Tree snakes, monkeys and rastas...

Hi loved ones,
It's been too long and internet has been exceedlingly difficult to get by..
I am wwoofing one a new farm now, a charity organisation, permaculture feat where I'm learning how to weave, garden and become a better piano player.
We do soup kitchens on friday for the poorer people living in the townships.
Towships is where they put all coloured people during the days of apartheid. But people still live there because of poverty. Social apartheid they call it.
Like a comedian once said... it is no longer black or white that matters, the only color they care about now is green (americam dollar green that is).

Anywasy I am very happy to be spending time in the townships and see much more of the real south africa. The differences here in Plettenberg bay are huge, huge mansion by the seaside and a rows of shacks of on some more arid and deserted land. People dumps...

But there is hope and these people are lovely... Last weekend was my birthday and we visited a Rastafarian community in the townships... lovely people and a vaery nice atmosphere. It is also nice to see black and white living together in the townships and how people make it nice there and atmospheric... good vibrations. Then Rachel and Charlie ( the owners of Oasis farm where I'm working, two retiring brittish people with a love for politics, socialism and the hippie spiritual.... having had amazing lives themselves!) took me to a restaurant and the next day to one of the most beautiful valleys I've ever been, where a river meets the sea and one can swim... We had an awesome picknick and a lazy sunday smoking some of the doobies the rasta people suppllied us with :D. Awesome.

Before coming here I had to leave Volskrust though and Donkey valley farm. I stayed over at Suzaans place, who has become a real friend to me, and had the most amazing supper with her family; wafels with spinach and feta :S, but it was sooo good.
Then we went for some beers and at 3 in the morning we left for Durban. We had a swim and some juggling on the beach, I bought them breakfast and they dropped me off at the busstation. I got on the bus at 5, it was gonna be a long ride 16 hours long that is. We occasionally stopped at gasstations and I bought some candy and sigs and spllit them with some black people. Had a nice talk to my neighbour on the bus, shge was a teacher of technology. Lovely girl.
Then I arrived in Plett, had an icecream and Rachel and Charlie picked me up, showed me around the place and we drove around to the townships and viewpoints... did I tell you nature is extremely beautifull here, fynbos, coustlines, snakes, monkeys, sharks... WHALES!!! wikkid...
anyway, I'll leave ti with this for now, at least I posted something, but I have another 20 emails or so to check so Talk to you soon... forgive me for not posting sooner. know I love you all and think about you guys, one in a row that is, nearly daily, much love xox

steven

Lion scars and Absint :D

Hey lovelies, butterflies – strange creepy crawlers in the dark of night; or whatever you may call yourselves...

I find myself with an overload of stories, anecdotes, jokes, renditions, songs and thoughts.
I will have to suffer the fact of just not being capable to condense all of it in writing. The reason I haven't written for the last two weeks is because this kind of living has been way too involving and intense, getting deeply sucked into the lifestyle of another culture and just having a plain shitload of work!
Some of my major achievements though...



I did get bitten by a lion, but although rumor and popular belief took a turn of it's own, it was a baby lion cub! I am not severely injured, but do have a slight 3 cm scar on my left arm...
Now we've gotten that one straight...



I have finished my first batch of ABSINT, made with a real still, and it kicks ass! I mean it, it tastes like the best Pastis, changes from green to yellow milky white when you put water with it, and it gets you freaking high! Either that or the stash of homegrown Durban weed laying around here somewhere... who knows!!! one day we'll repeat the experiment without the W factor.

From sa5nov

the still!!



Besides that I have learnt : - several leather thong stitches
- how to make leather thong
-how to pre-stretch and brain-tan a buckskin ( this process does involve soaking a animal skin in cooked brains, if you're wondering, I do think it's gross and I do not condone animal suffering, but the native tech/primitive technology, sustainable living part of it is way interesting me)
-how to piss of the maid while trying to teach her how to cook, which she obviously doesn't want.
-weld!
-build a deck to fish from
-Fish!
And so on...

From sa5nov

the skins
prestretching...



