Casa Robino

I had long dreamt about this trip and I knew it was going to be great, but I couldn't imagine that it would've been SO amazing. So many things happened (and it's not over yet!) so I'll try to list them briefly here, waiting to get to Denmark to upload some pics. I'll try to be precise with the costs so that you can see how ridiculously cheap fun can be!Day 1Friday 19/6Brillo and me set off at 7:30 direction Þórsmörk. 3 CouchSurfers (2 Americans and 1 Canadian) gave us a ride to Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall on the road there. We paid 1000kr each for both rental and gas, and there at 11 we took the 4x4 bus that took us to the National Park (3000kr, over 1 hour drive). We ate some of our food there at Húsadalur, bought a map and started hiking. It was an amazing sunny day. We climbed over a mountain (500m) and down to the next stop, Langidalur. We were supposed to cross a river there and reach the mountain pass Fimmvörðuháls in the late evening. There was a broken bridge, and since neither the map nor the guide that we had read mentioned that it was impossible to wade it, we tried to cross in a myriad of different spots until late in the evening. Then eventually, after getting completely soaked in ice-cold water we realized it was impossible, went back to the campsite and asked the warden. He said that indeed it was impossible, and that we could either take a bus or pay 1000kr for getting a ride from him. We said thanks and arranged a meeting for the following morning at 8:30 and went pitch our tents. It was freezing cold during the night, I got wounds in my hands because of washing dishes in far too cold water at the river, and way too tired (and freezing) for being the first day, we went to bed after accidentally waking up a guy at a cabin that told us we had to pay to camp there. We told him that we didn't know and that there weren't any services to pay for there (running water, wc, shower, nothing, oly ground), and he said he didn't care and for this time it was OK.Day 2Saturday 20/6Knowing that it was already starting taking longer time than I had planned, we started the day ignoring the meeting that we had to cross the river, and asking the first guy with the jeep that we found. He drove us across the river for free, and there we went. At around 10 we were at the other stop, Básar, where the warden offered us coffee and asked us where we intended to go. We said we were going up and they got really worried about us: they said we didn't have the proper gear, too bad clothes, and that the weather forecast was just too bad that day. It was supposed to be rainy, maybe even snowy up there, and in case of fog we wouldn't have seen the ladmarks and missed the hut, which would have meant to be completely lost. The weather was more than fine when he was saying that, and although I was scared because of the steepness and all the stuff I was carrying, I really wanted to go before the weather got worse. The guy was so worried that said that he would have given us free camping for one night if we had stayed there that night. But it was 11 am, we were late on our schedule already, and going back to road N1 would have taken too long. So we decided to go, and I must admit that that was the most stupid thing I've done in my life - I was soon extremely tired from carrying all that stuff, I was sweating like a racing horse, it was getting really steep, and later on when the snow started, I was sinking so much into it that every step was like lifting lead with my feet. Eventually we made it though, roughly 6 hours from Básar to the mountain pass: according to the guide, it should have lasted 5 hours from Húsadalur to the hut in the pass (30km). The weather didn't get bad as the guy was saying, but sure it was fairly cold up there, and some paths considerably difficult and dangerous. A couple of times I thought I'd have never made it, but then I tried to relax and sharpen my will. At the hut there was a German guy who became a wardem after many years travelling in the area. There was no water there, no shower, just melted snow for drinking and rain for washing dishes, and some gas and oil to make warm and cook. We paid 2300kr for one night there, and the next day it was fairly warm.Day 3Sunday 21/6The next day we hiked all the way down to Skógar (4h) and reached my friend Piotr from Poland, that works in a restaurant there and we get free food from him. Then we decided to go a pool istead of taking a shower, and we were told that there was an abandoned natural hot pool in the next valley (called Seljavallalaug). We hitch-hiked there (2 Italian guys gave us a ride), spent a couple of hours boiling in the water and then hitch-hike back (curator of the museum in Skógar picked us up, gave us some free tickets but we couldn't go). We got free soup from Piotr and crashed on his two couches.Day 4Monday 22/6We started from Skógar at around 11 and an Icelandic couple gave us a ride after very few minutes to Vík (20min). There we took some pics, ate lunch, spent 2 hours at the pool and bought some groceries (1500kr each). Then we started hitch-hiking at around 3:30 pm at a gas station, but nobody would stop. We waited for 1,5-2 hours until a telephone technician gave us a ride until a place in the middle of nowhere between Vík and Kirkjubæjarklaustur. From there we started getting scared, there were very few cars and nothing else. After 5 minutes though, a nice girl pulled over saying she was going to Skaftafell: I was almost crying for happiness, we were going there too, she was working at an hotel there, and we got there at 7 after more than one hours