Hey you!
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| Map. Click to enlarge! |
This is a story of how one Finnish guy travelled alone to Europe, hitch hiking from Poland to Spain. It's much about hitch hiking as a way
to travel but also an insight into my own experience, fears and moments
of joy and happiness. I hope it has some use for you wether you are
about to do a similar trip or just curious for photos. All words and photos are product of my own experience. I welcome and tolerate all comments and advices but unauthorized copycats will be send as prisoners to you-go-alone North-Siberian photography camp.
Some basic info about the trip that may interest:
Time: 6.9. - 1.10.2014 (26 days)
Accomodation: 0 €
Travel costs: 140 €
Food: Tried to keep it cheap and healthy.
Kilometers travelled: 6500 km
of which hitch hiked: 2700 km
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| That's the guy. If you see him standing on the side of some road with his thumb up, please pick him up, thank you. | | | | |
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Why? How I started?
In
late August I checked my calendar and it seemed that I wouldn't have a lot of work, studies or other ready made plans for September. Last year when hitching to Lapland for fishing I already got some taste of hitch hiking lifestyle and since then I been fascinated when reading and listening fellow travellers and friends' experiences on hitch hiking. They were the ones who made me interested and inspired.
From the very beginning it was hard to understand how on earth they manage to travel all the different countries with such low budget and how they plan their trips in the first place? Safety? Language barriers? Loneliness? Another dozen of questions rose to my mind when I thought about worst case scenarios.
When looking towards the empty September I took some time just to play with the idea of hitch hiking. I imagined a possbile road from Helsinki to Barcelona and drew it on Google Maps. I had some old friends that I knew would be living by this blue line. I contacted them just to try out how would it be if I'd pass by in September. I was surprised by their hospitality and that cheered me up for further planning. Soon I posted the travel map to Facebook with some confident words. Actually, at this point I hadn't booked any flights nor wasn't my intention to do this travel too strong either. I continued to do some research on hitch hiking. Soon after posting the map photo to FB, I also got more invites from friends living in Europe.
It was just a week before the start of the trip when I bought the flight ticket to Gdansk, Poland. I guess this was the point I really made the decision to go. Just to say I still wasn't really sure about how the things would work out - but I got motivation. I just thought myself: "I'll go first to Gdansk and let's see what happens then."
Travel-minded
That previous thought was the first of its kind for this trip.. a kind of a travel thought. I try to explain it because I think it is really essential for understanding the mindset for hitch hiking: When you normally travel to a new place, you may not know much things, maybe just how to fulfill the basic needs. Eating, sleeping etc. I think they call it "living in the moment" or something when you go to a new place and you have your whole concentration in the present moment because everything you see is new and you don't know what kind of things you can do there or what's this or hey let's go there! Now, when hitch hiking you know even less, or possibly - nothing. That tend to disturb me from time to time but after all it was also the thing that gave me a that great "living in the moment" experience. Yes you can make plans to certain point when hitch hiking but there will come a point when you just have to let it go, accept the uncertainty and believe it will work out. I had to remind myself of this quite many times when on the road. It seems that it also played the key role in making "the last decision of taking action" the hardest part of the whole trip.
Btw. I never thought about writing anything, maybe just posting the best photos to some site, but I felt like some text would make it easier in order to get a good grip of the photos.
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Let's get started!
Day 1, Finland: All gear packed, the task of the first travel day was to hitch hike from Helsinki to Turku, from where I would have my flight to Gdansk. I stood about 40 minutes at a entrance point in Ruoholahti, Helsinki before an oldish, gray haired guy going to his summer cottage, picked me up. He told me that back in the days when he was young he always wanted to do hitch hiking but he never ended up throwing up the thumb. It was quite a pity to hear, because I already enjoyed it a lot.
After an hour of driving he left me to a gasoline station, half way to Turku. I thanked for the ride and told him that I would definitely join him if he some day chose to do some hitching! He smiled shortly and drove away.
Next, I started to ask a ride from the drivers I saw at the station and got one pretty quickly. It was a Finnish couple returning from their vacation in Spain. They drove me to a place few kilometers away from the airport. As I walked to the airport, sun was setting and I felt quite happy that the first hitch hiking phase went that well.
After
some time walking I reached the airport
of Turku. It
was actually smaller than I thought and there was zero people. I had planned my eating in a way that I could buy food when arriving to the airport, but there was nothing. I just wandered
around the place for some time and sat to eat nuts and a banana I had in
my backbag. It was already late and dark so I tried to find some place
to sleep. I didn't find anything propriate so I went hungry outside, to the nearby forest
and pitched my tent.
Somehow I found it hard sleep in the bushes and soon came back inside. There I met an Austrian girl who had been travelling and cycling in Lapland and a Polish guy who had been on a week long trip in Turku and Helsinki. It was getting really late but since the flight would leave early in the morning we really didn't know wether we should sleep or just keep up the good conversation.
