may stay another month on this island, as I’d like to save up more cash so I don’t run into problems. Need to set up internet once in Greece, for which have started looking into a replacement pda, since my nephew broke my old one. Looking at the Blackberry 9000+, which my sis in Vancouver says she can get for almost dirt cheap. Was surprised to learn it was a Canadian company!!! Anyway, it has 3G and can use it as a modem, as it turns out my Turkcell one is indeed blocked, contrary to what they promised me. Work is increasing and things look overall promising. So by end of April lots of payments should be in, will have checked my transmission, have the blackberry unit, and ready for a slow meandre up the Greek coast. Roger packing things in Thasos and in Bulgarian mountains now, where it’s cold, so want to time my arrival and follow the perfect weather. Perhaps you’d be up for another “interest payment” for a slow crawl up the Greek coast? At least this time I wont be counting pennies for beers, and should be able to make some downpayments to ya. Will try to find co-travelers to help pay for gas, and plan to save up around 1500bucks to convert my truck to french fry fuel (fff), then I can travel around the world for free!!! Thinking possibly Sicily for the winter if Iran does not work out. Wanna ferry to Tunisia and get royally smoked. Been way to straight the last two years.
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coolness. Was curious who the commenter was, but it’s actually sarcastic humour if you look at it the right way, poking fun at those who think that way.
I’m still in Cyprus but in a month I should have finally saved up enough to get off this island (need about 1500 Euro). Then its a ferry to Greece and wind my way slowly up the coast towards Bulgaria, where I have two friends working on houses in the mountains. Will be cool to hang out with someone. In Bulgaria I hope to accomplish my latest and super exciting dream of converting the piggie to run on french fry fuel (fff). If that works out was thinking of driving to Czech Republic sometime in August, seeing fuel will now be practically free. After that was thinking of spending my winters in Sicily for a while.
Cool you settled down and recording is going good. If I visit Czech Republic was thinking of getting there through the Tatras, winding my way through Ostrava and Moravia, maybe Selisia, then hang out mostly in Raj if possible. Would rather avoid Prague, but certainly at least make a visit to see the folks, who would be encouraged to go on trips with me and get outa prague. Will send ya an e if that works out, otherwise you’re always welcome to join me on the beach for a cheap vacation if you ever get the urge.
Good ol’ days were fun times indeed! By the way, what is your email address now? latergator
hey dude, wonder who the secret commenter is. I admit I was originally offended and my mouse was jittering and wavering over the delete button, but then I saw the sarcastic humour in it and figured, “what the heck”. Enjoyed your followup comments. latero Hey! Yeah its Eric … we christened in The Pig (your van) with some construction and some early trips to Cesky Raj. Oh shit, and yea, we went streaking at Malostranske Nam 11 years ago!! Heheh. I was drunk and in a goofy mood when I wrote that first email, sorry!!! Well, thats the internet for ya. I finally married Lenka! Been doing some recording and radio spots and whatnot, having some jam parties on occasion. I’ve been to C Raj quite a lot over the past years, love that place. Miss the good old days a lot though. Well, catch ya later, lets hang out sometime … Eric
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hey dudes,
was wondering if you could give me your opinion on something. Recently I got an idea which Keta kinda started. Concerning the cooking of the artichokes wrapped in tinfoil. Recently I purchased a new burner with its own dial. It has two separate ones, so it is like two small stoves. Much more energy efficient than my previous system, which acts as two stoves and an oven simultaneously, with one long tube blasting out burning propane powering all three at once, and difficult to regulate the heat level. Could be useful if I want to roast a chicken in the future, but this new stove is pretty good. Anyway, was thinking of going a step further to buy some sort of pressure pot. To cook the artichokes in olive oil and seal in all the juices, but maybe occasionally try the fantastically delicious dish Keta also made while we were travelling together, whereby chickn and potates and carrots and various things are stacked on top of each other in a certain way. Seems an easy and delicious meal that could last me a few days. The problem is I don’t have any experience with such pressure cookers and I’m worried it might explode or something, leaving a horrible mess all over my caravan truck. Should I get a more expensive one with that little bobble thing which lets out a bit of excess steam if it reaches a certain level? Do I keep the heat on super low? Got any recipe suggestions? I now also have a bunch of tupperwear things and got my fridge working, so with my new stove, I’m pretty set for some delicious cooking!
