I met Charlie

It's Cuzco. Fucking Cuzco. No, not the llama from the kid movie. Cuzco the city. Cuzco Peru. A city at an altitude of 11,000 feet in the middle of the Andes. Stumbles had persueaded me to come

here with her more than 2 months in advance. It'd been really hard for me to do that. I still remember her calling me

through the internet to plan it all out and make it work. I was sitting at the kitchen table of my new Irish family, Stumbles, I assume, somewhere in Connecticut. But she convinced me despite my worries. I was worried that my spur of the moment nature would try to lead me in an opposing direction before our departure as the winds can shit quickly and unpredictably. Once I'd bought the plane ticket though, I was committed. And that's how I got to Cuzco.

The food is amazing. Out of everywhere I have been, it is absolutely my favourite. All we did our first day was sit on the balconies of restaurants eating alpaca, ceviche, and an assortment of things I've never really even heard of. Drinks the whole way through as well, pico sours, coco sours, lemonade with rum, wine, and beer. The shit was cheap. And this is vacation so why not splurge with my friends a little? It was good. 

The locals like my dreads a lot. Comments of Bob Marley and ragea and flurries of Spanish I could only understand through context flew at

me as we'd walk down the street. I always think that's funny. And, as well, offers of marijuana and, we are in South America mind you, cocaine. Most people I ignore, but some are fun loving and it's good to at least to try to practice my more than shitty spanish. 

Flip is looking for some good hearty home food. So we go on the search . Ignoring the assault of locals trying to get us to by this or that or go here or there we wander a bit right? We go into one place, but it's dead so we peaced. Then around the corner Flip finds a little gyro shop and decides it's the one for him. He and Stumbles cross the street, he goes in to grab one and Stumbles lights up a cigarette outside, but I'm stopped by a guy who is speaking spanish on my level. And by that I mean

"Hola, como estas?"

"Muy bien, y tu?"

"Bien! Bien! Cual es tu nombre?"

"Me llamo es Harrison"

"Harrison, tu necesitas marijuana? Cocaine?" 

Well I'm just a curious fella and I'd just been asking prices from all the offers just to see ye know?

"Cuantas cuestas?" 

"Tu quieres cocain o marijuana?"

"Cocain, cuantas cuestas?"

"Para tu, special price, 100 sol, you can try for free."

At this point I was like I should get back over to the others, so I walked across the street, the guy coming with me of course. My gears were turnin a little bit. That inexplicable draw to the unknown, burrowing it's way out of the oh so shallow grave where it lies in my soul.

"For free I can try?"

"Si! Yes, let's go to a bar. Vamos al bar, pero wait here un momento." 

Stumbles can see what's happening and I tell her if he ain't back by the time Flip's got his gyro we're gonna leave. I'd always been curious, but I'd never thought about actively persuing Charile. Out of pure curiosity I wanted to see what kind of guy he is. So I guess the universe sent Charlie to pursue me, because the guy was back as Flip walked out gyro in hand. He led us upstairs into the bar next door, and we all sat down for a beer or whatever. I didn't know how this was going to go down but he reaches across the table to give me a buisness card. Underneath that buisness card was something else.

"Go to el baño y try"

Charlies a pretty cool guy. I met him in a bathroom in Cuzco, Peru completely by chance. We had a good moment together and I don't doubt we're friends now, but I don't think he's the sort of guy I could be best friends with. 

.

Song Series III (The End)

Carolina:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVObozka9YY

"He kid, give me a second to move my surf board and then get in." 

"Thanks man, headed home from surfing then?"

"Nah, I wish. I'm on my way back to the boys with some groceries."

"The boys?" As we get into the car

"Yeah, the crew. The trimmers."

"Ah! Okay, so you just grow weed up here then?"

"Why else would you be in Humboldt county?" That was a good question, why was I in Humboldt?

"I guess I'm just passing through."

"Not looking to get into the industry? 'Cause I have a position open if you're interested.."

"I wish man, but I'm on my way up to work in Alaska for the summer."

"Well hit me up when you get off the boat and we may have a little bit going on for ya' anyways."

"Yeah for sure, how much do y'all pay?"

"Y'all? Y'all..? Are you from the South? You don't have an accent, and we pay 200 per pound."

"I'm from Texas, and that's better than what the last few people who picked me up paid."

"Not surprising the last few rides you got were from pot growers too, that's all anyone does here."

"You're the fourth ride in a row."

"Like I said, not surprising at all. So you're from the South? I used to Rodeo all over down there."

"Oh yeah? That's awesome, why'd you come over here then?"

"I got injured"

"Oh."

Silence

Tense silence

(Sigh)

Relaxed silence

Trees fly by

A tune comes over the radio and he's humming along.

Hmmm hmmm hm hm hm hmmmmm.

Then, "And she feels like Carolina, looks like California, shining like those New York lights on Broadway!!" as two boys from the country burst out into the chorus together.

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Skinny Love (Birdy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzCDt2eidg

It's so strange, the stars here look just like they do at home. I'm a thousand miles away right now and the stars still look exactly the same. But it's daylight at home and dark here, and I can see the stars right now and they can't.. I think the cold air makes them brighter. They look pretty through my puffy breaths. The moon looks a little different though, maybe it's a different angle than I get at home. I don't know. She looks sharper here, like a piece of broken glass. She looks lonely up there, with only stars to keep her company. Not that stars would be bad company, but if I was a moon I'd want other moons to talk to. It's not like she has a cell phone and can just call up one of Saturn's moons any time the fancy hits her. She must be lonely. I wish I could go up there and talk to her, maybe then neither of us would be lonely, or at least we could be lonely together. That'd be nice, to have someone to be lonely with, then maybe it wouldn't be so... be so... be so lonely... Well that was a bit redundant I feel like... How is it that nobody will come w--- wait, I need to stop thinking about it and start trying to sleep or I'll be jet lagged for days. Maybe listening to some music'll help, but wha- I know what... Her piano is so simple so pretty, but Jesus Christ it makes me want to weep. I hope no one hears me singing out here.... "Come on skinny love just last the year," Please, we can at least make the year. "Pour a little salt we were never he- he- here," No salt can heal this. "my my my, my my my, my-my my-my..." Please. "Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer."I can do this. "Tell my love to wreck it all," Just wreck it all. "Cut out all the ropes and let me fall," I'll just fall. "My my my, my my my, my-my my-my... Right in the moment this order's tall." It is tall, I just can't believe how hard it is to find someone to come with me... "AND I TOLD YOU TO BE PATIENT, and I told you to be fine, and I told you to be balanced, and I told you to be kind, and in the morning I'll be with you, but it'll be a different kind, 'CAUSE I'LL BE HOLDING ALL THE TICKETS, and you'll be owning all the fines." I just don't understand it... I need to just stop doing this alone. I need to stop traveling. "COME ON SKINNY LOVE WHAT HAPPENED HERE?" How did it all go wrong like this? "Suckle on the hope in light brassieres, my my my, my my my, my-my my-my... Sullen load is full, so slow on the split." I should stop, I should stop traveling but--- "And I told you to be patient, and I told you to be fine, and I told you to be balanced, and I told you to be kind, and now all your love is wasted, then who the hell was I? 'Cause I'm breaking the britches, and at the end of all your lines." But I can't stop, there's something inside me that adventure calls to and I have to answer. "Who will love you? Who will fight? And who will fall far behind?" I just don't know what to do. "COMMON SKINNY lovvvee" I don't know. "My my my, my my my, my-my my-my..." I just don't. "My my my. My my my. My-my my-my....."

