A lot going on lately

As some of may know, I'm about to go back home. It's been a while therefore I have a lot of things going on my head. A lot. 

I don't think I have been this nervous or anxious or stressed before. I had to take care of a lot of shit. I was supposed to fly on the 10th of this month but I had to change the flight. Twice. I was supposed to be in Mexico with someone I love. I told her I would take care of her, specially when she needed me and I my stupid job got in the way. I let her down. I tried my best to be with her in the distance, I swear I tried.

A couple of years ago I made the promise to keep out personal stuff from the blog. I tried but I was going through some rough time at the time. Writing help me vent what I'm feeling at the moment, which is a log. While writing the blog back in 2012 I was listening to Vodka Juniors (some of you might know that it's my favourite band). Now I'm listening to their new triple album.

I still can't believe that I'm going home. I will be able to hug my mum for the first time in three years. I don't know how things are back home. I'm not the kind of person that look at the news online. Although this year I made an exception as I was following the election process and... well, no comments. I didn't vote, I get no opinion.

There is so much stuff I would like to write inside my head that I don't know what else to write. 

At the moment I'm in Granada where is still warm and sunny. I'm going to rainy season in Guatemala. Luckily one month left of that. Most of my friends that used to live here are gone. But I'm staying with one of my best friends and that is nice. This past few weeks I was also lucky to meet new people, the sad part is that I met just before I'm leaving.

I already started the job hunt in Guatemala, Mexico and Panama. 

Holy fuck, I feel the same pressure on my chest I felt exactly three fucking years ago. Breath in. Breath out. Hahahaha. I am actually behaving exactly like I did three years ago. And there were also a few time zones in between. Not hahaha. But is changing. Right fucking now! I'm going out for a walk.

I'm going to see my mum, my brothers, my nieces, my nephews, my family, my friends.  I'm actually already invited to my high school class reunion, a stag party and a bottle of Argentinian wine. Last time I was back I only met a handful of my friends. I hope this will be different. I really hope so.

Sorry that from now there will be no photos. My phone was robbed in Portugal along with my SLR camera and I gave away the small digital. Eventually I will get either a smarthphone o camera although it's not my priority. My priority is to be with that someone I love. Not sorry if this sounds cheesy. But what the hell. It's what I'm feeling, It's what I'm writing. It's like my fingers are possessed. I can't stop writing! Words are coming out quite fast. Unlike in other occasions. I remember that once I wrote one line in two days. I did eventually write something on the third day.

I got to say "see you later" to many of my friends hitchhiking back from Lithuania as I have already set the goal to go back home before the end of the year. I still have a few days left, perhaps I get the chance to say it to a few more. The thing is that summer just finished so people is barely coming back from holidays.

Holidays. Some people have told me that my life is like a big holiday. Maybe it is. On holidays you are always happy. There has been times that I was definitely not.

I watch The Motorcycle Diaries last night. There was a quote from the scene in the mine that caught my attention:

- Buscan trabajo?

- No, no buscamos trabajo.

- Entonces, por qué viajan?

- Viajamos por viajar.

- Benditos sean

It's something like this:

- Are you looking for work?

- No, we are not looking for work.

- Then, why are you traveling?

- We travel just because.

- Bless you.

PS. I am looking for a job.

VLN (Vilnius)

I'm not going to make up an excuse about why I didn't write before. I didn't because I am the master procrastinator, the laziness king! that being said, let me get onto the story.

I had been to Lithuania a couple of times before, to Kaunas as it's on the Via Baltica. For some reason I never went to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

It's a cute small city about a 100 Km west of the Belorussian border. I didn't know what to expect. Was it going to be similar to Tallinn?  Maybe not. Given its history, well, actually that applies to the entire country, the ties to Poland; Lithuania is a surprisingly religious country! Nothing I expected in the Baltics. Estonia is one of the most pagan countries in the world whilst there is a church almost in every corner in Vilnius; both Roman Catholic and Orthodox. Just beside my hostel there was that a pilgrimage church for Poles to the point that you could hear Polish being widely spoken around the chuch, that church is Aušros Vartai.

One thing that I noticed almost immediately was most pubs where outside the Old Town which made things a bit complicated. Given the fact that I'm extremely lazy, the 20ish minute walk to the center from the Old Town was too much for me. Therefor, I barely went out in VLN.

There are a couple of hills inside the town. One has the remains of a castle and the other one has three crosses, someone told that these one were "new" as the previous ones were destroyed in Soviet times. Not to confuse this one with the Hill of Crosses, the one in Vilnius has only three crosses, the other one not far from the Latvian border has a shitload of crosses.

