Catalunya no es España

I'm in Barcelona since Wednesday. I came here (finally) to visit my younger brother Gabriel, 21, and spend sometime with him. I kind of moved out from home when he became a teenager, so we never actually had the opportunity to enjoy a easy chat, a deep conversation, or simply party together. A week in Barcelona is not enough, but it's a good start.

Besides that, it's my first time in Spain (yes, I have never been here before, except a few hours in Madrid last year) and of course, first time in Cataluña.

Barcelona is very cosmopolitan, it's not that simple to find Catalanes, where there are people (mostly young) from all around the country, Europe and other continents. I find it fascinating though, the warm weather, the beautiful old streets, the beach and the bike system!!

In the other hand, we can find loads of illegal workers (my brother knows a few hundreds ;-)), which brings conflicts and hostilities with the locals. Barcelona is not the place to learn Spanish. Go somewhere else. As any other touristic city in the world, it's not easy to find what is typical, unique and authentic. Most of town is made for fools unfortunately.

Impressions, impressions... this place deserves more time to be understood. What is the real flavor of this town?

I'll keep searching.. I still don't have a ticket out of here, not sure when I leave... so let's enjoy it :D

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."

My Nature Quest & John Milton

I've been a couple of weeks ago in a natural reserve area called Vålådalen, in the middle/north of Sweden. It's a sacred place which still belongs to the Sami People (indigenous people from Northern Europe), and it was the scenario and teacher for an amazing 6-days "Nature Quest" with John Milton and Göran Gennvi. John is a shaman, a wise man, a brujo, according to the old indigenous traditions from Mexico, North America and many parts of the world. He is best known as the guru and coach of highly influential business thinkers such as Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski and Otto Scharmer. The whole chapter "Seeing with the Heart" in their book Presence is dedicated to John's "Sacred Passages".

We all belong to nature and we are all interconnected, but since we (civilized humans) decided to live in cities having individualized lives, we "forgot" our connection - represented by our intuition, presence and mindfulness. Such journeys remind us and helps us to reconnect - basic need for a deeper understanding of sustainability and (perhaps) a key way to find new solutions for our current global problems.

This week was organized by Martin Cadée, Director from the Kaospilot Netherlands, who has been himself last year in the desert of Utah on a Sacred Passage. We were a group of 15 Kaospilots from the schools in Aarhus, Stockholm and Rotterdam, plus a couple of business people.

We camped by a beautiful lake, with view of the snow in the mountains (even in the summer), and the company of a LOT of mosquitoes. We had one day of lectures and conversations with John Milton by the fireplace, inside a little tepee, seated on raindeers' fur, before we head up the mountain. We spent 3 days solo, without any books to read, any journals to write, any MP3s to listen, any mobile or persons to talk to, any watch to check time, and any food to eat (except a special fasting tea made with maple syrup, cayenne pepper and lime juice, on water). The idea was to get rid of all sorts of distractions, and without being able to "DO" anything, allow your self to "BE", by meditations, Tai Chi and Qi Gong practices, and contemplation. At the end of the three days, the return in silence, a slowly and profound sharing of the experiences and a sense of joyfulness.

In the last morning we were together, we also discussed on how to take this practices further, perhaps integrating it into the Kaospilot curriculum, and bringing more young (urban) people on such journeys.

Personally, I felt extremely positive after this experience. Clarity. I had read several books from Carlos Castañeda when I was 17 and by that time never had support from others, or any "masters" around to guide me. It is a sort of spiritual quest, but more than that, it means self-knowledge, awareness raising, and the ability to stay focused and attentive. A warrior's skill. I'm now looking into future opportunities to work and explore more this field, both as projects for my final school year and as for my own personal development.

Hiking mountains in China...

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!

Beijing and beyond

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...

Endless Sea (Mar sem Fim)

Today I found on YouTube a video-clip of one of my favourite quotes, and it translates amazingly well what I feel today being in China for almost one month and a half... hope you enjoy it and feel inspired :D


In Portuguese:

"... Hoje entendo bem meu pai. Um homem precisa viajar. Por sua conta, não por meio de histórias, imagens, livros ou tv. Precisa viajar por si, com seus olhos e pés, para entender o que é seu. Para um dia plantar as suas próprias árvores e dar-lhes valor. Conhecer o frio para desfrutar do calor. E o oposto. Sentir a distância e o desabrigo para estar bem sob o próprio teto. Um homem precisa viajar para lugares que não conhece para quebrar essa arrogância que nos faz ver o mundo como o imaginamos, e não simplesmente como é ou pode ser; que nos faz professores e doutores do que não vimos, quando deveríamos ser alunos, e simplesmente ir ver". (do livro Mar sem fim, de Amyr Klink)


In English:

"Today I undertand well my father. A man needs to travel. By himself, not through stories, images, books or TV. He needs to travel on his own, with his eyes and feet, to understand what is his own. So that one day he plants his own trees and treasure them. He needs to get to know the cold in order to enjoy the warmth. And the oposite. Feel the distance and the lack of protection in order to feel good under his own roof. A man needs to travel to places he does not know to brake this arrogance that make us see the world as we imagine it, instead of simply as it is or can be; that make us professors and doctors of what we haven't seen, when we should be students, and simply go and see it."

(excerpt from the book Endless Sea (available on Amazon.com), written by Brazilian adventurer Amyr Klink)

Shanghai? What the f... are you doing there????

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... :)

Three months in a nutshell...

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...

Back from my latest project...

Hello!

I got back from the Northeast region in Brazil, where I spent my last three weeks doing a process leadership assignment for the Kaospilots. I wrote an article about it in my KaosBlog - kaos.nomadlife.org (in Portuguese) and I published the photos on my Flickr account.

I'm right now supposed to be writing a final report... while enjoying springtime at my parent's place... :)

One evening in Madrid

Last Sunday I flew from Denmark to Brazil. Due to the itinerary of the flight, IBERIA offered me a paid overnight in Madrid, including hotel and breakfast. Not bad! As I have never been to Spain before, a good opportunity to enjoy one evening there. I searched and increadibly found three old friends, all from AIESEC, currently living there! And we all managed to meet that night - the curiosity is that they didn't know each other yet...

Kristine was from AIESEC in Aarhus last year, we became good friends and she left to Mexico and then Madrid. Ania is from Poland and we were both trainees in Amsterdam last year. We travelled together once and she had just arrived in Spain to work for a consulting firm. Lucas is a Brazilian alumnus, we spent new-years once together and he was working in London until one week ago!

After arrival in Brazil, a very easy week, relaxed, some preparations and getting ready for the next 3-4 weeks of busy work in the Northeast. I'm so much looking forward for that!

Tomorrow I'm joining my first real Brazilian-Gaúcho churrasco (barbacue) in two years... yaaaammy...

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

Paris > Basel: first 600km OK!

The trip out of Paris was a great adventure...

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.

Auf Wiedersehen!!

Paris, uh-lala!

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...

Au revour!!

My (draft) itinerary for the next two weeks

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


Let's hit the road!

My hitchhiking and couchsurfing trip

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.