Home sweet home

We left Prien am Chiemsee on a sunny thursday morning. It was already around 20 degrees at 9:00 AM when we left and it promised to be a good day. The day started with a few short rides but we found an old BMW which was coated in rust. The car looked really awesome so we went to check it out up close. There was Motorhead blasting through the speakers and the guy inside looked pretty cool so we asked for a ride. He took us about 150km further north, which was really sweet. From there we got a 500km ride to Cologne. The next ride took us about 50km from the Dutch border. We wrote " wij willen naar huis" (we want to go home) on a piece of cardboard and the first dutch car that passed by stopped and took us to the first train station in The Netherlands. 924km and 15 hours later we were home. We've spend a few days walking around the city, showing my girlfriend all the sites and pubs that are worth seeing. Of course it was mandatory to take the bicycles and go to the beach as well. We will be here for one more week. We still have to visit Amsterdam and we're going to Summerjazz festival (if weather permits) next sunday. The weather has been pretty shitty since we've been here which is too bad. After this week it's back to Prien and then back to Sweden to visit Gothenburg again. This time we will go together. That's it I guess. Till next time, Chris

Left Sweden

Well last friday it was time to leave Sweden (for now, I will go back to Gothenburg to visit my new friends there for sure!). At 16:00 I got on the ferry to Denmark. A one way ticket was 225 kroner but a back and forth one was 29.. So I took that one and on the boat started asking people for a ride. I found someone who was willing to take me to a gasstation close to Kolding. From Kolding I was well on my way to Germany and only about 1300km away from Prien am Chiemsee. On the boat there was taxfree alcohol, which meant a lot of people were completely smashed. I managed to sell a lighter to a drunk danish guy for 200 (about 25 euros) and that bought me dinner, a drink or 2 and left me with some spare money for the ride. When we arrived at the gasstation it was 22:00. The highway was deserted, and those who did stop for gas were not planning on taking a hitchhiker at night. I decided to put my tent behind the gasstation in the forest. Sadly a strong wind in combination with complete darkness weren't the best conditions to put up a tent on your own and I almost lost my tent again... I went inside the gasstation and asked the guy who was working nightshift if I could crash on the floor. He opened a small room where I could sleep till the next shift started, which was at 05:00 AM. He was also nice enough to give me a few beers so the floor would become more comfortable. After 4 hours of sleep he woke me up and I was on my way again. The day started slow and the rides I got weren't more then 50km. I thought it would take me atleast 2-3 days to get to Prien in the south of Germany if it would continue to go like this. Then my luck changed and a guy took me over 600km to the border of Bayern. In Bayern he dropped me off at the first train station. Here I bought a Bayernticket for 22 euro's. This ticket allows you to travel by train through the whole province for one day. After 3 connections and 4 hours I was finally in Prien. I made it in one day. It took 20 hours and 1300km but I guess this is my new personal record. Right now I'm typing this while sitting in the sun on the balcony. The 15th of may we will go back to the Netherlands. The day before that Doris has a concert here in Prien. Go check out her youtube channel to see her music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2G7nxZm_f8 In The Netherlands we will visit friends and hang out for a week or 2 before traveling again together. Also I will try to sell some old junk in order to have more pocket money on the road! See you soon!

Sweden is pretty sweet!

Last monday I left Enschede early to make my way to Scandinavia. I hoped I would make it to Copenhagen in one day but I counted on two days. I caught a ride to the highway after 5 minutes of waiting. The guy gave me a pack of oreo's for the rest of the trip, that was pretty awesome since a family stopped with 2 little kids in the car. They asked if the kids would mind if I would be in the car with them. I gave them the oreo's and I was their new best friend. Did I say that that family drove me all the way to Denmark? Well they did! 14:30 and I allready was in Denmark. Copenhagen was within reach.It still took me 5 more rides. The 4th ride was probably the 2nd best of the day. I had the wrong phone-number of the guy where I would sleep in Copenhagen and knew the right one was in my mailbox. The 4th person who offered me a ride took me to his beautiful apartment, let me use his laptop and gave me a beer and a sandwich for on the way. I arrived in Copenhagen at 21:30ish. It was a long day, but I made it. Within an hour I was asleep and the next day I left again. My goal was Gothenburg in Sweden. After 5 hours of waiting on the same spot on the highway by Malmö in Sweden, I hitched a ride to the center and took the train. The 5 hours of waiting weren't that bad though, since my girlfriend texted me that she will join me! In Gothenburg I can stay at an awesome family. The guy knows every single street and tree in the area and everyday we walk around for hours and see new things. For example this was the first time i saw a badger in the wild, and it was in the middle of the city. After Gothenburg im going back to Prien am Chiemsee in Germany to pick up my girlfriend and then go back home for a week or two, before traveling around together. Good times!

Im back in the Netherlands..