I was living with my friends in a nice area near Kalvariju Turgus. Thirty minutes from the Old Town. Near an old football stadium. To get to the Old Town/Center you needed to cross a river, but cannot remember which one exactly, but it's either the Neris or the Vilnia.

Whilst in Lithuania I also went for a couple of days to Kaunas (again) and to Trakai. 

Overall, Lithuania was a good experience. I got to see good friends and made some new ones an int the short time I was there, I had visitors! Only time will tell when I'll be back, because for sure I will go back to the heart shaped country.

Wojtek

Picture this scenario:

Estonia. It's winter, early December. First snow was the day before but this particular morning slush was all over the ground. Standing on open roads thumbing with subzero temperatures. Ahead, ~300 Km to Riga. It though it was easy...

Scenario part two:

Stuck in Pärnu about to lose hope and either CS there or take the bus back to Tallinn. White truck pulls over and a friendly twenty something driver. He picked me up and drove all the way to Kaunas while sharing tons of stories. He dropped me at the end of Kaunas but before he gave me his number.

Now, fast forward to exactly a year later...

I'm about to leave Lithuania, again. I'm in Vilnius where I'd stayed the previous 5 weeks (you will read about this, I just thought to share this before as it's very important and meaningful to me). I decided to text him as he told me the year before that he goes quite often from Poland to the Baltics. What where the odds for him to reply to my text, maybe not many. But to my surprise he did,  he remembered me and I was even more surprise when he tells me that he's going to Kaunas and that he could drive me back to Poland! We agreed where to meet and I set off to Kaunas.

A Lithuanian truck driver was the one that drove me to Kaunas. I tried to explain where I was going. I said Garliava, he said Ok. Wojtek texted me that he was not going to unload that evening but the next morning and asked me if I could somehow get to BLS, the place he was unloading the cargo. Again, explained this to the driver and he left a few hundred meters from the entrance. What came next surprised me: he made a hand gesture meaning that now he was going to turn back and head on to his destination... what?! he didn't need to take me there but still he took me! Ačiu very much kind sir, ačiu.

When I get to where he was, a distribution center, Wojtek welcomes me with a huge smile, we shake hands and hands me a beer as we begin to catch up.

Practically the entire day we are catching up, playing games on his iPad. We reached his home town, Grajewo. He invited me for a meal at his parent's house where I met them. They were a really nice couple and of course, very welcoming. But it was getting dark and I had to go. We said our good-byes and Wojtek took me to a petrol station outside of town where he found a ride to Ostrołęnka... the town I was stuck for a few hours the year prior... going to Warszawa!!! Now I have a new friend to visit when I go back to Poland.

It was almost dark when I left Grajewo. It was pitch dark when I got to  Ostrołęnka. The driver spoke the same amount of words in English as I know in Polish. He tried several times to find a ride on the CB radio to WAW but nothing. I saw that he was talking on the phone and suddenly he says "hey, kolega" and gives his handy. I began talking to his daughter. She tells me that he's going to take the trailer to the parking, take the truck to another parking and take me to the bus station where he will pay me the bus to WAW... I couldn't say anything but a huuuge thank you.

Finally I made it to WAW. My friend Agata found a place to stay with Mateusz, a CSer that lives in a squat.

My friends Ania and Antonia are back in Poznań and I tried to reach them but it was impossible. I left WAW late but I managed to get on the motorway. Near Łódź, some guys with a car with Luxembourger number plates drove me to Berlin, where I'm recharging batteries before continuing my journey back home.

Wojtek, thanks for everything man! see you again soon, maybe in Guatemala?

2013

2014

ps. I love everything about Poland

Alive and kicking (part 4): Kraków - Vilnius

I always have a great time in Kraków visiting friends, making new ones. But it was time to start moving. Kraków to Vilnius could be done in one day, but it's not summer anymore and there are not motorways (no big petrol stations) making it difficult to hitchhike at night. I decided to play it safe and stop for a couple of days in Warszawa. I wanted to see a friend anyways. 

Getting there went smooth. Had a ride in a car that was voted the "ugliest car in the world". Got to Warszawa quite fast actually and had to wait until the evening to meet with Martyna. While walking I saw a guy whose face was familiar. I knew that guy but from where? Then I remembered! To explain I need to go back to 2010, Praha. I was working two jobs, the C&B and the other one posing naked for art school. Now fast forward to 2014. There I was, walking beside the Warszawa Centralna and I saw this guy. Wait, I wrote this already. Fast forward a few more minutes into the same day. The guy stopped at the bus stop. I kept looking at him. I went up to talk to him and asked him in he lived in Prague a few years before. It was him! The guy that drew me naked! We remembered each other but couldn't remember our names. We had a small chat, I was with my friend and she asked him "how do you know each other?" to what he answer "I used to draw him naked". A girl standing nearby turned to look at us with a WTF face, priceless!!!  Can't believe that I almost moved here a couple of years ago. What was I thinking... no wait. I wasn't.