Doobeh

evening view over the dam

I have been staying on this farm for a month now, and I still get along with everybody very well, especially the maid. I have gotten drunk on may an occasion, tonight not excluded... And I have performed for a bunch of South African rugby supporters a Ryan Adams song on banjo...
Sound random to you... well it is.
I played only one song and it rocked, the bargirl gave me free peanuts and popcorn and I thought she liked me, though the boss of the establishment was getting seriously pissed off from my hilarious cowboy – drunk ass antics... it didn't help when I was calling South African whites a bunch of retarded inbreds... and so on ... no not really.
I behaved much better, I'd like to remember, but this is the story Hannes told me about our night out.
I had gone out with him and his Scottish buddy Dave, we had left Jeanne alone at the farm for something that should have been an hour or so. We had been loading up on the 160 proof moonshine at the farm, and it hit me like a kicking mule on the way to the Majube lodge.
All along the way, me and Dave were talking about the racial thing, which is a bummer in this country, and as I got seriously pissed off at the white supremacist thing, racial purity and that nonsense... I came to the genious idea that all these guys trying to be so racially pure, so far from the European homeland ( where they seem to identify with... if they only knew how liberal we are...), are a bunch of inbreds....
I know this is wrong and politically incorrect but it made a lot of sense to me that night... Anyway I played my song, had my time, everybody was very friendly... except the boss who was gazing at me from the right corner of his evil eye.. but all went fine, and I didn't insult anybody... I think :p
After me there was a nice guitar duo that made south african, hawaian style guitar music, and I enjoyed it. Although Hannes and Dave kept booing to get me back on stage.
Finally we went home, way too late, Jeanne was in bed and we started a braai ( which is Afrikaans for BBQ), I emptied a can of computerscreen spray, since me and Dave just couldn't get the fire going and so on and so on... we were drunk indeed!
I woke up hung over, Jeanne was way pissed because we made an immense amount of mess and the spraycan was emptied... she's reminded me a couple of times ever since....





well enough of the wild stories; I have been behaving rather well lately and I'm still trying to make up for that dumb can of computerscreen paint! (the fire was cool though).
I am the only wwoofer on the farm right now and am looking into my options on other farms, maybe travelling with some fellow cs-ers and renting a car together, I might even get a job on a christian missionary boat that travels around the world preaching the gospels of JC, though it seems doubtful :s

the garden

Piet and Vincent

old school!

anyway friends and lovers, I'm gonna have another drink, or try to... and leave it with this for now.
My sincerest apologies for the rant and drink and politically incorrect humor, I'l try to set things straight next time, I just hope you enjoyed it... much love

You know I love You ALLL!!!

steven

Emily, the sweetest maid in the world ( can't get used to having a maid I must tell... fucking racial isues!!!!)

