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."