First week in Austria

Now that we've moved all our stuff and settled down in Vienna I figured it was time to write an update about the first week here.  The move itself went really smooth. All our furniture and stuff fitted in one van so we only had to make the drive once. We spend the first week getting to know the neighborhood and the city. Apparently we live really close to the subway connections that lead directly to the center so everything is maximum 30 minutes away from us, which is pretty sweet.
Last thursday we went to the weekly couchsurf meeting where we met a lot of people from all over the world who now live in Vienna. They gave us a lot of practical information and some job-hunting tips, definitely going again next week!
The next day it was time to Hitchhike to Stadt Haag, where we worked at a small festival for the weekend. We got free entree, a place to sleep, food and drinks in exchange for a few hours of work in the kitchen and at the entrance. Met a lot of great people there and had a good time in general. As always with festivals it takes some time to recover from them and after 12 hours of sleep in one night I still feel like I need at least another 12 to fully function again.
The upcoming weeks will be spend job-hunting and keep on exploring this awesome city. Of course I will try to update here as much as possible so make sure to check the blog every now and then.

Till next time!

Hitchhiking 6 countries 10 days part 2

...After we paid off the cops we noticed that the car wasn’t doing anything. The night before we used the headlights to light up the area so we could put the tent down and that killed the battery. We pushed the car back a bit till we were close to a main road. There we found someone who could jumpstart it and the guys took us back to town. From here we hitchhiked towards Italy. A woman took us through the mountains to Tarvisio. It was probably one of the most awesome and horrible roads ever. The view was just stunning but the road was like a rollercoaster and made us all feel pretty sick. We got dropped off at the highway entrance in the direction of Villach, the first city in Austria. The sun was still burning and we had no place to hide from it, which seemed to be the theme of the trip. Doris leaned on a small plastic pole on the side of the road, which turned out to be hollow. I heard a snapping sound and Doris was laying on the ground, laughing like a crazy person. The big canon camera that she had around her neck fell on her mouth so she looked like she just got out of a fistfight. Luckily an old Italian guy saved us from the heat and brought us to a gas-station on the highway at Villach. A truck stopped to take us to Vienna but he only had place for 2. Doris and Laura went with him and I tried to catch another ride. After half an hour or so an A-Team van pulled up with 4 guys from Sweden who were completely drunk (except for the driver of course). I knew I had to catch a ride with these guys even though it would mean taking a de-tour. They were on their way to Prague so I could drive with them till Linz, about 200km away from Vienna. They had lots of booze and beer in the car and they told me they just got kicked out of a camping in Italy because of all the noise complains towards them. They invited me to go with them to Prague and when I told them that I have to catch up with my girlfriend and another friend in Vienna they offered to take me there, which was pretty sweet. Then they asked what our plans were after Vienna. Laura had to take the train back to Romania from Budapest the day after that so then they offered to take us to Budapest the next day. Probably one of the most awesome hitchhiking experiences so far. When we got in Vienna we parked the car at a camping that was already closed for the night (which meant we couldn’t check in, which meant we didn’t pay) After going out that night we found the camping again at 03:00AM. Sleeping with 7 people in one car isn’t something I can recommend to everyone, but it sure was fun! The next morning at 8 we left before the camping opened again and we we’re on our way to Budapest. The Swedes wouldn’t go anywhere before buying beer somewhere though so first they restocked their supply and we hit the road again. In Budapest they wanted to park the car somewhere at a secured parking lot and when they couldn’t find it they decided to go to Prague anyway. They took a 2 day de-tour just to bring us to Budapest. Some people are still genuinely friendly! We slept in the same hostel as the one where we were before. I felt so relieved to finally be able to take a shower again and to sleep for more then 4 hours. The next morning it was time to say goodbye to Laura and for us to go towards Linz. The ride to Linz went really fast we had some drinks with our hosts and the next day it was time for the street performance festival. It was a lot bigger and diverse then I imagined. It’s a once a year event so if you’re in the area next year be sure to visit! Here we met a blues artist from New Orleans who was on a hitchhiking trip through Europe, completely funded by his street-music. We hung out with him for a while and he got us a beer and gave us a city. For anyone into blues/country go check out Outdoor Protestant Blues-band! After Linz we went to Wankham to visit our friends there and to finally relax a bit after this tiresome trip. In conclusion this trip was probably the best one so far. Met a lot of great people, had a lot of fun, suffered a bit every now and then but it was worth it in the end! I hope we can do something like this in the near future again and this time stay on the road for a longer period. Pictures of the trip are on the facebook page for those interested. Till next time!

