The HusBus Adventures Part 2 - Waves Goodbye

The Madness Begins..

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I had managed to say goodbye to people in UK and finally I was on the ferry to France. Thinking I was surely going to get searched at the French side, I stood in the night wind, smoking the last perfectly timed joint, watching the lights of the English port off in the distance.
The journey would take 6 hours on the boat so I went and slept on the floor inside as I cant ever sleep in a chair.

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It was winter, November 2010. I had left on the first day of snow in England, and was very exited to have left.
I had no intention of where I was going, apart from the idea that I just wanted to get away and go to a mountain with sunshine, and grow weed alone for some time after so much stress in House Life. I refer to my old life style and mentalities as " House life" if you were wondering.

I was fresh and ready to drive again as the ferry arrived at the French coastline.
I remember getting in the van, having such a rush to know I had just left my old life and I was now about to have an adventure- and the fact I had literally half a tank of diesel and just 80 Gbp in cash to my name, made it somehow even more exiting!

I wasnt afraid of how I was going to earn money, or how it might all turn out. At the end of the day, if I needed to I could always sell the van and fly back to House life as a last option.
I had my tools in the van for building projects, and a hell of alot of experience to go with them, so I knew I would find work if I had too. I also had a guitar, I think I could play just one song and sing it at the same time back then, so that then wasnt really going to earn me any money.
My main wish was to go to Spain somewhere, meet weed friendly people who had a building project on, work there and live in my van on the build site, and get permission to grow weed at the same time.

Haha I remember being wasted of several different drugs, sat at a party on a sofa with my good friend Sam. We were having a little "heart to heart" and he said- " You do know your not really going to go chill out up a mountain dont ya-
its going to be fucking mental" was his exact words. "You must stop at Barcelona , just for a couple of hours, its Beautiful."
He had done a few months travelling with a guitar around europe and had stopped of at Bcn the year before.

The cars infront of me started the engines and slowly started to drive of the boat and so it was time for me also to start the engine, and on my high throne of the Hus Bus, I drove out into the French harbor of Dieppe.
I didnt want to go from my home town which would have taken me to Calais Port, I wanted to get away from winter as quickly as possible so I planned a route to go directly south.
After not being checked, I started to drive on the highway following the GPS. I was sad that I didnt bring any weed with me and that there was actually just a passport check and no real search involved. I had 10,000 Marbloro light cigarettes and some cheaper cigarettes from Africa which I intended to sell these on the way for diesel money also, but these were getting chain smoked as I had no weed or hash. Dam Nicotine.

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This was the first time that I realized, I had believed like everyone else in House Life, that when you go to a different country you will get stopped and searched as a routine on every border. Well that didnt happen at all.
In fact , I have crossed easily borders of European country's around 40 times and once been stopped and searched.
Its just on the TV, its not really like that!

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I drove through the day at my usual 80km ph, sitting happily behind the convoy of huge trucks doing the same speed whilst everyone else rushed past over taking. The first night I parked in a gas station to sleep, and woke up with Ice on the inside of my windscreen. I made breakfast on my camping gas cooker and then a cup of tea.
It was freezing cold, and with nothing there to stay for , it was time to drive on again in search of sun.
I was depleting all the cash on tolls. I was a rookie and took the fastest routes without knowing anything about being tolls in France on the highways. After a while , around half way through France, I learnt how to use the GPS and changed the route to the route with no tolls, which took me through villages and farmlands.
I came across and old bus that someone was living in at a cross roads in a small quiet village, there was a motorbike also there, and so I drove slowly around it a couple of times kind of hoping to meet the person who lived there , but it seemed they wernt in.
This wasnt a cool place to stop there was nothing theres was nobody there and so I kept driving. Dam I wish I could add pics of travels but 99% are lost :(

That night I parked just outside a row of houses with a bakery below them and slept.
I had purposely not installed windows in my van, so it still looked like a normal van and not a campervan, thus drawing no attention.
Instead I had a piece of glass installed in the roof to let light in and I could just blend in with other vehicles and sleep anywhere.

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One time in England before I finally left, I parked in a pub carpark and was laying in bed smoking a joint before sleeping. A car rocked up , a diesel engine.
In the Uk a diesel engine in the night time is usually the police, but because I was in a pub carpark, it could also have been a taxi. I turned the lights out and kept quiet. One door opened and then closed.. "Ok" its a taxi I thought, but then a second later the other car door opened which ment it was the police! Then sure enough I heard footsteps on the gravel coming towards the van. Time to stop smoking!

The back door on my van was like a roller shutter on a shop front, and it wasnt light proof there was gaps around it. It was dark inside the van but flashes of torch light came up inside when they shone the light on the high mounted registration plate.
BLEEP BLEEP The radio crackled and they did a check on the vehicle. I was giggling thinking how cool it is that the police are like half a meter from someone laying in bed, but they have no clue about this hahahaha.

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It took me 3 days to go through France from north to south and then I started seeing signs for Barcelona.

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I had with me a quite new 125cc moped on a rack on the back of the van and the use of this was to be able to park the Husbus up and leave it somewhere, and use the bike to move around. As I entered the City of Barcelona, I realised very quickly that I wasnt used to driving on the otherside of the road! Plus the fact that I wouldnt have a hope in hell to find a parking space for free.
All my money had gone on diesel and tolls, so I decided to pick a place on the road atlas away from the city and drive to it and park there. I found a place at the bottom of the only mountain in Bcn and found a place to park where I wouldnt get clamped or towed or fined for parking. I did have my own wheel clamp, that I would install myself to make it look like I was clamp already by a company, and then another company isnt allowed to clamp an already clamped vehicle! hihi ;) but that wasnt necessary as it was quite and looked like a picnic area on the bend of a quiet road next to a small trickling stream.
Time to go explore Bacelona just for a couple of hours then leave.

