So... What next?

06/10/2009

I know I owe you guys a bunch of updates from burning man onwards (and they are coming, don't worry), but I just HAD to tell you about the past few days.

This past weekend has probably been the most exciting and fun-filled weekend of my life! I kid you not! Is it really possible to fit more than 100 bands playing live, crazy twister games, a Charlie the Unicorn themed party,



endless amounts of cake,



several beers and a party on a bridge in 65 hours? Apparently it is...

Friday morning and I'm up fairly early. ACL is about to begin. What is this? It's the Austin City Limits Music festival, (yes, I am back in Austin by the way) a musical extravaganza in the greenest park of Austin that lasts three days and hosts some of the biggest names of the musical world.



And the festival kicks off with names such as Mishka, the Avett Brothers, Phoenix, Thievery Corporation, Kings of Leon and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs! And by around midnight that the music ended, I went to a friend's place where we thought the most normal thing to do is play twister at 3am.

Saturday, festive day (did I mention it was my birthday that day? No? Well, it was! :) ) and the music begins once again. Bring it on !!!, Airborne Toxic Event, Flogging Molly, And you will know us by the trail of the dead, Ghostland Observatory and so many more. And the best part of it? All of those under the pouring rain!




Austin city centre is just behind us.


I'm not crying my eyes out. I'm just really exhausted. And no, that's not sh1t on my chest.

Thousands and thousands of people jumping, singing and crowd-surfing, wet to the bone and knee-deep in mud.



And as if that was not enough, come the end of the music, a friend comes to pick me up. He takes me home to have a shower (believe me, I needed it) and gives me a set of white clothes to wear. (??) We then drive out to some house where I've never been before, go walk around the back and suddenly two girls jump out of nowhere and shout "Welcome to candy mountain Charlie"! They dragged me into the house, only to find that the two girls were L. and D., disguised as unicorns and they had thrown a Charlie the unicorn-themed, surprise birthday party for me.






The unicorn possy

Unicorns, bananas, candy and starfish all over the place! I couldn't believe what they had put together! So many people, so many costumes, so many sweets and the biggest cupcake I had ever seen in my life to top it all! The whole thing was just surreal.




Candy mountain in the flesh!


The biggest cupcake I have ever seen!!!


And then my face in it!




The choo choo shoe is back!

Sunday and final day of ACL. To be honest, I did not care about most of the bands. I was only waiting for Pearl Jam to come on, closing the festival and sending us to awe-land. And indeed they did. And there was no better way to end this extraordinary weekend, than by having a few beers at one of my favourite spots in town. But then, as I was moisting my throat with the delicious, cold, amber-colored, wheat-based drink, the phone rang, only to invite us to a... bridge party!
The name of it explains it all. It's a party. On a bridge. With DJs, speakers, sound systems, lots of people dancing etc. INSANE!!!

I got home at about 4am again and by that point, I could not feel my legs. After 65 hours of constant craziness and jumping around, recovering was in order.....

M.

P.S.1: ACL photos taken by Hillary Jenkins. Party photos taken by Tabitha Halfmann and Brent Thomas

P.S.2: If you have no idea what I'm on about when talking about unicorns, bananas and starfish, do yourself the favor and get educated.

28/08/2009

3000 kilometers from Austin to Chico and they passed in no time. It was Charlie's first big test and he passed with flying colors.

It was a very long route, but incredibly comfortable and I ended up doing the whole thing in less than 48 hours. Charlie coped without a problem even with endless hours of non-stop driving and my seat is the most comfortable I have ever sat on.

The whole ride was really interesting, mainly due to the fact that it was so different than any other I have traveled on so far. Hundreds of kilometers through the deserts, where every now and then a gas station would show up along with a restaurant and a couple of hotels for the truckers and travelers like myself.






Took a few friends from Texas for a ride.

I crossed Texas, passed through New Mexico, saw Arizona from east to west and finally California from south to north. At some point in the middle of nowhere in Arizona, I stopped on the side of the road and got out of the car to take some photos. Two minutes later, I turned around and saw a police car stopped right behind my car and the cop approaching me.

