Since I stopped drinking coffee six months ago, I started to enjoy more and more drinking tea (especially my dear chimarrão). While in Warsaw I saw a quote from Kakuzo Okakura, and I wrote in my travel journal:
"There is a subtle charm in the taste of tea which makes it irresistible and capable of idealisation. Western humourists were not slow to mingle the fragrance of their thought with its aroma. It has not the arrogance of wine, the self-consciousness of coffee, nor the simpering innocence of cocoa."
Today I got a nice e-mail from Glenn, one of the "CS roadtrip crew" from Amsterdam to Italy. It happened less than 3 weeks ago but it seems such a long time ago. He recorded a beautiful video of our trip... it's so cool to look back and remember, and this was only 2 out of 17 days trip!
Kraków, Warsaw and Berlin... I arrived Friday night in Kraków, curious and prepared to stay at Bartek's flat, together with 16 other couchsurfers. The weekend was just amazing, really great experience, very different from other CS experiences I had had so far. The best part was that the group there was made of very interesting people, who were partying together, visiting Kraków and surroundings together, cooking together, and of course, sleeping together...
I have many reflections about couchsurfing, and I'll soon dedicate an exclusive blog post to write about this way of living, this mindset...
After the weekend in Kraków, I hitchhiked easily to Warsaw, even at below zero temperature, where I met with couchsurfers and also my 21-year old brother, Gabriel. He has been traveling around, finishing up his 1,5 year in Barcelona (lucky eh!), before going back to Brazil. After New-Years, I realized that over the last 10 years, I spent new-years eve in 7 different countries!!! (Brazil, Canada, Romania, Lithuania, Denmark, China and now, Poland). I must confess, there is NO PLACE IN THE WORLD better than Brazil for new-years eve. That's my first resolution of 2009: be in Brazil for next reveillon!
I love Poland and this time I had a different experience, meeting more local people and exploring my "local" places. Plan B is my favorite hang-out place in Warsaw, together with Cafe Kulturalna!
After being so successful hitchhiking from Krakow, I expected a challenging but doable ride to Berlin (about 600km). Besides the days being extremely short in the winter (gets dark at 4pm), I underestimated the weather and I was definitely unprepared for it. As I started, I managed pretty ok (only 30min waiting) to leave Warsaw when the wind started. Bloody freezing wind, at -8C, it was getting harder. I managed another ride and I was about 2/5 of my journey when the day became darker and the snow started falling. Quickly the snow became heavy snow and I was unable to stay on the road. I came to a gas station where I had some protection from the wind, but I only found local traffic. Bad, bad, bad. 3pm and it was dark. At 3.30pm I gave up. At 4pm I got a ride (my "consolation" award) to the nearest train station, and I continued to Berlin by train. Lost this time, but lesson learnt! (until next time... ;-))
Marco "Loko" Bezerra was waiting for me in Berlin. We know each other since we're 12, studying at the Military School in Porto Alegre until the age of 17. Great teenagehood times, great fun. We haven't seen each other for 5,5 years, since I moved to São Paulo. Now he lives in Berlin with his wife and works for a major advertising agency. Great stuff he is doing. It was actually very easy to connect with him and share some stories, not only from old times, but how we see things today, how we changed but kept some things in common, such as our concern about our country the desire to come back and create a positive impact. As Marco said, "it's not enough to clean our own shit anymore. We have to clean the shit of 10 other people if we want to leave a place for our kids". I also met some kaospilots in Berlin, visited The Hub and walked around Berlin, completely white after a good night of snow, the temperature was also quite cold, -10C.
On the way to Denmark, by bus, the temperature slowly going up, the sun disappearing and no signs of snow in Aarhus, The temperature has been always above zero!!
Now I'm back, finally settled after a few days of rest, school restarted and I already met everybody... time to plan my final project and my final semester at the Kaospilots...
In total, I did about 4,000km on car, train, bus, hitchhiking and flying, and spent an average of 25 euro per day (too many "parties" although almost no alcohol).
I left Amsterdam on Sunday by car, with 3 other couchsurfers (I met them on the couchsurfing groups and on local meetings), direction Italy. They were heading to Rome and I was staying in Genova, to spend X-Mas with my aunt Rejanie and see my cousin Bruno. We stopped for the night in Frieburg, southern Germany, where I could meet Gabriela, an old friend from AIESEC (we haven't met for years...). I found another host, Connie, and we all had nice places to sleep. The driving adventure was to have a broken window covered with plastic bags (great job Glenn and Valentina!). We managed to get it fixed on Monday morning, before we crossed the Swiss Alps...