Moonshining in Africa

A good night for writing, thunderstorms, lightning over African skies...
Last night I found myself staying up late, running a ferment of horse feed through a distiller. The first storms of this years rain season. Thundering and rumbling overhead, heavy rains in that dark little shack without electricity. I helped myself to an old oil-lamp and a head flashlight. I guess it felt good, not strange at all. Electricity in the air and wonder and thankfulness for the adventure. Magic and mercury in the air, the border of yet another reality was dawning, and it's flashes sprung like the seconds of illumination brought by the intense lightning.
I have been working through a lot of things the last weeks, hardship and thoughtless endurance of adversity had been very present in my mind.
When I eventually got out of Istanbul, after first waiting there a few days for a friend that sadly did not show up, I waited some more for a plane heading south. But that also turned out a negative, and I had to wait a few more days until I was allowed to board.
On my way towards an uncertain destiny, pulled onto this path by loose ends and doubtful meanings, I must admit I despaired when the British gentleman that was on the same flight course as me, warned me with a deep rooted look of fear and angst in his eye, how dangerous and crime-laden my destination was. Horrible stories of crime, murder and rape, muggings in the middle of daylight and many more, flashed my heart and gut with fear. And the few dreams I managed to have that flight, were -though they carried the special lightness of airplane dreams- filled with images of fear and my own personal limitation.
When I landed that morning in Johannesburg, I was demoralised, a part of me could feel the new energy in the air, the other wanted to jump on the plane back home. Then I called my mom and talked with her for a while. Though soothing, the conversation turned to the beckoning of a worldwide economic crisis and the fear that if economies collapse, airplane tickets home might be hard to come by. Yet another dangling illusion.
There didn't seem much to do about it, and the least we could do was try. I had one lead to go, a farm of two very nice sounding people, where I could learn about herbal medicine and leather work.
I had to book a night in a hostel to get to the busstation in time the next morning. The bus to my destination only ran once a day, at 10 in the morning. I would have been picked up by the farmers if I had arrived on Friday, but thanks to airline regulations, I had missed that opportunity.
The people of the hostel did free airport pickups and that's why I booked with them. I had read that public transportation was quite dodgy and walking around in Johannesburg was a very bad idea, especially with a backpack. The metered cabs, were expensive, and the other ones dangerous... What an atmosphere!
I got picked up by one of the hostels staff, and driven to a suburb of Jo'burg, just a bit north of downtown. With lots of deadly electric fences and anti burglar security company signs.
It felt like prison versus warzone, a mad paradise of criminality, poverty and leftover racism.
The scars of apartheid and intercultural struggle, difference and plain old misunderstanding. What a freaking mess... The hostel staff turned out to be quite opportunist and though friendly, not very warm. They seemed to fill their belly with overpricing everything since there were few alternatives for a shit scared unknowing tourist, or backpacker the like.
One can be very gutsy and not believe rumors, and I have on more than one occasion. But the atmosphere and many different opinions, told me this was not the time to try my luck.
And the general mood in my life and travel at that time didn't ask for such a thing anyway.
I found much friendship in a thin blond, and shyly smiling Swiss girl that looked in her early thirties. We started talking in the supermarket on the corner a block away from our hostel, she asked me if I wanted to walk back with her to the hostel... it's just safer you know, even here in the suburbs...
Her life's story was amazing, you would not believe for how long this girl had been travelling, and the places she had been and even in South Africa she had lived -in Cape town for a while-. Had a job there for a tourist office, underpaid of course compared to European standards.
She had really tried to live there because she really loved the country, but after the third time she had gotten mugged she gave up and went back to Switzerland, this was her goodbye vacation to this country. She told me with sadness in her eye.
We decided to cook lunch together. And she told me many stories about SA. A good introduction and all the information I needed to cling to my backpack like a madman, and be paranoid about every black person... Her views were slightly more favoring the white cause then the black. But I could find no lead of racism in her voice. I guess she, like many, regretted how badly the ANC and other political instances were running their countries. Here and in many other African countries, and how poverty, crime and racism aimed at whites, caused many white South Africans to flee the country or be very worried and uncertain about their future. It seemed that a lot of the legislation to restore the civil value and rights of black peoples, had actually turned against that of the white people.
Whereas certain laws like the new one that obliged companies to hire at least 85 percent black people, made the job market very selective. And for the first time ever, one could now see white homeless people in South Africa...
Also the Zimbabwean example was very troublesome; where white farmers and white people in general got chased out of the country, and this had made the whole food production business to collapse in a few months... A disaster! The country that was once called the breadbasket of Africa, now couldn't fill it's own plate. Empty supermarket and undernourished people everywhere... all to get rid of the white 'dominators'. I fear that certain corrupt leaders are abusing racist( wether or not historically relative) sentiment, to push their personal ideas or economic interests instead of real progress and a human centered policy. I have yet to realize how one continent can have such a continuos shitload of trouble on its back as Africa. The list seems endless, diseases get born here!

Criminal politics, war, corruption, disease, malaria, famine... why do these people have to take it all.

Anyway, sigh...

I got driven to the busstation the next morning and got on the bus. The busticket Jeanne ( the farmer woman) had reserved me online, seemed not possible, since the phones were down and they couldn't call her to check if I was indeed the person that she had ordered the ticket for... They agreed to cancel it though and refund it to her, and get me a new one for this morning.... relief!
For the first time I drove through the South African countryside and it was beautiful, though the piece I got to see that morning, quite arid.(it was soon the end of the dry season)
I arrived in Newcastle that afternoon. The busride was quite interesting, as I was very observant towards the racial differences and aspects of certain passengers... like the well dressed private school boy, that quickly got ahead of me in the line to enter the bus, to the giggling black girls and the rather overweight girl that had to push me in to get to her place. Such differences in life.

