Traveling Raw
Since becoming a dedicated
‘raw foodist’ this year, I have had to travel twice so far. Once to Germany and
the Czech Republic in April/May, and then to Amsterdam and Bulgaria, in
July/August.
Obviously there were
challenges, but let me give you the goods in a nutshell.
Way back in May, on the flight there, 9 hours
from Vancouver to Stuttgart, I brought with me two very large (Parnoosh Dates)
plastic containers stuffed with delicious fruit salads, and some apples and
oranges, which passed through security no problem. So I had plenty to eat on
the way there. The on flight meals they provided gave me very little
additionally, and I was not tempted by any of their packaged, processed
products sold as food….
I was in Germany to do workshops and sign books!
In Stuttgart, Germany, where I was conducting my Elemental
Magic animation workshop and book signings, I immediately found a very well
stocked, organic grocer near my hotel, stocked with fantastic organic bananas, pineapples, berries,
mangos, and veggies. So I filled my hotel room with fruit and veggies,
emptying the fridge of all the other stuff I don’t touch, and using it for
veggies and berries. I had brought those Parnoosh containers with me, so I made
two fruit salads each morning before leaving the hotel. That’s about ten
bananas, a whole pineapple, a whole box of strawberries, and/or
raspberries/blackberries and maybe some mango too. A good amount of pure, fresh
organic fruit carb energy to get me through the day.
The FMX conference, where I conducted a workshop
Incredibly, I had been worried about the breakfast buffet,
because I’ve always adored the croissants, buns and danishes, cheeses and cold
cuts whenever I have visited in the past. Well, much to my delight, I walked
into the breakfast buffet to find, incredibly, three huge bowls of fresh fruit,
one mango, one pineapple, one strawberries, and all fresh and beautifully cut
into bite sized pieces. On top of that there was a enormous fruit salad, with
the standard melon, grape, apple concoction you usually see, but with some
bananas in it as well, pretty tasty.
Sitting in the sunshine with my delicious breakfast!
There was a lovely courtyard, where I sat in glorious April
sunshine and ate my freshly prepared fruit and listened to songbirds
and the sound of the water fountain…
So my morning salad at the salad bar, afternoon fruit salads
from the Parnoosh containers made at the hotel each morning. And then, every
evening during the FMX Conference that I was attending, the guest speakers are
all treated to enormous gourmet buffet dinners. Over a hundred of us,
filmmakers and animators from all over the world, having a huge dinner party
every night. And there was almost always a good supply of fantastic fruits and
salad to fill me up as much as I could possibly want. At least the salad was
consistent, not the fruit. But I had the fruit supply at my hotel.
And this is pretty much how I got through each day.
This banana on the plaque at the amazing Staatsgallerie was cool....
However, there was the time…that I went walking down to the
theatre where people gathered during the day. The temperature, after several
days of exquisite sunshine, had plummeted, and it was near freezing and started
to rain. I found no one. I walked around a bit and bought an umbrella. I looked
at people in warm cafes, where I was also looking for anyone I might recognize.
I began to feel the cold, and I cursed the fact that I had not ‘carbed up’
more, I had not eaten a large amount of fruit before heading out.
So now I’m cold and hungry, wandering the streets of a
suddenly cold and empty and forbidding Stuttgart, I’m lonely, and I can’t find
anybody I recognize, although there are dozens of people I know who must be
around somewhere, I have no way whatsoever of contacting anyone. Cold, lonely
and hungry. Great combination. I’m texting Mariya, letting her know somewhat of
my plight…but I’m hanging in there, shiveringly….
I am in a part of Stuttgart where there are a ton of
restaurants and cafes, so everywhere I go, the smells of cooking and fresh
baked goods and candy shops and coffee
fill the air. Everywhere I looked I see warm, smiling, happy looking people
huddled over plates of steaming, warm, delicious looking hot food. Yikes! I
made it back to my hotel and stayed out of trouble, and never left the hotel
without eating enough first.
The following week, in Ludwigsburg now, just outside of
Stuttgart, I had another close scrape. It was cold and I was walking through yet
another bustling restaurant district near the school where I did a workshop. I
had gone to visit friends earlier, where I had eaten a very nice salad they had
prepared for me, knowing that I was a raw vegan. I broke the rules a tiny bit
and tasted two pieces of tortellini pasta from the dish they were all sharing,
to be respectful of their food too, and because it smelled SO damned good! It
tasted good too and I didn’t worry about it too much. I ate a pretty good
amount of food overall I thought, but when I left their place I was still
inexplicably hungry. Very hungry. So as I walked through the long stretch of
restaurants and fast food places, my stomach grumbled. Oh how I wanted to bite
into one of those familiar old Gyros or a disgusting slice of pizza! With every
step I was hungrier and it all smelled better and better. The last hurdle was
the huge Joe Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant right next to my hotel, with its terraces
packed with people, the fresh smells of their hot steaming tacos, burritos and
tamales, spices and cheese making me dizzy.
With my small class of seven students
who took the workshop in Ludwigsburg
I made it back to the
hotel, made a huge fruit salad, and then I ate an enormous box of organic
cherry tomatoes and two heads of lettuce while talking to Mariya on Skype and
calming myself down….I had gotten back to the hotel room shivering and pretty
badly worked up. But slowly but surely I warmed up and I seem to remember
having a pretty good sleep. Had the two little pieces of tortellini made me
crave even more as I had walked home? Was that part of the inexplicable craving
after a perfectly good dinner?
Did I ever cheat on any other occasions? And If so how much?
Yes, I ate about three croissants mixed in with everything
over the first ten days of my trip. And I do drink coffee every morning. And I
do smoke moderately as well.
More to come, on my smoking, drinking coffee, and making it
through my Raw Journey through Prague….and then later, on through Amsterdam and Bulgaria!