After 3 days completely relaxed, sleeping a lot and eating like someone in Italy deserves (including good old Brazilian food), I'm ready to continue the journey. Tonight I'll arrive in Krakow (cheap flight) and I found a very curious couchsurfing host - I'll stay in the same place as other 16 couchsurfers, from all around the world! I'm looking forward for that - it sounds like those old reception weekend I had in AIESEC, including partying, sightseeing and cooking together). On Monday morning I hitchhike to Warsaw to meet my brother and spend new-years with Ania, another friend from couchsurfing. After new-years, a short stop in Berlin and maybe Hamburg, on my way back to Kaos, back to Aarhus.
My classes restart on 7th of January... My graduation is coming soon... 26th of June 2009!!
I left Amsterdam on Sunday by car, with 3 other couchsurfers (I met them on the couchsurfing groups and on local meetings), direction Italy. They were heading to Rome and I was staying in Genova, to spend X-Mas with my aunt Rejanie and see my cousin Bruno. We stopped for the night in Frieburg, southern Germany, where I could meet Gabriela, an old friend from AIESEC (we haven't met for years...). I found another host, Connie, and we all had a nice place to sleep. The driving adventure was to have a broken window covered with plastic bags (great job Glenn and Valentina!). We managed to get it fixed on Monday morning, before we left (and before crossing the Swiss Alps!).
After 3 days completely relaxed, sleeping a lot and eating like someone in Italy deserves (including good old Brazilian food), I'm ready to continue the journey. Tonight I'll arrive in Krakow (cheap flight) and I found a very curious couchsurfing host - I'll stay in the same place as other 16 couchsurfers, from all around the world! I'm looking forward for that - it sounds like those old reception weekend I had in AIESEC, including partying, sightseeing and cooking together). On Monday morning I hitchhike to Warsaw to meet my brother and spend new-years with Ania, another friend from couchsurfing. After new-years, a short stop in Berlin and maybe Hamburg, on my way back to Kaos, back to Aarhus.
My classes restart on 7th of January... My graduation is coming soon... 26th of June 2009!!
The opening lines of the book "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens (1859) go like that:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present
period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree
of comparison only. (*)
My story is by far less tragic than the French Revolution, but it still has its charm and drama - I guess. I'm back to Amsterdam, after 3 years, this time for a short 2-month period, until Christmas.
I'm working for the Global Reporting Initiative, starting-off a research on CSR "landscape", trends and hubs at national and regional level. In my short period I'm in charge of seeting up the methodology and research on Latin America.
When I arrived I thought my life would be simple, easy and fun - just like when I arrived 3 years ago, which actually also marks the beginning of this blog!!
In 3 years, most of my friends have moved away, or got very busy into their careers. Housing in Amsterdam became much more complicated and expensive. The banks and authorities seem much more bureaucratic then never. Albert Heijn is so boring. De Heffer gatherings do not exist anymore. Nice girls got boyfriends, fiancés and husbands. Yes, the city has changed, but more important than that - I have changed! A LOT over the last three years.
I go to different bars, I listen to different music, I hang out with different people, I eat different food. How can we change so much and be the same person at the same time? I start to realize that I'm more of myself, each day, and to be conscious about that evolution is a revolution by itself! Scary eh? Yeah, sometimes... hard to understand? Yeah, sometimes...
Amsterdam will always be one of my favourite cities, a kind of tricky place that feels like an extremely comfortable couch. You love it, but you might fall sleep too easily. Amsterdam has a similar effect in people: the easygoing, laid back, relaxed and fairly safe atmosphere needs to be balanced with excitement, risks, emotions and danger, in order to keep someone awake (in life) - oh well, in January I'm back in Denmark, back to the Kaospilots, for my last 6 months in the roller coaster! :P
I love Nature. In special mountains. Irony or not, I've lived for the last 2.5 years in Netherlands and Denmark... can you get more flat than that?? ;-)
As I'm in China, I had to explore life outside those 15 million cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Last week I visited Tai Shan, considered one of the best National Parks in China and one of the 5 holy mountains for Taoists and Buddhists. It's easily accessible by train, between Beijing and Shanghai.
I knew that this mountain, as many others, used to be routes for pilgrims for over 3,000 years, and the stair-steps reach all the way to the top. I was also expecting to find "some" visitors, although late March is still low season and a Friday is still working day...
