After a good night sleep in our tent in the middle of Volterra we continued hitchhiking. At first the weather was very nice and we could enjoy the landscapes while walking but after a while we noticed that a lot of dark clouds were rolling in and that we had no idea where to go next. Standing next to the road we were discussing if it would be better to catch a train to Livorno and go to a hostel there for we were eager to sleep in a bed to give our backs a rest from all the backpack carrying.
This is how the landscapes looked like when we left Volterra.
This is how it looked like when we were waiting for a ride. We were quite lucky because we got picked up the moment when it started to rain some first drops. The driver took us all the way to Livorno. We had no idea what was expecting us there.
We enjoyed our walk through town even though it was many km to the seaside where we wanted to go. It took us some hours because on the way there were such beautiful things to discover. Like this one little park with these lovely turtles :)
This guy was suspicious.
And the pigeons looked like they were meeting there to gossip or something like that. We continued our walk through town and asked in different hostels and hotels if it was possible to get a bed for the night but everyone told us that they were completely booked. That was kind of strange but we continued our search until one women answered (we were already asking random passengers for affordable hostels): "Oh I think everything will be booked for the Dalai Lama is in town!"
And we were like: "What?" And she told us that he would give a speech in the morning. We still did not have any place to stay yet and the chances where bad to find something so we decided to build our tent in the park next to the sea and go to see the speech of the Dalai Lama the next day. We had a nice dinner at a 50s restaurant next to the seaside. I think it is easy for you to find if you ever visit Livorno and the food tastes amazing. I can really recommend it. While we were eating it started raining a lot! And it got worse. We had to build our tent while it was raining like hell and then a thunderstorm started.
I was a bit scared to be honest. Sleeping in a tent while every view seconds the place was lightened up by lightning and the sound of thunder was drumming in my ears. But we had no other option that night. We wanted to hear the Dalai Lamas speech and there was no other place available beside our tent.
But we survived. The next morning we went to the place where the Dalai Lama would have his speech and payed something for the tickets (I cannot remember exactly how much it was but something in between 20-40 bucks per person for the speech, the blessings where much more expensive - is this the spiritual way?). Since this was such a funny coincidence we did not want to miss it but we decided that those blessings were too expensive and that continuing our travels alive after this thunderstorm was enough of a blessing.
In front of the building where the Dalai Lama was having his speech there were a lot of protesters. I tried to find out about the ritual the Dalai Lama was banning for those practitioners but I really did not understand what it was about. I speculated it has to do with the use of psychoactive mushrooms in Buddhist monasteries but I really am not sure and if you know more about the ban of the Shugden practitioners please let me know because what they told me when I asked them was very blurry. Some people also told me that they were actually working for China in order to have a Anti Free Tibet campaign. I have no idea. Anyways the songs they sang for hours against the politics of the Dalai Lama were real earworms. One was "False Dalai Lama - Give religious freedom!". The other one was "False Dalai Lama - Stop Lying". Very groovy :)
This was the place and the decoration. So fancy but not really what you would expect when you think about the ideas of Buddhism.
And here he is, wearing the coolest monk cap ever: the Dalai Lama. I really liked his speech on compassion and how it is good to be selfish if your selfishness leads you to compassion for you receive the best things if you are compassionate with others. I think he also wrote a book on this subject.
He talked for two hours and answered questions for another two hours. I was really impressed and touched by some things he said. I remember how he reacted when a women asked him how she could make her mother happy again after the murder of her sister and her children. First he was not answering at all but you could see how his body shape changes to some expression of pain. Then he said: "This makes me very sad. Very, very sad. I cannot say anything more." With this he showed that he was just an ordinary man and that he would not just say something intellectual that makes him look like the half god like he’s seen by some people but like normal person that cannot do anything else but being understanding and compassionate. I think in such horrible situations this is the only thing one can do in the end.
After the speech we went to Pisa where we could stay in a hostel for one night. In my next post I will tell you more about our Pisa adventures. If you would like to read the previous adventures of this journey check out this posts:
The way to Ostia - 1
Ostia Antica -1.1
Bracciano -2
Viterbo -3
Tuscania -4
Lago di Bolsena -5
Pitigliano Part 1 -6
Pitigliano Part 2 -7
Sovana -8
Saturnia -9
Talamone & Siena #10
Volterra
