Ross flew back to England on the 16th. I’m in the driving seat, on my own with a full map of Europe on the satnav and a full tank of diesel – it’s a crazy feeling. I look behind me and everything I need is here, I’m in my home with all my music, books and my computer.
The past few days have reminded me that I am not really on my own if I don’t want to be. A mixture is good and totally possible. If I want to do something, I can go to the nearest city park and meet the slackliners and jugglers. It’s great how quickly slacklining has spread in the past few years and there’s always a good group of people hanging around any given slackline in any given city
Finding the good parties
If I want to find parties, I look in the lonely planet book for where the ‘sketchy’ areas are (usually outskirts of a city) and go for a walk. The other day I found a nice little party under a bridge by the side of the river in Zurich with small soundsystem, playing mostly techno. I had a bag full of shopping but I couldn’t resist and stayed till the end.
Finding the good people
I was tired from the last few nights of free-camping in Bern and Zurich I decided to drive to a lake (lake constance) and find a quiet spot. As I pulled into the carpark by the lake, I met this guy standing by the parking bay.
He said hi through the window before I even stopped the van. He lives in a wagon and doesn’t have a job. We talked a bit about brainwave entrainment and music and then he took me round in his old Volvo to find a camping spot. He did donuts in the gravel and then we went to explore an old 5 storey warehouse. On the top floor we met a group of old people laughing, drinking and smoking round a table, amongst piles of second hand furniture and broken things. The building wasn’t derelict, we left.
He took me to the shop (I had no food in the van) and insisted on paying for food and beer… and chocolate for dessert. We chilled in the van till 12 and then he went home. It’s the random things like this that I love!