What I found most surprising was the amount of Chinese visitors. The place was full of locals visiting and hiking the mountain. I thought I would be sort of alone and able to enjoy some silence. Ahah! Welcome to National Parks in China.. or should I say "Amusement Parks"? People seemed to enjoy the place almost as much as people enjoy Disneyland, shouting everywhere, gift-shops and people selling all kind of crap literally every 300 meters all the way to the top. Once you reach the summit, you find a little village full of restaurants, more shops, some hotels, cable car and buses to take you down. I must say it was a bit frustrating.
Even though, a little bit of exploration allowed me to find a little path where no tourists found interesting, and I found myself completely alone in the other side of the mountain (which also meant no sounds from humans at all). It was a long 1-hour walk around and back to the croud. I felt satisfied in my own pilgrimage.
I don't want to sound negative or complaining about the tourists, it's just a different perspective on being around Nature. For example, the whole path was surrounded by a dozen temples, where travelers would leave locks, money, candles and incenses for their gods. These locations were absolutely silent, calm, and peaceful, a perfect short stop while walking the way up. I loved it! That also makes me think about what people respect and why...
I met only 1 laowai (foreigner) during the whole day. Ed is from UK and he joined me on the way down, where we searched for some adventure, through the West Route. Basically no path indication, among the trees and crossing small roads, no people there, except a few local farmers...
In the end, my legs were completely destroyed, they felt like jelly... and I reeeeally enjoy the hard-sleeper on the way back to Shanghai!
I have one week off from school, starting today. Chinese people don't celebrate Easter but the Danes take the whole week off. At least it gives me some opportunities for adventures in China!
I found a partner, Torben, and we are leaving in a couple of hours by train to Beijing. 13 hours, "hard-sleeper" as they call it. Tomorrow I will meet with Paulo Egídio, old friend from AIESEC Florianópolis who moved to China 3 years ago, studied Mandarin and started to work for a Brazilian company here. Looking forward to meet him again! I arrived at the train station at 9.30am and at 10.30am we will play football! After that, a Brazilian barbacue (churrasco) with caipirinha! That's VIP treatment!
My plans for this trip is to relax but also get some adventure adrenaline back in my blood, so the idea is to mix of bit of each in a cheap-as-possible scheme: Beijing, The Great Wall, and some locations outside Beijing, in Henan province. I'm still checking on Lonely Planet for a good off-the-beaten-track destination...
I expect Internet to be limited the next week but I will try to write here a few times...
This was one of my first culture shocks upon arrival in Shanghai. The Internet is really censored... ok I knew it but I never imagined how it is to live with it!
Some examples...
Wikipedia, fully blocked...
Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, fully blocked...
CNN, BBC News, partially blocked (sensitive news)...
Amnesty.org, blocked...
Amazon.com, fully blocked...
YouTube, it has been blocked for a few weeks, now fully open... Google works fine (GMail, Google Apps, etc) except Google Video. When playing any video, the message you receive is very polite:
"Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country. We hope to make this feature available more widely in the future, and we really appreciate your patience."
Flickr, blocked to "sensitive" material, some photos cannot be displayed, including ANY PHOTO TAGGED AS SHANGHAI! I could even imagine that normal Chinese people should not see how Shanghai looks like (very western-like)... and that thought is scary!
If you would like to check on websites (if they are blocked or not), please let me know and I can test it for you :D
As I talked with some expats, many sites are blocked for few weeks and then open again, so the "black-list" changes every week. I also found out some annonymous free proxy servers. Cool, easy, although a bit slower, it works!!!
I must admit, I felt shocked and amazed by the first views on Shanghai: the dimensions of the Pudong Airport and the elevated roads crossing next to the place we were staying the first two weeks (soon I realized that elevated roads exist all around the city!)...
I also quickly felt a "dejavù" feeling: the permanent noise, anytime of day or night; the pollution; the dust; the fog and the crazy traffic where apparently nobody respects it, including bikers, pedestrians and of course, cars. The city is huge and there are around 20 million people living here. Yes, in many aspects Shanghai reminds me of São Paulo.
Another similarities:
- the prices and the price range. You can find products, restaurants and services ranging from very very cheap to extraordinary expensive. A beer can cost between €0.50 (R$1,30) up to €6.00 (R$20,00)... It seems to be a common reality in rich cities in developing countries.