The End

Song Series Part II

The Way You Look Tonight: 

Prelude

100.9 miles. We'd made it to the fire tower atop Mt. Albert. I had just walked 100 miles. 100 MILES. Before doing it I wouldn't even have been able to comprehend what walking 100 miles means. Certainly the farthest I'd ever walked in my life and the snow had made it less than ideal conditions for most of that. I was at the top of this mountain with Mike, Jan, and Gator. We were celebrating our first 100 trying not to think about the 2,100 we still had to go. Somewhere in the merriment we all decided we go down to Franklin and rent a motel room together in order to hang out for the trail festival happening the next day. We busted out the last 7 miles and I thumbed us a minivan who cracked a beer for each of us and let us out at the Sapphire motel (or something to that effect). The festival wasn't until the next day so we mostly just chilled out. Found ourselves a free breakfast at a church doing trail magic for hikers. They serve breakfast every morning, they alter between having bacon and pancakes one day, and then pancakes and bacon the next. As much as you can meet and at that point in your hike you can already eat more than the average few people put together. Anyways, all this info isn't important to the story. What is important, and what this prelude is about is 2pack. I'd met 2pack before around the trail. She was rolling with Goatman and Headstand at the time. But me and 2pack really bonded at that Franklin trail days. She made such a large impression on my drunk self that night that I'd considered pink blazing (following a girl on trail) for her. She was incredible. The things she'd done, the attitude she had about life, all of it was flabbergasting to me. I just hadn't met that many amazing people at this point in my life and it was a little shocking at how cool she was. So long story short we hit it off really well that night. Really really well. But I hiked out the next day, and she stayed for another night. Like I said, I'd considered staying another night and hiking out with her, but I decided to move on instead hoping they would catch up to me in the days to come. 

                                         Bacon and pancakes, or pancakes and bacon

The actual story

Crazy Frogg!!! It's time to get going!! We gotta get started early, we've got a good little ways to go. 

Crazy Frogg stirred somewhere deep down in her sleeping bag. We'd stayed the night at her friends mansion which was somehow really conveniently located right between 3 ridges and the Priest. It was an incredible place, but today was the day to go to the real trail days . The trail days in Damascus, Virginia. Her friends gave us a ride about half an hour to the highway that'd take us South and dropped us off there with farewell hugs. It didn't take long for me and her to get kicked out of that gas station for soliciting rides. So we walked across the highway to the gas station on the other side and started asking for rides. All we were getting were tons of nos, when a truck we'd already asked pulled back up in front of us. He said he'd though about it and we could just sit in the back of the truck with all his luggage if we'd like. Well of course we didn't care so that's what we did. We rode in the back of his truck for 2-3 hours all the way down to our cutoff to Damascus. The whole while me and Crazy Frogg talked excitedly about all the old friends we were going to see at trail days. I mean that's the only reason we were going back was to see all the hikers we loved and missed. We weren't exactly sure who would be there but doubtless we would be seeing tons of people we'd met along the way. Especially since plenty of people were doing the same thing we were, they were all hitching back down to trail days from wherever they happened to be on trail. We finally hopped down out of the truck a little more sun burnt than when we'd gotten in. Snapped a quick photo with the guy who'd given us a ride and then we hit up the next gas station to get to Damascus. It took a total of 2 minutes before we found someone willing to give us a ride in the back of their truck all the way to Damascus. It was easy as that. This had been one of the easiest hitching days ever. Coming back into Damascus was, I imagine, like being an actor at the Oscars. You're all famous and everyone knows each other. That's exactly how it was because everyone loves the hikers and we all knew each other. Or if we didn't know someone we'd heard about them somewhere on trail. Anyways, this is the place where all hikers come to unite once a year and it is a sight to see. I swear you will never ever see anything like it anytime in your life. It's crazy. Watching all the reunions with people who thought they'd never see each other again. Having all those reunions yourself. One of the first people I saw there was Stretch, a girl I'd met one of my first days of trail, but hadn't seen since. And that kept happening and happening and you'd just see people you never thought you'd see again over and over again. It was emotionally exhausting! So many greetings to friends you respect more than anyone in the world. It was an incredible feeling. But let's get to the point about all this. Maybe one day I'll write about trail days and the thing that it is, but I am not ready to tackle that beast today. So let's just get to the point. Tent city is the place where all the hikers pitch their tents to stay for trail days. Half of it is a giant field and half of it is hidden in the woods. So me and Crazy Frogg arrived to tent city not knowing who we would find. One of the first people we see is Goatman and he convinces us to come over by them, I didn't know who them was though. Until I saw 2pack running clear across the parking lot and jumped onto me in a furious hug. It was everything I'd needed. I'd thought I'd lost her, never to see her again when I left Franklin that morning and they didn't catch me in the next few days. I'd thought she was lost to memories, only to be remembered as a missed chance I should have taken. But then, then out of nowhere here she is wrapped around me laughing. I was so relieved I couldn't stop laughing either. That hug lasted so long and when she finally let me go she took my hand and pulled me behind her as she ran excitedly to show everyone else who she'd found.

                                         Truck hitching with Crazy Frogg

                                         2pack (in the pink), Obie, Animal, Mowgli, and Beetle Juice at trail days

Prologue

I hitched a ride back part of the way with 2pack and the tribe. They were at a different part of trail than I. The farewell was a sad one, but I had to keep hitching North and networked my way into going North with some of Headstands family. I stayed with them a night somewhere in Virginia and had a wonderful time with them. But the whole time I was thinking about 2pack. Not sad about leaving her again, but more reminiscing on the time we'd spent together at trail days. And I remember sitting there with Headstands family all sitting in the den when a little bit of background music floated it's way through the conversation and, 2pack,🎶 Some day, when I'm awfully low. When the world is cold. I will feel a glow just thinking of you, And the way you look tonight 🎶

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Ticks Flock (Tik Tok by Ke$ha)

I could feel the road up ahead. I couldn't see it yet, but I still knew it was coming. There is a way a trail gets near a road, it's not the same as the rest of the trail and you can just tell you're about to leave the wilderness. Yup, there it is, here's the road. I came out onto the road full stride, no falter as I took a left towards the direction I knew the gas station would be. My clothes were still drying from jumping into the river and I knew Frodo and Tempo were up ahead waiting for me. Lost'n'found wouldn't be far behind me and then we could be on our way to the destination for the night. Earlier that day I'd hitched into town at a road crossing for a sandwich with Tempo, the young girl who'd happened to pick us up invited us and our friends to stay at her house for the night. I was looking forward to having a real roof over my head and I think everyone else was too. I came around to the gas station to find Tempo and Frodo out front laughing hard. I suspected they'd been working on Frodo's parody. Frodo has an exceptionally clever wit and is really quite good at making up lyrics to silly songs. The parody of this song happened to be to Ke$ha's Tik Tok, but he was calling it Ticks Flock in reference to the amount of ticks on trail. I could hear them working out a line as I approached... and zip up my pack.... A burst of laughter, and then they see me rounding the corner and beckon me over to show all they've got so far. Frodo asks if I'm ready and I give him the go ahead as he starts to sing.

Wake up in the morning feeling hot and sticky
I'm up I'm out the flap I'm gonna hit this privy
Before I lea----- HAHAHAHA

Lost'n'found comes up and burst out laughing at the sight of us all huddled around Mister Frodo singing a Ke$ha parody. We quickly calm her so that Frodo can continue.

Wake up in the morning feeling hot and sticky
I'm up I'm out the flap I'm gonna hit this privy
Before I leave brush my teeth and zip up my pack 
'cause when I leave for the hike I ain't coming back

I'm talking about mud between our toes toes
Bugs flyin' up our nose nose
No service on our phones phones 

Pop squat comin' out looking like PB 
Usin' up all our TP 
Nora's gotten us queazy....