Anyways, I left. I was on my way by 10. After the first ride of about a 100Km I took a short break for breakfast. Then was a ride almost to the border. There I got stuck a bit. It was fucking cold. A short ride  a few kilometers from the border. Almost in Lithuania but not quite. It was still cold. The small shop in the petrol station was open 24 hours. That was good. I was reviewing my options = thinking if they would kick me out if I wanted to spend the night inside. A few drivers were going to Tallinn. A couple of other drivers wanted to take only Justyna but not me. Finally, one driver agreed to take us to Kaunas. He was going to Riga. On the Kaunas' ring road, he contacted another Polish driver that drove me to a petrol station on the highway to Vilnius. After a failed attempt of buying coffee and 30 minutes later I was on my way to the capital of Lithuania and was going to meet my friends Mikael and Simona. Haven't seen them since last year's Hitchgathering. 

Yay! I was finally in Vilnius! I didn't know what to expect, I've heard such wonderful things about it that I couldn't wait to get here.

the ride that took me into LT

of wet snow, borders, porsches and other stuff

I said that I was going to try not to describe my travels but I think this time is worth it given the fact that it was close to hell to get from Kaunas to Warszawa.

The last time I hitchhiked with a guy was terribly slow, this time was no different. Although started quite good when we got a ride to Marijampolė. After that it was when hell started...

The first ride came after less than 30 minutes of waiting and off I was direction PL. This girl dropped me off before the turn off to the city. Bad place. After unsuccessfully trying I decided that I needed to move past the entrance. I just changed spot but the situation was the same. No one would pick me up. It was very cold. There was a petrol station nearby in which I had a coffee and after a short warm up break I went to the road again. It was getting darker and colder. I was beginning to scout for places to sleep. One option was going into Marijampole and send an emergency CS request the other staying at the petrol station because the lady employees were really nice. I was leaning towards the latter one which involved not going far from the road.

After I almost had lost hope of getting out of that God forsaking place a bulgarian truck driver stopped. I just got in. First, he said that he was going to take me to Suwałki but somehow changed his mind and dropped me off not even at the rest stop before the border. I got off the truck a few kilometers before! What the hell!? well, at least now I was only a few km from PL.

I got to the rest stop just as it was beginning to get dark. I was outside the entrance when this weird shit started to fall from the sky. In the air it was snow but when it hit the ground, or my jacket, it was water. I knew I've seen this weird shit before but I didn't remember how annoying it was and certainly I didn't remember it even had a name. One thing for sure: I dislike that wet snow.

One hour went by. Lots of truck drivers going in and out of the restaurant. Another hour went by. Lots of truck drivers going in and out of the restaurant. The only thing I had in my stomach was a bowl of chocolate cereal that Kristina gave me, an apple and a coffee.

Finally, after 5 hours of freezing my ass, of asking 735 drivers if they were going to Poland, I decided to crash inside the restaurant. I chose a table in the corner, the only one with a power outlet underneath to charge my phone. I ordered a tea and stayed there until the next morning. The employees were really nice not kicking me out. I even slept, very uncomfortably but at least it was not cold and wet.

Brand new day, brand new attitude. I immediately started asking everyone that was going or coming from a truck. Dafuq is wrong with these people? Why aren't they going to Poland!? 90% of the drivers where heading back to LT whilst the rest were not going to take me.

I decided to walk to the polish side. I crossed the lithuanian former border structure and right after it  I saw a polish truck parked and asked the driver if he could take us, he said no.  Walked a bit more and decided to go back to the LT side when two lithuanian policemen checking the driver / truck's papers. They checked my passport, saw that everything was alright and gave it back, then they left to annoy more people in another spot in the border.

30 minutes later I was on my way to Suwałki. Another half hour and a truck driver gave me a ride to Augustów. I wanted to ask him if he could use the CV radio to ask if someone else was going in my direction but suddenly I was in Augustów. There I found a ride to Białystok. I was praying not to get dropped at the beginning of the city. Once I had to walk across town to get to a good spot direction WAW. The other time at least I hitchhiked to the other end going back to Tallinn. This guy dropped me off at the other end of town, the perfect spot to reach Warszawa... I still have hope in the world :-) There I was confident that we were going to find a ride fast, who knows, even a straight ride!