- Security awareness. Buildings are surrounded by walls and fences, with security men in front gates, and first floor windows are generally covered by fences. As I was told, people brake-in houses and apartments to steal stuff, but they would never carry weapons or use of violence on someone else.
- Tall apartment buildings. Shanghai looks a gigantic forest of buildings, very very high. The old traditional neighbourhoods being bulldozed for the new buildings to rise.
I was going to write about the public transportation system in Shanghai, but I will wait until tomorrow, when millions of people come back from holidays to work. I'm very curious to get the metro in the morning! :S
Last Wednesday evening we celebrated Chinese New-Years, as part of the Spring Holidays in China. I didn't know much what to expect, after spending New-Years eve in 5 different countries in my life.
First of all, Spring Holidays is "THE" holidays in China. For two weeks, over 300.000.000 (yes, 3 hundred million) people go back home to see their families. As people work a lot in China and many of them live far away from home, this is the only opportunity in the year to see family. For that reason as well the snow storms last weeks were so devastating, because it made most trains and airports slow down or close while millions were on their trips.
New-Years eve seems to be like Christmas eve in Brazil, a moment for the family-at-large get together and eat a lot. In our case here in Shanghai, we also had a fantastic dinner, but with bunches of internationals and expatriates who didn't go home or didn't spend time with Chinese friends (which is also something not very common, but I will write about that later when I figure out more on that).
After dinner we went to a local club for the party, and at around mid-night we went outside to see the fireworks and firecrackers. I must admit that I prefer the Brazilian version, it's noisier and more beautiful, usually. What called my attention was the risks involved with setting up fireworks and firecrackers in the streets, by local Chinese people, while taxis try to go around and people cover their ears for the noise and try to protect themselves against possible accidents. The whole street looked like a war zone with bombs, smoke, fire and people running all around... peaceful, happy but still not very safe, at all...
Later on after a couple of hours I got tired of the music and expensive drinks and together with some colleagues we found a private party, someone met someone and there we went, partying at this amazing flat in a rich building, rented by a French guy who is the marketing manager for another famous top club in town. We left his home at 7 in the morning when the sun was rising, and the year of the rat was just starting...
Last night I was trying to go to sleep, and I was surprised by the fireworks and firecrackers outside... really noisy, actually it seemed even more than during new-years eve... today we asked and indeed it was more noisy. The logic behind is that Chinese people celebrate the 5th day of the new-year (as part of the spring holidays) as much as new-years eve, and by setting up fireworks they "welcome the new to arrive"... so now I can say the year has started!! Or maybe I misunderstood the whole point, which by the way might be very possible :P
Anybody have seen the film Lost in Translation...?? Yeah, that's me!
I have arrived in Shanghai yesterday afternoon and I realized I "forgot" to tell some people about it. Not nice... :D
I came here to spend three months, until end of April, and this is part of my Education at the Kaospilots. Every class of students (called Team) goes abroad for three months during their 4th semester, with the goal of exploring new trends and movements outside Europe. Previously the Kaospilots have been to Durban in South Africa after the end of the apartheid, in San Francisco during the Internet boom, Havana and Vancouver. This year the choice was Shanghai, China, with the overall purpose of studying and researching Social Innovation.
Shanghai is believed to be a "mover" in this early 21st century, capable of create changes that would influence east and west societies. Sort of London, New York, Paris of this new millennium... with over 18 million people and being the financial and economical capital of China, host of the World EXPO 2010, we can assume this statement might become true. Anyway, many challenges and many opportunities, and a bunch of young creative hippies from Scandinavia are here to find out - and publish it - in the 12 weeks...
Besides researching on Social Innovation, we will be working for 4 weeks on projects with local clients, which gives both funds to travel to China and also opportunities to work together with Chinese people and learn with them. The project I'm involved with is together with HaPe International, a toy company who has created a unique line of products based on bamboo. Our task is to use our creativity and idea development capabilities and create a new toy for their 2009 catalog, using sustainable materials such as bamboo, cotton, wood... very challenging and pretty interesting task. We will have the chance to visit their factory, their research & development department and even the Anji bamboo Forest near Shanghai.
I made a promise to write at least once a week in this blog, and I am sure I will have a lot to write about. Keep in touch, more to come... :)
I arrived back to Denmark this Monday, after spending three months back in Brazil. The initial reason for going there was my process assignment for the Kaospilots, where I have been working for the Projeto Agua for three weeks. Besides that, the whole trip became packed with different experiences, lots of traveling, meeting old friends and creating new relationships. So, in a nutshell...
