Alive and kicking (part 1): Leaving Granada - BXL

That’s right, I’m alive. My life has been intense since the last crap I wrote. Met some wonderful new people that I wanted to take with me. I met someone very special the last weekend I was in Granada. I am indeed the King of Bad Timing. I spent more time in my second home (or first?), oh yeah, that place is Hamelin. That pub became a very special place for me. The barmen became my friends, I did some crazy shit there. I slept at the bar more time than I would like to accept. I would be in a position to deny that but unfortunately there are a few photos of me sleeping. Since I started traveling I don’t listen to radio and I don’t what to look for on youtube, I mean new music. My music library has grown very, very slowly. But despite that fact along the years I managed to came to know some really great bands. I’m not sure if I knew them before but in Granada I became a fan of The Black Keys; and I specially like one song: Lonely Boy. I’m not sure who was it that changed the name of the song to Lonely Ron but I liked it. From then on I sang that song, let’s say a lot.  I even managed to get a shot named after me… yup, you guessed it right, the name of MY  shot is Lonely Ron. The last beer I had there, the Sunday before I left was very, very emotional.

 (photos courtesy of Syrmo Kyrstopoulo)

photo by Cristina

I needed to be in Paris fast and given the fact that hitchhiking in Spain is utterly unpredictable, I decided not to hitchhike whilst still in the country. I found myself in Bilbao 12 hours after leaving Granada. I had been there before, 4 years prior. In Bilbao I met with my friend Cristina. She spent 5 years in Australia. I haven’t seen her in the same amount of time. We talked about of love stories, about traveling, about traveling and love stories. We had a lot to catch up… a lot! Although, 3 days was not enough to get up to date for the last 5 years, but we have an idea of what we did in that time. Sometimes some people tell me “life has taken us different ways, you are traveling the world. Distance tends to drive people off". Not in this case, I felt like the last time I saw Cristina was a month ago (a 5 year 30 days ago, if that makes any sense. It does in my head).

The route that lorry drivers take from Portugal/Spain to Northern Europe “goes through” San Sebastián. So there I was, at 6 in the morning looking for a way out. I decided to share a ride to the first petrol station on French soil. The driver didn't charge me... it ended being sort of hitchhiking. Once there, 5 minutes later I was inside a Portuguese lorry on my way to Bordeaux. I think that Granada turned me uglier. I spent 7 hours stuck in that damn petrol station! Nothing was working. I was asking people near the pumps. No one was going to Paris. In December I was on the other side of the road, going to Madrid and I found an straight ride after less than 30 minutes (we had breakfast in those 30 minutes of waiting). Why on this side was different? Dafuq should I know! I just knew that no one was picking me up. I was desperate. I was anxious. I was hungry. I only had one apple, one peach and one pear in my stomach. Finally, by 17:00, a Belgian car drove me to Paris… super fast! I was very scared but I didn’t care, I was finally going to Paris, for the third time.

Paris, the City of Light. Twice before I had been there and twice before was nothing special. In fact, I’m not a big fan of Paris but I was supposed to meet someone there, someone that never came. Therefore, third time was not the charm.  I met some nice people there so it was alright. I met with my good friend Lempi and everything was alright.

Leaving Paris is always a major pain in the ass; this time was not the exception. The distance between Paris and Lille is not that much so I decided not to start as early as I normally would. After four hours of sharing the spot with four other people, I finally left and was having a beer with my friend Chloé by 17:00. The first thing I noticed when I saw the beers on the table was, where the fuck is the food? Oh yeah, I was not in Spain anymore. Summer of 2013 I met a nice Moroccan in Tallinn. A year later I was meeting Abde in Lille for a coffee.

