Pics from Canada
Hiking
Originally uploaded by Luke Buehler
More pics from Canada. Enjoy.
Here are all the pics from this part of the world:
http://flickr.com/photos/lukebuehler/sets/72157604305016027/
Old Blog
Not many have read my old blog, which was much more concerned with spiritual questions. I just re-discovered it and had to laugh and sometimes hit my head.
Some interesting stuff though:
http://firewords.blogspot.com/
For all those who haven't realized yet that I'm a mystic 
New Map
There's a new map that gives a better overview where I'm currently at and of my last journey.
If you wanna see the old map with the details of my walk by foot, follow this link.
This is the link to the new Google map.
Hi From Canada
Yup the next destination on my journey is Canada. I've been here now for 4 weeks and enjoyed my time here tremendously. I'm living in a small apartment in a town called Fort Langley, which is a really cute place and is considered the birth place of the province of British Columbia, cool, eh?
Anyhow apologies for being underground so much, I kept postponing updating my blog and now already a month has passed. I guess also the steps on my pilgrimage have become more slower a week there a week here. But I still consider myself on the way, since I'm still searching and haven't found what I'm looking for. In the following posts I'll try to update everyone about the more mental and spiritual places I'm currently visiting.
I'm spending much time with Chrystal (my girlfriend). Just discovering who we are together and how to go on with our lives. There are many questions to ask and to answer as either of us has to leave much behind and go with the other if we decide to stay together. So this is the theme from just contemplation to perspective into the future.
View at L’Abri
L'Abri
Originally uploaded by Luke Buehler
I loved the time at L'Abri. The amazing view makes the good fellowship even better.
If you don't know what L'Abri is, see last post.
L’Abri & Looking into the Future
Everyone has been asking me what I'm going to do now that I'm back in Switzerland. Well, let me first update you on what has been happening until now.
My days were mostly about studying some of the things I've discovered on my journey and meeting friends. Besides that I've been working for a mobile phone software company that is about to be started soon. It's been some good weeks and hard ones too.
One awesome thing that I was able to do after three years of trying, was visiting the L'Abri fellowship. It's a community of truth seekers that live together, share their meals, work and have committed time to study whatever heart felt question they are currently facing. The fellowship was founded by Francis and Edith Schaeffer, well know philosophers and theologians of the last century. Most people stay there for quite a while, because of my responsibilities here in Zürich I could only go for a few days but they were so valuable. Early in the morning I packed my backpack and took the train to the southern part of Switzerland. I love it down there, Lausanne and the Geneva Lake is just breathtakingly beautiful. But L'Abri is situated up in the mountains and the view of the bold Alps is even more impressive. Quickly I got to know most of the people there and figured out how it all works. Working in the morning, studying in the afternoon and fun in the evening. I love to learn in community, in contrast to the more individualistic study style of todays academics, you have more space to breathe, you can go the pace you want and need and the best is, that you can exchange so naturally about what questions you are having since you are in a close fellowship. After four days I went back to Zürich.
See: L'Abri Website
Now about the future. I'm gonna fly to Chrystal for three months in Canada. It came up with my good friend Tii. He said, hey why don't you go to your girl and then maybe travel some more. A few days later I bought the ticket. I'm gonna live close to where she studies until her graduation. Then we are planing to do a road trip from Vancouver to Pennsylvania (from West to East America), where we will stay with her parents for another month. Then I have to go back to Switzerland and what comes after that I cannot tell.
In the Mountains
Couple
Originally uploaded by Luke Buehler
Over Christmas we went to the mountains. The weather was beautiful all the time, but even better was the company: My girlfriend Chrystal.
I must admit though that the transition from being alone in strange places to the comfortable life of Switzerland was quite intense but much more easy than I imagined. Crazy how fast I adopt to laziness and how hard I have to fight to cope with the hardship of a pilgrim.
There some new pics on my Flickr account. Enjoy.
Back to Field One: Switzerland
Exploring Istanbul was exciting, but after a little over a week of only rain I started thinking how my journey should continue. The days got shorter and the temperatures kept dropping so I was unsure how the pilgrimage should continue in the winter.
I heard that my girlfriend was in Switzerland and that my mom was planing to go to the mountains for a week or more and since I found a cheap flight ticket home I decided to just do a surprise visit. On the 18th of December I flew home. It was quite weired to fly home, all the distance that I made in four month just melted down to three hours. There was some melancholy because I had to say good bye already to this new life of being on the road. At the same time I was looking forward to meet Chrystal and to see my family.