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just thought I’d mention that, after today’s experience, you should seriously reconsider against living my sort of lifestyle, if you were ever fancying such a notion, which it seemed to me you were before I was leaving. For example, today four cops showed up banging on my back door and they hauled me and all my electronic equipment and studied everything under a microscope just because they suspected perhaps I was a spy or something, only for the reason that I was parked next to the border (I need to catch an internet connection from the Turkish side). I regularly get harrassed by the police, and complained about pee-on loser locals, just because I look different, and every time I cross the border I have to explain my entire lifestyle, why I don’t live in a house, how I get paid, what is my job, and the same stupid questions. People are so conservative and small thinking everywhere you go. They think their country is “their country”, when they themselves practically own nothing, and think everyone else is a hippy freak invader. With your latest anger management problems I think you would end up killing someone very quickly. And I am not even talking about all the technical problems relating to getting internet, finding a place to take a crap, parts breaking down in the truck, and a billion other problems. But I end up just laughing it off and writing a book about it.
Well, just thought I’d share my experience with someone today. I even asked them if they could give me a printed statement from the Cyprus Greek police that I was officially suspected of being a spy for the evil Turkish north. Would have been a nice addition to my traveling paraphenilia. p
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Concerning my ordeal where the Greek police took all my electronics because they thought I was a spy, only because I was parked next to the buffer zone and the Turkish border:
Your naked boobs? Yes, I watched how they called in special forces with “highly astute” computer skills and brought up all my .jpg files on a single screen of thumbnails. They laboriously perused some 500 pics, stopping and opening anything that resembled a document or a flag, and I had to explain the story behind all of it. When they told me to leave as they wanted to study my comp in their laboratory, I thought, “Laboratory my ass. You want to shift your ass to the laVORatory to download porno through my Turkish internet connection” (a big source of the problem). Keystone cops all the way. They assumed that just because I was catching internet across their sacred buffer zone (imposed by the UN because both sides of the island behave like unwavering ranting children – as explained to me by one UN cop I questioned), it meant I was “collaborating” with the Turks. I tried to explain to them the extreme basics of what the internet is all about, but it was painful. But at the end of the day, I CANT STOP LAUGHING!!!!
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yah, I run into such problems often it seems, and recently I decided I was going to abandon my dreams of continuing east, sparing myself the major headache of driving through something like Pakistan, Burma or India, or dealing with any major paperwork migraine like trying to get my truck into Thailand for any extended period of time. So it’s probably off to Sicily for the winter and hang out in Europe for a while until the rest of the world pulls its ass out of its head, settles down, develops its internet connection… Maybe occasionally flying to Thailand or other parts of the world would be a better option. Or ferry to Tunisia and get royally sendviched. In a month I plan to ferry to Greece and meander my way up the coast towards Bulgaria, where Roger will be working on his house. In Bulgaria I hope to realise a new dream of converting my truck to run on French Fry Fuel (FFF), after which I will be able to drive around without worrying about costs or the environment, and only damage my health with the occasional greasy burger. If that succeeds I may even make it to Czech this summer, for a visit, otherwise Steph and Sara said they will try to visit me to Bulgaria.
Yah, think I’ll be doing this for some time still. I really don’t mind staying in here. It’s like a super large and luxurious tent. I do not see the benefit of walking around in a big house. I find a house is just too stagnant for me, and I like being on the move and constant change. But locals can be ignorant suspicious runts everywhere. Like the police who will raid me suspiciously from time to time.