Eventually we decided to have some rest before the flight. I went to search for a place to sleep.
Day 2, Finland, Poland: After a quite hard night of sleeping in various places, from airport
benches to nearby forest I found myself sitting inside the departure terminal to Gdansk,
waiting for a plane to be loaded. Feeling tired, but in few minutes a
well deserved rest in a not so comfortable airplane seat.
That
wasn't exactly the case because the flight had delayed. The beutiful morning fog prevented the plane from landing and we had to wait
additional three hours at the airport. No worries, I have time to enjoy my time.
I finally arrived to Gdansk. First time in Polishlandia! Right
away to the nearest restaurant to beat my overgrown hunger. At
the same time I said goodbye to this great Polish guy named Pawel.
The food was a relief. Never have Subway breads tasted so good!
Travel Protip: Too much time without eating and a sleepless night. Not a
good combination.
Due to the flight delay I missed my ride to South, Katowice, the one I had
arranged before departure to Polonia. Without wasting time I started to
search for alternatives.
After few hours, exhausted, walking through buss and train stations
and searching for a working wifi connection, I became too tired to
continue. I desperately started to search for a couch in Gdansk. After
sending a couple of last minute couch requests. I remembered my Polish
friend from few years back telling me that his brother would be in
Gdansk. After an hour of intensive internet café time , I was on a way
to meet this Polish brother boy.
We met somewhere in the center of Gdansk and went for few beers to the old town.
The part of the city, with all the night lights, full moon in the sky
and people all around (on Sunday!)... and the fact that I would have an
indoor place to sleep, made traveller happy.
Polish unconditional
hospitality, cheap prices, beautiful old town and oh so beautiful Polish
girls. That's what Gdansk is all about!
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| Yes, you see it right. Every drink from the list 1 €. |
My friends brother, Błażej obviously knew the city like his back pockets. There were some really fascinating bars in Gdansk.
After the exhausting day of going around the center with the heavy load of mine and trying to figure out how the hell I could get to Katowice, I could finally relax and breath a bit because of this amazing Polish guy.
I wasn't even properly hitch hiking yet and I already felt how the hammer of unexpected circumstances broke my "travel plan".
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| A beautiful Polish girl in deep thoughts, sitting outside the restaurant. I didn't hesitate to take a photo. |
Day 3, Poland: Another day, another try. Time to head to Katowice. Nine hours of sitting in a Polski buss. Big bag of nuts, wifi and
a bottle of water are keys for this survival test. 15 euros for the ticket - I regard
that as a fair price!
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| 20 minute stop somewhere in Poland. |
The 9-hour sightseeing ride through Poland was over and I was in Katowice. A bit shorther tour would have propaply made it. My Polish friends came to pick me up from the busstop. They took the hungry traveller to a well known vegetarian restaurant with some of the most delicious dishes and coloured artsy walls. As a normal ritual of getting to know a new city
we went to continue our conversations to their favorite bar terace. After a short talk
about the history of the city and life in Poland it was a bed time for
the tired traveller.
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| Zloty Osiol restaurant in Katowice. Happy to share the evening with these amazing girls! |
Day 4, Poland: First day started in Katowice.
A rather strange breakfast mix was made when I accidently bought
kefir(piimä) instead of yougurt and mixed it with müsli and fruits.
Well, let's say it could have been worse. But let me go for the main story:
Girls went to work so I had good time to go around the city taking
photos of interesting people. (read: homeless people and old Polish
men working) I had many
interesting talks with the people I filmed. Especially a body language
conversation with a Polish Greenpeace worker who spoke no English gave
us both a good laugh.
A 'welcome' sign in Finnish was hanged by the city
people. They have surely been expecting some Finnish boy to arrive! It may be just my own thought, but very often I felt that there's
something special in the generosity of Polish people. - like yesterday,
when I asked a Polish man, whether he would know where I could buy a
tram ticket. He just silently took a patch of tickets out of his pocket
and gave one for me while smiling. It's easy to like this place.
While photographing all the things my eyes regarded interesting, I stumbled upon a sweet Polish girl Nika, who was
spending her first day in Katowice. This open minded graphic desing
student gave me her photo and a drawing she had made. We went around the
city and ended up sitting on terrace drawing a common picture on her
sketch book turn by turn. Result was a craze of creatures, product of
one 'n anothers imagination.
Katowice photostream:
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| Katowice. |
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| These Polish fellows saw my cam and demanded for a photo. I made them happy by giving a bar of chocolate. |
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| The graffiti capital of Poland. |
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| It looked like Katowice was growing fast. Eerybody was busy building or repairing something. |
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| Working hard or hardly working? |
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| Meow! |
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| Young love in Katowice. |
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| This is Nika. |
Later in the evening we went to see an old part of the city and to taste some Polish delicacies which were - not so suprisingly - damn good.