of Beatles and other nice music and a lot of smokes. There we pitched the tents (750kr at campsite) and went for a walk to Svartifoss and over the glacier.Day 5Tuesday 23/6We were not sure what to do that day because we had no motivation to hike so much after the long hike to Skógar, and guided tours were expensive. But it was raining and the weather was going to be bad. So we packed our stuff and started hitch-hiking in the middle of nowhere at the feet of the Vatnajökull: after 5 minutes an Italian couple stopped, saying that they were going to Höfn (which they could not pronounce, of course). We were also heading there but told them that they should stop at Jökulsárlón first, which we deed. We watched the icebergs floating in the glacial river, and drove over to the probably most boring Icelandic town. There we ate some food and went to the pool to warm up and remove some filth. The swimming pool there is the only real attraction and everything else we saw was pretty much crap. We found a ride back to road N1 and then Brillo and me finally parted. I started hitch-hiking from the middle of nowhere at around 5, and after over an hour I was losing confidence. There was hardly a car and none in my direction. After chatting to some sweet horses from behind a fence, finally a car appeared, and without even asking me where I was going, a guy came out and opened the trunk for accommodating my bag. Instinctively I took it off and put it there, and asked in English "Are you going to Egilstaðir?". He looked at me like I had said something incomprehensible. "With the E...?" he said, and then I thought OK, there is not much else with the E in that direction and anywhere is better than standing there. Then I found out that they were going to camp there before driving to the North, and at 10 p.m. we were at the campsite in Egilstaðir, exactly where I wanted to be and where I could not hope to be that evening. I had a long chat with the guys during and after dinner, we started liking each other and eventually they gave me some very nice beer: "we bought too much and we need to unload it", they said. I thought it was too much good for happening in one day, and went to sleep (campsite 900kr with shower).Day 6Wednesday 24/6One day left until the ferry leaves, and I only had 25km to go to Seyðisfjörður. I had a nice walk around Egilstaðir, the weather was awesome, and then I crashed on the grass close to a bridge. It was too beautiful. I had the whole day for me, no stress and beutiful weather. After a couple of hours of doing nothing I started hiking to the North. After 20 minutes I was at the crossroad to the harbour town. I didn't even have time to put down my stuff and spread my thumb, that a nice lady eating harðfiskur pulled over and drove me to the town in something like 15 minutes. Seyðisfjörður is one of the most pictoresque places in Iceland, really beautiful, especially in that weather. Although it's way smaller than Egilstaðir, the capital of the East, there is much more going on there: there are heaps of concerts, art exibits, and an alternative microcinema (Mini Ciné), that unfortunately was closed that night. Then I went to the ferry terminal to see where it was and get a map of the place. There I met again Adam, an Australian CouchSurfer travelling the world as a self-taught cook since 10 years, that got there hitch-hiking from the North! We had met already in Reykjavík, where he contacted me and asked me to cook something together, and I told him to come to FoodNotBombs. He was with a French-Canadian girl that I had seen in skaftafell before. He proposed to cook that night at the hostel, and also bought a lot of booze. I brought the beer that the Americans gave me, ate like crazy and eventually ended up at a bar at the harbour doing karaoke. I didn't want to sing, but since my glass was somehow always full again for the fist hour, then I started singing, and since I was so good that I was winning more beer, we ended up completely wasted.At the campsite (600kr, chepeast ever) I accidentally met Eyðbjørn, the Faroese CouchSurfer that I had contacted a month before. He soon proved to be an amazingly nice guy, told me he had heaps of Surfers before, which he takes special care of, while refusing a lot more, although his profile was poor and with no references. He was travelling around Iceland with his girlfried on two motorbikes, and also going back home on the ferry.Day 7Thursday 25/6The next day we embarked at around 11, and in the afternoon he took me around on the ferry as if it was his home, bought me coffee, a ticket for the cinema and tons of drinks for himself (G-o-d). the ferry was shaky, but I didn't get seasick. We chatted a lot also with another Norwegian motorbiker, and took several naps in the afternoon waiting for the ferry to arrive.Day 8Friday 26/6After the ferry arrived in Tórshavn he went home to drop his stuff, and then came back with an extra helmet and brought me home. Then we had breakfast together with Danish cheese. Then he brought me to his parent's house, that will be the "couch" that I'll be surfing for these three days, since his parents are away on holiday. Then he showed me around, we took the ferry at 8 to Nólsoy, and hiked around until 1pm. The weather is ultra awesome and I am getting seriously sunburnt: it's so sunny that it's almost annoying to walk on the street, almost like Italy! Tonight I'm baking pizza for my host, and then we'll have some Føroya Øl, the local beer, which can be very nice. Tomorrow I'll probably go to a festival in Suðuroy but right now the priority is getting some rest before embarking again on Sunday night. Wow!