But I prefer being in nature, as I guess you have found. If in Czech I thought I’d like to drive through the Tatras and Moravia, and mostly try to hang out in Cesky Raj. People have gotten selfish in the world it seems, but still retain some genuine and caring character in the villages. Perhaps that was what fueled your anger in Prague. My anger was building up in Prague before I left as well. I considered myself a saint yet always some loser could be found who would speculate and begin to spread some shit about me, and as soon as the shit circulated enough and people began to hear it from “several sources”, it would become accepted fact, but none of those cowards who believed it would have the balls to approach me and find out if it was really true. I developed a lot of poison my last few years in Prague and it took me a couple of years to flush it out of my system. But if I come back for a visit I decided I may get SOOO in the face of anyone I suspect of getting smug with me. My last visit I hung with good people who love me and no longer need to waste my time with anyone else, although I had a little run in with Red Chris (undefined, but I will be sure to confront him about it next time).
Hope you get well. Did I tell you what happened to Tereza’s Radek’s pancreas? Seems he destroyed it from too much drinking and maybe you damaged yours in the same way. When I was in Prague I ended in the emergency ward some midnight and the butchers were waiving a scalpel and grin ready to slice out my tonsils, but I went home after an injection in the ass, surfed the internet, and concocted my own home remedy. Have solved much of my problems in this way and perhaps you could try the same. Their may be certain things you could do to strengthen your pancreas, but apparently it is important for balancing the body, without which you must eat certain foods and balance your body yourself. Radek apparently cannot touch alcohol for the rest of his life.
Well, fun to talk to ya. Got my laptop and eventually I’d like to find a lawyer to help me with EU law. I’m an EU citizen and don’t feel I should be subjected to this abuse. I don’t care what paranoia these small town cowboys may have. later
Ha! That is kinda funny in a not really funny way, if you know what I mean. I imagined there would be difficulties connected with this living in a caravan thing, but I did not imagine these kinda difficulties. I was considering something similar to what you are doing some years ago, but now i am more inclined to a pleasant country retreat with animals and plants. those anger management problems, which, as i recall, were quite difficult and unpleasant (both for those around me and me), i don’t have them anymore. i still get pissed off every now and then, but in a kinda healthy, normal manner, like other people do. now it’s just a feeling of tiredness, sometimes, with this world, that seems to be ugly and with not much sense in it, every now and then. actually, it seems to me that the world is a gigantic shopping center with people shopping all the time. for love and friendship and things that really cannot be bought. it’s weird how people live. i’ve been sick since october last year, so life has been a bit difficult, and the medical care here leaves much to be desired. for half a year i was “treated” – if one can call it that – for heart problems, with no improvement, until, after the 6 grueling months, it was actually found that the problem is the pancreas, from which you can also develop heart problems. so i’m on a dreadful diet no one wants to be on because it takes the joy out of life, but already after two weeks there is a great improvement and it looks like i might be able to go on the river in the summer and tramping in cesky raj and do all those things that put the joy back in life. I think about you often. Do you plan to continue to live in the caravan forever? or do you plan to settle down somewhere after a while? just thought I’d mention that, after today’s experience, you should seriously reconsider against living my sort of lifestyle, if you were ever fancying such a notion, which it seemed to me you were before I was leaving. For example, today four cops showed up banging on my back door and they hauled me and all my electronic equipment and studied everything under a microscope just because they suspected perhaps I was a spy or something, only for the reason that I was parked next to the border (I need to catch an internet connection from the Turkish side). I regularly get harrassed by the police, and complained about pee-on loser locals, just because I look different, and every time I cross the border I have to explain my entire lifestyle, why I don’t live in a house, how I get paid, what is my job, and the same stupid questions. People are so conservative and small thinking everywhere you go. They think their country is “their country”, when they themselves practically own nothing, and think everyone else is a hippy freak invader. With your latest anger management problems I think you would end up killing someone very quickly. And I am not even talking about all the technical problems relating to getting internet, finding a place to take a crap, parts breaking down in the truck, and a billion other problems. But I end up just laughing it off and writing a book about it. Well, just thought I’d share my experience with someone today. I even asked them if they could give me a printed statement from the Cyprus Greek police that I was officially suspected of being a spy for the evil Turkish north. Would have been a nice addition to my traveling paraphenilia. p
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Kveta wrote on your Wall: “so what is going on now? i think i need to come soon to boost up your morale! how are you?”
hey banana, your visit is always welcome. It’s easier for me to write longer letters by normal email, otherwise Facebook can often be fun for short little messages.
