Hitchhiking - life is good and fun!

I really wanted to join the Nature Quest with John Milton in the Swedish Mountains (see previous post), and even tough the fee was highly subsidized, I still needed money to get there. 1,500km north from Aarhus, and transportation in Scandinavia is very expensive.

I decided to challenge myself once again, as I did last summer (read story), and I had a tent with me this time. It's legal to put a tent anywhere in Norway and Sweden, as long as it's not to close to houses or at plantation fields. Louise from Team14 accepted my invitation to hitchhike, as she was also joining the program. She did her final first year project in India, trying to connect spirituality with leadership from a Buddhist and Hinduism point of view. She had never hitchhiked before.

Hitchhiking alone or accompanied with someone is very different. Time flies much easier and faster, especially when you travel with someone so enjoyable as Louise (also very effective at smiling for drivers to stop ;-)). We had planned 5 days to arrive there, and we managed in 3,5 days, after 17 different cars! We started Thursday June 26th in Aarhus by the ferry to Copenhagen, drove through Malmö, spent the night in Jönköping (watching football with Klas and couchsurfing at his newly bought house) and we had a whole Saturday to relax in Stockholm, where I could meet old friend Elvio, nice surprise and great host. We left Stockholm on Sunday morning, and we were lucky enough to reach Östersund (527km), where we couchsurfed with Ola, a great chef who cooked for us, besides sharing his knowledge about the region. On Monday afternoon, we arrived in Undersåker at the same time as the train, meeting all the other Kaospilots, full of stories to share and well prepared for a great week.

Six days later, at the end of the meeting, Mark and Louise convinced me to return through Norway, instead of going back through Sweden as planned. I had friends to visit, places to stay, cool people to hang out with, but the temptation of seeing Norway was high enough. And for some reason, I was not worried that we were 3 people with lots of luggage (tents, sleeping bags, food...). I knew we would make it, even without ANY preparation at all, not even a map!

In Trondheim, after our first 230km, we tried but we didn't manage to find hosts, so we setup our tent outside the youth hostel, quite cool, never dark, and in the next day we head through the west coast, and after 8 rides (including a taxi for free!) and 300km, we reached Molde, a little town with snow mountains and the fjordes, the city of roses, where a new surprise would be waiting to meet us: Inga Mette. She was recommended to us by Göran Gennvi, CEO of Naturakademin Learning Lab and organizer of the program with John Milton. We didn't know what to expect, and she took us to the top of the mountain, where we spent the night, next to a beautiful creek. Next morning we were inspired and challenged by Inga and her great visions, ideas and plans. Invitation to come back to collaborate, contacts in Egypt, and we finalized our morning with an interview and photos for the local newspaper!!!

Blessed by Inga, we decided to change our route, instead of going to Oslo we wanted to continue on the coast and get the ferry in Bergen. The road included 5 ferry passages, over 500km and about 9 expected hours drive by car. A beautiful but slow road. We left Molde at 12pm and we wanted to sleep in Bergen, make it in 12 hours (haha!), or at least be there before 11pm next day, in time for the ferry to Denmark. I had to be in Copenhagen by Friday morning so I couldn't miss that ferry! An incredible day, 7 different cars and we arrived in Bergen at 0.30am... and we even got a house to sleep, amazing help from Torhild and Jo, a married couple of graduated Kaospilots, who even being outside town, placed us in their Jo's parents house! Too good!

Next morning we met Paola from Team 12 for an ice-cream and walk around the harbour of Bergen, and 18 hours later we arrived in the north-west coast of Denmark. Of course we were tired, but we wouldn't stop here. We still had about 4-5 hours to hitchhike, and with the help of 3 cars we arrived home for lunch-time!!

I conclude this trip by realizing that traveling by hitchhiking has several key positive points, some of them are:

Cultural: by meeting different people and being curious, we got to know a lot about their daily routines, thoughts, worries and views. It's an amazing way to learn about the local culture. Some drivers coming back from work, some going on holidays, some immigrants, many former hitchhikers...

Cheap: we didn't pay for any ride and we even got the ferry paid once. People are generous.

Sustainable: hitchhiking is climate-neutral by nature. The cars and trucks would be there anyway, so we become "invisible" from the energy consumption and gases emissions point of view.

Hopeful: by allowing themselves to give us rides, people show trust in strangers, in a world that currently is driven by fear and isolation, hitchhiking bring people together, and we need more of that!

Self-development: we learn to be patient (when waiting for rides), to be communicative (to talk for hours with the drivers), to be curious (to know what to ask them), to be thankful. We need to keep positive attitude at all times, be relaxed and have fun...

The summary of the adventure:

Number of days: 14 (6 camping in Vålådalen)
Number of rides: 40 (17 to get there, and 23 to get back, 39 cars and 1 truck)
Number of taxi rides (for free): 2
Number of ferries crossed: 8
Minimum time waiting: 30 seconds (at the exit of Copenhagen towards Sweden)
Maximum time waiting: 1h45min (half-way between Molde and Bergen)
Nights couchsurfing: 2
Nights in tent: 8 (6 in Vålådalen)

Money spent (myself): around 250 euro (plus the program fee)

As I wrote in my travel journal...
"The story continues, but the myth of the trip to Sweden and Norway finishes here."

Summer plans?

I came back from China in the end of April and after spending 2 weeks in Amsterdam working for GRI and seeing some old friends, I arrived in Aarhus focused in finishing the semester and figuring out my summer plans... my original plans of staying in Aarhus working on a cool marketing project got canceled and I got a bit confused in the middle of a thousand ideas and no concrete decisions. Anxiety and impatience are not good companions for those moments, I must confess.