After some 15 minutes I hear someone yelling at me, two guys that drove by and came back.  They were going to Ostrołęka. They gestured that this place was in a straight line to WAW. It was, through Łomża... I've never  taken this road before but it was too late anyway.

In Ostrołęka I was stuck for a while. I was already thinking about what to do if I don't manage to leave. Tea in Macdonald's and I had renewed energy and went to the spot again. 15 minutes later and I was on my way to the center of Warszawa.

Like when I went to the gathering, I only spent one night in WAW and off I was to Kraków. It took me several rides to get there but all of them were well worth it. All of the drivers were really nice. Never waited for more than 15 minutes. One of the rides left me on the side of the road before Kielce. Some road construction workers gave me a lift to Kielce but were super nice and drove me to the road leading to KRK. I was freezing. Had a coffee in some restaurant and after having a google translated conversation with the owners, the husband drove me to a petrol station... on the main road! I was about to put my stuff on the ground when a car stopped. A while later I was only 70ish km from Krakók. I was walking and thumbing at the same time when a Porsche Panamera GTS stopped. I couldn't believe it... and the driver was a girl! I have the photos to prove it. And she spoke a bit of spanish!

By the way, if anyone knows how to make an alias of a hidden folder or how to show hidden folders on mac, please help me. After I inserted the memory card in my friend's windows pc, all the photo folders are hidden. Immediately I looked for them in my mac but didn't work. The folders are in memory card limbo. The photos are there, somewhere hidden inside the memory card but unaccessible. Please help!

Wojtek, he drove me to Kaunas

old town in Kaunas

 

Kristina

Vasily

 

Marta 

Marta and her Porsche Panamera GTS

distances

One of the biggest mistakes I can make is to underestimate the distance between two places. I mean, Riga is not very far away from Tallinn, roughly 300 km. I was super sure that I was going to make it quite easy. I didn't. Well, kind of.

It was super hard to leave Tallinn behind. I wanted to leave at 7 so I could be at the (HHing) spot around 8. Nope! I started having breakfast around 8. I had all my shit packed and ready. I just didn't want to leave. Had one last cigarette with Liisa. I promise, I will improve my rolling skills so next time I will roll them in no time!

The hardest part about traveling is when you have to say "see you later" to the people you care about. Hard and I hate it! Why can't I take them with me? Why can't they just come with me? Sorry for the sudden burst of selfishness, it's maybe because I still haven't had my morning dose of caffeine.

Finally had the courage to leave. Manuel walked me to the bus stop. By the way, there were no controls, I was nervous the entire time! I was very anxious. A few times I've tried to hitch out of Tallinn but only once I was picked up. I had the help of hot blonde that time. This time is was the green haired, pierced and skinny me. A bit more than an hour later I was standing just before the turn off to Haapsalu. Finally! I succeeded, I managed to hitch out of Tallinn on my own! I was only 30 km away though. 

Another couple of hours and I was in Pärnu living my worst nightmare: getting dropped at the entrance of the city. About three hours later it was getting dark and I was already looking for a plan B in case I had to stay the night there. Thought about going back to Tallinn but doing that would mean only one thing: not leaving again. As tempting as it was I needed to keep going. The walk across town took two me hours. Half an hour later, Wojtek, a weed smoking polish truck driver was offering to take to 30 km past Białystok. Maybe he was just talkative, very talkative or maybe he was very high. Most likely the latter one. He had a gazillion stories to tell. He was in the middle of the storie when suddenly he stopped talking. "Wait, what was I telling you?". Are you fucking kidding me? You were telling me something 30 seconds ago and you already forgotten about it? he was funny as fuck though. At the beginning it was funny but then he kept smoking and we got to a point that it was not funny anymore, in fact it was scary.

Six hours later, a bit of salad and goulash I was in Kaunas.

I was more than sure that I was not going to make it to Kaunas in one day. I was even starting to doubt that I was going to make it Riga! Contrary to my own "rule" about starting early, this time I started late. I was still at less than halfway by the time I could had be in my destination if I had started earlier. But then in a turn of events, when everything seemed lost, when I almost had lost the hope of even leaving Pärnu, when I was thinking of logging into CS as ask for an emergency couch, everything changed. Not only I found a ride but that ride would take me to Kaunas, almost 600 km south.

To round up things, I'm staying in Kaunas with a wonderful host. In a few days I will hitchhike to Poland. I will not do it alone. I'm hitchhiking with a guy from Vilnius. Let's see how it goes.