Roadtrip through Canada

With a mighty fine car like Patti it's hard to live a life without roadtrips. I was happily driving around from festival to festival until a slightly bigger roadtrip mission fell from the skies. My parents found cheap flights from Brussels to Montreal... So I promised to pick them up at the airport and travel around Quebec with them. I was in Britsh Columbia, thinking nothing of the mission I had to accomplish. With a snap of the fingers and the blink of an eye, I would be on the other side of the country. Easy!

I ignored everyone who told me Patti was too old for the drive and would fall apart along the way. I ignored the fact that I drive like a farmer and have no parking skills. Even more, I ignored the advice people gave me to just book a flight to save money and time. Why would I fly when I have a magical car that can drive me 5000 km to where I need to be? It was a big mission and I get bored easily singing songs by myself so I looked for funky people to join the trip. 

In Banff, I picked up Verena, Aiden and about 15 thousand bags and we were ready to go! When you share a tiny space with a hilarious German woman and sweet Australian man you know good times will be a rollin'. Many states were crossed, free camp sites were found and after spending more than 70 hours in a car together, taboos seized to exist. Our mutual love for JT and Backstreet Boys songs resulted in many afternoons of car karaoke. 

We followed the same highway all through the country but the views changed constantly. From the rockies over prairies, blue skies and rain storms, shooting stars and a full moon. Bottomless cups of coffee were my fetish. No quality, but quantity was what counted. The barista man in the back seat did not approve and suggested we'd look for real good coffee in Winnipeg. I got excited. After days of driving and sweating I was going to be in a real city. How do people act again? Is it okay to wear psychedelic tights and smell like car? My travel companions said no and we decided to take a shower just before entering the big city. 

I could write a book about our two hours in Winnipeg but let's just say the coffee was great. It was really good, but it was even better to get out of there. We stopped for little lake swims and large waterfall selfies. City madness reached its highest level when we visited Toronto on a Saturday afternoon in what must have been 58 degrees. With a fried brain at the tipping point of delirium, I got in the car to drive to our last stop before the grand finale: Ottawa. By that point I learned how to behave like a classy city woman, shaved legs and bras and all. Until I saw blue lipstick and went a little crazy. 

Montreal is a whole other story. Goodbye hugs one day and welcome kisses the next. A car and heart filled with love and sweet sweet memories. Singing homemade lyrics and crying from laughter. Countless hours of talking while driving through the country I like to call my home. 

Oh Canada, you gorgeous thing!

Vancouver Island, let's get married!

I've been living in the beautiful land of Canada for one month now and I fell in love 5692573 times already. Life is good in the summer sun. On my first days in Vancouver I met a wonderful musician who hosted me in his dream house on Vancouver Island. All mountain views and salty air and I felt like home sweet home. Hitch hiking with the most stunning views, collecting stories, living life day by day. 

After years of catching rides and sleeping on couches, I decided it was time to give back to hitchers and create a home while being on the road. Yes, I did what all grown ups do and bought a car. My first old noisy lady of a truck. She's older than the boys I date and huskier than my voice after five days of festivals. But she's a rockstar and goes by the name Patti. Yay to the freedom of driving wherever I want to, sleeping in the back of my truck and going thrift shop crazy because for the first time in my travel life I have space to put things! No to carrying overflowing backpacks, yes to singing along with the radio and sticking my head out of the window like a dog feeling the breeze.

Another big thing happened while I was falling in love with the island: I became a member of the 27 club! Well, not really, because I'm alive and not quite as famous but if you ignore all that and just shout hooray and happy birthday you will see the biggest smile on my face. I bought a present for myself in shape of a wedding dress, ready to be worn all over the country to dance and frolick and who knows maybe even get married in.

As I was driving around in my home on wheels, picking berries while hiking in the forest and swimming in fresh lakes surrounded by mountains and stars, I thought things couldn't get any better. Life was flowing and I happily went with it, saying yes to every new adventure coming my way. So one night I found myself on a beach in Tofino, around a fire and beautiful people, hugging Jess (who I met in Australia three years ago) and celebrating the summer solstice like a dream. I lived in a hippy commune and enjoyed the sweet Tofino life, singing karaoke, dancing to hiphop and soaking up the beach views. 