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| Here we go! Let's check what it's all about. |
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| Here's Martyna and Edyta, my dear hostesses. They were excited to see the old town because they had never been there before. |
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| The city is rough and gentle. |
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| The usual - boys chasing girls. |
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| This dog was really excited to see us. Too bad he couldn't climb down to play. He turned a bit sad when we left. |
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| We were waiting to take buss back to the center when an artsy spider appeared! |
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On my last day in Katowice Martyna took me to a lake and a huge skatepark. As you may see, she likes to be photographed. a wonderful girl.
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Day 7 ,Poland, Czech Republic, Austria: Time well spent in Katowice. It was time to start the real adventure
of hitch hiking! I went out early in the morning, took a buss to the
nearest highway entrance from where I should hitch hike south towards
Czech republic. After reading some hitch hiking stories from Poland I was convinced that I would get a ride from that place in few minutes.
Reality hit hard when after two hours I found myself still standing there, smiling to the
constant flow of cars. I felt upset and desperate. It
started to look like this hitch hiking journey that I had planned for a
long time wasn't anything I had imagined.. Just writing a city name
on a cardboard and to get a nice ride, how silly and stupid idea, why
the hell they would take a total stranger into their car? As I started
walking back to the city center (while hating Polish drivers) I stopped
and thought, if I quit now there's no returning to this hitch hiking
culture. It would be just another interrail trip through Europe.
So I thought I would go for it once more.
I saw a garbage colection point next to a worn out building. I went
digging for a cardboard. Including some cardboard boxes I found a nice
old leather wallet. This time I signed the cardboard piece with the name
of the city right next to Katowice (Gliwice).
I went back to the road, lifted up the sign and did my "pick me up"
-fake smile for the first car that was already approaching. Expecting
the car to pass by, my fake smile fastly turned into a real smile of
joy when I realised that the girl driving this car was about to stop the
car to pick me up!
This talkative and easygoing university girl offered me a ride, and
left me on a highway next to Gliwice. I picked my backbag and sticked
out the cardboard I had made earlier. Third car, this time a family of
Italians picked me up. It started to look like things were about to turn better.
They were returning from a vacation and on a way to Venice! For a second I thought whether I should go
with this nice family all the way to Venice, but I decided to hold my
plan of visiting Zlín in Czech republic. Only after few minutes of thumb time, a car tuning orientated Czech
guy offered me a ride to Zlín from the highway where the Italians left
me. .
I got to Zlin nicely at 2pm. Before leaving Finland I had promised a guy who has a sport store in Zlin that I would come all the way from Finland to pick up one of the inflatable kayaks he was selling there. He was really surprised to see me. Thanks again Miroslav for the nice additional six kilos to my back!
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| The guy was thrilled that I really came to pick up the kayak! |
Protip of the day: Look at the road map and think about where people
might drive. Don't just assume that they are on a long Eurotrip to the
place you want to go.
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| Edytas kitten would have liked to travel too! |
Although I would have had a couch in Zlín, I continued my hitch hiking towards Graz, Austria where I would spend the weekend.
A van driving young Czech guy picked me up close to Zlín (thumb time
<10 min). He took me all the way to Brno, back to the highway which I have been following earlier the same day and dropped me at a place where I hitch
hiked another car going to Wien airport. I jumped off in a small village
before Wien and tried another hitch hike to Graz.
While waiting for some openminded driver to pick me up I had a
conversation with a local guy that came by. There was quite a lot of people on the streets and I could here some band playing a bit further. I was told that there was an annual wine
festival going in the town.
After a while talking we agreed that it was
too late to get a ride. Wine and music sounded a better combination
afterall. So on went - to have a drink with his friends.
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| I gave them a buch of my animal print stickers I had made. It is always nice to give somekind of memory of yourself while travelling. These folks were hyped! They wanted me to sign the stickers too! |
Such a beautiful place, an Austrian village of about 400 people,
surrounded by grape fields and valleys. After some cups of grape based
goods we left the brewery and headed our own ways. I went to one of
the close by grape fields and pitched my tent next to the trees.
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| It was quite beautiful place although all the muddy rain water collected down the field to the point where my tent was. |
Day 8, Austria: After a not so well slept night at the grape field I wanted to
continue my hitch hiking to Graz. It had been raining the whole night so
the ground was all muddy and soft. I managed get all my stuff back into
the bagback. The outer tent and some clothes had got pretty wet. I
encouraged myself with the idea of a couchsurfing place in Graz where I
could dry my stuff.