Hitchhiking 6 countries, 10 days part 1

Hitchhiking from Prien am Chiemsee to Budapest went surprisingly smooth and just 4 cars later we were in the heart of Budapest where we met up with Laura, a friend of Doris from Romania. From the central station we began our mission of finding a cheap hostel which wasn't as easy as we thought. All hostels seem to have Western-European prices. After following some dutch girls who had navigation software on their phone for a while we couldn't find the hostel they were looking for. They took a cab to find another hostel and 20 seconds after they were gone we realized we were standing infront of the hostel. Doris and I could share a bed and one of us only had to pay half price, which is pretty awesome. We stayed there for 2 nights while seeing the city. Budapest in summer looks really nice, but the heat was just a bit too much so we mostly hopped from shadow to shadow. Of course we had to try some Goulash while we were there and in the hostel they recommend us a good restaurant nearby with affordable food and beer. When you chance your Euro's to HUF be careful that they give the right value back. We've seen everything from 250 HUF for 1 euro at an ATM till 293 at a money exchange place. It seemed that the small shady looking exchange places offer you more than banks so watch out for that! Hitchhiking out of Budapest was easy. It took us a while to find a good gasstation at the end of the city but once we found it there were lots of local hitchhikers. Our goal for the day was Bratislava in Slovakia. After a few minutes or so of waiting someone took us til somewhere in the middle of Hungary since he was going back to Vienna. This was a bit of a mistake on our side. It's the best to hitchhike straight to your destination out of Budapest cause once you are at a gasstation in the middle of the country you should expect to be stuck for hours. The traffic sign in front of our hitchhiking spot was covered in testimonials of people who were stuck there for up to 8 hours. Luckily for us it only took 2,5 hours before someone took us to Vienna airport and from there we took a countryside road to Bratislava. We dropped our luggage of at the train station and explored the city for a while. Bratislava in summer is full of Dutch and British high-school graduants who want to get as drunk as possible for almost no money and the city itself is nothing special. We went back to the station to get our luggage and from there walk into the forest on the hills outside the city to find a place to put the tent for the night. Sadly after walking for what felt like hours up a steep hill we were still in the city and couldn't find a place where we were hidden from sight. We walked back into the center and got a hostel instead. The next day it took us 3 hours to leave the city but then we finally got closer to the Czech border. The ride we got into Czech was probably the craziest of the trip. We got picked up by a couple (husband and wife) in their 30's. The first think they asked was " You're from the Netherlands, do you have anything to smoke?". When the answer to that question was no the wife didn't want to take us anymore but the husband convinced her. About 20 minutes later the wife started screaming in English that her husband had to pull over on the side of the highway to let us out. He wanted to let us out at a gasstation and her response to that was yelling WHERE IS THE PETROL STATION!! after some more screaming we got dropped off at the side of the highway. We walked for about 10 minutes to the first exit we found and from there hitched a ride to Brno with a man who worked on the wine fields. Again we got dropped off on the side of the highway cause he thought it would be the best place for us. He sent us on our way with a 2 liter bottle of wine fresh from the barrel. The goal for the day was Prague but after the police came and sent us away from the highway it became clear that we should focus on getting a place to sleep. We took a random bus to the middle of nowhere and we found the perfect location in a forrest to put a tent and make a small fire. When we jumped off the bus we realized that the bottle of wine was still inside the bus so sadly we didn't have a chance to enjoy it. We weren't bothered by anyone or anything and had a good night of sleep in the tent. The next morning we wanted to walk to the first gasstation on the highway in the direction of Prague. It seemed closed from the busstop where we got off, but that wasn't the case. We had to walk through a field, go over a small creek, walk through thorns and dense bushes, walk on a railroad-track, climb an overpass and then walk on the side of the highway to the gasstation. When we got there we were tired, itchy and sweaty. We grabbed a coffee and then a couple asked us where we wanted to go. We answered Prague and they drove us straight to the center. In Prague we found a hostel in a schoolbuilding. In the summer they just put old iron hospitalbeds in the classrooms and call it a hostel. There were about 200 drunk people in that place screaming and breaking stuff all night so we woke up pretty tired. We took the countryside road back to Austria to visit some friends there. We then got picked up by the vice-mayor of a small town who showed us some local architectural projects, bought us ice cream and then invited us for lunch in a local fish restaurant. It seemed our luck finally changed. It was a really relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Later that day we got a ride with a girl from Linz who told us about a street-performer festival the next weekend and offered us a place to stay during that time. From Linz we took a train to Wankham to visit our friends. The next day it took us a loooong time to get out of Linz, but when we finally did we got a direct ride with 2 guys who were going on a canoe trip in Slovenia. They took us to Bovec. They had a big tent, which we put up on the side of a river. They brought lots of beer and Jagermeister and at 3:00 AM it was finally time to sleep. After sleeping like babies for 4 hours we were awoken by two people saying: Polizia, Documenta (or something like that) It wasn't an official campsite where we put the tent and apparently that is illegal in Slovenia. Luckily for us the cops were corrupt and we only had to pay 40 euro's in cash. 8 Euro's a person isn't that bad to camp at one of the most beautiful places I've been so far. Wanna know what happened next? Stay tuned for part 2...

