Bonjour à tous

Ignatius

Ignatius

New member
Greetings to all !

I am glad I found this community, hopefully will make some new friends.

I am a 32 year old frenchman and have moved around from a very young age, have been to school in France, India and Wales, spent a couple of years working and traveling in Australia, visited south east Asia and have fallen in love with Madagascar since 2007 where I have been a few times. I also visited some parts of Europe. It is not an easy question to answer when people ask me where I'm from but the two most familiar places I know are Strasbourg in the east of France where I spent my teenage years and Paris where I lived 7 years after that.

I had a very religious hindu cult like upbringing and although my folks went back to good old Jesus, I turned out to be a deep atheist anarchist myself, with a general distrust for institutions and belief systems, a strong inclination for herbs and an addiction for wandering.

After a few years traveling and yet another breakup (sigh), I went back to my parent's place near Strasbourg where I studied to become a certified electrician. Now I am unemployed, getting bored, a bit sad over a new lost love (one more time...) and spending waaaaaay to much time on youtube so I'm joining a friend in a few days to cycle tour the Balkans, I will bus it to Munich and then cycle through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and probably Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro or wherever adventure calls me! The budget is low so it should be fun !
Hope to meet some of you guys somewhere!
Best vibes to all!
Jah bless.
 
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Welcome to STP! Your travels ... do include us in your travels - I am rather limited to mostly East Coast US, but you have some access to some very cool spots!
 
dude that sounds awesome, i totally want to do a bike trip across europe like that someday. i'm about to do a bike tour down the west coast of the united states here very soon!
 
Tony Pro said:
Welcome, man. What's Madagascar like for a vagabond traveler?
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Hey dude !

I didn't really travel Madagascar as a vagabond, I went there 3 times months at time and I was spending approximately 20 to 30€ a day and paid for my accomodation every time. I wasn't much of a squatter back then, but I met some people who were staying there pretty much moneyless (other than the malagasies themselves) so I guess it's possible. I know this egyptian guy who was a truly lost and sad soul, he ended up in tiny fishermen's (vezos) village, quite isolated, peniless, and was squatting the beach and trying to fish. People there took pity, helped him carve a boat and taught him to sail it and fish and when I met him he had been there for 7 years, had a wife, 2 more girlfriends and 3 kids.

So that's a nice story but there are many more who are not quite as nice, it a very very poor isolated african tropical island and it's only paradise on the postcard, even though people are very friendly, the island is amazing (getting destroyed very fast sadly), things can nevertheless get pretty sordid, it's dirt poor, infrastructures, education, government are all crap.

Also people don't speak any english there, so having some notions in french, or even better, malagasy, will definitely help you get around!
 
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Matt Derrick said:
dude that sounds awesome, i totally want to do a bike trip across europe like that someday. i'm about to do a bike tour down the west coast of the united states here very soon!
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I will definitely tour the U.S in the years to come, as well as the rest of the continent, hit me up when you're planing on touring Europe and I will let you know when I come in your neighborhood ;-)
 
Tony Pro said:
Welcome, man. What's Madagascar like for a vagabond traveler?
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This was less than 4€ a day, facing a pristine beach on the Mozambique canal. No electricity or running water though, but you could sail to a coral reef and snorkel or dive there,
fish, colect sea urchins, have a laugh and smoke spliffs with the fishermen plus cute locals
inclined to share company and some love. But then, if you get used to it like I did, quite a lot of destinations may seem bland and boring in comparison ;-)
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Ignatius said:
I know this egyptian guy who was a truly lost and sad soul, he ended up in tiny fishermen's (vezos) village, quite isolated, peniless, and was squatting the beach and trying to fish. People there took pity, helped him carve a boat and taught him to sail it and fish and when I met him he had been there for 7 years, had a wife, 2 more girlfriends and 3 kids.
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That is an awesome story. And where exactly is that little beach shack? That looks so cool. I wish it didn't cost so much to get there by plane. Some day I want to hitchhike Cairo to Cape Town; maybe I can take a boat detour from Mozambique.
 
Ignatius said:
I will definitely tour the U.S in the years to come, as well as the rest of the continent, hit me up when you're planing on touring Europe and I will let you know when I come in your neighborhood ;-)
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hell yeah man, when you come to the states definitely hit us up!
 
misanthropicrustacian said:
As far as having a certification in a trade being a electrician is a good one for the vagabond because its so lucrative . that sounds like a awesome bike route you got planned. Welcome !!!
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That's exactly what I had in mind when I was looking forward to train for a trade. After some traveling, I realised it would make things easier if I had a trade that I could use anywhere, it's always useful to learn new skills and it turns out I quite like this new one ;-)

Bike route sounds awesome right ? Sadly, I procrastinated once more and asked for my passport renewal way too late so now I'm waiting for it to get ready otherwise I would already be goooooone ! The road is calling me !
 
Matt Derrick said:
dude that sounds awesome, i totally want to do a bike trip across europe like that someday. i'm about to do a bike tour down the west coast of the united states here very soon!
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Hey if your going to be biking down the west side to the jamboree ill be coming from the south maybe we can meet up on the road there? Depending when and what way your taking
 
Hey man, I'm cycling from England to Nepal with a friend and am just in Munich, heading to Salzburg and then over the Alps to Ljubljana next... Whereabouts are you? How's your cycle going so far?
Katie
 
Hey girl, I'm down in Greece now, will be in Thessaloniki in about an hour. It's crazy hot down here, my skin is taking a beating. A friend of mine (Australian) joined me in Serbia and we are riding together now.
The Alps are beautiful, you should enjoy that.
I'm going to cycle Greece for 2-3 weeks and then head back north through Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and then Austria hopefully for a rainbow gathering in Wildalpen. I have access to internet here in Greece so feel free to contact me, our paths may cross.
Safe travels :-)
 
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