See original: 8 days Reykjavík - Tórshavn

Lately I've been a lot into plants, especially wild edible plants, and also, all plants that have "interesting" effects not only on the human body, but also on the mind, that are completely legal (and there are many). It's a fascinating field and I hope to learn more about that, especially through the visits to organic farms that I am planning for the next years.After reading quite a lot about plants, I found out so many interesting things, and I was also forced by facts to do some political considerations. I had thought many times that the State "regulations" of many countries banning the use of some plants are highly questionable, but most importantly, they do not have anything to do with the alleged concern about the health of the population. In fact, the feeling that the informed individual gets, is that those guys up there strive to keep the people unaware of many things that should be for example taught at school. It's amazing how many wild and common plants growing nearly everywhere could be used for food, medication or prevention against diseases, and for recreational purposes (that doesn't necessarily mean to "get high"...). If you look at the State monopoly of medical and recreational drugs (think of alcohol and tobacco) under this light, it's easy to understand how the State makes easy money on people's fun or, at the worse, people's crave for (and dependence from) something to "spice up" their empty lives of slaves of the Machine which is Progress.How many of us will not drink or smoke any more than they do, if the price of this stuff were its real price, and not pumped up by taxes? Is it really only a question of money ("I don't because I have better ways to spend my money than...") or is also a question of time and how we actively conceive our existence ("I don't because I have better things to do than... all the time")? I believe it's the latter case in most cases, but many people just never thought about it. Take alcohol - the pink liquid that you buy in the store has been denatured, that means it's just the same as very expensive drinkable alcohol, but it has been made undrinkable. Why should I pay much more money to buy drinkable alcohol, if that's its real price? Assuming that people living in a country where you don't need to worry too much about money would use nearly the same amount of inebriating substances more or less regardless of their price, it's impossible not to realize that someone is just making easy money on you. Maybe some people will drink much more, true - but why? because of the situation that this process has created, because it has become cool to drink. There hasn't always been a State monopoly on alcohol, tobacco or a ban on other inebriating substances. And yet, nobody would say that people in past centuries used more of them than today (just as much as people didn't do it any less under prohibitionist regimes). For centuries and even millennia, the population of most parts of Europe and middle East have drunk beer instead of water, because it's was safer than water; it was a light beer (the term in English is small beer) but it was much better than any beer on the market today, made of pure ingredients, sugar free and naturally fermented. It was more importantly a good source of nourishment, than being just a drink. And it was even given to small children. Did you know that in most kinds of wine and beer today there is fish? It's a cod jelly called Isinglass and it's used to accelerate the process of clarification, i.e. something that happens anyway but it's made faster. Time is money.On the contrary, we are more "doped" today than ever before. But what is it, that is really doping us as a society? Is it the "stuff", or is it our model of society, where the governments basically tells you that you can die, but before we want your money?I'm making it a bit too simple, I know. But let's look deeper into it. Take tobacco. The problem is the nicotine, OK, but what about the other substances? There is a huge number of other - sometimes even more - dangerous additives than (natural) nicotine in commercial cigarettes, that are consciously put there by manufacturers and their are not banned by any state (the only exception being Bhutan that has a total ban on tobacco products...). They make them more addicting (in nearly all brands, tobacco is treated with sugar or maybe even more dangerous sweeteners, and in some there is even cocoa) and the State doesn't do anything. Albeit questionable, George Ohsawa (the formalizer of the Macrobiotic Diet) thought that tobacco smoke was not carcinogenic, and like other plants used in macrobiotics, he explained its usage in terms of a naturally balanced diet and, most importantly, in the cultural context