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| Driving with the Romanian brothers. |
I walked to the mainroad that went pass the town and got a ride from
an Austrian couple who were driving to home to Wien after buying cheap
cigarettes from Czech republic. They took me all the way past the huge
city so that I would be able to get an easier ride to south. They had a
quite unordinary music taste for such an old age.. Psychedelic jazz n'
hip hop.
After a petrol station breakfast I got a ride from an old catlover
guy. Unlike Polish drivers, Austrian people seemed to have a fairly good
level in English. The kitty guy dropped me close to Graz from where
Romanian brothers took me to the city.
In Graz I went straight to my couchsurfing hosts place. This commun
of very devoted christians took me under their care. Their life was a
rather interesting thing to observe. It somehow took me back to the
times when I was fifteen and was about to go to this confirmation camp
thing. I wonder what was the snitch of lifes order that made them follow
that path - and me to discard it. Well, that made no difference to the
fact that these were apparently good people.
Day 9, Austria: I ended up staying only one full day in Graz but that was well chosen
because it was the day for the citys traditional cultural festival.
Lederhosen and long socks, women with their traditional robes, smiths, carpenters, wine, food, music, dancing and so on.
Graz photostream:
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| A whole huge crowd of Austrians. |
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| An old woman making wool yarn. Never seen how they do this. Now I know. |
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| That's one of the most badass dance styles I've seen. Stomping the ground, circling, jumping and shouting spontaneously. |
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| I wonder if you can still play that thing, boy? |
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| Let's sing: http://www.golyr.de/traditional/songtext-bozner-bergsteigermarsch-645663.html |
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| My hostess, Gigi and her boyfriend showed me all kinds of interesting things at the festival and took me around the city. |
Later we went back to my hosts place to have another "bread moment"
as I called the small shared luches and dinners they had. In the evening
I walked to the top of the hill in the center to take photos of the
nocturnal city. It was dark but still warm and the city was continuing the
feast.
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| That's Graz! |
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| In the search of cool places. |
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| Young love in Graz too. |
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| Me and my great hosts. Too bad we couldn't get a photo with the whole group. | |
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First time in Austria and I have to say I really liked it. It was also very much as I thought (mainly because of the festival), lederhosen, the traditional costumes etc. mountains, and good availability of locally produced goods - not to forget
the beautiful small villages and their people.
Day 10, Austria, Italy:
Leaving Graz wasn't as easy as I had thought. This I mean by
fysically. I wanted to make my way to the highway early in the morning
so I could make it to Venice nicely before the day turns to night.
The buss connection that my dear hosts had planned had changed and ended up somewhere far from the highway, to a place where no one seemed to speak
English.
I asked way from one Austrian man but his style of shouting with a
big loud voice, eyes wide open and hands swinging to random directions
only made me amused. Finally he also exploded to a great man-like
laughter when I showed him an Italian flag I had painted and venice sign made out of
cardboard.
I got a message from my hosts, with a new plan of how to get to the
highway. So I left the guy with his friend who had come to share the joy
of helping in this unheard manner.
The way to the highway which originally should have taken only 40
minutes had turned into three hours when, after walking through numerous of tunnels
and urban areas I made my way to the highway connection point.
When hitch hiking from Graz I did the common mistake and tried to
catch a too big fish - to get one ride all the way to Venice. I stood
with my sign in hope that some gold-heart Italian would pick me up. Even the Italian flag I painted with crayons didn't seem to impress enough.
Well, without results, after an hour I walked to a close by gasoline
station to get something to eat. I asked them a new cardboard and wrote
the name of the city that would be on my way next. I walked back to the
point and got a ride after 15 minutes of thumb time from two Austrian
guys. These travel-minded lads were coming from a helicopter pilot school.
They gave me some tips on hitch hiking to Venice.
They dropped me to a highway connection point in Klagenfurt from
where I got ride to Villach, place with some of the most amazing
landscapes I've seen, a window for German and Austrian people to Italy.
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| The act of hitch hiking. |
I walked around the quite empty highway station
in Villach, asking people whether they were going to Italy. Some of them
weren't although they clearly were on the side of the motorway where
you cannot go any other place than Italy!
I would have prefered them just saying: "We don't want to take
strangers to our car." That I would have perfectly understood, I wouldn't
rise against, it's your car and meeting a stranger scares many people,
some people are even too scared to admit they'r scared and rather lie
than show their scare.
Finally, I got a ride from an Estonian couple from Pärnu. First they
just automatically said no no no when I asked a ride in English. When
noticing they were Estonian I started to talk in Finnish and after
changing few words the viru couple thought that maybe this neighbour travel boy
could be taken to Italy.
There wasn't too much traffic and I feared a
bit that the place could have been a trap but actually the Estonian
ride turned out to be a diamond because they were also going to Padova,
a city next to Venice, the exact same place where I would stay the next
days.
