Sunday 12. July 2009 The Trip from Marseille to Sibiu
By: KlimBimAt sunday the 26th of june our small group met in Marseille, consisting of goldsmith Angela, the cabinet maker Pascal and the piano technician Stefan - all german journeymen - as well as the French Compagnons Julien, cabinet maker and Yannick, art joiner.
The arrival in Sibiu
This picture is off the Italian justice officials
At Albissola
Genoa
At sunday the 26th of june our small group met in Marseille, consisting of goldsmith Angela, the cabinet maker Pascal and the piano technician Stefan - all german journeymen - as well as the French Compagnons Julien, cabinet maker and Yannick, art joiner.
After we had used the whole evening to get known to eachother, Guillaume, a trainee of the Fédération drow us to a gas station on the street in the direction east.
After we made no headway for one hour we decided to split up into two groups: Angela and Yannick were the first ones on the road and half an hour later Pascal, Stefan and Julien were also on their way. As well known in the german journeymen tradition the next meeting point should be the first pub on the right hand side from the town hall of the city Imperia, in Italy.
The first leg led us to a roundabout in Aix-en-Provence, direction Nice. In the blistering heat we spent complete four hours there, until we decided to go on at the federal highway by feet. It was almost dark and we were still walking on a small country road, as a caravan drove by and the driver suggested to take us for a ride to the Slovenian border. Indeed we were appointed with the other half of our group in Imperia, Italy, and maybe they would already wait for us. Kindly she made a detour to bring us to the town hall of Imperia and in point of fact Angela and Yannick were already waiting for us.
Hitch hiking in Italia went very difficult, that's why we decided to go by train, for free. But the tallyman caught us very fast and so we had to get off at the next station. From there we took the train to Savona and this time we explained the supervisor immediately where we wanted to go.
That night we ate and slept at the beach.
At the first of July we went on hitch hiking after the breakfast. In the narrow alleys of Albissola we all five were invited by Paolo, a ceremic artist, to have lunch with him and to visit his studio. Afterwards he droped us at a tollgate and there we founded new groups. Stefan, Pascal and Yannick took off first, followed by Angela and Julien. Next meeting point was Ljubljana in Slovenia. After we met again at a gas station by coincidence both groups made their way together to Milan. From there one group went by train to Venice, to take the opportunity of a sightseeing tour, while the other group reached Ljubljana already at the evening of July the 2nd, after one night at a gas station and four lifts. In the beautiful capital of Slovenia there was a theater festival going on and after Pascal, Stefan and Yannick weren't at the town hall as appointed, we made a walk through the city and we spent the night afterwards in a park.
At the 3rd of July there was still no sign from the arrival of the second group. Instead we got to know two guys, who took us to a squat were lot's of artists live in. As we went back to the town hall later the others were sitting cosy in a pub. We took them back to the squat to have a rest at night, before we took off in the direction of Zagreb, Croatia the next day. At 4th of July Angela left to deal with some things in Germany, Julien and Stefan slept in a lonesome car and Yannick and Pascal took the distance to the Croatian capital by hitch hiking. There they waited the whole night and also the next day for the others to arrive.
In a night train we all drove together to Belgrade, Serbia and from there with a bus to the Romanian border. Hitch hiking in Romania was no problem and that's why we arrived the same night in Sibiu. Of course we rang the bell of the Casa Calfelor loud, that all the residents fell out of their beds, to celebrate the arrival with us.