As I arrived in Zürich late at night no one knew that I was coming. I took the train to Zürich main train station and then went to a friend and knocked on his door, he was quite surprised to see me but it was no problem to let me surf his couch for the night. Early in the morning I walked back to Erlenbach where my journey started. It was quite a special time I walked through the woods and slowly everything became familiar. I was a little nervous though how my family would react and most of all Chrystal. We had some great troubles in our relationship and didn't talk for over six weeks. My mom invited her to celebrate Christmas with my family even though I wouldn't be there. I approached the house as it was still early in the morning and just walk in. No one was around except my moms cleaning lady she was quite surprised too to see me but let me in. I snook up to the room where Chrystal was sleeping and you can imagine she was quiet surprised to see me. She hid under the blanket. Also my whole family was cheerful to have me back alive.
After two days in Zürich we went to the mountains of Flims to celebrate Christmas up there. I loved to spend time with Chrystal and get some things straight that we struggled with. It was hard for her that I went on this trip and I can understand, we had a long distance relationship for over three years and me hiking alone didn't make it much easier. After our time in the mountains she had to go back to university in Vancouver, we parted cheerfully knowing that more good things are to come. Since then I was mostly at home studying, following up some of the spiritual discoveries I've made along my way.
Many people ask if I will continue the pilgrimage but I don't know yet. I've learned to take the decisions day by day not looking ahead too far. I might go to Canada for a while until summer starts and then continue from Istanbul to Jerusalem, but honestly, I don't know. Currently I spend a lot of time studying, praying and meditating. Besides that I work a little as a software developer to refill my wallet.
More about what I'm learning here in the next post. The pilgrimage continues and it is less about making it to the real Jerusalem than to find the inner one.
Constantinopolis
After staying in Alexandroupolis which is about 45 kilometers away from the border to Turkey, I decided to walk the rest to Istanbul. So I started walking again, slowly the outer skirts of the city vanished and gave way to the harsh and simple nature of north Greece. I took it slow spent some time sleeping in the sun when I got tired around noon and instead of hiking along the main road I made my way through the wilderness. There were occasionally fields, the wind gently blew and the winter already seemed close. As it got dark I decided to sleep outside in the tent just a few hundred meters away from the road. The night was long because it got dark early, but none the less I slept like a baby. If you have trouble sleeping, try walking for 8 to 10 hours during the day, you'll find a fast cure. The next morning I met a hunter that was quite amazed that I slept there and observed me curiously. After I packed I decided to make just hike to the border of Turkey and see what would happen. After I hiked for 10 kilometers or so, crossed a highway, met some "nice" shepherd dogs and walked on unused railroad tracks I came to the big red flag. Its always fun to cross a car border by foot, especially if its on a highway: you get some funny looks. Anyhow, the custom officer told me that I wasn't allowed to pass the bored by foot. There was a lot of military and it was a bridge with many solders on both sides. So he asked one of the cars if they could take me just on the other side. A little compulsive they agreed, and took me over. After that they asked me if I wanted a ride to the next bigger town. We stared talking and I told them that I'm a pilgrim to Jerusalem and that my next goal is Istanbul. After a little discussion among themselves they asked me if I wanted to come to Istanbul with them because that was their destination too. A little amazed that it worked out for me again like that I said yes. The ride was long but none the less we made what would have taken me ten days to walk in 4 hours.
It was already dark when we arrived in that famous city, they let me out somewhere far away from the center. Istanbul is big, 14 million people big, over 100 kilometers from one side to the other. So I decided to take a bus more to the center where I could find a place for the night. I stayed in a cheap hotel in the Fatih quarter. That evening I went to a internet cafe, a friend I met in Greece (Prespa) was online and she told me that she knew someone that probably knew someone in Istanbul (yep that how it works down there). 15 minutes later I had a place to stay for the coming night. I could even have gone there that very night but I already payed the hotel. So the next day I visited Sultanahmet, the old and famous district where Aya Sofia is. I visited that church and I was so amazed by its scope and beauty, definitely a place you must see before you die. In the evening I met my new host, Gözde. She was very nice to me and let me stay as long as I wanted. Almost every day she showed me something new of Istanbul. I stayed with her over a week until my departure from Istanbul, but more about that in the next post.
So After four month I arrived in this historic city, it was quite special for me to do the last bit of the journey in these two big jumps with people taking me so far with the car. I didn't know if it was good or if I should have fought harder to keep walking, because with this I almost saved a month of walking. But I decided to let it go and just be good with it. My journey has always been different than I imagined it from the beginning. Every day I had some expectations and every time it turned out different. Suddenly I would stand in Istanbul and ask what just happened, to cope with this and accept openly what God brought along my way became the essence of the pilgrimage. I'm glad and thank God that I have made it until there (2 thirds of the whole distance) safely and learned so much along the way.
