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.

                         

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...

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!

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

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

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...