I heard about a little underground festival on Cortes Island, and my curiosity wins every time. So I hopped on a water taxi and danced, swam, looked at the glow in the dark jelly fish and met the most amazing friends. My energy levels were rising while my voice was fading as I arrived at the second festival that week: Tall Tree. On top of a mountain, waking to pine tree views, laughing, loving, dancing so hard my body is still recovering. 

On the ferry back to Vancouver I felt a rush of emotions. Sadness to leave this island I love, the people I just met and hold close in my heart, gratefulness for everything that happened, nerves for Belgian friends to meet and letters to read, total bliss standing on the ferry deck, looking out over the Gulf Islands and ocean. At that moment a band started playing and people were cheering as whales showed up in the distance.

You know that intense feeling of happiness coming over you for a couple of seconds, leaving you longing to find a way to hold onto it. I think I found the way. Follow your path, do what feels good, be yourself completely, without fear, without judgement, love endlessly and share your smile with everyone. Many will smile back, many will think you're a weirdo. That's where you look at yourself, your beat up truck home, your wedding dress, your husky voice from laughing too loud for days on end and blistering feet from dancing all night, your crazy friends and their happy faces and realise it's fucking great being a weirdo. 

Stay weird, that's how I love you best.

Grampians goodness

Put four girls in a car. Add music, crisp white goon and a great plan to go camping in the Grampians. Magic happens and good times roll about. The goon (for non-aussies: a 5 liter box of cheap wine) hardly made it through the first night and we didn't quite make it through the second day. Gravity was hard to be maintained so we decided to chill in rock pools and walk along the lake. 

I don't know if it was the interminable goon sipping, the sound of wildlife around the tent or the ultimately beautiful starry sky, but I slept with my eyes open that night. After 24 hours of recovering, we decided to spend the last day exploring like there was no tomorrow. And we did! We got up early and headed straight for beautiful lookouts. It was a cloudy morning. So the view was a cloud. The afternoon brought sunshine and waterfalls, actual gorgeous views and a sunburn. And kangaroos! I couldn't help but yell out every time one crossed our path. Imagine my enthusiasm when we saw fields FULL of them! I went mad with fluffy kangaroo love.

Road trip to Italy part 2: Geneve

I'm so slack at blogging lately! I've been wanting to tell you all about my trip to Geneve and Milano, but instead I've visited every terrace in Brussels, catching every possible ray of sun. Summer is slowly making it's grand arrival and I'm all about summer time. The blossoming forests, ice cream cones filled with chocolate, butterflies and bearded men... I'm going a bit crazy here! In a wonderful way! 

I'm pretty sure it all started the moment we artived in Geneve. Nine hours in a car full of pumping nineties tunes made us feel like we drank fourteen redbulls. Exactly. Unstoppable! Freddy's sister lived in a slice of Swiss paradise. An old school building with a big garden (veggies, medicinal plants, aaall the goods) and 25 gorgeous people living together. My vision of heaven, indeed. I dived right in through the window and felt completely and utterly at home in this colourful house of happiness. 

There was pinata slapping, dancing on the roof, speaking all languages I can and can't (but after three glasses of wine; I can) and long and sunny bike rides around the city. I jumped off my bike maybe 38 times to yell out in awe of the magnificent mountain views. And the old center. The people. The hidden Ethiopian restaurant / living room. Holy smoke, it was glorious! Geneve, you've got me under your spell. One day, when I'm rich and old (because I don't see being rich happening in my youth. Nor in my adulthood. Hm.) I will be back! 

Roadtrip to Noosa

After Gemma and I got married in his garden, Rainer took me and his yellow van on a roadtrip to Noosa. A honeymoon without my wife. After hugging her goodbye, I felt the undeniable desire to take a big afternoon swim in Jacob's Creek. We drove to a normal creek instead, which was also very nice. I was just floating around on the clear water when I saw a snake brutally devouring an innocent frog. It all looked very dramatic, the frog's legs hanging out of the snake's mouth, spastically shaking before they would turn into minced meat. I didn't feel like swimming anymore.

Later that day I met the house of my dreams, bought pineapples for good karma and ate a family pack of fish and chips before I would spend countless days in a foetal position wailing about my faraway wifey.

However much I love her, there was no time for sobbing. Instead I went for a motorbike ride (I was sitting on the back, so no one would get hurt) played in the ocean, enjoyed some late night jams and went on a camping trip on the beach.