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.

Vienna Schönbrunn castle road trip 2013

Schönbrunn, Vienna

Iris Veldwijk

Checking in on Foursquare at Schönbrunn, Vienna. A long, long time ago, I was a full-time student. In the summer of 2013, I joined two friends on a 10-day road trip through Europe. Our route was from Maastricht, through Luxembourg to Strasbourg in France. Then to Zürich in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, München (Munich) in Bavaria, Salzburg and Vienna in Austria. It was during that time that we made a stop at Schönbrunn castle in Vienna. I was 21 years old and very new to (adventurous) travel. My road trip buddies introduced me to some (by now very basic) tech skills, suchContinue reading

 
    
Kyiv Kiev Ukraine lada

Three Days in Kyiv, Ukraine – Celebrating my 22nd Birthday

Iris Veldwijk

After a nightly train ride from Lviv, I arrived in Kyiv (Київ) in the early morning. I looked up a hostel near the train station on Hostelworld aptly named ‘Kiev Central Station Hostel’. It was a short stroll indeed. I asked for a bed in a dorm, dropped my stuff, and connected with a few people. I asked the hostel staff for tips on how to get to Babyn Yar (Бабин яр) with public transport. Because the bus sounded too complicated, I opted for the metro. That walk took me past Kyiv’s Golden Gate (Золоті ворота) to go to the metro stationContinue reading

 
    
Skagen cycling trip 14

Cycling Trip from Aalborg to Skagen and Grenen – Semester Abroad in Aarhus

Iris Veldwijk

I wrote this story about a cycling trip from Aalborg to Skagen back in 2012. At that time, I lived in the Danish city of Aarhus for my semester abroad at Aarhus University. It first appeared on one of those travel blogging websites. Back in 2012, I still thought I’d grow up to become an accountant. A lot has changed in between. When I became serious about travel blogging, I moved this content from the travel blogging website to my own—almost eight years later. At the time of writing, I was 21 years old. I don’t agree much anymore withContinue reading