New Motivation

Watch this, (be warned, it's like an hour!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcqcWVZJPb0

And then check out more here!

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/
http://www.heymarci.com/


I've only just found out about them but they seem awesome!

Madrid

You ever take a long bus ride and kind of get excited because you'll be able to get some reading done and just take it easy? Well that was the state of mind that I was in when I boarded the bus in Bilbao bound for Madrid. Sadly the driver thought he'd turn on the overhead T.V.s and play James Bond and then the Bourne Surpremecy in Spanish and blast the sound the entire trip. The Bourne film was a pirate copy too and was terrible, complete with people standing up in front of the screen.

So then we arrived in Madrid and I tried to call my hosts so they could meet me or give me directions to their place. Nope, the payphone wasn't having any of it. So I asked around in my best yet still apauling Spanish to see what the deal was. Nobody knew why but one woman gave me her phone to use so I got in contact, but I had to call back later so I had to thank the woman and let her go.

So I waited around for about an hour and then decided to try yet another payphone. While doing so I overheard a woman speaking English so I approached her to ask for her phone. When she turned around she was in tears, and couldn't lend me her phone because the battery was almost dead and she had just been mugged.

Then I asked a security guard if he could help me with the payphone and as he was a girl came up to him, tears streaming, and reported that she had been robbed.

Eventually I met 3 Irish girls who told me that you can't call a mobile phone from a payphone, and they graciously lent me their mobile and I was able to call my hosts and sort out the rest of my life from there.

Strange how in one station you can have people who are so trusting and generous and others who're so immoral and willing to take advantage of people. It's actually probably the one personality that enables the other to exist sadly.

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Leading up to New Years I was a little nervous. I had been told that the last time June introduced someone to her friends who only spoke English, they really made no effort to talk to him and he was bored.

I shouldn´t have worried though. When we arrived June and her friends all talked with each other and I found out there was a Brazilian girl there too, so good! 2 non native speakers! I think I started talking to her in English and within a few minutes I was able to talk to everyone and they were all great!Our entrance to the bar cost us 20€ but that included 3 drinks and a shot. And they just gave you free shots when you ordered a drink anyway, I have no idea why! And if you asked them to mix you a really strong drink they would. It was pretty good! Anyway we stayed there ´till 4 or 5 I guess then we went to another bar and then to a house party in some room some guys rented. Across from their room there was a bar, I went in and bought a beer and ended up talking with strangers in there too. I had an argument with some Latin American guy about whether or not I was American and I just gave up because he was getting mad. After that though we were best of friends.

Just before the bar closed I asked the bartender if he´d just fill up my pint for me . . . and he did!!! Ha! Just filled ´er on up! Then I played hackey sack with some guy with a tennis ball, or more accurately just kind of kicked his tennis ball away from him.

Over the course of the night people disappeared, people reappeared, people threw up, I was given a roll of toilet paper in a grand ceremony in the bar, and then at about 8:30am we all stumbled back to our places and tried to get as much sleep as possible. I didn´t get up ´till 5pm.
Prior to all of this, June and I had watched the countdown to New Years on T.V. and then ate the traditional 12 grapes during the first 12 seconds of the year, then went out to the balcony to watch people shooting off fireworks from their balconies! Seriously! People were shooting crap right out their kitchen windows! I say one thing smack into the wall of the building on the other side of the road! I saw pedestrians on their way out have to run after someone dropped a firecracker out their window above them. It was awesome!!

Please note the Christmas tree in the background of the one picture. That´s because Christmas here isn´t over ´till January 5th when the 3 wise men come. The 25th is when Olentzaro brings gifts. That´s the dude who´s effigy I´m carrying in the impromptu parade in the old town.

Looking back

I was looking for something on my blog the other day, and I realized that I used to put all sorts of cool stuff on here that I don´t tend to do anymore. I was able to go back and do quizzes that I had forgotten about, look through random websites, hear songs, and more or less remember all the time I´ve wasted online.

And, seeing as I was just introduced to this mess, I thought I´d share it with all of you as well . . .
I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did. How creeped out were you though?

La Maison des Chameaux

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDkRjm_U_s8

Life is never dull these days! I've been living on a camel farm in the south of France and loving every minute of it.

http://www.lamaisondeschameaux.com/home.htm

Everything else I had written here has been deleted.

Thrice.

Don't pretend to be disapointed. I'll tell everyone about everything in person the next time I see them!

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!