Speeding through the higways with this Estonian couple, while a
Finnish car driving ahead of us, gave me some distant feelings of home! It was a long ride with the Estonians. After three to four hours of constant driving we were finally in Padova.
Buongiorno Italy!
Meeting my friend Yuri and straight to get a grip of the local dining culture.
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| A polaroid photo, that Yuris friend took of us. |
Day 11, Italy: First day at my friends house in this little village called Grisignano di Zocco.
First time during the trip, a real sunny
day! Morning in this village started with a vespa ride tour. I
listened amazed how my friend, a history enthousiast told all kinds
of stories and details about Italian political history. I wish I could have contributed with similar knowledge of Finnish system. Later in the
evening we went to the city center of Padova to meet his student
friends.
I surely got my timing right because the Italians living in the village were also having a late summer festival week. Of course we toke a part.
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| Hanging out with Notturni siblings at the Grisignanos late summer festival. |
Day 12, Italy: The second day we went to Orto Botanico di
Padova, world oldest botanical garden. Flipped by all the weird and
beautiful plants there exist!
Tomorrow morning, to the city on water! to Venice!
I'm super grateful for Yuri, her sister and mother for
having me in their house. Thank you for all the authentic Italian vibes and great hospitality!
Some photos from another Vespa tour.
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| Vespa riding Italian style. |
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| This picture smells like warm summer evening in Italian countryside. |
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| After all the cities and highways the village was the place to be. |
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| Cavallo. |
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Party on folks!
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Day 13, Italy: I arrived to Venice, Italy.
First impression: beautiful city full of gummy head yankees and asian people.
Protip
italiano: I would recommend visiting Venice on 19th century or going
back to smaller villages for an authentic experience.
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| There you have it. I refuse taking more photos of the building. You can search them in Google. |
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| My Finnish friend Jenni hosted me in Venice, that magnificent city of canals. |
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| Alta Acqua Libreria - an old book shop. Any book you desire, I bet they have it, in some pile... |
My hostess, smily Jenni is doing her exchange studies in Venice. As a kind girl she took me all around Venice - to Erasmus parties, street cafés,
Italian dinner and to a sunday brunch. Pizza, icecream and wine tasting -
check!
Protip italiano 2: if you want to enjoy the beautiful
buildings, silence of the empty streets and aren't afraid of rats, I
recommend Venice by night. Prepare to walk a lot.
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| On my last day in Venice me and Jenni went to have a breakfast with her friends. This cat was hanging in their backyard. |
Day 15, Italy: It was time to leave Venice and head back to Padova where I planned to
stay one night more before leaving to Toulouse. My Italian friend
Federico had arranged me a place at his friends house.
So I took a train to to Padova. After picking my seat in the train
the conductor came to me and asked for a ticket to be checked. Of course
I had a ticket, if you travel in an Italian train with decent prices
(unlike in Finland), I suggest to have one. Despite me having the ticket
the conductor didn't seem happy. He said I should had put it to a some
machine to get it stamped before using. I said that no one had adviced
me to do that when buying the billete. He asked me to pay 30 euros
extra, but after convincing him multiple times that I have no money left
(for him) he said I could stamp the piece of paper at the next stop.
Yay!
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| Me, Ilaria and Federico |
This conductor fellow was pretty nice, a lot of people here seem to
hate their jobs. I guess they are just dissapointed because of the long work
days, a shitty salary and the corrupted Italian system. Italy wake up, stop
crying and do something!
In Padova I was welcomed by a group of four girls, one guy, a dog and
a cat. This lovely gang gave me one of their rooms to sleep in.
It was
Saturday so they wanted to introduce me to the local night life scene. I
was taken to a club where epileptic lights were served in addition to
drum n' bass music. After an hour of trance dance my energy levels had gone
too low and soon after we went back to casa.
Day 16, Italy: I have to admit I been feeling a bit exhausted during the past days. It must be
because of the quite heavy inflatable kayak I bought. (Or just too much partying and late night hours) I had prepared my backbag in a way that it would fit
and not weight too much, but in reality, if you add 7 kilograms to a 15
kilogram backbag, what do you get? Sweat, pain and a frickin' heavy load
to carry. Tested and proved.
Because of the lack of power I counted the days left and it seemed
like another 1100 km hitch hiking could take too much nerves and time to
be accomplished. Also the road to west with all the big cities and
connections seemed too complicated.
I searched some flights and found a quite easy and cheap one that
could take me from Venice to Toulouse on 23rd 14.30. That way I would
have two more days to spend in the sweet city of Padova and didn't have
to worry about the feeling of insecurity that started to creep on me
when thinking about the hitch hike that would start next morning.
In order to feel a bit more secure about the rest of the trip I
bought the flight - now I had two whole days more to spend in Padova.