Tomorrow it's Eastern-Europe time!

Tomorrow morning Doris and I will leave for Budapest. We will meet up with a friend of her there and then the 3 of us will hitchhike through Czech, Poland, Latvia and the other Baltic countries. We only have 10 days for the trip so we'll just see how far we can get in the limited amount of time. It will be interesting to see how it is to hitchhike with 3 people, hope it'll work for us. It's gonna be cheaper for us to be on the road in those countries and to be here in Germany so that is also a plus of the trip. The blogpost following that trip will probably be the last travel post in a long time. Once we're back in Germany we will need to make as much money as we can to afford the move to Vienna mid August/early September. It's getting a bit stressful when we think of how much we have to work to make it happen but it is possible :) It will help us out a lot if you, the readers, could click on that nice shiny yellow button on the top of the blog to contribute to this latest adventure ;) Living in Vienna together will be a whole new trip and I really look forward to that experience. The next blogpost will be a longer one with all the pictures and other goodness of the trip and an update on the 'move to Vienna' hustle. Take care and see you next time!

Göteborg v2.0

Got back from the trip to Göteborg about 2 days ago so I guess now I have to write about it. Here it goes! We left early on a sunday morning, thinking we will make it to Göteborg around Tuesday, maybe even wednesday morning, since it is about 1500km from Prien. When the first ride of the day took us all the way to Nürnberg it started to look like we might make it sooner then that. When we got dropped off at a gasstation before the highway exit we had to go on we quickly got a ride again by the wife of a German bigshot politician in a fancy BWM. We flew with 200km/h over the highway and you couldn't notice it inside the car. The engine was quiet, the seats where comfortable and we saw the the road as a blur from the window. During our attempt up north we met more interesting people and the day ended in Denmark. We got stuck at the opposite side of the highway from the gasstation where I slept the last time I went back from Sweden. The gasstation on this side was an exact copy and they let us crash there for the night and gave us a cup of coffee the next morning at 5:00 AM when we had to leave again. Denmark seems to be hitchhikers paradise and almost everyone is willing to help you out. If they can't give you a ride they are always friendly and give you tips and directions on how you can reach your destination as fast as possible. We made it to Fredrikshavn at around 9:00 AM and an hour later we were on the ferry to Göteborg. It was awesome seeing my friends there again but we were very tired from hitchiking and only sleeping a few hours on a floor so I have to admit I fell asleep at a bar when we went out in the evening. The next few days were spent hanging out inside when it was raining and walking through the vast parks in the city when it wasn't. The nighttime activity usually involved going to a bar and being shocked again by the insanely high prices in Sweden. We went out to camp on top of a hill one night when it was warm. We had a campfire and roasted some marshmallows while seeing the sunset over the city. It's great that you are allowed to camp anywhere you like on public domain, as long as you clean the potential mess you made. Another thing that I can recommend to visit if you are in Göteborg is the sailors-museum in the district Majorna. The museum is free of charge for people under 25 and only 40kr (about 8 euro's) for people over 25, and then the ticket you get is valid a whole year and you can visit as often as you like. The next sunday morning we tried to hitchhike the ferry back to Denmark, since people who buy a car ticket can take up to 5 passengers with them. Sadly after 6 hours and 2 ferries we had no luck so we went back to our friends. The next morning we tried to hitchhike the highway down south to Malmö and then go back to Germany from there but after 2 hours of waiting we hadn't succeeded in leaving the city. This and my last hitchhiking experience in Sweden (waiting +-6 hours) makes me conclude that you should not try to hitchhike there. We decided to just pay for the ferry to get out of the country but we gave hitchhiking it one more shot and to out surprise it worked. Some old German people who were on a roadtrip with their campervan took us so that saved us about 70 euros. We hitchhiked back south from Fredrikshavn and guess what? We ended up at exactly the same gasstation again so now I've slept there 3 times in about a month and a half. Again we got a nice separate room and a coffee to go in the morning. People working nightshifts are awesome! The next day we got a lot of short rides to get out of Denmark but once we were in Germany we had luck with 2 truck drivers who took us a long distance and one man who went past the gasstation only to see if there were hitchhikers and he took us to Munich where we arrived at 23:30. From there we took the train back to Prien and finally were able to catch up on sleep. For all the pictures go to my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DrifterInEurope If you like what you read don't forget to like and share the facebook page, the blog and maybe even support us through paypal! The next trip will start next week. We will meet up with a friend of Doris in Budapest and hitchike from there to Estonia. See you next time!

