The devotees at center wouldn’t let me stay for the night - wich I can easily understand, they must get a lot of travellers of all sorts who would like to stay :D. I went back to the center and tried looking around for my friends. Eventually I went to a squat (social center, maybe I’ll write a bit more about squats and squatting later) wich I last visited a couple of years ago. The squat was still there and an old friend of mine was the only person in house in the evening - he gave me the keys to the house and let me stay for the night.
Today I woke up pretty late since the squat has that kind of, hm, energies to it and it’s in the middle of a big city in a basement of a building. Tried getting some contact to my friends and managed to find them later in the day, they came and met me in a cafe with wireless where I was hanging out and getting my daily dose of data.
Went around Budapest with my friend Luca, we wnt for a dinner at Govindas. I got new prayer beads from there, these are made of Tulasi. I thought they only give Tulasi beads to initiated devotees but I guess it’s not that strict in every templle.. 
In the evening I went to another friends, Miv’s place. He’s a computer hobbyist pretty much like I used to be some years ago so he had a good collection of software and a nice ‘net connection. I stocked my laptop with all the software I’m going to need in the near future from his collection and downloaded some bits from the ‘net too. It was extra nice to get the software now since Budapest will be one of the last places where I stop wich have fast connections to the internet.
Day 11.
Stayed pretty much all day at Miv’s place surfing and downloading. I feel like this will be the goodbye to fast ‘net connections for some time so I wanted to have all the online time i could. Probably it’s good for me to give up surfing for some time :). I also uploaded some photos on the blog. Will upload some more when I get the chance.
In the evening I noticed how nowadays I find smoking indoors and drinking to be REALLY irritating. Usually I’m calm and tolerant of everyone but just inhalning passive smoke for some time makes me lose my temper and the control I have over my mind easily.
Day 12.
Left Miv’s place in the morning. It took me a long while to get a ride out of Budapest, and there was some detours on the way to the hitchhiking spot too. I asked wich way to go at a metro station and ended up shortly going with this family to their grandfathers place from where the father would drive me to the hitchhiking spot.
Had a ride with an amateur formula driver today. See the picture when I manage to upload it. Also had a ride with 3-time olympic winner on kayaking, a lady who is originally from Serbia but now lives in Hungary.
I really should write this blog more regularly, I think I might be missing one day here. I arrived in Belgrade after dark but decided to go on hitchhiking. Later went on to Nis and then to the Bulgarian border with a Turkish truck. Had one of those nasty sleeping rough nights in Bulgaria, about 20km from the border.
Day 13.
Went on through Bulgaria. Somehow it seems it’s harder to hitchhike in Bulgaria than in Serbia or Turkey for example. Eventually I got a few rides to go to Sofia and then Pllovdiv. Had a long wait in Plovdiv at a gas station, then decided to start walking instead of staying at the gas station. After some time of chanting and walking got a couple of shorter rides and eventually a ride in a turkish truck wich took me to the border of Turkey. Crossed the border after dark, but went on hitching until Istanbul and past the center to the asian side. Slept rough again, in an abandoned bus, but this time it was more comfortable than in Bulgaria - warmer and dry, that is.
I was already thinking of camping before Istanbul and was walking along the road to find a good spot when a truck stopped - even if I wasn’t hitchhiking. Thanks, Krsna! The bus was way better than any spot in the roadside would have been.
Day 14.
Woke up to the sunshine instead of the freezing cold like the night before. Went on hitchhiking, now I’m writing this in a truck heading towards Ankarka - but if I understood correctly, we’re not going all the way.
After a few rides made it to Ankara and onwards until Corum (with a funny C i can’t type). Slept in a small abandoned kiosk or whatever, will post a pic of it later. During the day got a ride with Mehmet, who insisted that I take a photo of him. Will post his photo later too.
Day 15.
Went onwards from Corum to Amalya, now I’m on the E-80 road to Erzincan. I got my first ride in an Iranian truck today, and I’m still on it. Had some difficulties explaining I’m a vegetarian. Gave up on trying to explain I don’t drink black tea and instead had one cup.
I’ve seriously been thinking if it’s more of a surrender to God if I accept what’s being offered to me or if I follow the diet outlined by sastras. So far my idea is I’ll rather accept what people give me since it’s by grace of God, the only exception being meat. I just can’t bring myself to even consider eating meat, there’s so many good reasons not to (health, ecology, political, religious, ethical…)
Day 16.
The Iranian driver, Nader, has been _really_ kind with me. He let me sleep in his truck even if it was a load of stuff he had to move out of the second bed. His convoy (4 trucks) stopped in the night and cooked some really nice food on the side of a truck - will post some photos of it. This is the kind of hospitality they talk about in the Vedas - but wich I think might be lacking with some of the devotees in the West. Now we’re still going further in the east, the landscape looks amazing with the sun about to rise above the mountains ahead.
