Crossing the Mediterranean Sea - first day in Maroc

After Marseille I spent two really windy days on the road to drive from Marseille to Perpignan and after a short break at a Couchsurfing couple having some Apero & dinner - continuing to Barcelona.

Well equipped with a lot of food and water, a new adventure started.

Already in the harbour of Barcelona (where I stayed for about 6 hours waiting), I could notice, that I would probably be one of the few persons on the boat not going home for holidays, as all the cars where highly packed with stuff (in the car and on the roof with adventerous techniques of load safety), people where bringing home to Maroc to their from Europe.

My motorbike felt suddenly really small.

pole position for the three motorbikes on the ferry while waiting for boarding

The ferry was obviously mostly equipped for marocan travellers, which makes sense, as 95% of travellers seemed to be marocan. The consequence of this was noticable at all places. The (far to loud) entertainment program was completely in arabic, all announcements were made firstly in arab, afterwards spanish, french and english (whereas the last two languages were barely understandable).

The boat was equipped with praying rooms for men & women, and one interesting thing I hadn't seen in a long while, was the procedure of preparing to pray. Therefore many men where washing their feet in the bathroom, which the bathrooms were obviously not prepared for and flooded the floor over and over again ..

Over all, the trip was alright - but a 30 hours stay with a lot of strangers in a small area with limited options of stuff to do is always a challenge I guess.. [nevertheless I was able to sleep not to bad the first night for about 6 hours, and read about 400 pages :D ]

calm sea and some sun during the daytime of the traverse

 

*Zeitsprung*

*readers of Marc-Uwe Klings Känguru Chroniken know this Kunstgriff.*

Thanks to the delay of about 4 hours - I needed to make a little 40km drive in the dark in the middle of the night, on a new continent without internet or any Dirhams in my pocket.

Surprisingly, the drive was really pleasant & beautiful as the temperature was still warm and it took me about an hour to drive carefully in the dark to Tanger where I luckily found the receptionist still awake and letting me into the hostel, where I took a (really needed) shower and went straight to bed at 4am.

three-lanes road in the middle of the night empty for a stop and short picture

The first real day in Maroc, I spent mostly with wandering around the old Medina, getting a little acclimatised and used to new money, new languages, new habits and a new surrounding.

sunny day - before a rainy & stormy night

Most of the people I had direct contact with were nice and friendly, nevertheless, about half of the people having contact with me were (partly aggressively) trying to drag me somewhere, sell me stuff or keeff, show me some directions to somewhere I didn't wanna know and all the other scams that are reported on pages like wikitravel. This is a little frustrating, as I can be classified straight away as a tourist and therefore as a potential target, but I guess a few days more and I will be feeling comfortable again and being able to say 'La Shukran' in a convicing way ;-)

old medina - easy to get lost in all these little paths

   

deluxe-parking

Motto of the day: You're not lost when you have no goal :)

Travelling in France - from Noth to South and winter to 'summer' ;-)

Bonjour tout le monde!

After crossing Switzerland in the fastest mode possible, dressed like an onion to escape the +-0 degrees there, I finally arrived in Grenoble where I was very happy to stay at Pierre (thanks Reda for introducing us!) and his flatmates' flat for two nights - and the first time having a whole day 'off' driving :-)

After a short welcome and a quick beer, we headed out to some 'stand-up' show, hosted by the BDE (student association) of Pierres' university. After a long day of driving, crossing the second border with a stunning view on Mount Salève - I was really done and it challenged my French a lot :p

One interesting side note to mention here is, that we had to walk about 45 minutes home (in the cold night), due to the massive strikes taking part in France at the moment (the Tram did stop their service early due to the strikes). Anyway it was a funny experience, as all the students were walking on the railways towards the city - as it is the fastest way, sure that no train would come.

 

Luckily, I was able to understand some jokes and it gave me a quick and dirty throw-back into French. The following day off I enjoyed sleeping a lot, and went on the 'small' mountain nearby where the old "Fort de la Bastille" is located and gives a stunning view over the the whole Grenoble and the surrounding mountains which are already / still partly covered by snow.