Right after buying the flight I felt a bit sad because the
pre-planned hitch hiking route which I really enjoyed travelling, with
all the adventure and rollercoaster of emotions it brings, would stay
undone.
I comforted myself thinking that I wouldn't have enough time to visit my sister without the taking the flight.
Today I went around Padova by foot. Neighbour kids threw me
some pomegranates. When reaching the city I was surprised by a
traditional street festival and a huge crowd of people. I had nice time
talking with a group of artists who had arranged an art exposition in
the city center. Later in the evening local band played funky jazz music
in the main square and a huge lightshow took place on the opposite
wall. Watching the work of art projected on the ancient old wall of
Piazza del Signori in company with the lead singer of the local band,
staying two days more in Padova didn't seem that bad idea after
all.
Now, I serve you a photostream of Padova:
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| I went outside quite early in the morning. Neighbours cat was still sleeping on the warm asphalt. |
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| Well hello there! |
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| Streets of Padova. |
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| A bit more cats because they were all around. |
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| There something to think about for you. |
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| Those are very man-like vehicles. |
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| Oh how I wish it would be summer. | |
Day 17, Italy, France: Good morning! One day left before my flight to Toulouse. Oh wait, a
message from AirFrance: "Your flight from Venice to Toulouse has been
cancelled." Damn. Yes.. there was some kind of strike at AirFrance.
Despite hearing this unexpected piece of news I didn't feel worried.
Actually I couldn't mind the less. Just as an instinct I started to pack
my bagback for the road. I was ready to go in 30 minutes. I checked some
last minute hitchike advices from hitchwiki and started walking to the
highway station from where I could possibly get a ride to west. Unfortunately, I had
not much time to say goodbye to my dear hosts. (So if you girls are read
this: again, the biggest thanks for having me there!) The flight
cancellation really gave an obligated rush of will and motivation to
continue hitch hiking. Now my mind was set as if taking my own track of hitch hiking would be the only method to do this
journey. The few bagback free days also helped my muscles to recover
from the stress and to gain the full energy. I felt like a young boy again.
20 minute walk, 10 min in a buss and 20 min walk and I reached the
highway station. I didn't hesitate but started to ask the truck drivers
whether they would be going to west. Polish, Austrian, Romanian or
Italian - I used my language skills accordingly. None of the trucks
wasn't leaving soon or to a right direction. Soon after I manage to find
an Italian couple who would take me to Genova. They were both working
with handicapped people and had quite a passion and knowledge on Italian
olive and wine industry. I listened concentrated. Now when thinking, it
was a really good ride since I got past the big cities and the hardest
highway connections.
I was left to a highwaystation before Genova. I went around the
station for an hour almost, but finally found another Italian couple who
were coming from the same little village next to Padova that I visited last week. Because of the spanish register plate I first talked
them in spanish but it turned out that they were driving this spanish
camper van to the their friends place in Spain.
After wondering for a
while how this Finnish boy had ended up to this highway station they
welcomed me to their van. They served me self-made grape cake, tea and
appricot juice. These were apparently very good people. After few hours
of driving we had a common dinner. As a dessert I offered them chocolate
biscuits that I had bought from the gasoline station before jumping in
the van.
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| Having a dinner with the Italians. |
When we get to France they wanted to drive the small road instead of
the highways which in France are really expensive: 2,5 euros/ 10
kilometers. It was already dark and I already felt like closing my eyes and leaning against the huge pillow they gave me, but I couldn't help looking out the window every now and then to see the shimmering lights of the small
French villages built next to the seashore.
The day soon turned to night, so they said that we could drive as long as
we feel tired and then stop at some place to sleep. At midnight we
stopped close to Cannes, France and they made me a sleeping place to the front
part of the car. I felt really lucky to get to know them. Though many
years older than me I felt very like-minded with them.
Day 18, France: 6.00, Woke up in the middle of French country side, prepared the van,
had morning coffee and continued travelling. Morning sunrise, eating a
croissant, driving through the small French country side roads and
villages... horses, wine farms, small rivers, aqueducts (these huge
old things made for water transport) one word: Formidable!
 |
Sometimes you can find really interesting things,
all it takes is to go a bit off road. |
I definitely like this Italian couple and France, but there's just
one thing: If we drive 60 km/h and stop every hour for a half an hour
coffee pause I won't get to Toulouse today.
They also wanted to visit some old church in Aix-en Provence and
asked whether I would join them. I kindly rejected their offer and said
that I would like to get early to Toulouse. They wanted to drive me to a
highway entrance point from where it would be easier for me to
continue.
I said goodbye to this wonderful Italian couple who had treated me as
if I was their own son. I hope to meet these people somewhere in the
future.