And then we all lose and start laughing hysterically. It's too good for it's own good. So I call up the girl I met that morning and she says she's on her way to get us. While we're waiting we go in and grab some sandwiches from the gas station because, well, because hiker hunger is ravenous at this point of the hike. Maria is there before we know it and we spend the night with her and her parents playing instruments and eating food. It was exactly what we all needed at the time and it was such a nice and relaxing stay. Plus, I received the most interesting thing I have ever gotten while hitching. I got Questor, the dead dog.... But hey, that's a story for another time ;)

                                         Frodo, Lost'n'found, and I

                                                   Questor's house

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Defying Gravity:

Sitting down to write this I realize I can't give this song the attention it needs in this blog post. The song in itself deserves 3 if not more posts by itself, not a fraction of a series. That's because listening to this song takes me back to the day Stumbles, Frodo, White Russian, and I summitted Mount Katahdin. I'll do some thinking on this one and maybe, just maybe I'll be able to sketch the edges of how it feels to reach Mount Katahdin after having hiked 2,185.9 miles to reach it... Maybe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wagon Wheel: 

"Well what movie would you wa---"
"Wait, wait, wait! Shhhhhh. Sis, listen to this song, I swear I did everything in it when I hitched back to Texas from Maine this last time" Turns up the radio

Headed down south to the land of the pines

"That's what I was doing, headed South from Maine"

I'm thumbin' my way into North Caroline

"Yep I was thumbin' it"

Starin' up the road

"You're always looking for the next ride, that's exactly what it's like"

And pray to God I see headlights

"Headlights are like a beacon of hope"

I made it down the coast in seventeen hours

"I I think I did it a bit faster than that"

Pickin' me a bouquet of dogwood flowers

"Dunno' what dogwood flowers are, but I certainly pick my fair share of things when I'm bored"

And I'm a hopin' for Raleigh

"I passed right by Raleigh when I was goin' through Virginia!"

I can see my baby tonight

"Not my baby, but I was trying to make it to Dragonfly's in Knoxville"

So rock me mama like a wagon wheel

"I don't actually know what to make of the chorus, but it's catchy"

Rock me mama anyway you feel

Hey mama rock me

Rock me mama like the wind and the rain

Rock me mama like a south-bound train

Hey mama rock me

Runnin' from the cold up in New England

"It was getting pretty cold up there at night"

I was born to be a fiddler in an old-time string band

"Maybe one day I'll learn an instrument"

My baby plays the guitar

"Wish I had a baby"

I pick a banjo now
"I touched a banjo once, up in New Hampshire"

Oh, the North country winters keep a gettin' me now

"Like I said, Winter is coming"

Lost my money playin' poker so I had to up and leave
"It'd of been funny if that'd of happened"

But I ain't a turnin' back

"Fuck no I wasn't headed back, it seriously was cold up there"

To livin' that old life no more

"Eh, maybe I didn't do this part exactly"

<Chorus>

"See! I've basically done everything in this song so far!!"

"No you haven't"

"Yes, I have! Whatever, shhhhhh"

Walkin' due south out of Roanoke

"I remember the exact trucker stop I was stuck at South of Roanoak, been stuck there a few times now actually"

I caught a trucker out of Philly

"His name was Bill, his wife was with him too. They were so nice"

Had a nice long toke

"Thanks for that one Billy"

But he's a headed west from the Cumberland Gap

"He dropped me off in Knoxville"

To Johnson City, Tennesse

"See, he was from Tennesse"

And I gotta get a move on before the sun

"You gotta' get an early start"

I hear my baby callin' my name

"Let's say 'baby' is a metaphor for 'home'"

And I know that she's the only one
"I'm coming for you home!"

And if I die in Raleigh
"I wasn't worried about that"

At least I will die free

"Hitching ain't actually dangerous, but if I get offed it's whatever"

<Chorus>

"See!!!! Everything in the song, this thing was basically about my life!!"

"Whatever Harry, now what movie did you want to see?" 

The beginning of the song series

This post is an introduction to what I'm going to call my song series. I was at a New Years party last night and a good friend of mine asked me a question. She asked me if there are any songs that remind me of certain things or take me back to certain places. Well, of course there are. That happens with everyone. Everyone has those songs that take them back to a particular day or back to some meaningful point in their past. So I decided these next few posts will be dedicated to those songs and where the hell they take me too. It'll probably end up being around 5-10 songs and two or three post leading in a semi-chronological order if I can keep it all straight in my mind. But they may not all be in the traditional form. I know I have written on one of the songs, but it was a poem. Some may be short and some may be long. We'll see what I'm feelin'. So these may not ALL be quite what you're used to.

And so, without further adieu, here are the first four song stories.

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You'll Be In My Heart:

It'd probably been 20 minutes since we'd even seen a car. No, more, probably half an hour. And the few cars we had seen all turned before they even made it to our part of the road. At first we were taking turns with our thumbs out. One would thumb while two sat on their packs in the grass off the shoulder. We quickly gave up that charade that a car would come along for us and we were all sitting on the side of the road picking apart the wild pomegranates with the sticky juice running down our fingers and faces. If it had been hard getting a ride before it would be nearly impossible now that it looked like we'd all just committed a bloody murder. Making it out of Sophia hadn't been a problem. Of course there were tons of people leaving, it was the fucking capital. But somehow from there we had picked an abandoned route to Serbia that landed us outside this nobody town. We were seeing NO ONE at all other than the one old man who had driven by us at least three times now. At least it was still early though. Thankfully Jake always made us wake up early so we could get a good start at the road.  It was noon and though it looked desolate out there we knew with enough time sitting here eventually the universe would throw a glance our way. And then finally, a slow noise growing. That thrumming or whatever noise it is that tires make on rough asphalt coming in from a distance. We could here it before we could see it so we were all on our feet waiting to see what was coming around the corner and it was... goddammit why does that old guy keep driving by us? What an assh.... wait, there is another car behind him! A white mini can. A brilliant white knight coming out of the darkness. All our hopes resting on his shoulders to get us out of the meager town we'd landed ourselves outside of. All four of us are up on our feet with our sticky fingers held out into the road... and they blow past us. We all sigh and turn around only to see brake lights! The universal sign that you just got some pity poured on you by the powers that be. Then it's a game of everyone hoist their packs and the odd shuffle run that comes with wearing a heavy pack by only one shoulder strap. The door opens before we get there and we all clamber in to find a middle aged man who speaks no English whatsoever. Whatever, we just go with him. We don't care where he's going just so long as it's away from here. Until he drops us in a spot more scant than the last. A crossroads with a chicken coop at it. And nothing else to be seen anywhere around. Nothing at all, even the chicken coop is abandoned. We kick ourselves silently only to be rewarded with the silent road watching our growing frustration. We didn't even know where we'd been trying to get to today. We were just going somewhere. I don't know where and neither did Jake or Jess. But disregarding that we still wanted to be going somewhere. Anywhere really, just not the middle of nowhere Bulgaria. Well here we were. I sauntered off to take a piss right before I heard a car coming around the lonely hillside behind us and thought better of it. I got back to the side of the road in time to have my thumb out with Jake and Jess for the little white car coming about. She must've been hauling ass because it took her forever to come to a halt waaay past us. We started to do the awkward one strap shuffle before we saw her reverse lights come on and we relaxed a little. She came even with us and told us she could take us up to the last town before the border. It wasn't further than an hour and she fed us chocolate biscuits the whole way before she sent us on our way. It didn't take long for people to notice us walking out of the little village. And then, before we knew it there were people taking photos of us. Nothing weird, but people were running home and grabbing whatever kind of camera they had and coming out to take photos of us walking out of town. As if we were celebrities, but I guess they probably don't have many people coming through this small border village between Serbia and Bulgaria. Whatever, we weren't worried about it and kept walking. Right when we made it to the edge of town a nice big Land rover pulled over onto the sidewalk for us and a good ol' English chap beckoned us into the car with him. He decided to drive us past his house and the 7 more miles up to the border. He was ecstatic to hear that we were all English (well Jake and Jess were, and I'd been around them enough to say a few things and not sound American (not that that would have been a bad thing)) and he gave us a short but enthusiastic run down of the area. We spilled out of this rover with many a thanks and waved goodbye as he turned around at the checkpoint. It wasn't so late still, only 3 or so. We were hoping to get across the border and find another couple rides before it'd be dark at 5. We walked up to the small one room building that was the border crossing and showed our passports. Jake's and Jess' went through fine as they are European, but mine, being American, needs to be scanned by the computer. Unfortunately for us the computer was down and wouldn't be working for an hour or so. Well shit. We didn't have anything else to do so we just waited. While we waited the guy in charge brought us out some hot chocolate and tried to make conversation with his little bit of English. He quickly gave up and went back inside, then came back out to beckon me over. They scanned my passport and we were golden. We'd made it out of Bulgaria! We walked the quarter mile to the Serbian side of the border taking note of the 0 cars that had come through the border while we'd been sitting there for an hour. We hit the Serbian side of the border expecting to just walk through and hoping we could be well on our way. Well, apparently there must've been something sketchy about us crossing because they decided to strip search us. Take note, I said strip search, not cavity search. I still to this day hold my anal virginity dear and hope it never changes. What can we do? They go through all our packs one by one and then strip search us all one by one. Of course we had nothing on us so we weren't worried about it really, but still, it was a nuisance at the least. Down right degrading if you ask a lot of folk. But when you're trying to walk across the border into Serbia in the middle of nowhere at sunset you gotta expect a little something to kink. They finally released us just as the sun was going down and we were free to walk down the road with the many cows doing the same. During all this time we still hadn't seen a car. Luckily there was a small "store" about a mile from the border where we were able to buy some bread. I don't remember how we got Teslas (the Serbian currency, I don't know what it's actually called but this is what we called it because it had a picture of Tesla on it), but somehow we had some. We bought some bread and were off on our way knowing Jake and Jess had some powder soup for their camp stove later on. About half a mile down the road we realized we had no lighter. I volunteered to run back to the store and buy one. So I did that while they waited with my pack. I returned out of breath, downed some of our water and we set to walking. We had no idea how long we'd walk for or what we'd be doin', but we just started walking into the night. We walked for hours until we finally reached a small village with a store where we bought 2 liters of orange soda and a few crisps bags. The lady at the store was trying to convince us not to leave in the dark and even ran to get someone who spoke English to tell us how dangerous it was in the dark. Us being us we ignored her and went on in the night. It was still only 6 or so even though it was pitch black out. So we kept walking hoping either someone would pick us up or we'd get somewhere we'd like to be. We just chatted it up and bonded for the long walk we had together and it was actually great. We'd take turns carrying the heavy soda or we'd take a break and everyone would tear of a chunk of bread to gnaw on while we kept on. It was a brisk night, I'd say 45 degrees and the stars above were bursting aflame despite the waxing moon. During this whole time only one car passed us and we eventually gave up hoping to get a car and just set ourselves to walking. Then, hours into this venture, we unanimously decided we were exhausted. We didn't want to keep doing and so we walked straight into the next field we found, dropped our heavy packs on the frosty grass, and dragged our sleeping bags out from the bottom of our packs. Then, only arms protruding, we cooked a nice big pot of soup and passed it around in a circle as we dipped bread into the hot liquid. It was cold out and burning your tongue on the heat felt good. It wasn't long before the soup was all gone, but we were't exactly sleepy. We talked a while and then I drudged the Ipad I'd brought with me this trip from deep in my pack. I only had two movies on the thing. One was Hercules, the animated one of course, and the other was Tarzan, also the animated version. The vote ended 3 out of 3 for Tarzan so we propped it up where we could all see and we could all hear, then we snuggle up in our sleeping bags and kicked back enjoying the sweet buzz our feet were feeling from being unused after so much use. It was actually kind of a perfect day, it wasn't the adventure we'd set out for, but it was the adventure we'd got and I am grateful for it to this day. I remember my eyelids drooping as a I struggled to make it to my favourtie part, the part where Tarzan slays the Jaguar after an epic battle. But the long walk and the longer day had gotten to me, and I soon found myself slipping into unconsciousness.... 🎶 Come stop your cryin', It'll be alright. Just take my hand, Hold it tight 🎶....

