Meeting Michael Roads

We arrived in Tilff by train.

We stumbled over to an area with people to get directions...and on the way we overheard a similar conversation already happening. A French woman, maybe around 60 years old was asking a burly Belgian man in stripes where she could find the monastery. Overcome by my excitement, (and to their surprise) (must've been my accent) (or maybe I was just accidentally rude) I jumped into the conversation and after we were clear (the monastery is somewhere up a hill and no there are no taxis) I invited the woman to have a beer for us while we figured things out. 

Luckily the waiter was able to give us somewhat better directions, and so the three of us took off on our 45 minute march up the hill...

After a few wrong turns and a failed hitchhiking attempt, we arrived at this grand entrance:

I felt like I was floating in a dream!!! Like my entire life was leading up to this moment. Like a huge shift was beginning to take place. My heart started thumping in my chest.

The place was simply breathtaking. 

  

A few minutes after we got there, a car pulled up behind us and I immediately recognized my heros (mostly by the bright blue shirt Michael always seems to be photographed in!) Like an idiot schoolgirl, I felt a painful sting in my throat, and watery stuff filling my eyes. I know it's stupid. I know I should be embarrassed. But it was THAT intense. As they got out, everyone seemed to line up for hugs and hellos. When they got to us I was speechless. After a painfully long hesitation, the words fell out awkwardly; "I talked to you once on skype!" His blue eyes stared into me as if trying to remember and luckily Carolyn rushed in to fill in the blanks. "Ah yes, I'm sure you remember, the one from Reunion Island, isn't that right?" I nodded. "Ah, yes...actually I do remember you..." he said quite cryptically, and then they went along down the line. I turned to Richard: OMG THAT JUST HAPPENED!

To my great delight, I had many more opportunities to speak to Michael and Carolyn after that. Although I'm not sure that I ever got less awkward... 

And so it began. Five days of intense discussion, meditation, stories, some singing, and LOTS of bonding. I won't go into details, only to say that it was the most important thing I've done in my life thus far. And that you should definitely see for yourselves :)

Bernard and Chantal are coming to visit us in 2 weeks!

The famous Nanne and Ankie, who gave a concert of songs they wrote with Michael.

Sophie, the translator.  Someone I quickly grew to love dearly :)

Our group hike in the forest

The group

The last day. Oh how I wished it wouldn't end...

And that's how our 2014 World Tour came to an end. 

Not with a whimper, but a BANG!

Something ended, and something else began...

****To whom it may concern; all pictures of the workshop were taken by our hosts, Henry and Monique. 

A Few Days in Brussels.

Belgium was never on my list of places to visit. Not that I have anything against it, I just was never particularly attracted to going there. As it turned out, my favorite author was giving a 5 day workshop in the Belgian countryside and to be honest, that's what this entire vacation was based off of...going to meet Michael Roads.

As you probably know by now, I don't follow any organized religion, but I'm pretty committed on my own spiritual path. I found Michael Roads while searching random spiritual subjects around a year ago, and devoured almost all of his books since then. For me, meeting him was like how other people probably feel about meeting...oh I don't know, George Clooney.

So that was to be the finale of our grand world tour...

...but first, we stopped for a few days to visit Brussels and experience a little culture!

At the BEST restaurant, C'est Bon, C'est Belge. The owner was hilarious and the food was delicious...and the beer? Obviously.

The famous Mannekin Pis statue.

The much less famous Jannekin Pis. I'm still confused about this strange obsession with peeing children...

Loved the Royal city mailboxes

I had always heard that Belgium is famous for waffles, beer, and chocolate...but until I lived in France, I never knew they are also prized for their mussels and fries. Richard is obsessed and so we had them every day. 

 

At the castle...

We did lots of shopping, took a historical tour around the Town Hall, happened upon a Renaissance Fair at the castle, and had fun with the locals...

Our Airbnb host this time was awesome and he and Richard really hit it off. That first night he brought out his guitar and Richard taught him a few things. A few drinks later, we were all belting Rhianna songs and laughing our asses off. 

The second night we met up with some guy we met on couchsurfing for dinner at his place. He was really nice and kind of quirky. There were maybe a few too many cats in his apartment, some strange nude photos stuck awkwardly to the walls, and a Japanese couchsurfer staying there who didn't speak either English or French but who loved to take photos of every second that passed. We made fish tartar together, and at dinner he asked us if we could taste anything special (something you don't really want to hear when you're eating with a stranger...)

And that's when he whipped out this little bottle of cannabis oil he bought in Amsterdam.

"I put it in the tartar!" He laughed...

So by the time we got on the (cleanest!) train to Tilff...I was in love again. Brussels was like the coolest mix of London, Paris, Germany, and then something all it's own. The people were unique and welcoming and the whole atmosphere just had a good vibe. Oh and the food...

Greece!

Our apartment in Athens was another Airbnb success. Our host gave us the keys and a list of stuff to do and took off for the weekend. What luck! Except it turned out that you can see all there is to see in Athens in about one day.

So we decided to catch the midnight train to Meteora. 

It seemed like such a great idea! We would sleep all night on the train, show up at 6, run around looking at the incredible mountains, and be cozy in bed by sundown for the early train the next morning.

Except for...the train was just awful. Dirty, uncomfortable, and filled with inconsiderate jerks screaming at each other for the entire FIVE HOUR RIDE. Not to mention that somewhere around the two hour mark we had to switch trains and no one was speaking any English...and the tickets looked like this:

How do you pronounce a triangle?

Miraculously, we ended up in Meteora (I still am not sure how) but we forgot one small detail...to figure out where our hotel was from the train station. I managed to get just enough wifi to see kind of where it was on the map in relation to the mountains, and we just took off walking in that general direction. 

I don't know how we got so incredibly lucky, but somewhere along the way there was a sign to our hostel...and we arrived just as the sun was rising. 

The air was crisp and fresh and filled with the perfume of a million roses that seemed to be just about everywhere. 

Forgetting the fact that we hadn't slept yet, we checked in, ate breakfast, and signed up for the morning hiking group. 

So there are some skulls and a creepy shadow ghost in the monastery we visited...

We had time for a quick lunch before joining the next tour--thankfully this one was by car so we could relax a little!!

Richard and I shared a beautiful moment together on the top of the mountain watching the sun set. The sweet old tour guide stole my camera so he could capture it for us.

I think Meteora might honestly be the most breathtaking place I've ever seen in my life. I regret that we didn't spend more time there. It was certainly the best place we visited in Greece. I'd go back in a heartbeat. 

Instead, we took a train...to the metro...to the port... then jumped on a ferry and landed on the closest island to the mainland; Aegina. 

That's when we quickly learned...it was the apocalypse. There were No. People. Anywhere.

Entire hotels were abandoned. Beach side bars were set for a full crowd...and yet there were no humans to be seen for miles. Even in our charming little bed and breakfast we were the only ones.

So for three days we did a whole lot of nothing. And it was exactly what we needed.

For meals we'd walk over to this tiny grocery store across the street (for the hour or two they were opened) and buy fresh fruits and veggies and, of course, loads of Greek yogurt. It was the only thing we ate I think for three days. 

I'm not sure if we were in the off-season in Greece or if this was a sad testament to a country in crisis...but in general we missed Israel!! 

Finally well rested, we caught the next flight to Belgium.