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

Why I love Poland (Kraków)

Given the fact that I have been to Poland 11 times (2010, 3 times in 2011, 2012, 5 times in 2013 and now in 2014). I guess you can say that I do love this country. And since 7 out of those it's been Kraków, you can fairly say that I love Kraków. I have also been 7 times to Warszawa but I like Kraków more. Sorry.

This is the list of the reasons why I love Kraków. It took me a few days to come up with as I had a few days to think about it. I mean, I wrote on a sticky note a reason every time I thought about one. Also, there is no order in this list.

Without further adieu, I present you MY list:

• It's very cheap. Granada is cheap, but Poland is cheaper. The only thing I dislike (but I can tolerate) is that beer doesn't come with food. Thank you Graná, you "ruined my life".
• Polish girls.
• Pierogi.
• Wódka Żołądkowa Gorzka.
• Zapiekanka.
• 24 hour alcohol shops. No more "the chino is about to close!".
• Beer, cheap and good.
• Girls are good looking.
• Public transport is cheap.
• Hitchhiking friendly.
• More pierogi.
• People are very hospitable.
• Girls are hot.
• There are not many motorways making hitchhiking very easy.
• Polish truck drivers are the best. Don't even bother to make stupid jokes about this, it's because they are very hospitable and can even find you another ride to keep on going.
  SO JUST DON'T!
• It's cheap.
• Even though I'm not really into hiking that much, I have to admit that they have great hiking trails. I had been "forced" to do a couple in the past
• 75% of the girls you see while walking, on the tram, on the bus, are good looking.
• Pierogi Ruskie.
• Żubrówka.
• Zapiekanka with bacon.
• The Tatras. Yet, I have to Poland 13 times and never been there. Only once I went through them, when I went through Zakopane.
• Cheap mobile carriers.
• Pierogi with spinach.
• More wódka.
• Did I say it's cheap?
• Did I mentioned the girls?
• Did I say that hitchhiking is very easy?
• Have you tried their food? They even have a Pierogi Festival in Kraków! Why I did not know about this?
• 24hr alcohol shops.
• Pierogi with meat.

Alive and kicking (part 3): Halle - Kraków

I was expecting Halle to be cheap and indeed it was. It’s a cute city in the East of Germany, home of the biggest university in Saxony-Anhalt and one of the oldest in Germany. Cobbled stone small streets. Gothic churches, especially Marktkirche.  I walked a lot. I got lost a lot. I got lost more than I walked.  Instead of taking the tram to the place where I could start hitchhiking, I decided to walk. It was a nice day for a walk anyway. It took me about an hour’s walk. I had almost 700 Km to go. It could be done in one day they say. Well, I didn’t do it in one day. Finding a ride to Leipzig was easy. Once there, leaving was impossible, at least for me that day. I tried in two different places. In the first one at least 5 drivers stopped in a period of 2 hours. They were not going my way. One was going to Zwickau. Later that day I thought maybe it could’ve been wise to take that ride. Well, I didn’t and moved to the other place. That alone took me almost an a hour. I’ve made so far less than 50 Km. It was getting late. It was the 25^th anniversary of the German reunification. There was policemen every-fucking-where. I don’t think I have seen so many policemen in one day. No less than 60 police cars drove beside me. Finally I gave up. Went back to the HbF. Ate something and stared to use the Internet in McRubbish. Yes, I did eat there this time. I was starving. I had nothing in my stomach. It was 7 in the evening. Fuck off! Asked a girl if she could translate to me some text from Mitfahrgelegenheit. We started talking. She was waiting for her husband to pick her up and driving back to Dresden. Dresden! That’s where I’m going, I mean, I was going to Dresdner Tor, the petrol station just before Dresden. I had been stuck there twice before: Berlin – Prague in 2010 and Brussel – Kraków in 2011. They drove me there. Funny: It took me to thumb for two hours somewhere without success, then get on the public transport for an hour to go somewhere else and thumb an additional three hours, also without success, to find a ride in the most unsuspected place: the top floor of a McRubbish restaurant. Hitchhiking works in mysterious ways. It was not very, very late. I tried to get a tide to Wrocław. I figured once there I could call someone I know there hoping he or she will be back living there. If not, there is always the train station. No worries. I didn’t sleep at the train station because I didn’t find a ride. In 2011 I stupidly slept outside. It was not cold.  This time it was not that cold but I just didn’t want to. I went to the restaurant and bought an overpriced bottle of water and asked in my nicest and most polite tone if I could sit somewhere inside the restaurant, the lady behind the register, maybe in her 50s or 60s gave me a motherly look, then she smiled while nodding her head. She knew I needed somewhere warm to spend the night. I lay down on the cushioned bench type seat and tried to sleep. It was utterly uncomfortable but I was warm. Finally I slept from 2 to 6. I remember exactly the time because when I turned on my iPod it still had the time from when I last turned it on.  I woke up. Started to get ready and walked out of the restaurant not before thanking the restaurant lady. She smiled back.