Right after jumping off the van I went to a truck driver who was
fixing his cargo next to the entrance point: "Est-ce que vous allez vers
Toulouse?" From what he said then I understood that he was going to
Nimes and I could hop in. Nice! First truck hitch hike! Trés bien! I
also get to refresh my French skills with this trucker.
He dropped me to close to Nimes from where a half Italian half French
family picked me up and drove to Montpellier. Then I wrote a hitching
sign with Toulouse on it and a Colombian guy picked me up. A really nice and relaxed fellow. He was going
home, close to Toulouse. We talked quite a lot about snow sports since he was also into snowboarding. I said
that I could possibly step by his work place the next spring- a
skiresort in Pyrenees. We swapped our contact information and he dropped
me at the outskirts of Toulouse from where I took a train to the
center.
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| We(Me and the Colombian) stopped to see that old castle in the background. I got excited and thought about flying there. |
Oh boy how good it felt to see my sister! Now, it's Toulouse until Saturday! I actually arrived at the exact same time that I would have by taking the plane.
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| The one and only, my magnificent big sister. |
Happy that there was the strike, happy that I did go by hitching, happy
that it went well - actually better and faster than I would have
expected. It turned out again that there's a big bunch of good people driving around this multicoloured ball.
Day 19 & 20, France:
I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my sister since I wouldn't see her for some time after leaving. That meant going to all the Erasmus student meetings and parties too. I won't go too much in detail here.
Day 21, France: My sister went to university so I thought it would be good time to do a small kayaking adventure. I packed my kayak, took a metro outside the city center and found my way to the Garonne river that flows down, through the city of Toulouse.
I inflated the kayak and started to paddle down the river. Fun, fun, fun! A lot of people jogging with their dogs and spending their day next to the river bank. I just sat down, let it float and enjoyed the sunny weather.
After few hours I arrived to the city area. Paddling in the center wasn't that easy since there was a lot places where I had to carry the boat.
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| It was time to get on water and try out the kayak that I've been so eagerly carrying. |
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| Kayaking down Garonne river. |
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| I didn't come down that drop, If you'r wondering... |
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| After the hard day of paddling - a well deserved rest. |
Some photos that I took one evening in Toulouse:
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| Somehow this photo makes me want to sit outside on a summer day, grab a cold beer and watch a sunset. |
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| My sisters right hand. |
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| And the girl herself. |
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| La Garonne |
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| Run Louis, run! |
It was my second time in France, so I kind of knew what to expect. The fact that we were both tourists in the city made the days feel more like being on a normal vacation. Anyhow, I enjoyed every single second of it.
Merci Toulouse, merci la France,
Day 22, France; Spain:
Last day of hitch hiking. I woke up quite early in the morning and toke a metro towards a
highway entrance point to Barcelona. While making my way through the
bushes and highway connections I saw two guys hitch hiking. I went to
talk to them. They were on their way to Montpellier, the place from
where I came to Toulouse. It seemed that they weren't as excited as I,
when seeing other hitch hikers so I continued walking.
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| Easy ride! |
When I finally got to the entrance point I saw the other guy standing
there with his thumb up. I tried to shout and ask how did he get there
before me? But at the same time a car stopped and he went to talk to
them. I went to search my place but soon I heard the guy shouting; "Hey
Finnish boy! There's a ride for you to Spain!" A French couple driving
to Figueras picked me up. Thanks for the guy for doing the
hitching work for me! Merci! Thumb time zero.
I put my backbag in the trunck and just when we were about to leave I saw the French guy sticking his head out of a window of one car
driving by and shouting: "Bon voyage!"
Looks like we both got lucky.
The French couple drove me all the way to Figueras, Spain. For a short
moment I thought about staying on the French side and hitch hiking
straight to Barcelona from there but after all I decided to go all the
way to Figueras, the home town of Salvador Dali.
Francais people dropped
me to a highway entrance point. I had drawn a sign for Barcelona
already and so I went straight to hitching. It was quite hot out there.
Feeling the sweat drawning down my back I smiled for the people coming
to the entrance the cardboard held up high. Many people weren't
apparently going to Barcelona.
After half an hour a highway entrance worker came by and told me to
stop hitch hiking on the highway. "Esta prohibido!" He told me I could
hitch hike on the regional road but not here. Now I know why so many
people were swinging me their finger while trying to catch a ride. Sorry!
I went to the regional road which goes to Girona and Barcelona and
started again. It was almost 40 minutes of standing under the
burning sunlight before an older woman offered me a 20 km ride towards
Girona. Well, after driving for 5 minutes she turned to a smaller road and I realised she wasn't really going to a right place so I asked to stop and jumped off. I went back to
the regional road and after 30 minutes of thumb time a columbian couple came
by. They said that they could take me to Girona. I jumped in, and on we
went. This was definitely the most formula-minded driver I've met during
my trip. I mean, he went really fast. Well, since I'm writing here you know
that everything went fine but I was getting worried at times.