I was standing in the entrance of the motorway. A place I had been standing twice before. The first time I was there I was going back to Belgium and I found a ride straight to BXL. The second time I was going South, I was going to Saint-Loubès and found a ride to the first petrol station on the motorway. Both times it took like maybe an hour or two. Both times I was with a girl. This time though, I was alone. This time it took me I think more than four hours. Not one single car even stopped to ask me where I was going. I didn’t remember that hitchhiking in France was that hard. I saw a lorry with Belgian number plates and immediately showed him the “BXL” sign I had been using. Suddenly, the unexpected happened: the driver agreed to take me! After introducing myself and talking for a bit he told me that he was not going to BXL but to Antwerpen through Gent… Fuck it, I was on my way to Belgium, I didn’t care. As long as Belgium was still as easy to hitch as it has been in the past, I could be anywhere and still make it before dinnertime to my destination. He offered me to take me to Antwerpen (it would’ve been as easy to go there and hitchhike down to BXL but why bother to add an extra 100ish Km) but I asked to be dropped off before Gent, right before the crossroads on the motorway leading to BXL. 10 minutes went by and I was offered a cigar whilst being driven the petrol station on the motorway. There I asked a few drivers but they were going not quite to Brussel (by the way, for those of you who do not know: BXL = Brussel = Brussels). Finding a ride in 10 minutes is super cool, especially after being stuck for 4 hours in the same place. Belgium is the country where I had the most rides in luxury cars. I saw a fancy MercedesBenz S-Class, the driver looked (and was) a businessman. He changed his name to Dries when he converted to Islam, over 20 years ago. He used to hitchhike and told me that Spain was once easy to hitchhike and that Guardia Civil had always been assholes. Oh yeah, he told me this while driving me to BXL.

in a nutshell

I had some small posts written in my notebook about the rest of the places I have been but instead of writing about them individually I just going to make a big post. Kidding, I will try to make not too big. And since I don't have the means right now, photos will come soon.

A lot has happened since I left Estonia. I've hitchhiked a couple of thousands of kilometers. I've froze while hitchhiking. I've done some crazy shit. I've met awesome people. I've been to places that were not worth to see and I consider it to be a waste of time but at least I can say that I was right in not wanting to go. I've met with old friends.

The first stop after Heidelberg was the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany: Bonn. I once knew a girl that lived here, I met her back in Guatemala a few years ago. Not sure where is she now or if she's still in Germany or back in Guatemala. I've lost track of a few people, even with facebook sometimes is hard to keep track of people. I guess some people have lost track of me as well.

Bonn was nice, I stayed with a two italian couchsurfers. I "survived" the cooking of one of them. I wouldn't say survived, it was a great pasta! I'm not a fan of big celebrations so Fasching (carnival) in Heidelberg was great for me. I don't think I would had liked the one in Köln. It's huge! Which brings me to another thing: I don't think I will ever go to Rio de Janeiro during the carnival. Maybe it's awesome but that kind of big celebration is just not my cup of tea. Some might say that is one of those things that you have to go at least once in your life but what's the point in going somewhere just to do what other people might like and you just don't want to go? Maybe I'm full of contradictions but I love going to Roskilde. It's a big festival and I love it! Maybe it's because it's a MUSIC festival and I get to see great bands and also get to see my friends. I'm really looking forward to this year's Roskilde. Queens of the Stone Age and Volbeat are playing. Since Dennis introduced to the latter band a few years ago, they became one of my favorites.

My dad's favorite cologne was 4711 and being in the city that gave birth to it was really touching for me. I don't know, being there made me do some crazy shit that I'm not going to comment here. Let's just leave it there.

I didn't go to Edy and Marinda's wedding last year so if I was going to the Netherlands (I have to stop calling it Holland) I had to visit them. Actually, it's because of Edy that I keep going back to Utrecht. I wouldn't conceive not meeting with Edy if I'm in NL. Too bad I didn't meet Tami this time. Maybe next time. When I met George he was working in the hostel I worked a few months before and it's funny because he even lived in the flat I lived! Talk about "what life is like in Ron's shoes" eh Tristan? "I hope they don't smell!"