October:
Left Copenhagen and stopped one night in Madrid, nice city!
One week for preparation for my assignment, while meeting lots of AIESECers, playing some football and meeting old friends, going for Vitor Ramil concert, and of course spending some time with my family at home.
Two days in Florianópolis, meeting with my client and preparing together for the period in Paraiba, where the project is located
One day in Sao Paulo, trapped in the constant rain, meeting the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce and playing football in the rain with good old friends from AIESEC
Two weeks in Urucu, a small community of Sao Joao do Cariri, 300km from Joao Pessoa in Paraiba state, for my assignment.
November:
On the way back from Paraiba, a stop in Florianópolis and a final meeting with my client, evaluating the results and planning next steps. I even got a job offer, so I assume they were satisfied with the results!
One week back home in Porto Alegre, procrastinating and writing my final report for the kaospilots, followed by an examination over video-skype (quite nice, although the connection was not very good)
Not much time to rest, I flew to Rio de Janeiro, to join the Global Journey on Sustainable Communities, where I was one of the co-hosts. It was an amazing experience, for 8 days with other 40 people from 16 different countries.
One day to rest, by coincidence my birthday (Dec 9). I had a great dinner with Helena and other friends at her place, Indian style :), and in the next day we had an alumni barbacue and I (re) met a lot of old folks from AIESEC in Rio.
No more rest, a night bus to Sao Paulo to join AIESEC and CONAL, the National Congress, where I was the Chairman. The conference was 5 days long for 500 participants, plus 2 days of pre-meeting for 150 participants, and we had 9 people organizing all logistics and 11 facilitators from the National Office. It was hard-core experience, and I really enjoyed being back after 2.5 years away from AIESEC in Brazil.
Done with the conference, time to be back home, for Christmas. These were the days I spent only with my family, including X-mas eve, and resting from the long month I had, but at the same time getting prepared for going back to Europe - vaccinations for China, new passport, new driver's license...
Soon after Christmas, beach-time. Together with some good friends from AIESEC we rented a big beautiful house in Ibiraquera, a calm place 70km south of Florianopolis, and we spent new-years there without mobile signal and without cars. Perfect weather, lots of meat and beer, poker games and good relaxed conversations...
January:
The excuse for the new-years meeting was to prepare for the wedding of our friends Malhado and Cibele, and we went straight from Ibiraquera to Santa Maria, located 3.5 hours from Porto Alegre. The wedding was beautiful and I met friends I haven't seen together for 3-4 years. It was too fast but it was awesome.
Back quickly to Porto Alegre on the 6th of January, just in time for goodbying my best girlfriends Jo, Jana and Lalau, and again traveling, this time to Paraguay.
I spent 4 days in Asunción, visiting Clemen, who I had met during the Pioneers of Change event in December. I had a great experience and it changed a lot of ideas about my neighbouring country. People were so friendly and warm, and at the same time so similar to Gauchos... (people from Rio Grande do Sul state in southern Brazil)
Back to Porto Alegre, after 21 hours on a bus, I just had a few hours to pack. I had my plans changed and I had to stop in Rio, in Teresópolis, to participate and facilitate a planning weekend for the AIESEC International Congress Organizing Team. This event will happen in Brazil this August and I got a "little" involved with it :)
From Teresópolis to the airport and to Denmark. Not yet home, I still staying one extra day in Copenhagen to apply for my Chinese visa. Yesterday I got the confirmation, they accepted it!
Sorry for the short summary, but too much happening at the same time and without a proper computer in hands, there is not much I can do. I wish I could keep you updated more often!
Two weeks in Aarhus, and then Shanghai for another three months... Nomadlife continues...
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
Left home at 8.30am and after walking a few minutes to Port Orleans, I met another hitchhiker, Matthiew, on his way home to southern France. He was a jazz musician with a beginner level of English. He offered me a coffee and then we stood at the avenue outside Paris (it could be downtown, horrible to hitchhike). I had my sign "A6 - Dijon - S.V.P.". After one hour and a half we decided to walk further to another exit to A6 and try our luck. Another hour have passed and nothing happened. No single car. I knew getting out of Paris is very difficult but I could try taking a train from Gare du Lyon to Villabe, a little village 20km out of Paris. So we did, but we took different trains. Matthiew gave me his CD, good music! After 3 metros and 2 trains, I arrived at 2pm in Villabe, walked for half-hour to the highway (gas station) and met Fanny, a French girl with big smiles, student of sign-language, on her way to Greece... yes, France to Greece, hitchhiking!
