Well people, I’m continuing on with my hippie days and Siggy and I are going to a huge camping festival in Portugal. We got tickets a month or so ago – I believe it will be somewhat Woodstock-ish – Peace, love, happiness and what not – You know the gig…

We’ve been living “camping style” for a week now in Spain and I’ve gotta say, it’s been an awesome time. My back hurts each morning from the hard earth that we’re sleeping on in our sleeping bags, suck it up Eryn, but I’m getting used to it, and it’s only 7 euro’s a night, so that’s awesome! I always did like camping… Hmmm, lots of good memories from way back with Mindy and Patsy H. in the pop up…

I’m not sure about all this peace, love and happiness with hundreds of thousands of strangers for an entire 7 days though… This will be quite a unique experience… Drunk, high and sex crazed people for an entire week… Ummmmm… I’ve been known to participate in an afternoon pub-crawl wearing my tutu and lots of fantasy fest activities in Key West over the course of a week, but I always could escape to my own home away from the craziness. Now you’ll have a shared tent amongst thousands in a huge open field… Ummmm…

I may have to look at it from more of a journalist perspective, documenting the behavior of others, more so than a participant to get through an entire week, but I may surprise myself, we’ll see… Your comfort zone may be in the chill out tent… Then again, if I hate it, I’ll get my bag and get the hell out of there… That’s what credit cards are for Eryn…

This was exactly what I wanted from my trip though; to get outside of my comfort zone, push my limits to see what they are, experience new things that I never would’ve dreamt of, and meet interesting new people from all around the world. When I purchased my one-way ticket to India, I wanted the trip to naturally evolve and to remain open to whatever new adventures the universe presented to me…   Well, that’s certainly happening…

I suppose I’m really trying to figure out who I am. Certain elements of my childhood caused me to be a people pleaser, so I’ve spent the majority of my life molding myself to fit other peoples’ lives and personalities. So it’s an important element of the trip for me to figure out exactly who I am. But your slight anxiety about the 7 day love fest before you’ve even arrived hints to the fact that you’re probably not a full on hippie… Nothing about this Boom Festival can be easily categorized or referenced on a spreadsheet… But you are creative and artistic and a free spirit – not many would choose to solo travel the world… Hmmm, maybe you’re half a hippie… LOL

So we’ll see how it goes. Me with my recovering type A personality, I may spend my time between rave sessions trying to keep the tent properly organized and clean and be overly paranoid about all the craziness around me. Oh, Eryn, just calm down, relax and enjoy the party…

Yes, I’ll be careful to not let someone spike my drink, and yes, I’ll have my pepper spray with me in case of emergency, and yes, I will be safe in general… And yes, Siggy and I will be looking out for each other… Don’t worry about us.

I will have all my electronics in a locker for the majority of the festival and charging stations will be scarce, so I’m not sure how in touch I’ll be on facebook, phone, the blog, etc… I’m fairly certain wifi is not available, so the blog is definitely out after this post… Anyway, don’t worry if you don’t hear from me, I will have plenty of stories and compromising pictures to share with you, when it’s all over, I’m sure. LOL

P.S.   I wanted to tell you more about my friend Siggy… It was bugging me (although it didn’t bug her) that I gave you the nose ring, tattoo, etc. details on my last post, but failed to mention that she’s taking time off from school from her degree in law and international studies… So, yes, she’s an alternative soul, but she’s incredibly intelligent. Just wanted to mention that so you have a more accurate idea of who she is…

Ok, well, I’m off now…  We catch two different ride shares today, one taking us from Santander, Spain to more of a major town, and then we catch another one all the way down to the location of the festival in Portugal – probably a 12-hour trip… In a car… With strangers… Trusting them and their cars to get us to Portugal safely… Good times!!! We hope… Horizons and comfort zones exponentially expanding these few weeks… LOL

Here’s a link to the festival if you want to check it out… Aren’t you jealous you’re not joining me? Probably not…

http://www.boomfestival.org/

Peace, love and hippie happiness to you all 🙂  See you on the other side… XXOOO