The reason for the sudden spike: Cyprus. The events there took almost everyone by surprise. There's plenty of people who understand the problems with our "manipulated economy", but even a lot of those had become "complacent". Now that government paper is failing at a faster pace than anyone imagined would have happened in the past year or so, a "sense of urgency" seems to have taken hold of some and they are rushing into bitcoin.
Sounds plausible, but in these types of "financial Armageddon" scenarios, one might expect the gold price to skyrocket, which has not happened at all. Yet.
The "Cyprus effect" may have had some bearing on bitcoin, but simple increased general demand and small-scale venture capital might explain the bulk of the price hike, assuming it's not just another good old bubble like June 2011.