I got to Newcastle and called Jeanne who was going to pick me up in half an hour. I had heard Newcastle was a smaller farmers settlement and quite safe. I would have no problems here... I was still wary though.
I bought a coke and a bag of chips for late lunch and sat on the bench by the gasstation. The black pump attendants loved my banjo and I found myself playing them Woody Guthrie songs. They all were very friendly and had lovely smiles. Though one of them kept asking me money questions... that's a nice instrument, how much does it cost? You come from far, how much does the plane cost? And all that stuff... They just wanna feel how rich white people actually are, it's quite a prejudice to think that white people can afford everything. And though it's so easy to get annoyed by it, it is also so easy to understand and so human.
I cannot even imagine how different these people's lives must have been, and I'd like to keep my judgements and irritations to myself.

Jeanne picked me up, with her maid Emily sitting next to her. Emily had just come back from her weekend with her family. Jeanne seemed a nice woman, and how she spoke about her interest in sustainable agriculture and how it bothered her how certain individuals were pushing local communities to start producing a monoculture crop of berries, and had made these people believe that this would bring progress and prosperity to them. A blatant lie, pushed unto many a native minority in order to get them to be dependent on the western free market–system...
I could definitely resonate with this woman's views and it gave me a good feeling about the farm I was heading. The landscape became prettier on the ride there. Rolling arid grass hills, and far away mountains and sudden buttes measured against a dusky sky. It felt warm and calm, wild and welcoming. I've always like the wild countries, where not everything is surrounded and legislated yet.
Arriving on the farm I was greeted by a Big and gentle man called Hannes. He pretended to forget my name more than once, and the stories and jokes rolled out of him as naturally as water from a spring. He was an endearing man and the next few days, while Jeanne was at work he took me and Houman (my fellow wwoofer from Ohio, whom I met at the dinner table that night), for many a treat and excursion. Even though his work had been piling up on him ( he was a dental technician that worked from his home, while Jeanne was working in town, they have workers to do most of the farm chores), he took the time to make us feel very welcome.
He has yet given me so many opportunities to learn crafts and trades. He deeply apologized for not having enough time to spend with me and the leather work, but he has given me books and videos to watch and I have by now started my first Buckskin. It is a special process of tanning the skin of the animal, where you do everything by hand and by natural means, to process it into a very soft piece of leather that is perfect for clothing. I really want to learn this! Afterwards I will try and make a lot of stuff with leather, but this production process of good leather is an essential part.

I am also for the first time distilling moonshine! I started last night, under the full moon, in the right hour, to fire up the still and distill the fermented must that I and Houman had started a few days ago.
I was up until 1 am or so, and had by that time a good bunch of vodka strength alcohol. Today, me and Houman continued and got a whole bunch more. Then we started double distilling it, it must be around 95 percent now. I tried drinking it, but it evaporated in my mouth and I had to spit it out... I had a very dizzy head for half an hour or so :D. I joked to Houman while I was driving to the cornerstore ( you have to drive left hereby the way :D) that it might be methanol poisoning... some defiance of overprotected fear can be well placed sometimes.

Anyway, I've had the best times working and fishing with Houman. And when Hannes finds the time, he loves to join us and have some good old boy / bachelor times... he's like a big kid that loves steaks, moonshine and just plain old good fun.

Right now, my job consists of building a deck for one of the cottages by the dam, teaching Emily how to cook a little bit at lunchtime (she's such a sweet being), distilling alcohol and leather processing. I surely hope to pick up as much skills and experiences as possible here on the farm.
Like Piet, a friend of Hannes working here, that I asked to teach me some welding.
We had a great time at a party at his brother in laws place :D, me and Hannes and Houman walked in there way drunk. I played them banjo and apparently charmed all the older ladies until they fed me all kinds of baked and other goods, it gave me the shits and a huge hangover the next day... I remember very little :P
Anyway, it can be very nourishing and cleansing to party your ass off sometimes, though I do not condone this kind of drunkenness to my inner self. I of course felt guilty the day afterwards, I'm such a catholic sometimes :p