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| High five Jim! |
After the latin road race these Colombianos dropped me to a roundabout in Girona
where drivers turn to a highway entrance area. There I saw Jim, a French
guy hitch hiking to Toulouse. He had been in Barcelona for some days
and now returning home. A really nice and humble fellow.
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| Hitch hiking to Barcelona, a roundabout is usually a good place to get a ride |
We talked for a while and gave tips for one and another. There was a
lot of cars going by but none of them showed interest to neither one of us. While waiting I drew a hitch hiking sign that said "SMILE!". I
thought that this last hitch hike should be done with something more than a
convenient sign. So every time when people showed their sad face to my
Barcelona sign I lifted up the cardboard of smile. I got many funny reactions!
After standing 40 minutes next to Jim close the roindabout I decided
to try to hitch hike next to the highway entrance where people
significantly slow down. Although another 40 minutes passed, I forced
myself to stand there, smiling to the never ending stream of cars. After
another 40 minutes I was still there, waiting for someone to give me
120 km ride to Barcelona. Jim was also still standing there, bit further
away. It would be the last hitch ride of the trip so I gave my best effort. Maybe the next one or next? That one maybe? No..
After the whole long wait a catalan woman finally stopped and picked
me up. It turned out that she owns a company that makes nets for marine
biologists. Out of all the hounreds of cars that had passed me it was
quite a coincidence that it was a person from the same field of interest
who picked me up finally. It was great fun to talk with her about marine ecology and catalonian politics as it's always quite a hot topic here.
When approaching Barelona, the city of molt bé or what ever name you want
to give to this fine piece of architecture and relaxed lifestyle, I had
bunch good of vibes rushing in: excitement, joy, feeling of home,
relief, old good memories and so on. It's been two years since I've been
here! Of couse it's still the same city as before but to experience it
the same way than before... It couldn't be done without my dear friends
and their presence like back in 2012(used to study there).
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| Tinc hambre. |
Enough with golden memories. Right after the sweet catalonian lady
dropped me close to the center I went to have a super lunch in one of my
favorite restaurants in Bcn. Food equals life.
Barcelona time meant also a time to meet friends. I spent the first
night at my Finnish friends hostel room. I had arranged my arrive to Bcn
in a way that I could take them around the city and show places. Although the catalan weather god had created a lot of dark clouds and rain to spice up the weather forecast of this usually extremely sunny city, we managed to experience the essential Bcn underground places and avoid the worst tourist traps. Molt bé fellas!
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| Trying my best to keep these guys out of trouble! |
Day 23: The next days I'll be staying with Ainara, a sweet bask girl who's
interested in waves and surfing big time! She's also a pretty creative
chica and likes to skate. We skated on the house floor when it rained and went outside when it dried.
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| A wild hat swap selfie with Ainara! |
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| Learning to ride waves at Barceloneta beach, A big wave gave me a nice dash of speed and a wide smile. |
On my last day in Barcelona, the Finnish boy crew went to the Barceloneta beach. I packed my kayak with me so I could try it out on the breaking waves. When we arrived the waves were quite enormous and I couldn't take the inflated boat to water without getting all my clothes wet. The waves kept splashing to the shore so I thought about starting from another place. I finally get on water but I couldn't reach too many waves before the sea calmed and wall of dark clouds reached the shore. There was a lot of surfers in the water too. Somehow the dirty water and the dead rats floating on the surface didn't inspire me to dive in.
Day 26, Spain, Finland:
It was time to end this trip and fly back to Finland. Leaving such a great city as Barcelona is never easy.
Adios amigos!
Time to wrap up my track. What did I learn and what do I know now?
The whole trip gave me more abilities to look at things
in a very new perspective. It's like, if I managed to do all that by
myself, succeeding to arrive to Barcelona in time, getting through also
the hard hitching days and so on. What couldn't I do? What would be the
next big thing? Is there something I wouldn't try just because I'm in the fear
of failure or having some other irrational fear?
The hardest part was really the decision to go. When I finally got out there it was just about day by day living, because when hitch hiking you don't have any other
choice. You either worry about the coming days, mind overwhelmed by
the feeling of insecurity or try to enjoy the time you spend on road.
After seeing and doing this hitching thing that was bugging my head for a
long time I'm now more convinced to search for new challenges. I still catch myself unconsciously searching for excessive feeling of security, but I hope that I'd had learnt something to apply in future events. It
is rewarding to see that things work out if you believe they
do and have courage and motivation to try. I hope there's now at least few
inspired people eager to go see their comfort zone limit and
take a hop on the other side, that would give me a great pleasure.
All the best,
Riku
Life well spent, not by searching the comfortness or by taking the
easiest way out - but jumping into the stream of unknow adventure.