I love to go back to Belgium and visit my friends Wim and Kat. This time Kat baked me a pie, yummy! Can't wait to try the Speculoos pie! Too short of a stay but when you are travelling with someone is like that. You cannot stay as long as you want. Actually this was the first time I traveled with a guy in two years. Lately I always traveled with girls, not because I looked for them to travel but just because it happened. Someone posts something in the HHers forum and I was going in that direction.

There are some countries that I just don't feel to go to. I have to feel some kind of attraction to visit a place, for me it's not just flag collecting to say I was there. I actually wouldn't mind not saying I have been to Luxembourg. It was not impressive, it was expensive and it was hard to hitch out. The only thing that made the visit to Luxembourg worth something was that I bought a jar of Speculoos pasta! I had to go everywhere in the parking area asking people if they could take us. Finally I was out of that place only to get stuck in Strasbourg which ended up being a nice experience. The CSer I stayed with turned out to be a really nice person and just confirm how the world is very small: we have at least a couple of friends in common; we tried to make a list but it was useless.

I was a bit hesitant of hitchhiking in Switzerland, specially two guys but my motive for going was heavier than my worries so I went and spent a lovely weekend with Ilona and her family. We met in Colombia last year in a small hostel in a village outside Medellin. Is hitchhiking in Switzerland slow: confirmed. Yes. It. Is. But I knew exactly what laid ahead of me: more hard hitchhiking... Italia! The first time with a girl was super slow, I was expecting the worst now HHing with a guy. I was wrong... it was horrible! But I think alone would make things different. One thing is for sure, I should've paid more attention in my italian class. I don't have anything against sleeping in petrol stations, I've done it several times and I will keep doing it. What I don't like is to do it when it's cold, I mean, sleeping outside when it's cold. Many times the employees let me stay inside. This time was not the exception, I asked in my non-existent italian if I could rest (with my eyes closed) inside and they said yes. I was going to Slovenia through Venezia but after being stuck in a petrol station for the night and only moving about 70 km in one day I took the first ride out of Italy. I was going to Innsbruck. I had never been there anyway so I thought it was going to be a nice experience. I was not wrong. Innsbruck is lovely.

While writing this I'm listening to a song from Steelheart from the Rock Star soundtrack. The name of the song is "we all die young", great song and great movie. I feel like I'm talking about the Schwa, one of the characters in the book I'm reading at the moment. He's invisible to most of the people and even if you're talking about him you end up talking about something else. Where I was, oh yeah, where I went after Italy, hmmm, Austria. I was supposed to go to Padova and then Ljubljana to visit a girl I met in Roskilde 2011 but leaving fucking petrol station seemed close to impossible so I took a ride to Innsbruck. I had never been there anyway and I have been to both Venezia and Ljubljana. The downside is that I didn't meet with Ana. I would have to wait for the festival. Innsbruck was warm and sunny and I hitchhiked alone to Salzburg. It was me and the road. I made it to town without having to blackride public transport. I hitchhiked all the way! I hitched my last ride from the outskirts to centrum.

I'm beginning to see a trend every time I visit Katrin: I only stay a couple of days in SBG (Salzburg) and then we go somewhere else. We were going to Maribor but HHing on sundays tend to be very slow (in my OWN experience) so we were getting to Graz in the evening and decided to stay there for the next couple of days. The weather was on our side, it was super fucking good weather! Graz is a cute town but it was time to leave. Next stop: Maribor and my third time in Slovenia. But this time only one night. I needed to get to Budapest from where I'm writing this. Maribor is a small town, it was mostly rainy and grey but it was still a nice. My CSer gave a complete tour of the city, it was awesome but not entirely given that I was carrying my big backpack with me all the time. Maribor is home to the oldest vine in the world: 400 years old and still produces wine. Super limited edition only for protocol purposes.

I hope I didn't bored you with my nonsense but I was not in the mood to write independent entries for every place I have been. Let's see what Budapest has for me, hope something good.