back in Germany

Last sunday we went to the SummerJazz festival to spend our last day in Leiden. The plan was to leave the next morning to go back to Prien. When we got back home from the festival we saw that the area around Prien am Chiemsee completely flooded was and both the highway and the railroads were closed down. Those aren't the most ideal circumstances to hitchhike so we stayed a few more days till saturday morning. The day started out with short rides and around 19:30 we weren't even close to Prien yet. Then we met a dutch trucker who took us 230ish km to Würzburg. When we were in the truck we thought "It would be really sweet if we can find an Austrian car that can take us all the way." Well that happened so at 2 AM we finally arrived in Prien. The flood is gone and there isn't much evidence left that there even was one. The next day the sun was shining so we could finally go swimming in the lake. In about 2 weeks we will go to Gothenburg in Sweden for about a week, then we're going to Budapest to meet up with a friend of Doris with whom we will hitchhike from Budapest through Czech, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. It's gonna be one epic summer if all goes according to plan. I will leave my laptop here during those trips so I won't update that often I guess. Pictures and everything will be thrown on facebook as often as possible for your viewing pleasure. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/DrifterInEurope

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

Ended up in Slovenia

Well after the last blogpost I managed to get some rides and ended up in Venice. Venice is a beautiful city to visit for a day but there really isn't much else to do except for walking around. Since the center is very small, it get's old very quickly. So instead of finding hosts on couchsurfing in Venice me and a Canadian guy I met in the hostel decided to make it to Slovenia. We got stuck at a gasstation at the border for more then 3 hours, no one picked us up. We finally decided it was better to split up again and after that I got a ride within 10 minutes to a next gasstation further down into Slovenia. From there it took me 2 hours of waiting before I got a ride to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Here I booked a night in a hostel and next to the hostel was a squatted building with music coming out of it. I went up to the building and started talking to some students and they offered me a place to sleep for the upcoming week. All the pictures from the past few days are now on my facebook page and more will follow for sure because this is a beautiful city. Until next time, Chris

Italy

After 2 awesome weeks it was time to kiss my girl goodbye and go on the road again, with Italy as destination. We took the train out of Prien to the highway and from there I hitch hiked alone again. It took me 4 rides to get to Innsbruck, and surprisingly 2 of those rides were with a female driver. This was the first time I got picked up by females while hitchhiking alone. At a gasstation outside of Innsbruck I talked to a Bulgarian couple who were on their way to Verona in Italy, and I could join them on the 250km journey. I managed to get all the rides without much waiting. The cold helped me a lot because everyone said they felt sorry for me standing in this type of weather. In Verona I tried to find a cheap place to sleep, which is impossible in this city. It's a beautiful city but with that comes a price so I don't really recommend it to people traveling on a low budget. After walking through the city for 3 hours I finally found a "cheap" B&B thanks to my dad. Tomorrow I'll walk around the city a bit more and take some pictures and then I will hit the road again. I will craft another one of my famous "away" signs and from there I'll see. Now it's time to close my eyes and call it a day.

