Toast

"It was a willingness of the heart."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crackup

If you want free land, here's where to be - Les Carpathes. At the heart of this new grid you'll find some stunning sims, easily rivalling many builds in Second Life.

vladimir Djannovic and his lovely RL wife Miranda left their wealthy vampire life in SL in favour of another way of life. Here, they can be in virtual worlds, and have a safe place to bring their older children, too.
Miranda Djannovic: Ici, tout est gratuit pas de fric et pas de debauche.
Well said.
It's early days yet, just 40 residents on the books, spread out over a
couple of dozen sims. What they lack in numbers they make up for in sheer kindness and exuberant good humour. This is no opensim desert island. Want land? Create an account, show up, and ask.

While I was there, the rather gorgeous Maxym Garnburg was finalizing his own sim's set-up with grid owner and Chief Administrator vlad. Max's advice for you? Get out of Second life as soon as you can! The grid is French, but translators are available for your convenience and amusement; your best bet for finding people online is to go there in the evening hours Paris time.

It's easy to get here from ANY opensim grid, in 3 steps
1. Log in to your grid of choice
2. Open the Map - copy/paste into Search (middle right hand side of the map window) this: hg.hyperica.com:8022:Hyperica Central
wait a sec for the viewer to do its thing, when the Map finds the destination, hit TP.
3. When you arrive at Hyperica , open your Map again, this time, into Search you should copy/paste this:
carpathes-grid.servegame.com:8002:
Depending on where your originating grid is, the Hyperica step may not be necessary, but this way you needn't faff around wondering if you're more than the 'absolute limit' of 4093 sims away from your final destination. That limit is a nice fat bug inherited from Second Life, by the way: the viewer can't conceive of a world bigger than 4093 sims squared. Thanks Philip.
The immensely goodnatured folks of Les Carpathes lined up on the bridge for a photo. I know, that dress is totally inappropriate for travel. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Afraid of looking dorky outside SL? It's true, a/os aren't in huge supply but simply go to one of the more developed grids and get one. Heck, I'll even pass you a ready-to-go Zhao folder, to make your viewer's inbuilt a/o work, if you find me in osgrid. This is all doable.

chenoa, jeronimo, vladimir, miranda, Maxym and me.

vladimir Djannovic: I definitely don't miss Second life. I have some good memories, but many bad ones too. I left behind my vampire clan and a lot of Linden dollars in SL, and started this grid because I got tired of the culture of money and vice. Once I discovered open sim, I wanted to share it with others, so I made this grid. It works on a dedicated server, and anyone interested in having free land can come here - as long as they share our values of sharing and helping one another.

Those vampire roots are evident in the huge Gothic palace, located on the outskirts of a Mittel-European walled city, just begging to be photographed in a variety of windlights.

 The half-timbered ensemble comes complete with walkable battlements, leafy squares, and schooners at anchor the mouth of the river. There's this breathtaking statue, and a copiable sea monster. What more do you want?

But Les Carpathes is far from being an all-bloodsucking conclave. It's got a postmodern thing going on too.

To the North, you'll find a whole avenue of freebies, culminating an Mickey's house, a slightly disturbing residence with just one arm and leg, and, at the rear, something blue that may require surgery. Don't miss the skyhouse next door. To the Southwest, there's jeronimo and chenoa cheyenne's  Western themed region.

There's an old fashioned Main Street, and next door la Tribu, a sim dedicated to Native American culture and undress. I did say it's a French grid.
jeronimo cherokee: Vlad told us about the new grid and we just had to come. We have each other so we don't feel lonely. We love to build, and this is perfect for that, free land and lots of shared resources.

chenoa cheyenne: The freedom here is wonderful - sometimes perhaps we miss the possibilities in SL to immediately find things we want, but that's a small price to pay.
Their idea is to establish a little group who wish to explore the lifestyle and beliefs of the Native American. Is that you? No?  If your idea of America is more Boardwalk, Ferris Wheel and metropolitan skyline, you're in luck; there's that too.

The glass and steel houses an extensive Freebie mall, including many Linda Kellie items, but not only that. (by the way don't miss the return of the Exploring page, on Linda's blog! Do remember, while 'shopping', to double-check items have really appeared in your inventory as you go along, otherwise you may end up kicking yourself and having to make a second visit.
New grids are always a bit of a crap shoot, which is why the offer of free land is one you should consider without, of course, putting all your eggs in one basket. But if Second Life's got you close to cracking up, Les Carpathes may be the place where you can put your feet up and feel at home. Possibly with toast.