                                         The view in the morning

P.S. The next day when we left we did a lot more walking, along with three short rides, before the border guard who'd strip searched us picked us up and took us to the next major city

"This is the first time I've hitched with someone who has seen me naked" - Jake
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Fairytale Of New York:

A mad sprint from the Balkans to Cornwall in England for Christmas. A lot of days standing in the rain trying to get up to Slovenia. A lot of days standing out in the cold thumbin' it West towards France. It didn't take long to get there. A week exploring castles and farm animals. A birthday only 3 can know about. A short plane ride and then a short train ride and we're walking into Jake's kitchen at 5am on his birthday. They didn't know we were coming so they were all surprised to see us especially since it was Jake's birthday. And then we celebrate. It's Jake's birthday, mine just passed, and Christmas is coming. We celebrate and have a good time and I stay with them for nearly a month. And the whole while 🎶 The boys of the NYPD choir Still singing "Galway Bay" And the bells were ringing out For Christmas day 🎶

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I'm Like a Bird:

"Harrison, someone is here for you,"

I didn't look up from sweeping the floor when he said that. I just kept on until I finished the job. I don't know the name of the man who'd come to tell me that. I just knew that he wears leather bound sandals with socks. He sits three spots forward and one to the right of me in meditation. It's strange being somewhere for 10 days and never talking to the people you're there with. It's strange not talking at all for three days. No talking, no reading, and no writing. You can't make eye contact, use gestures, or touch in anyway. It was strange having a roommate for that long, not being able to talk about what temperature to set the room at or any of those sorts of things. It was the 11th day. We could speak again. Some people went to it like a fish to water, but the silence still held dearly to a few. Those 10 days had seemed like so much more. Not just how they'd effected us, but 10 days of nothing but meditation? I feel like I spent a year there in rural Southern Georgia. So when sandals and socks had come to tell me that someone was here for me I knew it was no one else but my mother. She had happened to be in Georgia the same time I was. I was excited, incredibly excited, but I didn't let the usual giddiness that comes with that show. I wasn't quite in real world mode yet and Vipassana always hits me hard. I slowly finished sweeping methodically then put the broom and dustpan away and walked out the door. Across the little courtyard and into my room where I grab my already packed pack. Then I walk out and see my mother standing there. I don't say anything. In those short 10 days I'd been conditioned to keep my silence. It felt like a big step looking at her in the face and making eye contact. She asked all the normal questions and I responded distantly with a yes or a no as my mind was still lost in itself a little bit. Once we clambered into the car it started to become more and more real. I was done with the 10 day sit. I couldn't believe it actually, I'd made it through. I'd made it through the entire silent 10 days. When Kate had told me this was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her life I hadn't believed her. But now I did. Holy shit, how I believed her now. And I still believe her, this had been the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life. Even looking back now that is still the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Harder than walking the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail, harder than hitchhiking all around America alone, and harder than working on the fishing boats in Alaska. It wasn't just hard, it fell on the brink of sending me into that chasm that is insanity. But somehow I'd managed to save my mind through the whole thing and come out much better than I had come in. Sitting in the car with the Georgia pines flying by outside, my mom chatting pleasantly about her trip, I started to feel the emotion building up inside of me. I said a word. Then two. And my face burst into the biggest grin and I had no way of controlling it this time. I was talking. Out loud, and someone could hear me and respond. Somehow this made me ecstatic. I needed to talk to people. To hug people, to tell them, actually speak out loud and tell them, how much they mean to me. I could call anyone I wanted now, I had a phone again. I could eat meat again. Meat! The first place we find is Taco Bell and I go in for the biggest, meatiest burrito they have. As I walk in I'm sure the culture shock is palpable on my face. But not because of the people, it was because of the music. It was just some music playing in a restaurant, no biggie. But to me, to me it was more. To me it was angels ringing bells and the way a long lost sailor feels when he sees land again. It was ecstasy, pure, flawless ecstasy. My whole body burst into vibration feeling the sound set it moving 🎶 I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away. I don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is 🎶....

                                         My meditation group

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Old Pine:

Crazy Frogg

Do you remember listening to Old Pine in hot springs after we came back for that second

​night?

Hiking into Hot Springs two days before was ludicrous,

but we both knew that didn’t we? It still feels like that daybecause my knees still cry out

and my ankles still tremble when I walk. Dragging our feet

up to the Laughing Hart looking every bit as weary as we felt. That stranger

giving us each a beer as congratulations. You and I believed ourselves immortal.

