We really pick the nights to get drunk!! Our last night in the hostel in LA was eventful but have the hangover from hell today and we need to drive to Santa Barbara! We had a drink in the hostel and were planning to have a quiet night until about 10.30 when we decided it would be a really good idea to join an organised group who were going clubbing. We told them we would find our own way to the club as we weren't ready. The getting ready itself was a task as none of us had a clubbing outfit [View Full Entry]

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Having parted ways with Brent on the first morning of my great trek, I started making plans for the day of riding ahead and a place to sleep at night. Before leaving LA I visited couchsurfing.org at the prompting of Artemisia. Couchsurfing is a community of travelers who offer their homes to eachother free of charge when they can, for the sake meeting folks with interesting stories to tell and knowledge to share, and to help decommodify one of the many life necessities which should never have become a commodity: safe shelter, a place to sleep. I found a few folks [View Full Entry]

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In the Last entry I commented in passing on my near lack of expenses during my stay here in Santa Barbara. In the interest of sharing knowledge and philosophy I would like to devote a short entry to the nitty-gritty of the thrifty self-sufficient lifestyle. There are a few basic necessities that any living creature must have in order to live a healthy and happy life. These are food, shelter (and in our case clothing), water, and for social creatures, community. And computers, automobiles, cell phones, iPods, gasoline, er, wait just a minute here! I've been tricked, it's a scam! Scratch [View Full Entry]

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Well folks, I'm finally begrudgingly making a visit here to cyberspace to inform you of my adventures, thoughts, and whereabouts. I admit that I have been procrastinating for some time, feeling overwhelmed by the task of representing this long strange trip justly in a few pages of digital text and grainy low-resolution photos. But alas-- I trod onward! I told you I would keep you informed and by golly I'm going to keep you informed. Slowly. But surely. So quite a lot has happened to me in the last six weeks as you might well imagine. I'll be writing a handful [View Full Entry]

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Im letzten Blog hatte ich ja geschrieben, das ich Antihistamine von Barbara bekommen hab. Es waren Tabletten zu je 4mg und sie meinte, das die Müdigkeit ungefähr 1h pro 1mg anhält und ich ruhig 2 nehmen könnte. Das war so kurz nach 10pm und ich dachte das es ja kein Problem ist, da ich eh nicht all zu spät ins Bett gehen wollte. Normaler Weise wache ich immer von allein zwischen sagen wir mal 6:30pm und 7:30pm auf und Heinrich ist da meistens noch so fest am schlafen das er es nicht mitbekommt selbst wenn ich erst noch ein paar Sachen [View Full Entry]

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Ja, wie schon dezent im Titel hingewiesen war in letzter Zeit hier ganz schön Flaute. Am Montag hatte ich eine Lustige Tagesaufteilung ... von 8:30 bis 12 im Lab, dann hatte ich nen Freund, den ich schon ne Weile nicht mehr getroffen hatte (ich glaube ich hatte ihn auch mal im Blog erwähnt, Laurence) zu einem Sub eingeladen ... dabei haben wir dann noch einen getroffen ... gegen kurz nach 13 war ich wieder im Lab, da ich aber immer mehr müde geworden bin ich gegen 14 wieder los und hab paar Sachen im Supermarkt geholt und nach Hause geschafft [View Full Entry]

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Find yourself a map of California, and I'll talk you through what we've done today. Obv, last night we stayed at the hostel on Hollwywood Boulevard - flair location, but looking back now, "crummy" is a very generous and particularly polite description - we got up and headed out to the coast at Santa Monica, very cool with the Pier featured in Forrest Gump's running and a massive farmer's market. Our plan to head north took a slight detour when Rachel got a bit unwell and wasn't really in a fit state to drive, as I'm sure she will agree. She [View Full Entry]

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Wie ich das beim letzten Mal schon erwähnt hatte war diese Woche der 4. Juli sprich der Independence Day an dem die Amerikaner ihren Patriotismus mal so richtig ausleben können. Doch am Vortag hatte ich erstmal zum Essen geladen. Sogar Ralph hatte an dem Tag Zeit und wir konnten gemütlich im Garten sitzen. Ich hatte Gado Gado (jede Menge Gemüse), ein Gericht was ich auf Bali kennen gelernt hatte, mit Erdnusssoße und als Nachtisch Klebereis mit Mango, selber Uralaub nur etwas später in Thailand ;-) gemacht. Diesmal war das erste mal das Barbara nicht 80% der Zeit redete sondern ich [View Full Entry]

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We've had a great couple of days here in the Santa Ynez Valley basically just swimming in the pool in between bouts of wine tasting. Now we're bracing ourselves for the Fourth of July celebrations tomorrow. We'll probably be settled into our new campsite on the other side of Santa Barbara by the time things get into full swing but whatever happens I'm sure it will be interesting because there are never-ending displays of rampant patriotism all over the place - I now know EXACTLY what the US flag looks like - big ones, little ones, ones on car aerials, [View Full Entry]

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Thats right - Sideways. If you saw the movie "Sideways" then thats where we are now - at Buellton which is an hour or so north of Santa Barbara, drawing closer to LA as the excitement level increases for the boys. All they're interested in is having the crap scared out of them on roller coasters. Susan and I just want to drink wine and try and escape their reality! Going back though, after we didn't see any bears at Shasta we moved on to Lassen Volcanic Park hoping to see some there. Again we did the mountain climbing thing [View Full Entry]

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