So they returned to me all my stuff and declared me “clean”. I guess it sorta makes sense in a way. I’m used to my lifestyle and consider it now quite normal, liking my little wooden cottage inside. Outside I want to paint it green but haven’t had the money yet, but as one friend pointed out, he says the blue is better because it looks like a delivery truck and no one takes notice of me. Well, unless I stay parked in one place for a longer period of time, crawling in and out occasionally with my bag full of beer, spitting my toothpaste out the window in the morning… Then I guess it can look strange for a 40+ year old to be living like that in some parking lot where they dump garbage, next to the buffer zone. And they are sooooo sensitive about their little situation here, and so hateful of the Turks, so I guess it’s natural they would become suspicious. But they looked at all my pictures, I explained my life story, and now they chuckle with me like we are friends. Of course there are some idiots there who I guess simply don’t like me or something. Either many people are envious of my free lifestyle, or are conservative and don’t like people living differently than what they consider normal. I guess parking on a garbage place is pretty strange too, but I’m in a peculiar situation right now as I need to be near the border to get internet from the Turkish side (too complicated to get on the Greek side, and I’m only here for another month). Anyway, one more month and I’ll be back to some beach, winding my way up the Greek coast, and back to the fun stuff. Will stay in Athens for a little while, peruse that town, and hit the tourist offices so that I can find an interesting route to drive northwards, to Bulgaria, where I’ll be hanging with Roger and gang for a while, visiting Penis Tone as well (he also has a house there). Will be nice to drink beer with some friends, and I’m making a steady stream of cash now, so it is nice not to have to count pennies anymore. I hope I never have to go through that horrible ordeal again. In Bulgaria my next big dream is to convert my truck to run on French Fry Fuel (FFF), so I will become even MORE environmental, and drive my costs down further. In that case I was thinking I’d like to drive to Czech around August and then spend the winter in Sicily. Want to go through the Tatras and Moravia, and hang out Cesky Raj maybe, inviting all my friends, and hang out in Prague for about a week or something.
Anyway, your visit would always be lovely, and my morale is fine. I had to actually laugh constantly because of the incident and I’d say it cheered me up!
Bye bye baby. :0)
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you know how often that google thing gets updated? You gave me an idea to find myself occasionally and add the pics to my travel blob. Think it could be funny occasionally.
Right now I’m the top of Mount Olympus, at the very top of the island. Well, let’s say a little bit just below the very top, cause of course the very very top has to be hogged by the military. But at least they are not hassling me and I hid myself just on the other side of the observatory. Amazingly I can still catch my Turkcell internet, but not strong enough to establish a connection (I’d have to pull out my antenna and wont bother cause I’m only here for the weekend – then its off to Greece, yippee).
Once I’m back at the internet will have to see if this mountain has any significance to the old tales (Aphrodite apparently was born on this island). Can see almost the whole island and pretty cool and peaceful working here. A little cold though! Snow still here and there in the shade, but a nice break from the growing heat down below. If I had an internet connection i could see myself stocking up on groceries and hanging out for a week at a time.
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So it was a nice drive through the mountains on my way off the island. I was sorta stuck in its middle, in the capital city (long story) for about three months. Various adventures, like the police thought I was a spy and demanded to examine all my electronics, but finally got out of there so that I could make it to my beloved coast. Took a special route to the port Lemassol which I haven’t taken yet and spent the weekend on Mount Olympus, the island’s highest point. There was still snow here and there, but it was a nice refreshing change to get back to some cooler temperature. It was so cold in fact that my car battery got too weak to start. I was parked on a bit of a slope and thought I’d try jump starting the beast, but that didn’t work and ended up practically crashing into some bushes. Fortunately I’m a good tech head and rewired things, using my caravan batteries for extra juice.