Taking the next day off was God. But then,

how painful it was climbing the cliffs to get out of town. Climbing those sandy rocks 

by the river with the mountain laurel waiting to bloom. Getting lost 

at Lovers Leap before meeting Hammer and Little Wing. I convinced you

to go back to Hot Springs with me, just one more night. And so we found ourselves

out by the river, two days after hiking into town, sneaking into a camp bathroom

to charge our phones. You said it would rain, but I wanted to cowboy

and laid down my ground cloth. We shared dinner, tortillas and cheese, while listening 

to Old Pine. Something about that song then and there hit us both 

hard. I’d only known you for three days really, but we could both feel that song,

hurting us deep down in our hearts respectively. And we laid down to sleep

with our white breath puffing out of sleeping bags and our hearts still aching 

from miss and loss,

when a star ripped through the night sky, cutting

like a shark fin above the surface

and you said, “I don’t think that’s a coincidence.” 

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From Memories: Entering Turkey

How this is going to work I honestly don't know. I think many people can look back at their life, pick out a specific day, and call it the best they've ever had. I also think many people have great difficulty in doing this same thing. It can be challenging. There are an infinite amount of different things that can make a day the best, but the best in different ways. When I look back and try to pick out a single day in my life that no other could beat, it's hard. Many a day comes to mind. Could it be the day I summitted Katahdin? After walking for nearly five months and over 2,000 miles and finally seeing that mountain for the first time. Nearly crying just by touching a sign atop that mountain with dear friends that I'd come to love and cherish, is that my best day? What about the the day I left the Vipassana center in Jesup Georgia? What I still claim to be the hardest 10 days I've ever encountered in my entire life. I made it through it, and I know I'm better for it too, but can I say, as I stood there smiling and finally talking with all the others who'd made it through, that it was the best day of my life? Maybe the time me and a Frenchman camped in a tent outside the city walls of Dubrovnik Croatia on Thanksgiving day. Or any of the other things I've done that I never thought I'd be able to do. They all come to mind, including this day, the day I made it from Thessaloniki in Greece to Istanbul in Turkey. This, I feel, was a turning point in my life. If I haven't preached hitchhiking to you yet then you probably have not known me long. I love hitching. No, not just love, I'm infatuated with it. And not even that, because words cannot express the way I feel about it. At this point in my life I'd already hitched, and it was cool. But where the deep and bright passion of hitching was born from can be traced back to is this one day. On this one particular day the spark was struck, and, before I knew it, it'd become a wildfire unlike any I'd encountered. before. I've tried many times to write about this day and many times it has come to no avail. I've no higher hopes for this attempt, but, still, I've got to try.

-----------------

     Who we'd stayed with in Thessaloniki I cannot say. I don't rightly remember, but it was someone through couchsurfing. Maybe the girl who liked to talk philosophy. The one with only one room where all five of us slept. Or maybe not, as I said, I'm not sure. It was fall and the weather was getting more mild. It was no longer a sweltering heat during the day and the nights could get cool sometimes. What I remember most about the city is the White Tower of Thessaloniki. Not really impressive, but the only feature that distinguishes that city from the others I'd seen so far. I remember laying on the grass near a statue with Jake, Jess, and Georgie, eating a loaf of brown bread we'd bought from a bakery around the corner for a euro. We were chatting about what to do and where to go next. Georgie was set on going to Turkey and no one else objected to the idea, so it was a no brainer. I didn't know anything about Turkey. To be quite honest, like most countries I visited on this little jaunt, it was a place I'd never given much thought to, but Georgie had. And that was it, simple as could be, we all decided to leave for Istanbul the next day. 

     We woke before the sun had risen and made our way sleepily out of the philosophy girls house (I do believe it was her that we stayed with after all) to a public bus where I deciphered the schedule, and shot us in the direction we needed to head. That direction was out, out of the city, and to whatever major highway that would take us to Turkey. We made our way fairly close to where we needed to be. We actually missed our stop, but seeing as it was the second to last stop we stayed on the short distance to the end of the line and rode backwards to where we needed to be. Even so, it was still a half mile walk to the highway. 

     Once at the highway we followed the small chainlink fence blocking us until we found a hole we could get under with our packs. It didn't take us long. Once in, we walked past a small farm with a turkey and some goats and I remember thinking it funny that there were actual turkeys in Turkey. At that point we turned perpendicular to the turkey pen and trudged up the small hill that the highway was built upon. At the top we all made a decision. The game plan: We'd hitch in twos, I with Georgie and Jake with Jess, and we'd all meet at Gokan's (the couchsurfer Georgie'd set up for us four) that night. Alright team, break. Me and Georgie gave Jake and Jess the head start. We let them stand in front of us on the highway. How is that a head start? Well, what basically always happens with hitching is the car pulls off behind you on the road. What that meant, with Jake and Jess to our backs, was that even if a car did pull over because of me and Georgie the car would stop closer to Jake and Jess, thus essentially giving them our ride. It was nearly impossible for us to get a ride first, so it wasn't surprising when a cement truck, at the sight of me and Georgie, pulled over for Jake and Jess first. Me and Georgie knew it'd be so, and we were watching them load up before we'd really give it a go. We waved goodbye and they were waving at us when we heard a honk behind us. Both of us gave a little start because we were both watching Jake and Jess load. We didn't expect the horn behind us. We turned to see a sedan sitting in wait for us. Super excited to have also gotten a ride, we hurried over and got in. Our driver zoomed past Jake and Jess before the cement truck had even left the shoulder. Our driver gave a couple honks and we waved as we passed them, hearing the deep grunt of the truck honking in reply. 

     Now how it happened. As I remember it, we got 10 rides during that day. 8 of which were in Greece and 2 (sort of) in Turkey. Every ride in Greece was a short one. Yet it still didn't take long to get to the Turkish border. Basically every ride we got took us 20 kilometers down the road to the next town where we'd be thumbin' it for maybe 10 minutes before someone'd pull off for us. Now, it isn't how many rides we got that day that made this day incredible to me. Not at all.  The first ride we got was that sedan, and the man, I remember, was not what you'd call well off. Older and wrinkled, he smoked the whole way and tried to talk to us a little bit. The ride wasn't long though and we were soon standing on the side of the road when we saw a familiar cement truck driving up. We waved at Jake and Jess as the drove by and their driver gave another honk. Soon after, we got another ride in a different sedan. This man was on his way to work, wearing a full suit and speaking perfect English. While with him we passed Jake and Jess on the side of the road, as they'd done to us, and gave 'em a honk. Over and over again this kept happening. They'd pass us, we'd pass them, it was a huge game of leapfrog. And it was so much freaking fun. At one point we were all four again at the same spot hitching. Me and Georgie got the honors this time and took the first car, only to be quickly passed by Jake and Jess in the speeding sports car they'd got. I remember one lady who picked us up was on her way to a birthday party and I sat most of the way holding the cake in my lap. Then, later in the day, when we were almost to the Turkish border, me and Georgie were crammed into the cab of a small two seater pickup hauling watermelons when we saw Jake and Jess on the side of the road again. We, like every other time, got super excited. We were waving at 'em and rolled down the window to yell at them when our driver realized we knew them and pulled off to the shoulder, quickly coming to a stop. Jake and Jess run up with huge smiles on their faces, we all get out laughing, and then they're on top of the watermelons in the back if the truck, with me and Georgie still in the cab, we're all on our way to Turkey. I'd never experienced anything as fun as that in my entire life, it was amazing and beautiful and inspiring all at once. I couldn't believe we could get so many rides from strangers when we didn't even speak the language! They were all so kind and the whole matter was only enhanced by the comical passing and being passed by Jake and Jess nearly every half hour. Whatever I do in life, wherever I may go, that day is going to live on with me forever. But I haven't even told you the whole of it yet, so let me continue.