View of the Fort de la Bastille

 

The next day, I continued my trip around (not over!) the mountains to go to Avignon, where the first time on the trip I had the feeling of almost having warm weather again (10 degrees and sunshine). Here I had a nice evening with Charles-Henri, a Couchsurfing host. We had some good talks about politics, stuff that is going on in our crazy world and his travels (8 months by bycicle, starting in the middle of the winter from Paris through Germany eastwards :o ), and a little night-visit of the city center of Avignon.

Next stop on the journey was back to Nice, where I was getting a really warm welcom by the parents of Agnes (a former Couchsurfing guest in our residence in Munich). They introduced me to their home, and we enjoyed two dinners together, improving my French and making my stay really comfortable! Thanks a lot for that :-)

In Nice I had the first time the pleasure of spending a few minutes topless in the sun at the beach .. afterwards I was cold again. (I wonder why everyone was starring at me ...)

Also remarkable, are the people with whom I spent my Erasmus stay at in 2017 - and how many of them continued their stay at the university to go on with a PhD - big respect!

Beach at Cannes :)

One beer I wouldn't have expected at Marseille

After a short and pleasant ride from Nice to Marseille (mountain roads at the Côte d'Azure are amazing!) - I was welcomed by Clement and Pierre (thanks for introducing us Lola!) - and first thing we actually did was going out to have some nice beers at a remarkable bar in the city center of Marseille.

The amount of different tap beers avaiable was great (and they were delicous, too) and we started to get along well with a mixture of French and English (and a few German words too) :-)

Starting another journey with snow below my wheels

So welcome to another episode of my travelling life :-)

Some time ago I fixed the beginning of December for my journey - made some arrangments and finally fixed the dated to 2nd of December 2019.

Unfortunately I did not have a call to Petrus and asked him about his plans - which lead to the situation, that (of course) the first snow this year falls exactly in the night from first to the second - and covered Munich and South Germany of one or two centimeters of snow :-p

not yet the sea - but a very beautiful scenery anway <3

Nevertheless, I had my plan in mind - and started anyway - as much packed in warm clothes as possible :-)

After three days of motorcycling and two nights at friends (Raffael & Nadja) close to Ravensburg and Simon in Zürich - I arrived in South Switzerland and made it almost over the Alpes without getting sick or having serious problems (except being cold and having purple hands) ;-)

crossing Bodensee :-)

Looking so much forward to enter France today and having the harsh & cold part of the journey behind me - as well as the first two countries ;-)

 

arriving in Lausanne, south Switzerland with a beautiful sunset, the alpes and swans enjoying the lakeside :)

5.750 km in five weeks - from Munich to Granada and back with my motorbike :)

let's get started! :)

Leaving the winter in Germany

After my (probably last ones ever) exams and a short trip to my grandparents and visiting Renske in Haarlem, I packed my cases and my camping chair and was ready to go :)

Unfortunately, I first had to shift my plans for a few days because of snowy weather and minus degrees. Then on Tuesday, the 20th of March the weather forecast predicted +1 degrees and no rain / snowfall so I was preparing myself and starting to my first destination - just 1.5 hours of driving to Jonas close to Lake Konstanz (Bodensee) :)

It was more freezing and hurting than I had expected, and I was SO glad to have a hot bath and a cup of tea when I arrived :D

Next day same temperatures again but a bit more sun - and again just a short distance to Freiburg to visit Judith and having +6 degrees during the day in the warm valley in the Black Forest:)

After these two days of not so much fun driving and more taking care of not losing my hands or feet due to the frost, I started more or less early from Freiburg to Lyon, which was a 7 hours drive and the first time of crossing a border - and following the outer bounds of the Alpes down to warmer regions :)

visiting a cave with my host Claire and a friend of her, just equipped with torches and absolutely no lights inside, a walk combined with climbing for about 4km into the mountain :)

last kilometers before Claire's house in a small villages, beautiful roads and perfect spot to see the sunset :)

first time touching the sea and having a coffee at the beach for this trip (many more to follow :) )

 International Dub Gathering in Alicante

My main goal and destination for this trip was to go to the International Dub Gathering festival close to Alicante, so after eight days of driving, in total a little more than 2000km and having two days of break in Moncofa and meeting up with Martha, Silja, Sophia, Nik, I arrived at the festival ground (right on time to meet Grissy there :D )

First thing we saw when queueing up, was O.B.F. coming out of the festival area and posing with some people and doing Inst*gram or so :D

beautiful outside area with a smaller soundsystem and more roots music :)

typical reaction of Grissy for one of my (almost always funny) jokes.