I left Prien friday morning towards Bruckmuhl to meet up with the guy who would take me 500km up north to Mainz. After only 30 seconds of waiting I got my first ride. An old hippie woman who used to hitchhike herself brought me close to Rosenheim. From there I managed to get a direct ride to Bruckmuhl. After some coffee we hit the road. The traffic that day was horrible, it took way longer than we expected to get to Mainz. Managed to get a place to sleep close to the city and the next day the plan was to go north again towards Rostock and from there take the ferry directly to Copenhagen. Sadly my first ride of the day misunderstood me, and instead of taking me to the a5 highway, we got on the a60. At first I thought "o well, he's a local here, he would know the fastest route". Sadly I was wrong, and when I noticed we were close to Cologne I asked if he got let me out at the nearest gasstation. He felt really sorry for taking me into the wrong direction and gave me 10 euro's to put towards food and drinks for that day so that was pretty sweet. On the parking lot I found a dutch truck driver. I asked him how I can get back on track the fastest way. He replied I'd have to take a little de-tour through The Netherlands in order to get back on the right highway, and so I did. I drove with him to Arnhem and from there I hitchhiked to Enschede, a city close to the German border and with the highway a1 that goes in the right direction to Denmark. Here I will stay with a friend till monday morning, and as soon as the trucks hit the road I will try to join them. I arrived in Enschede just at the right time. It was the last day of the "Batavieren-race", a running competition for students all over the country. This meant I walked right into a BBQ and some beers. Good times! Till next time, Chris

Due update

After the night in the hostel in Trieste I walked through the city all day, enjoying the sun and amazing views. I met a french hitchhiker and we spend the day together talking about traveling and where we've been so far. I completely forgot that I still needed a place to sleep but then a friend of mine in Ljubljana texted me "call this number if you still need to find a place to sleep in Trieste". I called the number and after 30 minutes a guy showed up and asked "Are you from the Netherlands?" I replied yes, and I had a place to sleep for the next 3 nights. They showed me the city and I've had a really good time there. Thursday morning I left Trieste to go back to Prien in Germany to visit my girlfriend (where I am now). The bus I took to get to the edge of the city was extremely crowded and I couldn't move at all with my backpack on my back without pushing people over. Someone took this as a great opportunity to steal my tent from my backpack, which sucks big time. Tomorrow morning I'll go shopping for a new one, but budget wise it's not that pleasant. Tuesday I will leave to a friend I met last month, the guy who took me 500km from Mainz to Munich. He lives 30km away from Prien and next weekend he will go back up to Mainz again so I can travel the full 500km with him for the 2nd time, which is pretty awesome. After that I will be 500km closer to Denmark, which is my next destination. After Denmark I'll cross the bridge to Sweden and there I'll probably stay camping for a while and not leave the country a week after I got there. As always, check out my facebook page: www.facebook.com/DrifterInEurope for pictures and all that goodness. Take care, Chris

2000+ views and another update

When I checked this morning, the blog had 2043 views! I would like to thank everyone who checks out what I've been up to and a special thanks goes out to everyone who donated via Paypal, you are making this possible! Yesterday I hitchhiked out of Ljubljana in Slovenia to go back to Italy. This time the stop was Trieste. I Found a hostel here for the night and sent out a bunch of couchsurf requests in the hopes I can stay here a few more days. If all goes well a guy I met in Ljubljana can fix me a place to sleep for a few days here, so fingers crossed. Trieste is an amazing city and from my hostel window I have the best view in the world. Until next time, Chris

Hitchhiking tips and tricks!

Since my current host is still asleep and I have some time to kill I figured I'd ramble a little bit about my hitchhiking experiences so far. Hitchhiking is a great way to travel through Europe on a low budget. Not only that but you meet lots of interesting people everyday. People who are more then willing to help you out, talk about the place you where you are, or where you are going and above all who offer a break from the boredom. Being bored isn't uncommon when you have been waiting at a specific spot on your own for several hours. There're a few things I've come to learn that helped me get rides relatively quickly so I thought I'd share them. - The most important thing is to always smile at each car that drives by. People are a lot more likely to pick up a happy looking traveler, than a grumpy looking guy who doesn't look like he wants to get a ride in the first place. Specially female drivers who picked me up said they don't normally take hitchhikers, let alone males, but that I was smiling an looked like I could do no harm. - Another thing is to always look decent and clean. Shower as much as possible and put some effort into looking like you haven't slept in the woods for the past month. Try to look like someone who has more money than you actually have. It could be worth it to spend a little of your money on a shower somewhere if it means you can get a longer ride or if it means you won't be stuck somewhere a long time. Just drink one beer less in the evening and you'll be fine. - Alright let's talk about signs next. As you may or may not know, I tend to use a sign with just "Away" written on it, since I don't really have a destination to go to next. People offer me a ride just because they want to know the story behind the sign, they can't really believe I'm traveling without a plan. When I want to leave a city in a specific direction I'll just make a sign with North, South, West or East on it but nothing more than that. I try to keep my signs bright and colorful so that people are able to read it from a long distance. They have to be able to read it and have time to slow down before they have passed you. If you want to hitchhike across borders it helps to write town your final destination city even if it's hundreds of kilometers away. At the border of Germany and Austria I met another Hitchhiker who had a sign with "Zagreb, Croatia" on it. He got picked up before me by someone who was going halfway through Slovenia. Push your luck a bit and you will have great results with hitchhiking! - Looking clean and not like a homeless person goes both ways. If the driver looks shady, just don't get in the car. Even if you've been waiting a long time and really want to get out of a place. That's how I ended up in the car with a Romanian guy who, instead of going to Vienna where I wanted to go, said that we are going to Budapest and didn't let me out at the place where I wanted to get out. This wasn't only a scary experience, but also meant I had 2 hours of extra traveling to do before I ended up in my destination for that day. This is about it I guess, if I think of more stuff I'll edit this post later. Chris