The workers on the farm are pretty cool younger and older guys too, They're of course black people from nearby communities, and in the past there seem to have been many little problems like not showing up some days, or too late, or sometimes things disappearing ( which is a little bigger issue). But most of them seem very gentle, but sometimes seem under some deep stress or burden. I really wish to connect with them better, and understand and speak to them. Me and Houman have definitely made some good progress, but the distance is big. And conventions don't really help. I'm still trying to feel into the situations and I don't get a lot of things immediately, but I'm getting the picture bit by bit, and hopefully it will grow and change in me.
Like William, who I and Houman told about our bet to slap the pig snoring in the mud of the dam, where we were working, now slapped the pig as well (I'm sure the pig didn't suffer) And who told me he liked the gemstone around my neck, and how he loved working with gemstones as well.
Or Boy, sort of the teamleader, and Hannes' best worker, who I tried to explain what the still was for when we were working on it.. And July and Samuel who came to try a sip this afternoon in the still room, quickly so the boss wouldn't see (I'm sure Hannes is ok with it though :D).
Or Doobie, the oldest man working on the farm. A skinny black man in his early sixties, with a few teeth, Hannes' agricultural advisor, who has an innate sense of when the rain is going to come, and spends his mornings cleaning out the stoves and caring with such gentleness for the little chicks that are growing up in the kitchen under a lamp. (Today he put there little cage in the grass and looked after them from under his big straw hat)
All these people are so beautiful, and it breaks my heart to know that a lot of them are HIV infected, and will, sooner or later, die from it.
It's a bone hard life out here.

Much love to all my friends and family and all you radiant beautiful creatures.
Take care!

Peace, love xox

steven

ps: photos will follow as soon as I get to an internet cafe!

Fighting through the mad swooning chaos of the city!

Arriving on the border station of Turkey I woke up half dreaming and still sleepy. We had to stand in line at the stamp-police office. I didn't know Belgians needed to buy a specific visum, since most countries just got a stamp and that was it. So when I finally made it to the officer in charge he told me I had to go around the corner and buy a visum. But the guy wasn't there, I think he'd gone home already cause no one came after a while... Anyway first they told me I'd just have to wait a few minutes cause he had gone to the toilet... yeah right. I waited a while and finally went to explain the situation to the woman in charge of he train and passengers, and some other people in the station... it was like no one knew where the guy was, but no one took it too seriously :s ...

Everyone by now was having tea or morning coffee wit some locals, I had met some people on the train and they were all very nice traveller-types, and now they were having coffee trying to speak German with the local tea drinkers. A lot of them seemed to have been truckers once upon a time, and tried to tell us about this. They had a lot of fun with this one Japanese kid that was on my train, they teased him with karate moves, strange folk..

I was relieved when the angry pisser finally showed up, and gave me a visa. But he sure had no problem showing me his anger and contempt... fuck him!!
We drove on and in a couple of hours we were approaching Istanbul, the suburbs were huge and strange, neat new houses next to dumps and ruins, lots and lots of people, jumping in and out of the open gates of moving banliyo trains. Made it to the main station and tried to get something to eat, lots of döner here, my god... So I tried one, but wasn't very pleased with it, felt guilty about the meat and it just wasn't very good. Nothing like the nice and full pitas we have back home with some form of dressing on it... I guess I still have to find the right place.
Then I called my couchsurfing hosts and told him I was coming to his place. I followed his directions and had to take a boat to the Asian part of this city. I managed to find the ferry terminals, and a nice man gave me a free token to get on a boat, but then gave me the wrong direction so I was on the wrong boat :D...



I got of the boat on the other side thinking I was in the right place, not finding the train station... So I asked some body and he practically threw me on one of the minibuses... the place was full of them. Anyway I asked the driver 'Kartal', and he nodded approvingly.
The people on the bus were friendly enough and one of them told me he was going to Kartal and he would show me where to get off, at least that's what I thought his signlanguage meant...
We had to get off in the middle of the highway though and get on another of these ridiculous minibuses, whose drivers seem like overhyped psychopaths, yelling and honking all the time, driving like madmen with a temper... and it's even worse this week because it's Ramadan, and they can't drink eat nor SMOKE all day!
I eventually made it to the Kartal train station, tired and bummed from all the chaos and madness.



