Summer plans

A lot has changed since the last update so I'll keep it short for now. Sadly Doris and I broke up and after that I decided to leave Uddebo. Currently I am sleeping on couches in and around Gothenburg until the 19th of this month. Then I'll hit the road again for a summer trip. First ill celebrate midsummer in the south of Sweden and from there go to Germany. I'll be around Cologne first and then visit a friend in Berlin. After Berlin I will return to Leiden, the Netherlands where I will stay for about a month before driving back up north to Sweden with my parents.

Sorry for the short update but I'm not really in the mood to write any more about the last few weeks.

See you on the road again!

The move to Sweden

After visiting Doris’ parents we started to hitchhike early in the morning to make our way to Leiden. We quickly found out that our hitchhiking luck had turned and the first 100km took almost 6 hours. We knew that the last train from the border to Leiden left at midnight from Arnhem, so that was our goal. Thanks to a young guy who had never taken hitchhikers before we made it just in time! 

The 5 days we spend in Leiden flew by and before we knew it we were on our way to Sweden. It took us about 35 hours of non-stop hitchhiking to get to Sweden. If it wasn’t for a danish guy who took us from Oberhausen in Germany to Kolding in Denmark it would have taken a lot longer. As always as soon as we hit Denmark the hitchhiking went crazy fast. This trip again proves to me that Danish people are one of the friendliest people you’ll find. First someone gave us some money so we could take a train incase hitchhiking wouldn’t work and later an older man took us to his home for lunch and coffee before driving us an extra 35km to the ferry. A 3 hour boat ride later and we were finally in Gothenburg. The time we spend there is always amazing and it feels great to only live 2 hours away from them. We did a lot of walking around parts we didn’t see before during the day and partying at night. Good times! We stayed there for 4 days and then took a bus to our new hometown Uddebo. We live in an renovated school building with some really nice people. If you are interested in joining or want more information you can click here. The project we are working on is restoring an old house. In the upcoming weeks we will continue our work of restoring old doors, windowframes and cutting old glass. It’s hard but rewarding work.
We got invited to spend easter weekend with our friends from Gothenburg at his mums place in Oxnaville, a town even smaller then Uddebo. The hayfever was killing me the whole weekend but that didnt change the fact that we had a good time. The first night we were there we walked a hill in the forest and made a small campfire and had some beers, the best way to spend easter.

Our internet acces here is pretty limited so it might take a while until the next post.

On our way to Sweden!

Packed and ready to go

Last sunday morning it was time for us to start hitchhiking out of Vienna and move towards the north. We decided to take two weeks for the trip so we have plenty of time to visit friends along the way. Our first stop was still in Austria. We spend 2 nights in Wankham to catch up with people there. Getting there was really easy and we never had to wait long. Combining this with the great weather it was a blast to get back to hitchhiking.
The next stop of the trip is Prien am Chiemsee, where we are now. The first ride we took made us realize immediately that it was going to be our lucky day. The man that picked us up started talking about how he did the same when he was young the moment we got in the car. He drove us to a great gas-station on the highway from where we could get a long distance ride towards Germany. To bring us to this spot he had to take a short detour but that wasn't all. When we left the car he gave us some pocket money for the trip. People are awesome! After this ride it didn't take long until we were on the move again.
The last stretch to Prien we went off the highway and went through the countryside. We experienced that it was our lucky day once more when we bought a sandwich in a bakery and the woman working there ended up giving us lot of extra pastries to take with us on our trip! If that wasn't enough we hitchhiked a train the last 25km. In Germany you can buy the tickets in the train and when we wanted to buy them we got told that it's ok and we didn't have to pay.
Tomorrow morning we will make our way to Leiden, the Netherlands to stay there again for a few days. We hope we have just as much as luck the rest of our trip.

                         

Time for new adventures!

Almost half a year went by since I last posted anything on this blog so it's time to revive it.
In the beginning Vienna was pretty overwhelming, at least for me. The city is pretty massive and we could only navigate with public transport. If we would go somewhere on foot we felt like lost puppies. Luckily we met a lot of friends at the couchsurfmeetings. They showed us around the city and made it this place feel like home. Over the months these people became really good friends with whom we still hang out a few times a week.

Within the first month of moving to this city I found a job in a cafe/bakery in our street. It is the only store in our neighborhood that is open on sundays so we spend our afternoons drinking a coffee there. One time we asked if they needed new employers and the next week I could start full time. The place is about 40 years old and the interior hasn't changed since then. Most of the regular customers are also from that era so they fit right in. I managed to improve my German a lot while working there and met a lot of good people. One of the more interesting things about the place is that it's the only store where people can buy Vodka and other alcoholic drinks at 6:30 in the morning. This results in a lot of intersting people that frequent the bakery. Most of them are nice people who are just down on their luck but some had to be kicked out, for example someone peeing their pants while trying to buy bread. Luckily that only happened once! All in all it was a good learning experience, but I had to quit because of the following:
WE'RE GOING TO SWEDEN!

We both missed traveling more then we like Vienna so we started searching the depths of the internet for a new opportunity. We decided on Sweden for our next destination and then the hunt began. On WWOOF.org (Worldwide opportunities on organic farms) we found a place in Uddebo, a small alternative town about a 100km from Gothenburg) where they need help with renovations, creating a vegetable plot, build greenhouses and organize music events. The building is an old school-building owned by a young artist family. We will stay there for spring and summer if everything goes according to plan. We will leave on the 1st of april and take 2 weeks to visit friends on our way. Expect a lot of new pictures, hitchhiking stories and updates in the upcoming months!