Alive and kicking (part 2): BXL - Halle

photo by Rosa

But I think that the most random weekend so far was in Brussel. Me and my friends Margaux and Rosa were looking for a place to eat and then to have a beer. We ended up in this pub that I still don’t know the name when two guys started talking to the Little One and the Curly Hair One. Long story short they ended up taking us to a couple of other pubs, one club that we didn’t go inside because there was a cover charge and finally to a pub that I had been before and that I never remember the name. We had no idea where the fuck were we nor how to get back. One of them gave us a ride home. The second day was by no means less random than the night before. My friend Wim told me about a house party somewhere in BXL. The three of us took the tram to the center and were going to see what would happen next. I saw a big mess in the back of the tram, someone with a Thor helmet, people in costumes… It was Kat and Jeff and Gert! We went to this awesome house party that only God knows (and them) knew where it was. We left, drunk with a rough idea where to go, we had a hand drawn map. In the middle of my drunkeness I started to hitch… at 4 in the morning and drunk! Then suddenly, a taxi stopped. My first reaction was “we don’t have money!”. He didn’t care, he drove us to 3 or 4 street from home and of course, for free.

Wim’s flat is in the North of BXL, it’s actually on the road that leads to Antwerpen which is where I was going next. To meet Johanna, whom I met in Granada. I also met with Janne; I met her in Estonia last year whilst working in the same hostel. I spent only a couple of days in Antwerpen. Wanted to meet with other people but, well, they were busy.

There I was, standing next to a McRubbish, resisting the urge to go inside and eat some of the most delicious rubbish I have ever eaten, but I didn’t do go inside, I refused to do it. Instead, I found a ride to the first petrol after the Dutch border.  The guy was going to Rotterdam. I have never been to Rotterdam I said to myself. It was still early and I still had time.  Why the hell not stop a few hours and then continue my way to Utrecht? That’s what I did. I was very surprised about Rotterdam, it’s nothing like I experienced in The Netherlands. Everything is very modern, basically no old building. Not that it’s bad but I’m used to see really old shit in NL. The building and bridges were really nice. After a few hours I decided that it was time to leave. I was not far away from Utrecht, a mere 60 Km. but still took me a few hours to find a ride. Two good looking girls stopped for me and asked me where I was going but unfortunately for me they were not going in my direction.  Pity, there were really cute. So I stood there for a couple more hours. A couple of drivers stopped but all where going everywhere but Utrecht. Finally a Spanish speaking Dutch guy stopped and drove me to Utrecht. I mean, some drivers tell you “I need to be somewhere so I’m letting you off here”. I’m not complaining about this, they did me a huge favour bringing me there but this guy was like “I just need to make a quick phone call”, this phone call was to his colleague telling him that he was going to be late because he was driving me all the fucking way to Edy’s house! He spoke perfect Spanish with an Argentinian accent. His name is Ariel (well, that Latinoamericanized version of his name, the version he told me).

The time I spent in Utrecht, as always, was really nice. Catching up with one of my best friends. Eating a frozen pizza (like the ones I used to eat in Tallinn) while having a beer: priceless. I spent the weekend and met with Livia whom I met in Tallinn. I also met with Tami. She did a semester in Spain but we couldn’t match our schedules.  I did nothing else than relax in Utrecht. Siemen, a guy I met in Granada took one day to visit Utrecht and drink a few beers with me and Maria who was also visiting town. All in all was a great few days spent in NL.

photo by Livia

There is a place that I always use when leaving Utrecht. Is the entrance of the ring road A27; I’ve used this place to go east to Berlin and South to Antwerpen. I thought it was still the best place. It’s not as perfect as before. Before there was a broke down lane, now it’s a two lane on ramp. Still a few cars stopped before finally getting a ride with a new mum and her 8-week-old baby girl. A Mechanical Engineering asked me where I was from and agreed to take me to the next petrol station. After a few minutes of conversation he mentioned that he lived 10 minutes from where we were and asked me if I wanted to stop for a coffee and a sandwich before continuing. I had still about 500 Km to go but it was relatively early so I thought why not? After an hour we were on the road again. A couple of years ago I was on the motorway near Hengelo, stuck on my way to Berlin. It was not only before a couple of hours of asking people and thumbing that a polish lorry driver took me to Magdeburg. This time was exactly the same. Slow but steady ride. When I made it to Magdeburg it was already dark exactly like a few years ago. What was different was that then, is that I found a straight ride to Berlin in a matter of minutes. This time, eerr, well not exactly. I even scared a woman and her daughter when I asked them for a ride while they were walking to the shop, but when they came out, they wished me luck. To not make things longer, after maybe three hours, I went inside for a coffee. I heard some people talking behind me. I asked politely if they were going direction Leipzig to what they answered that they were in fact going that way. They agreed to take me but warned me that the car was small. I though they were riding a VW Golf or maybe something even a bit smaller… it was a fucking Audi A5! That’s a semi sports car for fucks sake! The 120 Km between the petrol station and Halle were done in about an hour. There were construction works that slowed us down from 180 KPH to about 80 KPH in some parts of the motorway. One of them used to work for a company that was doing business with a Guatemalan company. "I don't know any Estonians but I do know some good Guatemalans" he told me when we talked about Estonia. They took me to Halle HbF and by 22:00 I was already having a Sternie with Anna.

all roads lead to Granada, part I: KRK - Lille

What can I wrote about Kraków that I haven't written before, I don't think I can write something new. Or maybe...

...there is something, not travel related but an important thing, for me at least. I was happy to be part of my friend Mateusz's graduation party. He graduated something, I don't know what. Someone asked me "you are some kind of friend" to what I answered: "he's my friend not my girlfriend!"

For some reason that I'm still trying to figure out, earlier this year Justyna and I said that we were going to the zoo my next time in Kraków. Not only did we go but we hitchhiked there! We hiked to one of the mounds in town, there was some kind of race. There are no cars allowed on the hill in which the mound is. The only car allowed that day belonged to the organizer of the race. We hitchhiked the only car allowed on the bloody hill! 

Sadly it was time to leave. Given my past experience hitchhiking on sundays I decided that I was going to take the bus to Łódź where I was supposed to meet the girl I was going to hitchhike west. 

Contrary to my own (hitchhiking) "rule" of asking regardless of what might happen, I didn't ask the driver of a car with DW (Wrocław) license plates because I thought that the car was not going in my direction... the guy asked where I was going and not only did he take me but drove me all the way close to Berlin!

One night in Berlin is never enough and I couldn't catch up with a lot of people but it was nice to be back to the place it was my home at the end of 2011. Arthur, you are a great host as always, until next time!

The same goes for Utrecht, I can't really write anything else, except that it was a great stay with Edy and Marinda. I realized this time that Utrecht is one of those places I will always go back over and over and over and over.

It took me the same amount of time to get from Berlin to Utrecht than Utrecht to Lille and it's a third of the distance... hitchhiking works in mysterious ways. Finally I met Matylda, a friend of a friend of mine. We almost meet last summer for the hitchgathering but she didn't go. Only stayed one night in Lille but it's alright, I was there last year.

The 800 Km between Lille and Bordeaux seemed doable in one day except for one tiny little detail: Paris was in between...

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.