Went back to the pumps. I heard an engine running. Quickly grabbed my shit and ran towards the lorry trying not to spill the coffee and get burned. Marek agreed to take to Wrocław. We stopped for a pausa in the first big petrol station after crossing the border. 5 minutes after… no, not even 5, even less than 5 minutes after setting foot on Polish soil I remembered one of the reasons why I love this country so much. Marek was going to Łódź but he was going close to where I had to get off, he decided to drive the more or less 5 Km between his exit the petrol station on the A4, right outside Wrocław. From there another guy drove me to Opole. He was asking, without any success, on the CB radio every time he saw another lorry that might go on my direction. In that petrol station I had so many looks of disgust from Poles. I saw a VW kombi. Asked the guy, his car had Slovenian number plates. He worked in Wrocław but was going back home to Ljubljana for the weekend. He took me to Gliwice. There, another guy agreed to take me but we had to wait a bit for his colleague because he needed to give him something. I asked a couple other drivers walking nearby but nothing. Alright, I told myself, you found a ride anyway, don’t mind if I wait a bit more. The 30 Km between Gliwice and Katowice took almost an hour. There was a massive traffic jam at the péage, the queue was a couple of kilometres long. Finally I was in Katowice, I asked a guy with long hair that seemed nice. He was. He said yes. Speed limit was, I think 120, he was driving 180. Given the way he drove, I think he was in a hurry.

So peeps, that’s how I got to the lovely city of Kraków, the place I stayed for a bit over two weeks. The place that I always enjoy going.

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...

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

weirdness

Since a few weeks ago I have been in weird state of mind. I'm not sad or depressed, it's just that I feel weird. I feel like there is something that I'm missing or that I'm doing something wrong. 

Some things are not working out the way I would like to. But on the other hand, some other things came out of nothing,  in a very spontaneously way into my life and I love it! I would have never expected them. Me like it :-)

A couple of nights was the end of an era. Makes my state of mind even more weird. My havaianas finally died. They died the way I thought it was going to be: me walking around drunk. That's the way it happened. I was not supposed to go out the other night but it was my friend's last shift as he told he was quitting. He found someone to cover for him on his last shift and we went out for one.

I'm normally not attached to material posesions but this time is different. I bought the overpriced havaianas in question during my first Roskilde in 2010. I remember everything as if it was last week:

It was during the World Cup in South Africa, Brazil and Holland were playing. My friend Federico, a guy from the Den Gyldne Boenne and me went to watch the match at one of the camps. I had been speaking English for a few months nonstop (the only Spanish being when I called my mum). I saw a Venezuelan flag and told myself it would be nice to speak Spanish again; so I approached the group. I  left barefoot (took a group sitting beside us as a landmark to find my way back) but what I didn't notice was that the match had only about 15 min left. So I walked up to the group made up from two Venezuelans, two Brazilians and two Latvian girls (one of them wanted to rape me!). The match finished and everybody stood up. It was complete mayhem! Everybody was moving. Not only I couldn't locate my "landmark", I also couldn't find my friends! I lost the knock off havaianas I bought in Costa Rica the year before. Long story short: I walked back the 2ish km back to the Boenne. Then walked to the festival grounds and bought (what I thought it was an overpriced) a pair of havaianas. It was I think exactly three years ago. The start of an era.

I hitchhiked with that pair of havaianas all summer 2010. I took them from Denmark to Portugal to Germany to Turkey to Slovenia. Alright, Turkey and Slovenia were in winter... I crossed the Atlantic and hitchhiked in Mexico on my way back home. Came back to Europe and took them from Poland to Hungary to Denmark to Estonia. Back in Latin America I took them through Southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, briefly Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, through Honduras and El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Mexico. They passed away in Estonia the night of july 6th. A few things I posses had been for this long with me and to so many places. The other being my small Quechua daybag that I'm also not using anymore.

Perhaps I can fix them again...?

I started to read "The Accidental Adventurer" by Ben Fogle. There is a chapter titled "Still Finding Myself". Starts like this:"I returned to England a changed person. I had lived a lifetime of experiences in a year. My mind was full of possibilities and I wanted more. I wanted adventure, I wanted excitement and I wanted the freedom I'd gained from (...)". That's how I felt the first time I went back home. My version would be like this: "I returned to Guatemala a changed person. I had lived a lifetime of experiences. My mind was still in Europe and I wanted to go back and was full of thoughts, I wanted the excitement I'd gained while the previous year." Actually I feel that way everytime I go back or worse, I don't find myself. That's why I feel so related to the title of that chapter. I even wrote a entire post about this back in 2011.

I just read the April 2011 post I wrote and it not only happened in 2011, happened also when I went back in December of that same year. I had been going out with this girl I met in Krakow. I thought I was madly in love but I wasn't. Shit happens. Sorry. It was fun while it lasted. Not really the last days though. My "friends" back in Guatemala were busy with their own shit but I thought anyone can set aside 30 min in their busy schedules to meet but I was wrong. That has happened every single time I had been back. Estuardo, JuanMa and Braulio being the exceptions. Happy I got to hang out with them every time I had been back. Can't wait to do it again. Not sure when will this happen, probably not anytime soon. Or maybe soon, who knows. I don't know.

I'm still finding myself. Not being very good at it and at the same time I'm still looking for my happy place. I'm enjoying a lot my time in Tallinn this time around.

When people ask me if I'm ever going back home they seem surprised that I say that I'm not. I mean I will always go back for a visit as long as my mum is there. I don't see a reason to go back after she passes away. I don't see myself living over there anymore. I just can't. Don't know where I'll spend my days, don't know if I'll travel forever. I guess that if I find a reason, let me rephrase that: if I find someone somewhere I'll definitely give up traveling in a heartbeat. I said it before and I'll say it again: "the only thing that matters is the people (...), the hugs, the kisses (...), the actions we don't think about".

I'm really thinking if I can fix my havaianas...