- Good afternoon. You taking photos?
- Yes.
- Ok. Well, I'm gonna ask you to get back in your car and drive off, because we are looking for someone and he is somewhere around here right now.

He didn't need to say it twice. I was already driving away with Charlie, thinking "Daaaaamn!"



Sunday morning I made it to D.'s place in Chico, a couchsurfing friend with whom I never had the chance to meet in person. In fact, I even had the chance to meet B., another couchsurfer I know the same way, with whom we have the same sense of humor and for three days we did not stop laughing and throwing sarcasm all over the place.
The three days that followed till we left for Burning Man, I didn't see much of Chico, as we had so much to do and be fully ready for two weeks in the middle of the desert. Needless to say, we were not short on laughters, wines, food and chats.








Preparing and protecting cameras for the burn.

And the grand day of departure towards Burning Man had finally arrived.



It's about 500 kilometers away, so we split the ride in two, spending a night in Reno, a casino filled city in the heart of Nevada.
28th of august and in a few hours I will be in Black Rock City, in Burning Man, the primary force that dragged me all the way to the USA. My excitement is undescribable! :D

M.

21/08/2009

Ok, there are a couple of zeros missing, but it's no big deal...

The time has come to leave Austin. I stayed in this vibrant city for three weeks and I had a blast. It is time, however, to head out west and start approaching Burning Man (for the ones who have not done their homework, a relative article will follow).

So, Charlie is ready...



the route already selected on the GPS...



and off to Chico, California we gooooooo! There is a long way ahead of us!

Μ.

17/08/2009

I decided to take up my old hobby of freefall.

I found a skydiving center just an hour away from Austin, the San Marcos skydiving center and visited them one saturday.



I had forgotten how addictive this sport is. I ended up spending four out of the past five days at the dropzone, jumping off planes over and over again.

I had forgotten what it's like to be on a plane with 10 more people, which rises slowly and you spend those 20 minutes of flight looking at the open door out of which you will jump towards the void.

I had forgotten the sensation of the strong wind against my body those few seconds during which I am holding on outside the plane, ready to let myself fall.

I had forgotten what it means to let myself loose in the hug of the clouds and to quickly escape when I find myself in the heart of the pillows of the skies.

I had forgotten how magical is the view from up there and how I feel when I look at an opening amongst the trees on the ground and accelerate my flight towards it.

I remembered it all...

Μ.

11/08/2009

I have decided to continue my trip with someone. Someone reliable who will follow me around everywhere and will make my life just a bit easier.

We only met recently and we have decided to continue this trip together until wherever possible. We're going to go through the weirdest of places and will share everything.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor to present you to...


...Charlie!

Charlie will be my new mode of transport for the rest of my trip around the USA. In fact, it's not just my car, but my proper house. :)



Anyone feels like joining? ;)

M.

10/08/2009

I found out that every sunday there is a gathering of the city's circus addicts in a park in the center and they spend the whole evening there.





There is a little bit of everything: acrobatics, juggling, dance, music, painting, a couple of nutters with whips... And all this under the, as every day of the week, very hot texan sun.













I told you I was gonna like this. :)

Μ.

05/08/2009

I bought a bike to be able to move around. (Public transportation here is inexistent!) On wednesday a critical mass ride was organised on midnight because of the full moon and about 250 bikes gathered up on the pedestrian bridge.



We set off from the center of the city just after midnight. After the second sidewalk that I jumped off, my saddle started wobbling a bit more than it should.
I ignored it.

Three minutes later, as I am cycling amongst a big bunch of bicycles, I hear a clunk-wack, I look back and see my saddle upside-down on the street. Apparently, I had lost a bolt, so it was impossible to repair it at that moment. Well, I thought, I'll just continue riding standing. Either way, how long are we gonna be in the streets anyway? So I took the saddle pole off too (to avoid any tragic accidents), put everything in my bag and continued.



Three hours later and we were still cycling! I couldn't believe it! And since we were at the other side of the city and I had no friggin clue on how to get back, I stayed with the rest of the bunch.

To cut a long story short, I ended up getting home at 5am, after having cycled approximately 30 kilometers standing..............

Μ.