The life of a hobo

Some may say that for the past few days, we have lived the lives of homeless bums. They would be right. But I would also add that we have explored new frontiers, challenging all those societal precepts that one wouldn't think to question until he absolutely must. And we have subsisted, at the very least.

Us subsisting on the side of a road...we literally stood/crouched here for about 15 minutes wondering what we were doing with our lives...and where we were going to sleep that night.

I will give you an example. When you have the option of sleeping on a dry patch of rocky ground or say, in a mud pit, most people would choose the rocky ground. But after a few nights on rocky ground, you may find that it's not quite what it was cracked up to be. And...if you are a bum, and have no one to impress with your appearance and general odour...who would be upset if you were covered in a little mud? Is a good nights sleep worth what those civilized people call being "NOT covered in mud"? That is a question that I cannot answer you yet, because we found a hotel before that line was crossed. But I tell you, I was eyeing that mud puddle.

Dennis napping near (but not IN) a mud puddle in the middle of a restricted conservation area. Note his proximity to the ditch...it adds just a touch of class.

Natural hobo deodorant...I love the smell of lilacs.

I don't remember if I've kept you in the loop about our recent activities, but we've been hitchhiking around Germany and Switzerland for the past few weeks, and we recently met up with Ryan, a good Canadian buddy of mine that I met in Leeds. We've been hanging around in Basel for the past few days, and as Dennis so adequately put it: "If anyone could see all the things we've been doing around Basel, I think they would ask us to leave." Starting with not paying for trams, bumming around the city with our packs, sleeping outside in front of hostels, eating whole chickens outside the grocery store with our bare hands, illegally jumping off of bridges into the Rhine, swimming in forbidden areas, entering/consuming alcohol/sleeping on protected conservation areas (in the dirt, no less), and playing "threesies" with the local hotels (i.e. squeezing three people into a two person room)...well, I guess that's enough.

The always classy "if-you-can't-get-a-room-in-the-hostel-try-
sleeping-outside-until-they-have-pity-on-you" trick...it didn't work. (Are you kidding? We had a room booked at the hostel...I think we were just too lazy to check in.)

Ok, I really do have to write an email to the fam, so I'll fill you in on our trip to Lugano with Gustavo and the aforementioned forest party later.

Later!

Update: I'll try this video uploader thing, see how it works.