     All four of us had made it to the border in this watermelon truck and it was only four in the afternoon. Somehow I find it an unlikely circumstance that we'd all be here at the same time and it's all the more fun because of it. We all wave goodbye to the watermelon man and start walking towards the border only to get stopped on the Greek side. It takes a minute or two to find someone who speaks English and we learn you can't cross the border on foot. Well alright, that's fine. We all wait on the Greek side of the border with our thumbs out. It always takes longer to get a ride when you're crossing a border. I think it's because people are more hesitant to take  strangers into another country than they would be if it were just down the road. Law enforcement always makes people nervous. It took almost an hour of going car to car to truck to bus with our passports out to show we weren't trying to sneak across before Jake and Jess finally secured a ride for themselves. Me and Georgie were happy for them, but we were worried. It was getting late. A little after five, and it'd probably get dark around eight meaning we only had three hours hitching to get to Istanbul. It was still a ways away. As we watch Jake and Jess drive through the first checkpoint a car pulls up beside us. Inside we found an older family (I say older because the youngest was older than I) that were so nice to us, though they spoke not a lick of English. We started negotiating with them as soon as we were in the car using hand motions and names of towns. I pulled out my map and they pointed to the first town inside of Turkey, Keş (or something like that, I'd have to look at a map to be certain). We all quickly agreed that that was fine, we were headed in that direction and so the car started forward. The first checkpoint, the one getting you out of Greece, was no problem. It was a long ways to the second, at least a mile, where we would have to be allowed into Turkey. The drive between borders seemed barren, there was nothing around and soon you could see the white star and moon on a red background waving over the entrance to Turkey.  I hadn't even thought that maybe I wouldn't be let in... But all we had to do was buy a 15 euro 90 day tourist visa and we were good to go. Georgie's had cost 20 euros because she is from Australia and it really rifled her feathers a bit. This is where we found Jake and Jess again. Their car and ours were held up at this crossing for a second while we bought visas. Jess tried to buy hers in lira, the Turkish currency, but they only accepted euros here. We all agreed it stupid that you couldn't buy a Turkish visa with the Turkish currency. But she found an ATM that put out euros. And, just like that, another badge of honor was stamped into my passport. Then we, in our two seperate cars, were all on our way. We'd gotten into Turkey!

     

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Let's pause and take a break here for a second. I know this one is going on for a while and there're no photos to soften it (I cannot upload photos with my current connection in Alaska, otherwise I would). There're two more main parts to this story. Mehmet and Gokan. Mehmet is the key to this story. To me he is the most important part because he is the one who made a lasting impression. He is the one who, no matter what, I can look back on and have faith in humanity again. Through the short time I knew him he taught me so much and I can never repay him for that. All to be explained.

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     Once over the border the difference in the land was stark. Turkey was brown, the fields over plowed and barren where Greece had been green and fertile. I was shocked at the difference between countries. Jake and Jess made their own way and us ours. We didn't end up seeing them again until late that night when they made it into Istanbul. Me and Georgie rode for a little ways with our family and were dropped at a circular intersection in the middle of Keş. Little did we know at this point of the adventure, we'd be dropped at this intersection twice more during our roam of Turkey. We thanked our family and walked to where we thought would be a good spot. I started to put my thumb out and, before it was even up in the air, Mehmet came to a hard stop beside us in his truck. It was like a moving truck, and he was transporting food of some kind. He was a short man with dark hair who enjoyed smoking. We climbed into his truck without a second thought. He was overly enthusiastic about everything and insanely happy to have us as his guests. Before we'd even gotten out of the town he'd bought four pretzels from a boy selling them on the street, two for me and two for Georgie. I was already impressed because you could tell he doesn't make much money. I mean he's a trucker in Turkey for God's sake. He lives in his truck and it looked like he's been wearing his clothes for about as long as I'd been wearing mine. He didn't speak much English. 10 words tops, but he still talked to us the whole time and, regardless that we didn't quite understand each other, we all had some damn good laughs during the ride. We learned about güzelle (if I can spell) and the upside down pinching motion that accompanied it. It kind of means something is beautiful. And it was beautiful. The whole experience was beautiful. At some point during the ride we deciphered that Mehmet was telling us it would get dark soon. It was true enough, we could see by the sky outside, but what of it? He mimed that he wasn't going all the way to Istanbul and that no one would pick us up after dark. We knew this to be true as well, but what could we do? And so we assured him it would be alright and we'd just get out wherever he was going, so we all continued down the road like a road trip between friends. 

     After it was dark and we finally stopped, me and Georgie didn't know where exactly we were. Looking back now, we must've been in Çorlu. We were planning on trying to hitch in the dark because we were only an hour away from Istanbul, but Mehmet had different plans for us. He'd tried to call his trucker friends to see if any were going into the city, but no one was. So he sat us down in front of this building and had us wait there. After about 5 minutes he came back with some Turkish çay and left us. I'd never had anything like it before, but it is probably my second favorite thing in the world now. It was everything I'd ever dreamed of. Another five minutes later Mehmet came back and sat with us for half an hour talking to us. It's funny how much you can get across when you don't speak someones language. All of a sudden a bus pulled up out front and stopped with a hiss. It opened its doors and Mehmet shooed us onto it. Now this wasn't a cheap bus either. This thing had wi-fi, TV's in every chair, and it was roomy too. I was awestruck, not by the bus, but by the fact that Mehmet would spend his money on all this for us. The pretzels, the çay, and now this? Who was this guy? I just know he was dirt poor, yet he was going more than out of his way to help us beyond anything I'd ever expected. He even tried to give us some lira as we loaded up, but we denied it. I almost wanted to cry at how beautiful this was. Here I was, in a foreign country, where I didn't speak the language, where this guy knew nothing of who I was or anything about me or what I do, and yet, he was doing everything in his power to help. And he expected nothing from me in return. I had nothing to give him in return, and I was sad about it. But! But wait! Right before the bus closed its door I rushed to the front. I'd found an ash tray in the dirt in Greece. It was golden (doubtfully real gold, but possibly) and inlaid with colorful tiles depicting a ship with a square sail on the ocean. This I had fallen in love with because I thought it beautiful, and this is what I gave to Mehmet in return for his kindness. Not nearly enough, but it was what I had then. And then we were gone. I hope he still uses that ash tray. I should ask him, we still talk on facebook after all. 

     The trip into Istanbul was beautiful. We shared our enthusiasm about what'd just happened, but soon we both just sat back and relaxed. We were tired from the long day hitching. I'd lost my headphones traveling. But there was a pair that came with the seat. I plugged them into my phone and played Nuvole bianche, a piano piece that Jake had introduced me to. He'd told me if he listened to it enough it makes him want to cry. And I do agree, but it's beautiful. That is why Nuvole bianche is forever tied to my heart and it will always take me back in time, to a place where I'd experienced humanity. With the soft sound of a piano masterfully played I quickly nodded off for the short bus ride into Istanbul, a city I never expected to see. 

--------------------

This isn't how the day ended. There is more to it, but I feel as if I've written enough for one post. Maybe I'll finish this night next time. Maybe I'll move on to my favorite Turkish moments. Or maybe not. But to write it how I would like to it'd turn into a book, instead of a blog. Though it may not seem important to you, this was the best day of my life, and it had a massive influence on the person I am today. I remember that day fondly and though it seems like I wrote a lot, it's not even all of it. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a million wouldn't be enough to satisfy me with how I've written this day. I can say I tried, and I can almost certainly say I'll try it again one day. But for now... That'll do pig. That'll do.

To anyone who read this entire thing through, thank you, you're incredible, and I appreciate it. 

Be happy,

Beacon

From Memories: Greece, Part II

     Jake, Jess, and I hadn't a plan for the most part. We did a little more go with the flow type traveling. Georgie liked plans and organization. She had a whole itinerary planned that I believe we others ended up screwing with a bit. All of us were doing the backpacker thing and we planned on hitching South when we left Corfu, towards Athens. Georgie had set up a Couchsurfer (another great program for y'all travelers) for us all there. At this point in my life I had never properly hitchhiked before. I was knew to the subtleties that are included in the art and had never really considered, I'm sure most don't, how difficult it can be. And throughout this entire journey I learned many a hitching lesson and acquired, what I believe was, a firm grasp on the concept. Looking back now, we just as easily may not of made it to Athens that first day and we'd of just been shit outta' luck. Fortunately in the beginning I was not forced to learn the harder lessons of hitching, only the funner ones. 