Slight change of plans...

Allright, there's been a slight change of plans lately. Sadly I won't be traveling together with my girlfriend, otherwise we'd probably be on the road again by now. Due to the fact that she has other obligations she won't be able to join me so I will stay here for as long as possible, which will be another week or so I guess, before I will head to Italy on my own. From this part in Germany, Prien an Chiemsee, it is possible to get over the Alpes and into Italy in one day, two days if I happen to have no more luck all of a sudden. In Italy the plan is to hitchhike around for a while and then give wwoofing a short. on www.wwoof.org you can find organic farms where you can work on in exchange for food and a place to sleep. Would be pretty cool to learn new stuff that way. Anyway this explains why I'm not on the road yet and gives you an idea of what will be next. Till next time, Chris

Picture time!

Finally I've decided it was time to create a facebook page so you can all see the pictures I take instead of just reading what I'm doing. The link is www.facebook.com/DrifterInEurope Please like and share the page, it helps me out lots! Short update, promise the next one will be bigger again ;)

Off the road for a little while

Last post I told you I met a girl by the highway who was also hitchhiking. We are now a couple so everything is going pretty awesome! It is currently very cold and it snows so we'll stay inside for a little while. When the weather gets better we will hit the road again, looking for a place to work or something, who knows where we might end up. Short update, but in my opinion it's probably the best update I could post :) Till next time

Well I didn't make it to Italy. I've met another hitchhiker by the highway and we had a nice picknick in the sun and then decided to travel together for a while. She was going to some friends for 2 days, and I could tag along. The family that hosted me is great and they welcomed me with open arms, telling me that I'm always welcome if I'm in the area in the future. The girl I met is awesome and we're probably going to travel together for a while. Next stop is back to Germany, to her place and from there we'll see. The sun is shining again, it's going to be a good day

Austria so far

Well I didn't make it over the Alpes yet... After the last update I got picked up by a guy who lives in Upper Austria in a small town called Senftenbach he invited me to stay at his place, and so I did. He called up some friends and his brothers and threw a little birthday. After a fun night I had a chance to was my clothes and take a shower before he dropped me off on the road again. From there I hitched my way to Linz. In Linz I got picked up by a Romanian guy so I could make it to Vienna. The bad part was that he didn't want to stop. Twice. He kept saying "no we go Budapest." 60km out of the way from Vienna he finally stopped and I had to stand in the rain for an hour before I managed to get a ride to Vienna. In Vienna I booked a bed in a hostel for 10 euros and today I wanted to stay an extra night since I didn't get any couchsurf responses (again), and they raised the price to 25 euros for a bed because of easter. Since that is out of budget I'll try to hitch my way towards Italy. It's gonna be at least 2 days of traveling, but the weather keeps getting worse here and soon it will be freezing again, which means lots of snow in a short time period. That's about it for this update I think. Don't forget I have a paypal donate button!:)

Living the goodlife

Well the free hostel city tour was cancelt for the day so I went into Munich on my own, where I was lucky enough to find another free guided city tour by a guy named Kevin, who immigrated from Texas to Munich. The tour lasted 3 hours and was very informative. He was passionate about all kinds of quirky facts that you normally wouldn't hear from a guide, which made the hours fly by. After the tour I went back to the hostel to have something to eat and change rooms. After that it was time for some more sightseeing. I returned to the hostel at dinnertime and after dinner headed to the bar for the happy hour(s!), which was great fun. Met some people form Korea, New Zealand and Canada. After a night of partying it was time to hit the road again. I walked 2,5 hours towards the east and from there I found a gasstation which was a good place to start hitchhiking from. Atleast I thought so... After 3 hours in the cold I finally found a ride, but 15km out of the city he stopped and said get out now, when I was in the middle of nowhere. I thought my luck has turned for the worst but I must have a guardian angel somewhere because out of nowhere a man stopped, offered to take me to the autobahn and asked if I had a place to stay yet. I replied no and he said well now you do. Apparently he owns a huge office building in the area where I could crash for the night. I had a nice shower, watched some tv and just relaxed after a day in the cold. Then he said that we should go to the supermarket, and he bought me for 2 days worth of food. The next morning he took me to the autobahn and now I'm currently writing this post from a gasstation near Austria. Today I'll probably make it over the Alpes and find some warmer temperatures. That's about it for now since the last update, thanks for reading and soon you'll hear more! (and when I have wifi for a longer period than 1 hour I promise I will make a photo album so you can see what I've seen)