We had a good chat and in 15min we managed to get a car, who took us for over 200km! Very lucky. We talked a lot in the car and we got to another gas station. Fanny was going south on A6 to Lyon, and I was going somehow east on A36. She got a car in 15min and I stayed there for one hour. The location was very good and 4 cars stopped, but all heading south. I finally decided to get out of there and took a car for about 20min, until the next gas station. The driver's job was to recover old and historical books, and his main client was the National Library of France. In the back, piles of boxes of (valuable) books being taken to his small studio in southern France. Interesting guy, but short ride. I cross the road to start my luck north, and then I met two other French hitchhikers, one going up to Germany, traveling already for 2 days, sleeping next to trees on the roads, and Robin, going home to Mulhouse. That was my destination, so we chose to travel together. He was there stuck for 4 hours (it happens...) and I was wondering if I would have to sleep there (it was already 7.30pm...). In half-hour a car came and took us all the way to the entrance of Mulhouse, 200 km away. Very nice. On the way I was reading and reflecting on my trip, while watching the sun setting on the Franch hills and litlle villages of Alsace. I even got a phone call from Camila, old friend from Brazil, saying that she was in Paris, willing to meet me!! What a bad luck. Or not meant to be, right? We'll meet soon I know...
From Mulhouse I simply took a train for 30min to Basel, as it was getting dark and the train costed only 5 euro. At 10.30pm, Claudia picked me up, offered me dinner and wine. After a good shower, I was completely renewed and having a feeling of accomplishment that is hard to describe.
I'm in Basel, for the first time in Switzerland. Beautiful little city, in the border with Germany and France, having the Rhen river crossing and several nice bridges over it. Great day of sun and a good time walking around, reading and enjoying my time. And the best part was to meet Claudia again, Thomas' sister, who I haven't seen since 2004. She traveled around South America for one year and we spent the last day and a half in great conversations about everything. It seems the subject is never over and my mind is flowing with ideas (and new thoughts).
After two nights here, I'm on my way to Zürich (1 hour train). Later I should meet Thomas, and have a good time there. Looking forward for a swim in the lakes! Saturday morning I get a car from Luzern south to Italy, and I would still need to hitchhike for 200km to Venezia. Let's see what surprises Italy brings in the future, and let's enjoy Switzerland a bit now.
The trip started on Sunday morning, with a walk, a short train to Breda, and a 40min walk to the highway, where my ride would pick me up. On time. My backpack got approved, the weight was good for me and I felt I had everything I would need for the road.
I traveled with a nice 40ish year-old lady on her way to southern France, a Dutch girl raised in Holambra, Brazil and her boyfriend from India. Nice trip, nice chats, fun, and lots of food on board. I was asked to drive the car so I did for almost all the way until the périphérique of Paris. Cool!
Once in Paris I met Aristoteles, his French friend came later and we spent a couple of hours drinking wine with our legs inside the water in some fountain downtown Parism near De Louvre. Typical. We later watched Brasil win against Argentina and even eat some very French crepe. Very typical.
Yesterday I spent the day walking on my own around town, exploring and looking at people. Paris is as beautiful as you can imagine, but people live fast here. It's another huge city and for that reason I decided to go.
It's morning and I'm leaving towards Switzerland, my friend's sister replied me and she expects me in Basel, which is very nice, on the way, so my plans are Basel for today and Zurich tomorrow. I got another e-mail confirming my ride from Luzern to Bologna on Saturday morning!
My throat hurts a bit, which is NOT a good sign. It's cloudy in Paris, I hope it doesn't rain soon...
This last week I spent a couple of hours planning my trip. Everything started by the end, I got a free ride from Prague back to Amsterdam (through Hitchhikers.org) on 27th of July.
Based on that, I decided to visit my aunt Rejanie and my cousin Bruno, living near Venice, Italy. Nice place to stay by the beach, great to meet family again.
Next, I found another free ride, from Rotterdam until Paris. So Paris will be. Two places to stay there with some Brazilian AIESECers.
Connecting the dots, another old friend is living in Zurich, so Switzerland will be (hopefully the montains!). And a potential ride from (near) Zurich until Milano...
I'm not sure about Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic yet, it depends on answers from CouchSurfing hosts... but let's not plan too much and see what happens...