 During the festival we also met some other friends coming from Munich and had a good time there, but after three days of music and good vibes the festival was over and I continued towards Granada :)

Granada

On Sunday after the last festival night, I started towards Granada - achieved the 50.000km mark of my motorbike and arrived in the evening at Granada. My GPS led me into a traffic restricted zone close to the Alhambra where I parked my motorbike close to the Alhambra and waited for Tanja to pick me up. She was basically living in a cave, a little bit up the hill, which she was renovating with a friend and living there for a few weeks :)

Had a shower and were cleaning our clothes in a waterfall - and then drying and getting warm again in the last glance of the sun on our way back to the cave :)

Good morning coffee in front of the cave with a view over the valley and the other caves.

Alhambra at night

Sleeping cave & entrance of the cave - still a construction site ;-)

After having five really cool days in Granada, I travelled again up in the north - visited the house in Moncofa for two nights, drove to the mountains - got caught in hail on my birthday, cleaned all my clothes and maintained my bike - and made me and my bike ready for another 2000km until coming home to Munich again.

enjoying the beauties of the small house in Moncofa

Leaving Spain going to France the second time :)

On my way back up in the North I visited again Xana in Reus, where I had already stopped by on my way from Munich towards South - had another nice evening together and doing some sightseeing in the city - talking about travelling, Couchsurfing and our past trips and future plans :)

Next day I met with Paul (from my residence) in Barcelona, where we had some beers and I spent my first paid night on the trip in a hostel. Next stop then was at Jérémies place close to Perpignan where I was staying again in his house together with his dog - playing some FIFA having also some good conversations, did a trip to the seaside due to his recommendation and went to a cool Bigband Jam Session with him and a friend and had some chats with a roup in the bar later (where you could get a different kind of beer at each table and tab it yourself) :) 

On me peux comprendre encore

 So after more two weeks of having difficulties in daily life to talk to people, I was really happy to come back to France and being able to have normal conversations at gas stations for example :)

My next step was then at David's place who is running a guest house close to Orange, and after a long day of driving we had some Pizza and a bottle of wine and some nice talks about the philosophy of life and how to treat your friends and people you meet during this journey of life :)

The next day I started my day with walking around in Vaison-la-Romaine (thanks for the tip David!) and had then a beautiful ride over the Alpes including some snow on the mountain passes to Grasses, where I stopped for a short visit and a coffee in the place I was usually having a coffee, when I was living in Mougins :)

Vaison-la-Romaine

didn't expect to see snow that day

Meeting friends in Nice

In the evening I was arriving at Trifonas place (a friend from Erasmus in Sophia-Antipolis) who now lives in Nice with a nice balcony and view to the sea. Unfortunately I was a bit late so I just saw Lorenzo and Placido for a quick chat and was having later a nice and relaxed evening with Trifonas and Emanuele.
It's just a beautiful thing to wake up in a dry and warm place and be able to go up grab a coffee and sit on the balcony in the sun watching the sea! :)
I really hope you guys will come to Munich sooner or later :)

Driving in Italy 

The drive from Nice to Italy was pretty nice along the coastside with beautiful roads. Unfortunately, I was driving with all the day- and weekendtourists back to Italy on Sunday evening so the roads where pretty stuck with cabrios and expensive cars..
Crossing the border was again not an active thing to do - I just slowed down a bit and went straight through. This should be also a short anthem to the beautiful thing called Europe we live in (among of other advantages we enjoy practical things as: stressfree travelling, crossing boarders, no roaming charges, the same currency, license everywhere, no need for a Carnet de Passage, etc)