Long distance ride on Sunday

The students dropped me off in Mainz, a city north of Mannheim. I had to stand in the rain/snow for 1,5 hours before I was able to hitch a ride. At the time I was warming my hands on a cup of coffee inside a gasstation and a guy, Tom, saw my backpack and my, by now famous, "away" sign. He asked me if Munich was away enough and I replied with a Hell Yeah. The ride was 436km and the route can be seen here: http://backtrackdtour.com/share/map.html?userId=7441357&trackId=2630568&locale=en_US&units=metric I've been playing around with the bushnell backtrack d-tour GPS and I must say it's an awesome device. Very easy to use and small enough to stuff away in your pocket. After a trip I'll just plug it into the usb port of my laptop and upload the route to google maps from where I can share it to facebook, and hopefully my blog. When I arrived in Munich at 20:30 in the evening my first priority was to find a place to sleep. Luckily for me I found the 'wombat hostel' which is allot cheaper than the hostel in Cologne, and the quality of everything is comparable to most hotels. At first the plan was to hitchhike further south and try to make it into Austria today but it's currently freezing there, which isn't that pleasant while standing next to the highway or having to sleep in a tent. So I booked another night at the hostel and will be exploring Munich today, starting with a free guided 4 hour tour organized by the hostel. This also gives me some time to figure out where to go next.

Saturday turned from good to awesome

Well after my free wifi ran out at the gasstation it was time to try to get my next ride. After I was waiting for 15 minutes a Porsche stopped and a woman came out of her car. She apologized for not being able to take me with her, but then she handed me a 50 euro note to help me on my travels, which was more than welcome! Just as I wanted to take a break a van stopped with 3 students inside of it. They took me 250km south to the city of Mannheim, offered me a place to sleep and invited me to their houseparty that night. I got to take a shower, which was pleasant after hiking through Cologne that morning, and they made sure I had breakfast this morning. From here on I have no clue how I'll be able to get out of town so when and where the next update will be is as much as a guess to me as it is to you

On the road at last!

15-03-2013 After one last night in my local pub with all my friends it was finally time to go. I boarded the train to Utrecht and from there I took the train to Cologne. Right next to me in the train was a mother with twins, two five year old boys. At first I was annoyed by their very active behaviour but after twinty minutes they calmed down and started talking to me. Before departure they went up to their mum and asked if I could be their new dad, which made her face turn bright red. When I arrived in Cologne I was hoping that I would have had a response on couchsurfing, but sadly that wasn’t the case. The only responses I got were people who said they allready had someone staying over for today, so my first mission in Cologne was finding a place to sleep. I went to the Tourist Information across the mainstation and when I asked if they knew of any cheap hostels the girl behind the desk looked worried. Apparently there are some big events in Cologne today that I didn’t know of and the entire city is almost fully booked. Luckily there was a bed left in a hostel just outside the city center called the Black Sheep Hostel. The downside of this is that it set me back 30 euro’s. I got myself a bed in a six person dorm and share the room with some nice people. After I ditched my backpack I went for a walk through the city to see some sights. When I went back to the hostel I checked couchsurfing again and saw there was a meetup on the other side of the city. After 1,5 hours of walking I managed to find the cafe where the couchsurfers of cologne met up. We had a few drinks and talked about random stuff all night and when it was time to go home I got offered a car-ride back to the hostel by a girl who also said that if I wanted to stay another day in Cologne I could sleep on her couch. The next day the weather was looking good so I decided to hitch out of the city. After 2 hours of walking I finally found a place where I could hitch a ride and after 20 minutes I got my first ride ever. I got dropped off around 60km south of Cologne at a gasstation on the longest highway of Germany, the a3, that leads to Munnich. Im currently typing this from the gassstation as they offer 1 hour of free WiFi. I have yet to figure out where I'd go from here...