Thank you all for your amazing support until now!
Soaking in the Atmosphere
My first project on Athos was to visit one of the most famous monastery called Simona Petra. Again I walked there but only a third because a bus transporting some monks had pity on me and took me with them until the famous monastery, known for its special location more than 200 meters over the sea level on a rock. Arriving there I was once more the only one without a reservation and got one of the last places. This time I was a little more courageous and asked to talk to a monk because there were many questions I was curious about. The atmosphere of the Vespers (church service in the afternoon) and the dinner immediately after that with all the monks is truly special. Even as a complete stranger I feelt kinda a part of the whole community and the monks were so kind to me. When the other pilgrims finally had the opportunity to venerate the holy relics I was not so interested, one of the monks approached me that could speak English and asked me if I wanted to talk a little. We went to a nice lobby and I got to pack out some of the questions I accumulated over the last few weeks as I started to approach the Orthodox faith for the first time. I had many questions about their rules and methods of payer. One of the most famous prayer that has grown in influence far beyond the Orthodox Church is to repeat the words, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.", and at the same time let the deep meaning of these words resonate in the heart. They say that it contains the whole message of the gospel and can be easily practiced because it is almost as short as a mantra.
The next day I decided to go again to the other side of the peninsula and to walk around the mountain from there. So I traveled with the bus to Magistra Lavra. On the way I met an Australian guy a little younger than me, we were both glad to have someone to talk to and to travel the holy mountain. Lavra was mostly an impressive monastery because it is the biggest one on Athos and its quite a bit like a fortress containing many houses inside its daring walls. After that we both started hiking around the south part and even another guy we met earlier joined us. Already after a few hours we met an hermit monk that invited us to come into his humble house. Fortunately he could speak English, when I told him that I was a pilgrim to Jerusalem he got really excited and when we left he gave me so much food that I could hardly continue with walking. We continued slowly around trough the rough nature there. In this part of the peninsula there are no more monasteries and is mostly inhabited by Sketes (some independent monks living together like small village) or really remote hermits. We stayed one night in one of the Skites and it was very impressive to see the monks living there so simple with almost no electricity and no roads only foot paths where they bring the necessary goods with donkeys or ships. But even more impressive is the spirituality that comes out of this ascetic lifestyle, the monks seem to know more than they show in their simplicity, they have found salvation and cling to it with all their might digging deeper into its truth every day. I could feel it and to soak in this atmosphere was a liberating and profound experience. From that my friend and me walked to the next monastery called Pavliou. The untouched nature is so enjoyable there and our conversation were deep because all we saw kept spinning in our heads.
After that night we parted because my Australian fellow had to go back to Istanbul to get Visas for the middle east. I hiked along the coast to the monastery Gregoriou where I had good hopes to stay a little longer. The first day there an Austrian monk helped me to ask if I could stay longer, the next day I met Father Damianos who is originally from England, he went on my behalf to the abbot to ask for an extension for me because this is usually necessary if someone wants to stay longer than the traditional one night. I loved Gregoriou as it is one of the most beautiful places on Athos I saw and the atmosphere is more relaxed than in other monasteries. I think this is mostly because they have a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program there and so many pilgrims come every day that there is constantly full house. I stayed there for a week and every day Father Damianos took time to answer my questions and gave me really good literature about the orthodox faith, history and spirituality. I started really liking to go to the morning services because I could meditate for hours there and get ready for the day. Then there was a simple meal for breakfast and later a simple meal for dinner and that was it for foot. I liked that simple diet though and would love to continue some of the habits at home. During my week there I spend quite some time studying and praying the rest of the time I helped in the garden or kitchen or went exploring the surroundings. After a week I couldn't stay longer because they were expecting many visitors for a big celebration.
For another two nights I stayed in a Skite close to the main town Karyes but I didn't like it there as much as in the other monasteries so I decided to leave Athos and continue my trip to Istanbul. But the day I wanted to leave the sea was to stormy and no ship went. Since I was already on the other side of the peninsula and close to Simona Petra I decided to stay there another night. The same monk took again time to talk to me and then encouraged me to continue my pilgrimage. So the next morning I went back with the ferry to Ouranopolis. It was fun because there where many people on the boat I met during my time on Athos. One guy I met there introduced me to another guy and he told me that he was going to drive to the border of Greece towards Istanbul and that I could have a ride. I accepted the ride knowing that this was going to be the biggest leap by car until now. So he brought me the same day to Alexandroupolis more than 200 kilometers closer to Constantinopolis. That night I stayed in a cheap hotel, looking back to one of the greatest adventures so far I fell asleep curious what the future might bring.
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