     Our first ride came easily, we asked everyone on the ferry from Corfu to the mainland. I, unfortunately, hadn't been learning Greek conducive to hitching so I wasn't much help here (though I was the only one who could read signs and such for us). Eventually Jess managed, with her little knowledge of German, to get a conversation with a lady who was willing to give us all a ride. When the ferry landed she pulled over to us in her beat up white Caddy and shoved our packs in her trunk. We couldn't really talk to her because of the language barrier, but she was taking us inland a ways. What I remember most about that ride is that there were very long tunnels in Greece and the mountains looked so big to me. The ride only lasted an hour before she dropped us off outside of some town. I'd have to look at a map to remember which. We made an Athens sign there out of some cardboard we found in a dumpster. All four of us stood on the side of the highway with our thumbs out for no more than 20 minutes when a little itty bitty Yaris type car with Albanian plates pulled over. I hadn't realized it yet at this point, but I'd learn to love Albanians. The guy got out without a word, opened his hatchback trunk, rearranged some stuff, got back in, and waited with the trunk still open. We walked up to his rolled down windows and he just gestured to us. It was enough. We could only fit one pack in the trunk. Jake sat shotgun and we other three sat in the back, packs in lap, squished into the small car. Again, in this ride, we all experienced the craziness that is driving in Greece as we sped down the highway and around almost every other car. Most of the drive was coastal and it was beautiful. Bridges, tunnels, eveything. I remember seeing some gorges that made my jaw drop and my eyes water with their beauty. For the whole 6 hour drive our Albanian friend said nothing to us. Not one word. 5 hours into the drive he stopped at a bus station next to a waterpark. We all stretched our legs and he had us take the one pack out of the trunk so he could get to some of his stuff. Underneath was a black duffel bag of what looked like some yellow grass and two gallon jugs of an off green liquid. He took these over to the front of the bus stop, no one was there, and put them down outside. Just sat them there right on the sidewalk in front of the station. And walked away wiithout looking back. Then we left. That was it, still said nothing, we just left. Me and my friends had no idea what that stuff was and why he put it there. To this day I still have no idea, but it had the sketchiness of something illegal about it. An hour later he had driven us to the center of Athens. He just stopped there and we got out to go on our merry way.

     It was dark when we got into Athens and all we had was the address to this guys house. I'd never Couchsurfed before this, but I wasn't nervous at all. We made our way to his house via subway. I made note of how amazing the graffiti was. When we got there we walked up to his third story apartment. And peering in it was something like you'd expect a Victorian mansion to look like inside. Silver spoons, fine china, and all sorts of ornate things decorating the place. He was very nice and very accommodating. It was a great first experience with couchsurfing. We spent a little while in Athens and I won't bore you with the touristy stuff. Yes, we saw the Parthenon and, yes, it was incredible. There was so much old stuff it was unreal though. I was surprised at how dirty the city was, and the unlimited amount of feral cats. Seriously, they were everywhere. We saw the protestors and Athens is where I first found souvlaki, where I truly and utterly fell in love with Greek food. We switched  couchsurfer hosts once and stayed more in the center of town for a bit with a middle eastern college student who spoke little English. But one of my favorite memories was with our first host. He took us to this bar. We walked there through winding paths and back alleys. Stopping to see friends he worked with at the radio station along the way, then to see some more at another bar. We were walking past all this world class graffiti in the dark when he took a left into a dark looking building and went through this kind of tunnel. We followed him and came out into a huge courtyard, tiered around the edges, with a huge tree in the middle of it. The ground was covered in gravel and there were low tables with candles sitting everywhere up on the tiers and the bar around the base of the tree. There were lights dangling from the and I swear it was one of the coolest places I've ever been. It felt like walking into something you can only describe as where you'd believe elves live. Someplace extremely majestic and magical. The drinks were good and we had a strange desert that I can't explain, but it was called silver submarine or something. A type of vanilla clay stuck to a spoon in a glass of water. I kind of hope one day I make it back to that place. 

     Eventually we left Athens. It was a journey getting out of town on the public bus with Jake, Jess, and Georgie relying on me to read the schedule since I was the only one who knew the Green alphabet well. We made it though, rooted through some trash on the way, and made a sign for Thessaloniki. We decided to split up then and meet in Thessaloniki that night. Jake and Jess went together which left me with Georgie. Jake and Jess made it there no problem. Georgie and I got caught up in a small town and took the night train in later. A kind old man gave me and Georgie some cheese and candy there. I tried to offer him some of my grahm crackers, but he didn't like them. We spent a few days couchsurfing in Thessaloniki, mostly eating Souvlaki and just hanging out with each other. Enjoying the different culture. It was fun, it was nice. And then we turned our sights towards Turkey. Hungry for something new. I do wish that I'd gone to more islands while in Greece, but Jake and Jess wanted to make it back to England for christmas and had invited me to join them. And there were many other places to see along the way. Besides, unbeknownst to me, the day I left Thessalonikki was going to be the best day of my life. It was going to inspire so much faith in humainity within me that I'd never forget it. It was going to truly break me of that rigid and structured life I'd known before all of this. It was the day that I would fall in love with hitchhiking and the free spirit I'd been kindling would take flight. 

Be happy y'all, 

Beacon

From memories: Greece, Part I

 I've come to the point in Alaska where not a lot of huge things to blog about are happening. Y'all have the gist of it: working, scenery, friendship. Bam, Alaska in a nutshell. So I've decided to write about some other adventures from my past. I dunno really how it'll work, but I'm gonna give it a shot. It may be a little dull to y'all reading and it feels a little crude to me skimming over it all so quickly, but like I said, I dunno. I don't know what you want to hear from me. I'll just write what I want to write about. So here goes...

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     After my first season in Alaska I found no desire within myself to return home. Strangely so because this was the longest I'd been away from home in the 19 years of my life. Only three months, obviously still green to the world, but that was still the longest and it had not brought upon a homesickness in me. I'd hated college so much back in Texas that I'd searched hard to find a job far off in what I can only describe as the longest of shots. But somehow I found one. And without a second thought I left college behind to work in Alaska, a place where I knew nothing about anything. Needless to say I learned a lot. After the season I could've gone back. But the taste of college was still fresh in my mouth, and I still needed longer away before I'd be ready to go back and take another shot at it. Young with inexperience, bold dreams blew up my mind and adventures swelled in my heart. I had the most money I'd ever had in my life. Not much to an established person, but I was nowhere near established. I'd had three months of solitude, hard work, and cold rain along with the ego boost that was working in Alaska. I daydreamed about what my calling'd be once I got off the boat the whole last month. That's how, after the most incredible flight of my life (a story for another time perhaps), I came to be landing in Corfu Greece.

     Having never been out of the United States before (discounting some short vacations to Mexico and such) this was all new to me. I didn't know what to expect. When the plane started it's decent and I could start to make out features on the land far below it wasn't what I expected. Not that I'd expected something in particular. I really hadn't known what to expect, but it wasn't the rocky hills that were surrounding this desolate airport. It wasn't actually desolate, but I only saw a few small farms while landing and knew no better. Whenever I'd thought of Greece in the past I'd never imagined what the landscape would be like. When I thought Greece all I would see inside my head is clear turquoise water and white pillars. It's always interesting seeing something you've only imagined before, it's never the same. The same was true of Greece. I walked off that plane and onto the runway with my house and home, clothes, gear, and entire life slung over my back in a then new red pack (most've you have seen me with that pack in my wanderings). Having everything in a pack was still new to me at this point, but I'd always heard about it and read about it so it seemed like the right thing to do. There was no regret in my heart for coming here on a whim, no fear at never having done this sort of thing before. Just frazzled hair, fishing boots, and starry eyes, taking in as much as I could while most of it swept right by me. It was just a lot to take in at once ya' know? So I just kind of followed the small crowd of fellow passengers over to the small airport building and lined up in the non EU line. It was cool seeing everything in Greek. It didn't bother me at all that I couldn't read it either. I still knew the signs over the doors probably meant exit. I could still identify a no smoking sign and most things had those dumb looking pictures under them. It wasn't a problem. In about a minute I was to the front of the line. They didn't hold my passport up next to my face and make sure I was who it said I was. Hell, they didn't even look at the photo. Just flipped to the first page and plopped down a stamp and sent me on my way. Those stamps have a certain sort of pride that come with them, with every new stamp I got as a traveler I felt a sense of accomplishment inside me along with a release of tension it seemed I'd been holding onto. A sense that I'd made it somewhere I'd never realistically thought I'd be. He handed back my passport to me. I just sauntered out into the warm Greek air.