I tried calling Fatih but didn't get lucky immediately, tried again and got through. He asked me to find a port nearby where he would pick me up. That too seemed harder than one would expect, in these wild infested streets, turns everywhere, and an incomprehensible grid :D awesome!!!
I guess I'm in the world third largest city, trying to manage and find my way around the back city!!!

Fatih is a very friendly and gentle guy, I later found out I was his first couchsurfer – you wouldn't say so-. He offered me some of his mom's fine cooking and I was sooo hungry, it was awesome :D.
Then we talked a bit about music and he showed me some of his stuff, he made loungy techno and ambient music, good stuff!
I went to bed not too late though because I was beat.
I woke up still tired and sleepy and left Fatihs place with him because he had to go to work.
In my still woozy mind I forgot to pay much attention on the bus stops and landmarks as to get back here when taking the bus... shit!!!



I took the bus and boat back into town, took a bunch of pictures, felt kind of sick, probably from getting my second hepatitis shot ad day or two earlier. And walked like a madman all over town, IO love walking. I didn't have too much of a good day though, felt kind of absent minded, because the city's just so chaotic, my bag was broken so I had to watch out that my camera and the such didn't fall out (this in a place that's famous for pickpockets), stupid piece of crap bag I got in Bosnia – I still paid too much- (check out the movie : the story of stuff, it's an online presentation about stuff... really good), anyway this sentence is getting way too long, and of course I had on my mind the email my supposed travel partner – to-be wrote me.
She said something about maybe not coming, even though she wanted to, but her parents were pressuring her to stay in school... I fully understand the crazy gamble it is to fly across the ocean to meet and travel with some strange Belgian guy whom you've known for a few days a year ago.
Only a few people in this world are mad enough to make choices like that... I guess I'm one of them.

I guess it's up to her.
Whatever!

I got back that evening on the bus and couldn't find my way back to Fatihs place, I found myself on the last stop of that busride, which is supposed to be close enough. I called him and he told me it was too hard to find and he'd pick me up, nice guy! I had a fey beers and he some joints and went to bed, feeling more sick and feverish than before...
Woke up with a heavy cold, and a sad feeling, said fuck it and had a big sandwich and a whole bunch of sugary drinks to get energy.



I walked and bummed like crazy travelling through this town. First I tried to get to the Syrian embassy, no help from these Turkish people though, they first had me run 4 times across the same roads to find a bus that wasn't really going that correct a direction, then the bus drivers who I'd kind of asked to drop me off where I needed to be, forgot! And I had to walk back a while!
Fuck this ridiculous public transportation, it's worthless!!! I decided to walk from there on! Found the place by my own strength and anger, got a bunch of pictures for a visa, then heard that I needed a letter of recommendation from my consulate, walked across town to the Belgian Embassy, where those fuckers told me in fucking FRENCH that the ministry in Belgium decided not to give any letters of recommendation out anymore outside of Belgium!! FUCK!!! You pay taxes all year so the government WOULD NOT help you once again... First they don't get a fucking government together, but do get paid, fuck up every chance at decent politics, let the fucking business world run the country and then fuck you over again when you're abroad and need their help. I guess the Belgian people should be starting to feel very let down by their leaders, sitting on their asses, not running the country AND GETTING PAID IN THE PROCESS. Good awesome! Fuck this.





So no visum for Syria, I walked back though to explain the situation, no luck, friendly people though, wanting to help me but not allowed without that stupid letter. Okay, no Syria, no travelling partner, no shit!!



oh yeah the greenpeace boat was in town, telling these poor people to quit coal...



Guess the best thing in life is to be independent, where one can choose who and for how long to deal with certain people, well I'm lucky and going to Africa! I'm just going to take some time by the ocean and then fly straight to SA and start working again, I'm looking forward to it, I wanna be on the other side of the hemisphere, seeing different stars at night and feeling close to nature, working hard and writing and reading! It'll rock!
Anyway I'll leave it with that for now, tonight I'm staying with another cs'er, more downtown, staying another day or two in this city and then going to Butterfly Valley, it'll be awesome...

talk to you soon, sweet peoples of the world! Xox

Steven

Bulgaria Rocks!!!