I saved the location on the TomTom GPS of where the van was, 8 miles away from the city center, took the bike off the rack and saddled up. I found it was possible to stick the sucky pad on my mirror which held the Gps, perfect for a real tourist who aint got a clue where his going.
As I got back into the city , it was madness, I really wasnt good at trying to drive on the other side , especially on a small bike! Lots of tooting swearing from car drivers at the english moped with an L on it,coming from behind. I came to a crossroad at a red light and decided it was mayhem and I needed to stop somewhere and chillout. I saw across the road was Paddys Bar, obviously an Irish pub which are always welcoming places to go. I parked up outside and went in to find nobody there just the barman down the other end and one guy sat at the bar. I had like 3 euros left and a pint was 8 euro.. 8 euro for a guiness!!
I didnt even get a drink, but instead started chatting to the drunk irish guy at the bar.
He said to me " I got robbed by a 6 foot tree hooker " and exploded in drunken laughter.
I was just stood thinking "You what?" - anyway he started to tell me a story of how he was robbed. I understood that bit, but the rest not. "A 6 foot tree hooker"- "What is a tree hooker??" I was thinking.
Anyway after getting caught in a very long and one sided conversation with him, I put together the pieces of his story and realised that a 6ft 3 prostitute had robbed him the night before.

He brought me a Guiness and asked me what I was doing here with no money and a bike helmet in my hand , so I told him I have begun to travel.
We drank one and I left to go get to the city center. On the way I stopped to buy some food, I was eating so regularly just white bread baguette with cheap salami to put inside. This time I was sat outside eating the bread and salami feeling very bored of eating the same thing. Across the road from me I saw to hippys walking down the street and they stopped at a wheelie bin sat next to the curb.
They opened it up and started rummaging through it opposite me, and to my surprise they started pulling out what looked like wine and bread. Being an outgoing person I had to go and say hi and see what they were doing. Sure enough on the pavement they had started to sort out the things they had found, and instantly offered me wine.
There was baguettes,wine and some other food items there and they all looked perfectly fine and fresh. They took the things they wanted and I was alone again stood by the container. In Spain all the dumpsters are just on the streets outside of the shop and so then I realised that there is food in the trash in every container sat outside somewhere that sells food!
Wow. So I can travel and live for free now i have a place to sleep, and food in various places with easy access. This day changed my life seeing them 2 guys.

It was definitely time to find something to smoke and I set the GPS to Plaza Real, a place where the drunk Irish guy had told me to go. I planned to find a street dealer and trade some Marlboro for weed or hash, and exited to try some Spanish stuff.
I parked the bike not far from plaza real on a main street with lots of other bikes there, and started to walk to the plaza.
Then I saw him standing there, an African guy in among the hustle of tourists, and as I walked past he said "you want to buy marijuana?" I quickly returned with a smile and said "Maybe!" He laughed and we took a walk. He seemed like a crazy guy as he had scars across his face and reminded me of a friend in England when he laughed. We were stood and he introduced himself as Jako and asked what I needed. Right as he began to ask, a ginger haired guy sneaked up behind him and made him jump. Jako turned around and shook the guys hand as the guy said "Oh yeh, rippin off them tourists again Jako" in a loud and thick Californian accent.
We all laughed and it turned out that Ryan, the other guy was also there to buy some smoke and knew Jako well. Jako helped us out and accepted my trade for cigarettes then left in the hustle and bustle of the passing commotion.
Ryan introduced himself, he was casually dressed but very well groomed with a peaked hat on and a huge camera around his chest. We became instant buddys, and then he asked where I was staying. People loved it when I said I have no plans and have just started to travel in a van, and instantly he invited me back to his place where he was staying to smoke a joint.
On the way there which wasnt far at all,he told me it was an illegal hostel where he stayed. We went into a building on one of the main streets and up some stairs to a door with a sign sayin "The Gspot" pinned on it. "Welcome to the gspot" he said and laughed.
Inside was 2 rooms with 2 bunk beds, a small dirty kitchen and a toilet room with shower. It looked like a hostel but it was obviously not a legit hostel. We went to the lounge and I was introduced to the people who were staying there, they were all drinking beer and smoking weed with good vibes and someone playing the guitar.
Ryan said that I could just crash there the night and so I relaxed and got to know the people there, who also had randomly ended up in barcelona for different reasons, and now lived in the G spot.

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This was from on the wall at the Gspot before I left above

It got to early hours of the morning and then everyone went to bed.

In the morning Ryan asked more about my van and wanted to go see it. Everyone was waking up and the day had started, the sun was out and I sat on the balcony watching the huge street below. Ryan asked where my van was parked and I told him that I had no clue, I had saved the location on the Gps and turned it on as we sat on the sofa to show him.
I pressed the on button and it started up and then it got to the beginning of loading up, and didnt want to go any further.
It had froze up. I turned it off and on again, but no luck, just started up and then did nothing else. Sat at the coffee table, I realised I had literally just lost my van!

Hope you enjoyed the 2nd part of my mad travels.. Ill do a story on it once a week.. theres a fair few years to try and remember, lots of Original Content for you all! ReSteem so another can enjoy!