Only a few days left...

I Keep staring at the train ticket in front of me. A one way ticket to Cologne, Germany. My train leaves at 9:52 and at 13:02 I'm supposed to be in Cologne. I've sent out a couchsurf request so hopefully I'm able to spend the night in the city. I have yet to think of a plan on how I'm getting out of Cologne, let alone a plan on where I will be going next. When the time is there I'll find it out. I got everything I need for my trip and I think I'm prepared enough. Only one way to find out... The next post on this blog will not be written from my bedroom but from the road. See you there!

Got myself a tent

After last weeks bivy disaster I figured it might be better if I get myself a lightweight tent, instead of just sleeping in a bivy. After doing some online research I decided to buy the Gelert Solo, a small 1 person tent that weighs just 1,5kg. It is big enough for me and my backpack so I don't have to worry at night about my bag being outside of my sleeping place. Almost ready to leave now, just a few more preparations and some stuff I have to get. That's about it for today. Until next time, Take care

Nightmare in the dunes

The weather finally agreed with my plans to go camping in the local dunes so yesterday I went for it. I called a friend who was up for some camping and together we got on our bikes. He brought his tent and I brought my bivy. The temperature started to drop quickly so we set up camp. All went well up until this point. When the time came to call it a day and go to sleep I crawled nice and comfy in my sleeping bag and sealed my Sierra Designs Baffin Bivy. I quickly fell asleep but after 45 minutes to an hour I woke up due to breathing difficulties. I left a slight opening in the bivy but there wasn't enough air in the bag for me to breath calmly, which scared the crap out of me. After that I noticed that everything inside my Bivy was damp due to condensation. The bivy should be breathing, but sadly this wasn't the case last night. I crawled out of the bivy and placed my sleeping bag in the tent. Sadly at this point my sleeping bag was also very damp and cold and I couldn't get warm again. I accepted my defeat and we went home again. Apparently you're not supposed to wear lot's of clothing inside a bivy so next time I won't wear as many layers of clothing. It wasn't a pleasant experience but I hope to have learned enough to succeed next time I try sleeping in a bivy. I brought my camera with me, but by the time we found the spot it was already dark so I couldn't take any pictures. Well that's about it for this update, keep an eye out for new updates coming soon!

Just an update

It's been about a week since my first post on this blog so I figured it is time to give you, whoever may be reading this, an update. During this week I bought some more stuff that I need for a life on the road. I've ordered my Bivy and got myself a LifeStraw Waterfilter. If you're not familiar with the LifeStraw I highly recommend checking out It's a cheap, durable and lightweight waterfilter that you can easily carry around with you. The plan is to go to the dunes nearby this weekend to test the gear I got. I will be spending 1-2 nights there, depending on if the gear works well and if I get caught or not. Needless to say, I'll bring a camera along to capture the testing of my gear for your viewing pleasure. Also as you may have noticed, there is now a PayPal donation button on the blog. If you happen to be in a postion where you can spare a few bucks I'd appreciate it a lot. Until next time, Take care

The beginning

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Chris, a soon to be 20 year old guy from The Netherlands. Last september I started college to study Social Work. It started out allright but I quickly felt out of place. Sitting at a desk all day just isn't for me, at least not yet. I found myself daydreaming about traveling and the thought of traveling started to grow before It became an itch I couldn't ignore anymore. The problem is, as always, money. Instead of being busy doing homework for school, I started doing research on traveling with little to no money. One of the first, and probably most informative, website I found was http://www.hobolifestyle.com/ The answer to the money problem appeared to be quite simple: Hitchhiking, sleeping rough and couch-surfing. This will mostly limit expenses to food and drinks. It's going to be a challenge and it's going to be tough but I look forward to it! The daydream is turning into a reality and I'm excited about the future. On this blog I will post updates from the road on my adventures as well as pictures. I will be keeping you up to date on both the good and the bad times. I've never done anything like this before so it will be a huge learning experience. Tips and tricks I pick up along the way will also be shared on this blog for everyone who has thought of doing something similar as this. This wraps up the first post on my blog. I hope to have sketched a clear picture of what this blog will be about and that some of you who read this will follow my travels. Take care, Chris