Hey goodies,

here we are again with a few reports and stories...

I spent the last days, having the best of times in Sofia, Bulgaria.
I arrived by the nighttrain I took from Belgrade, it took me another 20 euros and I'm starting to realise my money supply isn't endless. Especially after buying a computer... I will try to put it to more and better use though.
I arrived in Sofia early in the morning, it was fresh, even cold. Immediately I was struck with the lack of fanciness or luxury. It had a strong backwards communist feel to it, but I liked the air very much.
Although at first I found myself very much an outsider and getting noticed in the crowd. And I didn't speak the language or read the alphabet... Very estranging.
I pulled through and got myself a coffee, stuff was cheap here again, what did me good!

I walked direction town and checked my emails for the number and adress of the people I had contacted through couchsurfing. I got Elli on the phone and we agreed to meet at Hotel Pliska at 2 o'clock . I walked further downtown and really started enjoying the different atmosphere, the cheaper old European cars, the people and the coolness of fall.

Nikki and Elli


I met Nikki and Elli at the hotel Pliska that afternoon. They're 2 amazingly sweet and gentle people, a couchsurfers dream. They're both software programmers and they decided to work from home that friday afternoon, so I wouldn't have to be out in the cold the whole afternoon. The invited me to go with them to Nikki's mom's villa out in the country, close to the Serbian border. Ofcourse I agreed to such a wonderfull proposal.
I cooked for them that evening and we enjoyed a few beers and some warm conversation...

Nikki in the kitchen

I had one of the best sleeps in their couch I had had for a while and the morning was sunny and clear. We had a great breakfast Nikki cooked and packed to go out to the country with two good friends of theirs; Toni and Ivan.
Around noon time we left, picked up the keys at Nikki's moms and head out.
On the way out of the city we passed a junkyard settlement of gypsies, ironically with satelite dishes. Elli told me some striking stories about the gypsies, how they play the minority card way too often... and get away with it. They seem a special bunch!

streetview...

the gypsies of Sofia



We drove through some of the prettiest countryside and landscapes I've ever seen, and had to walk a while on a dirt road to get to the villa. The house was simple, small but nice. We lit the woodfire as soon as we entered and I discovered some real Bulgarian ingenuity (I don't know if we have this in Belgium, but I've never heard of it): a central heating system where the water for the pipes is heated on the woodstove... awesome!



We started with a salad and some great homemade rakija. A friend of Ivan made it, and his dad too... he told us some stories about it, how you could go blind from the bad stuff, and how they used to distill the good alcohol out of the denatured stuff you get from the pharmacies, haha, wild stuff!







Night came setting on and Ivan lit the barbecue outside and baked us some porkchops and onions in the fire, Nikki made another one of his awesome salads, and we hade a great dinner with rakija :D.

After dinner we passed the guitar and banjo, I played some country music. They played and sang all together, some of the most beautifull songs I'd heard live... bulgarian folkmusic mixed with some popsongs. It just struck me as beautifull cause I couldn't understand a word and so was very perceptive of the behaviour and tonalities in the music. And of course a lot less prejudiced then one would be towards his own culture ;).



After a few hours of playing talking, drinking and crochetting a hat for Elli ( one of my masterpieces I must say, the combinations of white and leftover colours worked really well..)
which she liked even more than I did, I went out with Nikki and Elli.

Toni and Ivan had gone to bed already and we walked out in the cold and dark night. It felt so gentle and peacefull though.
Nature here has nothing of the frustration and stress towards the human race as it has in our west.
Here there is still peace between man and nature, and you could feel it in the air...
We were so exalted under the stars and the moon, we started doing somersauls and saltos in the high grass, and it catched us soft as a pillow. Cheering and laughing like mad children we lay in the grass, ridiculing the strange behaviour of modern life, not understanding it from our beautifull viewpoint, high on that mountain, under the fading clouds, starlight and the moon.
Pressing our bellies to mother earth, hoping to grow back our umbellical cords and feel all the warmth and grounded nurturing she gives and gives and gives...
Some say nature is hostile, but she has her own ways, she's not hostile anymore than she is loving.
I guess she has her rules, and for those that are happy with what they have, and know her, she is a sweet as a loving mother. We create our own demons I reckon...

