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.

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!

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!