even more patience, and much determination, I have regrown my curly moustache.
The dude who looks like he's gonna bust a cap is named Frank. I met him that night. I have no idea why he's pretending to shoot me.

This gent went to Gent

That's right. On 4 hours sleep I went to visit the medieval city of Gent. It was awesome. Cool architecture, winding canals, pedestrian only sections of town, tons of bicycles, and a very friendly livable overall feeling. It's kind of what North American cities should be, but probably never will.

After seeing the castle (only €1.50 because I'm under 26 ;) ) I walked around for a while. Actually I walked around for hours because I got lost and just kept walking. Eventually I made it back to the station but I was hungry.

Knowing that I would eat when I got home I tried to forget about it and not waste money on some crap. I ended up buying an entire bag of chips and a sausage on a bun smothered in fried onions, sauerkraut, and hot mustard. Instead of the warm feeling of accomplishment; of having willpower strong enough to resist temptation; instead of this I got indigestion and €4 less in my pocket. Kind of makes me feel bad about fibbing to the guy at the castle.