       Alaska attracts the traveling type, so while I was there I met a few people and got a few tips to start me off. This is where I learned about helpx. And if you want to go somewhere and stay for free, helpx is the way to freakin' go. Check it out, seriously. And helpx is how I found Magdalenna who owned the Pink Palace. The Pink Palace was a hostel on Corfu island that acquired its name from the pink colour that everything was painted. This is where I was headed when I left the airport and I knew there'd be someone waiting to pick me up. And there was, I hopped in the van and met the first Albanian I'd ever met. For the life of me I can't remember his name, but it wasn't his real name anyways. He worked at the hostel, but was more of a permanent guy than these seasonal helpxers brought in and he was hilarious in a raunchy way. A few guest were also getting into the van and then off we went into an eye opening experience that is what they call driving in Greece. From everything I could tell there were no laws. We were speeding, bombing corners blindly, going around people to the left, going around people to the right, driving on the wrong side and on the sholder, honking at everyone on the road and at nearly every house we passed. I later learned there are two reasons to honk at someone in Greece: 1. because you know them and like them and 2. because you know them and dislike them. Which, as you can imagine, means everyone is honked at. I learned that a lot of people die in Greece from car crashes and you could see why. About every half mile there was a small shrine for someone who'd died there in an auto crash. After about 20 minutes we ended on this super windy road down a mountain. The hillsides around us were extremely steep and covered in all sorts of fruit bearing trees and vines. A lot of olive trees which hold a strange beauty to them. Whichever side of the van that was facing the sea (depending on which way we were winding) had an incredible view. You could see the Pink Palace down at the beach, and the beach right beside it with huge jagged islands jutting out of the beautiful Mediterranean sea.

    When we got to the palace the guest went left and I right. I was immediately introduced to some people who worked there and they welcomed me with a shot of ouzo (I suppose you spell it like that) which is the Greek liquor of choice. It was dyed a slight pink in honor of the palace and was actually pretty good. I was shown to my quarters where I'd be living during my stay. A 5 minute walk from the beach with a view of everything. I had a room and bathroom all to myself and it was small, but much more than I'd expected. Outside my back window lived a litter of feral kittens that Just stared at me every time I walked past. My front wondow was just some old rickity shutters that gave that it the feeling that it was old (and I'm sure it was pretty old). I could eat at the resturaunt on the beach for free and shots at the bar up the hill were only €1. Breakfast was usually cereal with Greek yogurt instead of milk. Lunch I could have basically anything Greek (mouthgasm). And dinner was always something different prepared by the hostel for the guests. That first night I just relaxed. I sat on the beach and ate food. The place was basically deserted because this was off season. The sunset was all for me and I cherished it. Finally letting my body relax after having worked hard for three months and trying my hand at international  travel. I didn't meet Magdalena, Jake, or Jess until the next day. And Georgie a few days after that.

      Jake and Jess were a couple from Cornwall England. They'd thought it'd be fun to go on an extended vacation together (they'd already done a bit of traveling before) and so they were helpxing in Greece. We became good friends really fast. None of us were big on getting drunk, so we bonded a lot. We would work together during the day, or later on, when I was sent off to work elsewhere, we would hang out at night. We'd play card games, bananagrams, or just talk about cultural stuff. I'd never really known anyone from different countries so it was all new to me and I had a lot of questions. Working at a hostel I met people from everywhere. A lot of Canadians and Australians though. I met a fellow American and he quickly became one of my idols (I have 6 people in my life who all inspire me greatly, and they would be shocked to hear it). He was everything I wanted to be at 28. I learned a lot about English culture and when Georgie, a girl from Australia showed up as another helpxer, a lot about Australia too. All four of us decided to band together then and there and became good friends later on. Magdalena was the owner of the hostel. And she was a kind lady. I liked her very much, but she was very poor and not well educated (though she spoke 7 languages). She quickly grew to love me as part of her family. She would invite me to eat with them instead of at the hostel kitchen, take me to town with her, and give me lessons in Greek at the end of the day. The work was simple enough, some gardening and cleaning for four or five hours a day. Maybe watching her two children, Spiro and Helena. They were 3 and 2 years old. Soon she liked me enough to send me to work with her father where I painted another hotel they had for weeks. I would wake up early and he'd pick me and two of the Albanians up. We'd go to the other property and paint a little, but mostly eat grapes off the vines along with the figs, pomegranates, and walnuts. Around noon he would make us lunch, which was usually some incredible stew with lamb still on the bones. He'd invite his friends over and we'd talk in the small amount of Greek Magdalena had taught me (he spoke no words of English and neither did most of his friends). From what I could tell he was a very well respected man. During these chats he served the strongest wines I'd ever tasted in my life. One glass and I was well beyond tipsy. Eventually he showed me how he made it in the shed behind the place. Then when the place was robbed Magdalena took me with her to talk to the gypsies about it ('twas obviosuly them who'd done it). They lived in shanties out in the country and every time I went by there was a raging bonfire in the heart of their refuge. She truly trusted me and I was seriously on my way to becoming part of the family. 

     One day her father (his name was Spiro also) was driving me back to the Pink Palace when we came upon the remains of a crash. The next day when we drove by it a small shrine had already started for the man who died there. Magdalena came to me later that day and said "there is a funeral in town for a man who died in a crash. He was a bad man, but the friend of our friend so we must go. I'd like you to come with us." I wasn't sure what to say to that, it seemed like an honor as I was the only one invited, even a dear friend of his at the hostel was not permitted to go because she was not one of them. And so I went and it was an incredible experience. We showed up at the small church and there were hundreds of people outside of it. It seemed everyone from the town showed up for this funeral. I didn't know what to do. It was interesting, and you could tell I was the only outsider there. I also stood a head taller than anyone else there which made me stick out, but no one seemed to mind. I could get by with my little Greek because no one went past 'hi, how are you?' or would ask me who I was with. I didn't know what was happening and we were all just standing out in the streets. But then a band started playing and we all started walking forward slowly and I realized it was a procession. I'd never been in anything like this before. Farther back where I was everyone was walking with friends and chatting quietly about the man. The closer you got to the front of the procession the more emotion was being shown from those that must've been his family. It lasted almost an hour ending in the small candle lit church surrounded by a little cemetery and a forest of olive trees. Everyone walked through to see the open casket and pay their respects. There were priests there and most people kissed one of the priests hand as they walked into the old church. Many people kissed the dead mans forehead too as they passed. I just walked through it all silently observing. And I still feel honored by that day.

     It seems like I was at the Pink Palace longer than I was. In reality it was maybe a month, but even a month is a long time to bond with others. Yes, it was a short time to become part of a family, but it was because we got to the heart of it quickly. Many an hour did I spend talking to Magda about life and helping her with her problems. She's confided in me and trusted me and so she took me in. I still wonder today what would've happened if I'd of stayed longer. I was welcome to of course, and Magda was distraught to see me go, but when Georgie decided she was going to explore more of Greece on her way to Turkey Jake and Jess decided to go with her and I coudln't turn the opportunity down. One of those last nights at the Pink Palace we all spent some time at the bar together before running down and into the surf. Laughing and chatting about travel. That night served as the bellows to the fire I had inside me, spurring me on to adventure. They flamed hot and I was excited. Our last day on Corfu Magda took us everywhere on the island. We saw the ancient churches built high up on the cliffsides, the old fortress, townsquare, arches, statues, markets, and pristine beaches. It was beautiful. Then early the next day Magda dropped us off at the ferry that'd take us to the mainland to begin the journey I'd thought only existed in books. 

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I'm going to try to continue this story as best I can in between present time posts. Let me know if y'all think this is dumb and I'll quit (probably not). And if you want to see the photos that go along with it just look at my facebook. They're all in my albums under the album titled Greece. 

     

Be happy, 

Beacon