After hitchhiking yesterday from Pozzallo to Siracusa, I was feeling a little #EatPrayLove—though I REALLY dislike that movie. Siracusa has some cute small streets that reminded me of it. And somehow these streets activate the girly travel girl Instagram pose instincts in even the ones most aware of performative femininity. Makes me want to buy a dress or something? (And then I look at the photo and think ehm, you tried!) Anyway, I ate some Sicilian stuff that came highly recommended. But the only name that stuck was “arancini”, which is a sort of fried rice ball with for exampleContinue reading
Europe
Here you’ll find lots of articles about my hitchhiking and kayaking travels in Europe. As you may know, Europe is my ‘homing’ continent where I’ll – like a stinky pigeon – always return to even if I’m trying to stay away from it. And to be honest, it’s not bad; there’s always more to explore.
I undertook many of my trips around Europe while at university in Maastricht (the Netherlands) and Aarhus (Denmark). That’s why I dropped out. I honed my hitchhiking skills here and set the most personal records and firsts such as:
- First solo hitch: from Kirkenes Airport in Norway to Kirkenes town with a military guy with his son
- Longest distance hitched in 24 hours: ~1200 kilometers from Maastricht (the Netherlands) to somewhere east of Lubljana (Slovenia)
- Most hours in one ride: 3 days with one British driver with a rental car in southern Spain and Portugal (his contract said he couldn’t take the car across the border)
- First plane hitch: over Malta (A to A)
- Longest sailing yacht hitch: from Corfu (Greece) to Malta, which was 340 nautical miles over 2.5 days. Here’s my CrewBay profile
Besides hitchhiking, I also kayaked a long distance in Europe down the Danube river in an inflatable canoe named Zucchini. But before I did that trip with my partner Jonas, I returned to university to finish my degree to erase my student debt. Thesis here.
As you can see, it’s not always a fun continent for me; it’s also the locus of worry about the people and pets I’m close to, of bureaucratic fuckery, and of most of my childhood memories. For most of my life, Europe has tied me down. Now I’m trying to experience it from a place of choice and freedom.
If you are not interested in the Danube trip, you can click this link to not show the Danube posts.
Hitchhiking Failure of the Year: No Malta to Sicily
Philosopher Jagger once said “you can’t always get what you want” and that’s what happened last night. I couldn’t find a boat willing to take me to Sicily from Malta. It’s a hitchhiking failure! Therefore I was forced to use the extortionately priced ferry! After more than three weeks in Malta and almost one week at the marina, enough was enough. And I’m very sad about it. Mick Jagger also said, “but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need!” Though it was frustrating, the people from La Marina Trattoria were so kind to feed meContinue reading
Airplane Hitchhiking over Malta
I guess this is the in-flight airplane hitchhiking selfie with the pilot you’ve been waiting for! “Johnny Bravo Yankee, prepare for landing..” listening to the radio stuff is quite entertaining, but I wouldn’t want to have the responsibility for an aircraft honestly, so I can scratch off becoming a pilot off my list of potential future jobs… and I’m back to just being a hitchhiker. It’s the more reasonable ambition. The pilot made the smoothest landing ever on Malta’s runway. And obviously I took many (shitty) photos and videos through the window. I love small airplanes! I love the number ofContinue reading
Malta: My First Time Hitchhiking an Airplane
I’ve seen Malta from the sea, explored most of it overland, and now I’ve seen it from the sky too… what did just happen? I can’t believe it yet either, but I think this was the first time hitchhiking an airplane. But is it hitchhiking if I landed at the same airport? Yes, I’m still in Malta. Let me know what you think by commenting: yay or nay? YAAAAAAY ANYWAY Photo snapped at Airport of Malta Edit from the Future About Hitchhiking an Airplane I took this photo of myself before the flight. Some things happened on that little airplane thatContinue reading
A Modern Odyssey: Sailing Theatre Company in Valetta, Malta
At the marina in Valetta, I met this Italian lady who is an actor with a theatre company. That wouldn’t be remarkable without the tidbit that they’re traveling by a huge sailing boat. They’re sailing all over Europe to perform and they even carry their own stage stuff around. Fittingly, they’re doing part of Homer’s Odyssey, right here at the marina. It’s giving me some flashbacks to Greek class in high school, which was basically all Illiad and Odyssey. They let me sleep in the dressing room, which they call a ‘loft’. The cooks of the ship are Dutch andContinue reading
Malta to Sicily: Another Boat to Hitch
Uh-oh, it’s the same old tale from a couple of weeks ago! But this time, I’m dockwalking to hitchhike a yacht from Malta to Sicily, mainland Italy, or France. I want to attend the HitchGathering in Saint-Laurent-du-Pape (yes, it’s a mouthful) in France this year. I’m using this cardboard hitchhiking sign to start conversations with people in the marina of Valetta where I arrived. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m at the correct marina. Malta has a gazillion marinas and it’s impossible to visit all of them in person and walk around. Not all employees of marinas areContinue reading
Ultimate Hitchselfie on Gozo! (Malta)
I’ve always wanted to take a hashtag hitchselfie like this! This happened on the outskirts of Victoria on the island of Gozo in Malta. Yep, that red car stopped right when I was taking this picture. That’s why I look so distracted. I was also torn between talking to the driver first and picking up my camera first. I chose my camera and then made a run for the car. The guy made a nice drive around Marsalforn and invited me for some guitar playing at his house before dropping me at Ramla Bay to go swimming. I hope IContinue reading
The Blue Lagoon from Comino
Ain’t it pretty? I took this photo from the super small island of Comino here in Malta. What you see in the picture is the tiny islet of Cominotto (“little Comino”), which features a cool and fairly scary cave. One can swim the 100 meters across the narrow bit to Cominotto (which I did), but a fair warning for potential currents and jellyfish is needed. On my way to Cominotto, I had no problems. Though on the way back, the currents dragged me away quite a bit. Then at one point I could reach the seafloor with my feet, tookContinue reading
Mediterranean Hitchhiking Route (Idealized)
A couple of days ago I found out there’s a HitchGathering in the south of France in early August. The planned location is exactly where my family is going to be on holiday. So I will need to step up my hitchhiking pace to make it there on time! This is the approximate Mediterranean hitchhiking route I would want to take to travel to France on time. It’s an idealized version because everything will have to go extremely well in the coming two/three weeks for this route to work. [If you’re a boat owner, make sure to check out my CrewBayContinue reading