of those native peoples who first made moderate use of organically grown, additive-free tobacco. The legend that he died after a life spent smoking and his lungs were perfectly clean probably goes a bit too far (like the claim that lung cancer is caused by diary products), but his studies of the incidence of lung cancer in countries where the population smoked additive-free tobacco (at his time, mostly middle East, India and Soviet Union) and ate in a more simple, light and traditional way, compared to the rich and "developed" West, should not be forgotten (there is an interesting link between lung cancer and dietary fats that is very little talked about). And by the way, there are many other plants that can be smoked, like horsetail (equisetum arvense), that are extremely easy to find and grow, and that are not only harmless, but even very good for human health (coltsfoot or Tussilago farfara is even a cough suppressant when smoked). Why don't governments force cigarette manufacturers to popularize them and gradually (at least partially) replace tobacco?But the real point of this post was sugar. Sugar (sucrose), yes sugar the white crystalline thing in every kitchen, is one of the most dangerous and widespread drugs of our time. Everything contains sugar, from bread (when the flour is a bad quality one) to beer, cigarettes, and nearly all soft drinks that we start drinking at a very early age. Sugar rots your teeth, is generally bad for your health, is highly addictive/appealing, and makes children hyperactive (= more stress for the adults that have to look after them). Sugar is good as a quick energy supply, but just as anything containing natural sugar (fructose or other similar substances). Honey presents similar risks as sugar, but it also has so many good qualities, whereas sugar has none. Do you think that the State, that you think cares so much about our health, has regulated the use of sugar in food? Has forced manufacturers not to exceed a certain amount of sugar in the products that most people daily eat?Not at all. They are more concerned about other things, like heavily taxing wine in Italy - where wine producers are massively switching to kiwis, because the plant is similar to vine and grows in the same way, but forgot that kiwi is a subtropical plant (originating in South-East China) that needs a huge amount of more water than vines do. If Italy's water resources are drying up, it's mainly because Italy has become in recent years the major kiwi producer in the world (and that's why I choose not to buy kiwis unless I am in China of course). Our grandparents used to drink a glass of wine at every meal (extremely healthy habit, proving once again that everything can be good if not abused), and they were as poor as some underdeveloped countries today. Wine was cheap and so much better (no pesticides until the advent of industrial agriculture in the 50's), and people drank it to enjoy it and not to show their hangovers to their friends.Back to sugar. Have you ever heard of Stevia? Probably not, and the reason why is that it's forbidden in most Western countries. Why? It's not inebriating or allucinogenic. Stevia Rebaudiana is a beautiful plant from Central America that has up to 300 times the sweetening power of sugar, but zero calories. You don't even need to modify it industrially like sugar beets, you just dry up the leaves! It's amazing! And it has been banned, because its use would seriously threaten the industry of sugar and artificial sweeteners. Of course, some pseudo-scientists have been paid to demonstrate some made-up health threat, but the main fact is that very few know about the controversy around this wonder of nature. Where is the information? So, our State will take good care of us and they will continue feeding us aspartame. Why?Because the show must go on. We must go to work and earn our keep, and shop the things that they tell us to buy, whose manufacture creates job for other fellow citizens. Sometimes we want things cheaper, so the quality sucks, dangerous pesticides or ingredients have been used, and/or we exploit cheap labour force that has come from far away following the glitter of the money that is so sadly produced, and that produces such a great sadness in our modern societies. When you generate more money than you actually need, the risk is that you will start working less, becoming less productive for the system: ergo, you need someone to tell you how to spend your money, and trick you into thinking not only that you need those things, but that you need much more than that. Who is really poor, who has enough wealth to substain himself, or those who swim in money but are victims of a mental slavery comparable to drug and alcohol addiction?

See original: Work and Prohibitionism