I had a really interesting dream in the night, I’m more and more certain I’ll learn something valuable on this trip - even more so than on my previous trips.
Day 17.
I left Nader’s truck today, near the border of Iran. He told me it’ll take hours and hours to do the paperwork for his truck at the border so I decided to jump out and hitch a ride with a smaller car or someone who already has all the paperwork done.
I reached and crossed the border, changed 10 euros with a black market dealer and i’m still wondering if he screwed me or not. Oh well, 10 euros isn’t going to make me bankrupt - besides it’s much more important to have the mercy of the Lord than any amount of money, since if the Lord is not merciful on you, no amount of money is going to help you.
I got a ride on the Iranian side in a truck. In here it’s difficult to tell who’s happy to give you a ride and who’s happy to have you as a taxi customer, since just about every car is a taxi. As a rule of thumb it’s better to not get on the oldest/cheapest cars since they are most likely taxis - and it’s a safe bet to get on a truck or a really fine Audi or Mercedes - trucks don’t take people for money (in Iran) and the taxi drivers cannot afford the expensive cars. This also applies for general safety - if the driver has a job wich is not to rip you off, it’s much more likely you’ll be safe with him. Same for the expensive cars - if someone is filthy rich (and if someone is rich in Iran it’s most likely he’s filthy rich!) he’s not going to rob you.
After three rides, one turkish and two iranian trucks I went to sleep. Slept rough, something I never tried in Iran before. On my first trip around here I would hang around at a village or town until someone said “you can stay at my house”. Sort of liked sleeping rough, it feels more like surrendering - and saves me from the trouble of trying to find someone to give me a place to stay.
Day 18.
Woke up early, it was a bit cold in the night. Hitched a ride with a smaller car this time, got to Tabriz. They took me to the city center, and were about to drop me at he bus terminal. This is a phenomenon wich happens in a lot of places where it’s not commonplace to hitchhike - people tend to “help” me by dropping me at the terminal in the center of a city, not understanding that I wish to stay on the main road. Thanks to the Lord’s mercy, I got out of there incredibly easy, walked for 2 minutes and stopped a car (it would’ve been 5 kilometers of walking and stopping a car in city center in Iran means almost certainly a taxi) and got a ride with a man going back to his home. He took me to the highway - and asked if I’d prefer the bus terminal, heh.
From the highway I got yet another ride wich would take me out o f the road after just ten or twenty kilometers. The driver explained to me - with the assistance of some bypassing younger people who spoke english - that he’ll take me to “a better spot” for hitching so I went along. What happened is I ended up on a connection road later joining with the highway. Trying to get a ride there I had some more of Lord’s mercy. A man with a really big, new and expensive Audi pulled over and took me for a few kilometers until this police checkpoint for trucks - an ideal place to hitch a ride. Then he called someone who spoke english and using the telephone translator (I really wonder why don’t telephone operators organise something like this! a number you could call to get a hold of a translator who is good at both the local language and English!) he asked me why am I stopping cars and not taking a bus. I explained my money would be soon finished if I’d allways take the bus and stay at a hotel, but I also do it for the adventure. Well, he wished me good luck and gave me half a million in local curreny. And in case you are wondering, yeah, I made a donation at the Hare Krishna temple in Budapest. Donated 200 danish krones wich is about 25 euros. If i’m correct about the exchange rates, this half a million is about 50 euros.
The mercy didn’t end there. I stood there a bit puzzled with the half a million in my hand wondering what just happened and how exactly stop one of the trucks (there was dozens of ‘em standing still or rolling by slowly and just about every one of ‘em would take me, but I didn’t want to cause a traffic chaos, but still wanted to get a long ride) when a man in a pick-up truck stops, opens a door for me and shouts “Teheran! Teheran!”.
Now I’m at the pick-up, have been for the past few hours and we’re driving for Teheran. The driver offered me a lunch and I had some trouble explaining what I can and can’t eat. Gave uup with vegetable pickle with vinegar, but finally got the point across (with help from another telephone translator, the driver’s son) that I can’t take meat.
I’ve been thinking if it’s a serious offense to take black tea. It’s a custom around here (and in India too!) to take black tea almost constantly, but especially if you have a guest the first thing is to have tea so I get a lot of offers for tea. I’ve taken couple of the most persistent offers but mostly I decline, especially if it would be the second cup for the day or if it’s very late and it’s not practical for me to stay awake much longer.
Will post all of this probably tomorrow from Teheran. Also tomorrow I should go for optician to get new glasses (the old ones broke in Bulgaria) and make an application for Pakistani visa. I wonder if I’ll end up staying at a hotel in Teheran. I might end up at this driver’s house or with some Hare Krishna devotees (if I manage to find them in Teheran).
Ok, back to chanting. I have plenty of time to chant around here since most drivers don’t speak english. Did around 25 rounds yesterday, some days i do 32.
Hare Krishna!