Anyways, it felt so good to be out there, not cold anymore at all... we rested and felt healthy.
And went to bed.... sweet dreams, under starlight and moonshine, rainbowhued visions of myth and story...

woke up hung over hahahaha :D
had coffee and some of the best tasting sheep yoghurt ever(yoghurt is supposed to have originated in bulgaria, because those bacteria are indigenous here and in the air), but had to visit the bathroom for some other purpose than excreting the useless... anyways.

the awesome banitsva or burek

a typical bulgarian childrens plate :D


Nikki showed me how to bake the local breakfast dish 'Banitsva', also known in the Yugos as Burek and probably every region has it's version of it... I love it and it's so cheap to buy in the bakeries... mmm nice stuff made of dough(millefeuille , or bladerdeeg in flemish, cheese, yoghurt and eggs.
If anyone wants me to post the recipe, just ask! Anyway it's great and it made me feel so much better!

a local flower

We went for a walk in the mountains and I got to take some really cool pictures of landscapes and old rustic houses, that were probably not used any more. The Bulgarian border police stopped us and asked for our passports, apparently there's a lot of smuggling and stuff around here, they were very nice though :D.
Then we headed back to town and had an easy evening and a movie.

NIkki and Elli

Ivan and the caterpillar





Tomorrow we're going into town, I really wanna see the town!
Okay, buddies that's all for tonight, take care and sweet dreaming, always!

Much love,
xxx


steven


some more pics:

Cigarette smuggling, chickin yells and watch your bag!!!

Ieps,


I find myself waking up on the train heading for Sofia. What a mess!
This train looks like it was ready for the junkyard back in the eighties... But what an amazing journey... People screaming, someone tapping the walls with a hammer, occasionally somebody peeping into our cabin to see if we're sleeping and if there's something to steal :p...


Either a cock or some retard imitating one(as my Holland friend so laconically put it), then miaaauws and all the such, getting stamps again from the Serbians, cigarette smuggling, asking me for my firestaff to get the smuggled cigarettes from within the ceiling of the train... Old school!
The Eastern European woman look as if they came straight out of the eighties.. lots and lots of cigarette smuggle fjuw...



The landscape is very beautiful though and it seems striking that this is EU territory. It's cold this morning and I'm getting close to Turkey, I look forward to it.
me :p

I spend my whole day yesterday hanging out with the Italian girl I met at the hostel. I had told the boss of the hostel how I played in the streets for some money, and he told me to go do it in Belgrade that it would be good weather that day and I would do good. Lisa asked me if she could join me with her poi. She was an amazing girl and very friendly, so why would I refuse..



We walked up to the mainstreet and started playing, and from the first seconds we hit it off well, good energy, fun times, and lots of banknotes came in... People seemed to like our act and who ever said a banjo and poi don't work well together :p.
After an hour or so of playing we counted the large number of bankbills in our hat and calculated how much it was worth; 4 or 5 euro something hahahaha... awesome!!
We had some good times meeting local people and chatting, I had some burek and then we continued on for another hour or so... then we got tired and had warm red wine... awesome.

It was really great to have somebody to hang with again, it makes travelling different more real and enjoyable. Though I must say I like to have my solo moments.
But these short and intense meetings with good deep conversation and healthy laughter, coming and going so fast, hello goodbye, same old, yet ever new... so special and unique, every time.

Anyway we went for another walk and a restaurant in the bohemian quarter, not expensive but I still regret it. Not the experience, it was cool being in a real restaurant again, but the food was so greasy, even the soup, it kept me up half of the night feeling sick, and then I had meat again too Ay. Own damn fault you say?

Anyway went to trainstation, got onto this crappy train, net a nice guy from Holland, student engineering, had girlfriend here, was here for school. Hung out on train and enjoyed the humorous situation on this nighttrain... what a ride!

Talk to ya'll soon..............x

steven