Cutting the crap (I guess no one wants to read about my inner conversations with myself over the last month), some good things came out and some more traveling is taking place!!

I'm taking part in a summer leadership/meditation retreat facilitated by John Milton (www.sacredpassage.com) in the mountains in Sweden, camping for one week, spending 3 days on a solo-trip where the sun never sets! I'm really looking forward for this experience and to prepare myself this this journey I decided to hitchhike all the way from Aarhus to Valadalen Natural Reserve, near Aare, a 1,500km road trip! I will have the company of my beautiful Danish friend Louise so I think we won't have problems to get rides! ;-)

After Sweden, I'll be in Copenhagen for a couple of days before heading to Brazil, where I will work on a project for the 2 months (from mid-July until early September). I'll be based in Sao Paulo and I'm looking forward to meet old friends, meet new people and start planning some cool future projects!! I'll be at the AIESEC Alumni Congress, for sure!!!! (I didn't imagine that happening...)


I'll blog more on the hitchhiking trip when possible, and share some thoughts from the camping retreat...

Last day: Bohemia (CZ) and back to Netherlands

While in Salzburg, I realized that I forgot my driver's license in Rotterdam (actually in Denmark). Which means that I drove through Belgium to Paris without documents, and I was about to drive again from Prague to Germany! I immediately wrote a message to Andre about it, and even considering not taking a ride with him, and going further to Berlin instead.

Meanwhile, it was 9h and I left Salzburg for my last 24 hours of travels. I walked towards the exit to A1, and the location is not good. The cars were too fast, low visibility and it was still inside "the city". After 20min I walked a bit backwards to try before the last traffic light. Found a shadow for my backpack, got my "A1 - LINZ" sign up and in 5minutes a car stopped. Katia and her brother Mark were starting their vacations in Eastern Czech Republic, and they could take me until Linz. I was not sure if I should continue hitchhiking or simply take a train to visit Bohemia (southern part of Czech Rep), or go straight to Prague. My mobile was apparently not working, so I was unable to receive SMS and know if people could host me in Prague or not...

I decided to stay in Linz, and took the train to Ceske Budejovice (hometown of the original Czech beer Budweiser). The train was hot, slow and boring. Once in Budweiss (as called in German), I realized I didn't have much time to go to Ceske Krumlov. This is a historical town in Czech Republic, a dream I always had, and never managed to visit in my previous 2 trips ti Czech Republic. Decided to take the chances and go there. Took the train and arrived there at 6pm. The last train would leave at 8pm so I thought about staying until the first train in the morning, at 5am! I found out a bus going straight to Prague at 5.20am, so it was even better.

In the train I met Fiona, a girl from Singapore traveling around Europe and couchsurfing as well. We had some nice conversations while walking around the old town until it got dark, we had dinner and a beer. At a certain point she mentioned that I was surely a hippie when "younger", with long hair and stuff... hahahahah thanks for the compliment! :)

After Fiona left, I ended up going to some pubs, having some beers, writing my journal and having chats with other travelers. Austrians, Dutches, Swiss, Americans... at 2am I left a local disco (bad music and random people) and decided to find a place to sleep... outdoors. Next to the river, there was some benches, a little bit protected from the wind, in the dark. Perfect spot for my sleeping bag! Nice nap for over 3 hours, felt very good being close to nature, woke up on time for the bus to Prague. Horrible trip (long, and unable to sleep).

By that time I had received a call from Andre, saying that he couldn't find another driver for the car, and I had to do it even without my license. He had been "banned" from driving in Czech Republic due to speeding, so he could be in jail if the police catches him driving. He was going to Netherlands on vacations with his wife and kids. As we were 5 people, he rented a bigger car, and when I met him in Prague I realized that it was a big van (that looked like a truck!). I even asked "are you sure I can drive it with a B-type license??". Well, I didn't even had a license anyway... ;-)

The car was very hard to drive, never tried that before. After getting used to it, we started to move around Prague, towards the exit to Plzen. I was a bit nervous. As we tried to turn in one street, 200m ahead of us I saw two policemen stopping cars. Ohoh! I don't know how I reacted, but turned immediately right into one little street, which was bus-only. Adrenaline started to pump. I turned the car, as if nothing strange was happening, and took the street in the other direction, getting away from the cops. It seems they were distracted with the other car or didn't notice me as "suspect". I breath deep and move straight outside Prague. Still tense until we crossed the border (2 hours later), when we stopped in Germany and I could finally relax. Andre continued driving and I slept for some hours. Arrived in Amsterdam by 11pm and enjoyed the city with some Brazilian old friends, before coming back to Rotterdam last night.

I'm still enjoying the great feeling of adventure that this trip meant to me. Awesome time, new people that I would never meet otherwise, new ideas and thoughts, old friends and family visited and a high degree of risks taken. Good stuff!!

I spent a total of 286 euro in 13 days of traveling, or 22 euro per day. It was a total of almost 3,800km "on the road", which 1,400km were by pure "finger" hitchhiking! Another 1,800km were rides arranged by the Internet and the rest were by bus and train (600km).

"So the journey is over and I am back again where I started..." - as one of my favorite quotes say, always very true - "...richer by much experience and poorer by so many exploded convictions, many perished certainties. For convictions and certainties are too often the concomitants of ignorance. Those who like to feel they are always right and who attach a high importance to their own opinions should stay at home. When one is traveling, convictions are mislaid as easily as spectacles; but unlike spectacles, they are not easily replaced." - Aldous Huxley