Got to the port but it turns out that the price they quoted me did not include any port fees. I must have phoned them about five times confirming this and that, and you’d think that of all those times they could have mentioned the port costs. Like when you buy a plane ticket, they also mention the airport fees and various taxes. So I had to spend an extra 300 Euro, which pretty well drained my account to zero. All that hard work and saving up money and now I am back down to zero again. I have to chuckle at my occasional predicaments. But should have about 1500 Euro coming in very soon, so will just have to survive. Have to send my truck by ship and fly out separately (new goofy island policy). Meanwhile I have a translation so I’m trying to meet that schedule while on this hectic move. At least another 500 Euro in the bank. So glad to have this new customer, even though I’m so sick of translating, but the income is appreciated. Getting better and better and eventually hope to bid on the Euro projects myself, increasing my price in the process.
Today went for my first swim of the year and its nice to be back at the sea. Water surprisingly warm for this time of year it seems. Will hang out in Athens until some payments come in and will have some gas money. That should give me about a week to scope out Athens and plan my trip for the rest of the country. Giving myself a month to get to Bulgaria and very much looking forward to it. Hope to convert my truck to kitchen grease so that I will not have to pay for gas anymore, and lower my costs even further. So with my increasing amount of work and decreasing costs, I hope to finally start putting some savings in the bank. Never want to live through this poverty again and this will be the first time in my life I’ll be actually putting some savings into the bank.
Well, that’s the update.
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Inside Google there’s a function called ‘historical imagery’ (clock icon). You can jump to different snaps on the timeline. There’s no way for me to know when each satellite snaps a pic. Cuz that’s top secret spy stuff. Actually, some places on Google Earth are crystal clear right down to people and cars (Munchen, Germany and Sacramento, my hometown). Other places are deliberately fuzzy (like Cyprus). It mentions imagery is clear ‘where allowed.’ I guess it’s the military thang.
And I guess the people thang as well, as I read recently that people in the UK were running out of their homes and throwing rocks and the google photography guy. I think for “road view” or whatever they have.
Play around with the program and see what you discover. Also, what time frame will you be in Greece? And what is your projected route? I predict a lot of gas consumption on coastal drives because Greece is like 2 hands with 10 fingers sticking out in the ocean.
Yah, I’m figuring about 600 Euro. Can’t wait to go FFF. Am in Athens now and hope to embark on my trip on Tuesday. First stop Penepolonia, an island just west of Athens. The tourist info dude said I should stay there at least 10 days. Then there were some other places he suggested on the map.
I don’t have steady work recently. I don’t know if I’ll be able to join you, but thanks for the invite anyway. Maybe I’ll be more solvent in the coming months as wedding season is coming. Although only one booking this year. Global crisis bs affects creative people the worst. I’m living on borrowed money for the first time in years. I am trying to set up some photo lessons in Berlin. A few email bites, but nothing confirmed yet. When I taught one day intensive photo courses in Prague last year I got between 6000 – 12,000 kc in one day! But everyone in Berlin is broke and unemployed apparently, so my prices have to drop. At least it’s cheap to live here.
Cheaper than Prague? That’s cool. You still go to prague to take wedding picks if some interest? Still keeping your previous webpages? Would be bad news to erase them, even if you didn’t want to bus back to Prague for work (the pages can be used in other ways). I figure people will be marrying regardless of any crunch. k
you know how often that google thing gets updated? You gave me an idea to find myself occasionally and add the pics to my travel blob. Think it could be funny occasionally. Right now I’m the top of Mount Olympus, at the very top of the island. Well, let’s say a little bit just below the very top, cause of course the very very top has to be hogged by the military. But at least they are not hassling me and I hid myself just on the other side of the observatory. Amazingly I can still catch my Turkcell internet, but not strong enough to establish a connection (I’d have to pull out my antenna and wont bother cause I’m only here for the weekend – then its off to Greece, yippee). Once I’m back at the internet will have to see if this mountain has any significance to the old tales (Aphrodite apparently was born on this island). Can see almost the whole island and pretty cool and peaceful working here. A little cold though! Snow still here and there in the shade, but a nice break from the growing heat down below. If I had an internet connection i could see myself stocking up on groceries and hanging out for a week at a time.
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We are a family operation managing private custom boat tours in the beautiful Palawan area, and are happy to help travelers with their plans through the Philippines, having traveled a lot of it ourselves and planning to visit it all. These pages in this section cover my various solo travels through Europe before meeting my wife.