Summarizing, the plan looks like that:
15/07 > Rotterdam >> Paris 17-18/07 > Paris >> Zurich 20-21/07 > Zurich >> Venezia 23-26/07 > Venezia >> Austria/Hungary/Czech >> Praha 27/07 > Praha >> Amsterdam 30/07 > Amsterdam >> Rotterdam
In about 9 hours I'm starting a two-weeks trip around center-southern-Europe: France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, (maybe) Hungary and Czech Republic. It's a brake from my work in Rotterdam and a good opportunity to recharge my energies for the second semester.
This time I decided to make it a bit more challenging and special: hitchhiking and couchsurfing.
For that reason, I'll be updating this blog twice a week (if I get access to the web) to tell where I am and what is going on.
I intent to meet new people, visit different places (including random small towns and mountains), talk with different people (both young and old) and be curious, learn and be open, take some risks too!
At the CouchSurfing Project website, there is an interesting quote, and I liked it:
"We make a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge cultural exchange makes available. In sharing important moments, deep and meaningful connections cross oceans, continents and cultures. "
Ready to hit the road! Henrique
PS: I'm available by phone +31 6 3863-6351 during these days.
A Chronological update about the last 3 months, in 20 bullet points:
February:
worked 100 hours (cleaning) in one month, enough to make enough money to survive here
excellent lectures and discussions on systems thinking, organizational understanding and an amazing workshop on Proactive Planning (personal planning)
Started the 5-weeks course on Creative Business Design, and together with a colleague we designed Alegria Imports, aiming to bring cachaca de alambique (aged quality handcrafted cachaca) to Denmark
March:
a major snow storm transformed Aarhus in a beautiful chaotic town. For the first time in my life, I hitchhiked to get to school (no buses available and my bike got frozen)
the snow storm was probably brought by Vija, my third visitor from the Netherlands since I came to Denmark (Margreet and Colm also came to visit me)
after the storm, I got a terrible flu, got down in bed for 4 days
because of the flu and the terrible weather in Denmark, I considered for the second time the option of leaving school, get a job and pay my debts, moving to something else. Boring work like cleaning was driving me crazy. I sent my CV to many companies in UK, Netherlands and even Brazil
Spring finally arrived here, and a couple of days with sun and 12C was enough to make me change my mind, and I decided to take the risk and simply reduce the workload, in order to enjoy school and social life better
Sent application for Student Grants from the Danish Government. Low chances of success.
Oslo: the whole Team 13 moved to Norway for 4 days, working and having fun with Team 2 from Kaos Pilots Norway. Great time, great support and my 350-euro-camera got stolen. No insurance.
April:
Idea of a Final First Year Project in Brazil, and three amazing and beautiful girls from my Team wanted to join me. We had first to fundraise 8,000 euro in 14 days
My request for Grant refused by the Danish Government
Laptop (new MacBook), mobile, 512MB-pen-drive and notes from classes stolen from inside the school. Never seen afterwards. No insurance, no backup. 1 year of digital information lost (all photos taken in Denmark, all contacts, all documents, all videos, all music, etc etc). No perspectives of getting a new computer in the near future.
For the third time in the last 4 months I considered giving up on the Education and searching for something else less "unlucky".
the first 24 bottles of cachaca arrived from two Brazilian destillaries (Bento Albino and Profecia), for tasting and focus-groups. The results were below expectations.
Back to an AIESEC Conference after two years, facilitating the National Event in Denmark, simulation for new members :)
After 20 days trying hard, over 200 organizations approached, we gave up on Brazil and decided to take a project in Rotterdam.
In the same day, two companies replied, sponsorship of 80% of the project guarantteed!
Admission Workshop for team 14: as traditional for the Kaos Pilots, the students themselves are key players at the selection of the next team, being facilitators and observers of the 2-days workshop. Great experience, perfect delivery! And a new Team with full potential selected!
A third company decided to sponsor our tickets to Brazil. A fourth company is considering our proposal. For the first time in my life, I have more money than needed for a project!
May:
On Thursday afternoon we fly to Brazil from Copenhagen airport. Destination: Porto Seguro. The group: myself and three gorgeous Danish blonde blue-eyed girls. The mission: investigate the possibility of starting local-based tourism in Porto Seguro, around the Pau Brasil National Park, and kick-off the social entreprise as a sustainable solution for the area. Website: wiki.homebase.dk/PauBrasil