My last Couchsurfing Stay was at Albertos place in Savona. He welcomed me as a Emergency Couchsurfer so we made the first contact just a few hours before we met. Even though he had a long day of work, we went out for an evening walk through the city and did a little bit of sightseeing :)
He recommended me to go to the city castle (Priamàr) where I was sitting the next morning on the roof in the sun, watching the sea and finally finishing my book, which I have been reading since forever.
I then stayed (the last time :( ) on a beach close to Genua enjoying the sea and already missing it, before heading north, now on a straight line towards Munich (as far as Google Maps can calculate a straight line .. )

Lago di Garda

View from the Balcony

For the first time during all my journey, I did not find any friend (or friend of a friend), Couchsurfer or anyone else who could host me, so I stayed my second night out in my tent and was then ready to go up early the next morning & start driving, which is not a bad thing as well ;-)
 After crossing the boring part of the Po Plain, I had a nice Pizza close to the Lago di Garda and spent the day driving along the beautiful lake, taking a lot of breaks for ice-cream, coffee or just the view and a sip of water - and then continuing forward in the Alpes towards Germany to meet Max, a friend from home, in a hotel (luxury life, including a breakfast buffet, 3 beds for 2 persons :p), close to Drau and stayed there on the balcony enjoying the view for the evening.


 Crossing the Alpes

The first time for more than 5.000 km I was not driving alone, and had a friend to follow and just enjoying the drive without having to think to much about navigation etc. Furthermore it is a lot of fun to drive together and have a quick chat at the gas station and spending time together. The mountain passes back where partly covered in snow and sometimes small water streams where crossing the streets every now and then. Thanks to really nice weather and good conditions we were beating the expected arrival time of Google Maps quite a lot and passing on the way back some of the beautiful places in our close neighbourhood like the Walchensee :)
(More or less our planned route)

Jaufenpass

After an hour of driving over the motorway and through the Munich traffic, it was a crazy but nice feeling to drive again up the driveway of our student residence - and within an hour being caught again by the daily life of our place.

Recommendation

In general I had a great time during my trip, including good and bad days, experiences and situations. I can truly recommend to everyone, as far as it is possible, to go travelling alone, trying to be with just yourself for a few hours or days and discover how your habits and attitudes change and develop when leaving the normal conditions of everyday life.



THANK YOU!
This is the easy part of writing this article. Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible! I had so many great experiences and met new people I usually would never have met. This is also a contribute to Couchsurfing which makes it possible to discover so many places & different people, and made this an irreplaceable and very special journey for me!
This is again an invitation back to all of you to come to visit me in Munich and let me give you back some of the generosity and good vibes you shared with me :)
One thing that defintely changed this trip for myself is that I really want to try to welcome more people from abroad to support a culture of easy travelling and making it affordable for low budget travellers as well :)

My Couchsurfing Profile

Some impressions

 

Sightseeing & last days in France :)

Now, that finally all our exams are over - there is more time to enjoy the beauties of this area :)

last glance of Eurecom in the sun after the last exam :)

First of all, there are plenty of nice beaches at the Côte d'Azur - and luckily the weather god helped us and gave us amazing 15 degrees and sunshine on the last day of exams the first time since two weeks  :)

I hereby want to share some pictures of my trip yesterday to Monaco, and the little hiking at the 'Cap d'Antibes' which has a really nice stone beach with clear, beautiful water :)

This are pictures of the 'Cap d'Antibes', a bit hidden, stone-beach with insane waterfull colours. Apparently good for snorkeling as well, but the sea is still a bit cold to this without a proper wetsuit ;)

Just two pictures of Monaco, here is the very famous 'Formula 1' racing curve :)
Otherwhise the city is obviously very wealthy (and small), but has some nice places like the public Gardens close to the 'Palais des Princes de Monaco' where I enjoyed a bit of reading in the sun and watching the sun&the sea and enjoying the quiet & peacefull gardens :)

This is almost it for me - the last days of sun&beaches beore finishing my time here in France and at Eurecom, and going home again to Munich :)

Whoever of Eurecom's people is reading this blog (if anybody ;) ) - it was nice to meet you - and feel free to come to Munich! See you again somewhere sometime (Wien probably ;) )

 Everybody else take some sun - it's free :D

sunset at the inner-city beach of Cannes