A frosty morning at the canals of Utrecht after catching a ride with my mother from our hometown to her work. Utrecht is my favorite city in the Netherlands. I have to go to The Hague today to renew my passport for further travels… like… really faraway travels… You’ll see that in my other posts! Did you know many cities in Holland other than Amsterdam also have canals? The Netherlands is more than just coffee shops, Amsterdam’s red-light district, and too many bicycles. I don’t think it’s bad for a country’s advertising to be known for these things. It’s just different.Continue reading
Walking to Belgium from Maastricht for Cheap Beer
Remember Jonas whom I met in Tarifa? We met up again after Tarifa in Lisbon, Berlin, and now in Maastricht—that’s my old university town. Together, we walked from my friend’s place in Maastricht across the border into Belgium just to drink a beer at a place called Belvedere. It’s just a bit uphill and then across a bridge. Drinking a beer in a pub is actually cheaper there! And also a lot tastier than in the Netherlands As we were in Germany together before, we talked a lot about the German Reinheitsgebot. Say what you will, but limiting the number ofContinue reading
Free Chocolate for Hitchhikers! To the Netherlands…
When you’re hitchhiking home and some nice Italian guy gives you a box of chocolates! As you might have heard, I’m not wild about chocolate. I think it can be okay and the Ferrero Rocher stuff is a nice energy boost. So I told the guy to keep his chocolates, but it seems like he had stacks and stacks of boxes and he insisted. Perhaps it was a benign smuggling business, who knows. Funny thing: in Europe, I receive chocolate from drivers all the time. It’s such a pattern across countries. Like, why do car owners buy too much chocolateContinue reading
Hitchhiking Berlin to Stuttgart in No Time
So I left Berlin for Stuttgart to visit a friend and knocked down a good 670 km hitchhiking away from dreary to slightly less dreary weather. Just four rides and a total waiting time of maybe 20 minutes! There’s a reason why all the distance and speed-hitchhiking records are made in Germany! My previous hitchhiking experiences in/through Germany have always been fast and easy. Fast and easy is how I like my hitchhiking days. Right after taking this photo, I caught my final ride. I didn’t even finish my cigarette. My last driver made lots of jokes about the train constructionContinue reading
Geocaching and Tree Climbing in Treptower Park (Berlin, Germany)
I’m in Berlin now and today was a good day for tree climbing and geocaching. These were the only activities that kept me warm in this forsaken cold and moist weather… And tree climbing is way more fun as an adult! During one tree-ascent, Jonas found a geocache by accident, that’s when we started looking for more. If I sound grumpy, it’s because I’m trying to go 24 hours without smoking a cigarette. That sounded like a good bet to make last night with one of Jonas’ friends. Tree climbing is an excellent activity to keep one’s mind away from theContinue reading
Go West, Young Woman: Cabo da Roca
A cloudy and windy day at the Westernmost point of Europe, Cabo da Roca, Portugal. It has only been a month since I visited Tarifa, the Southernmost point of Europe. Before that, I visited the Northernmost point of Europe in Norway back in 2012. But Cabo da Roca is my favorite “extreme point of Europe”. Mostly because my trip on the back of someone’s scooter rewarded me with such threatening clouds. Dramatic skies are my favorite! Oh, and getting blown away by the wind makes me feel really alive (in a good way). Besides a marker that indeed says “this is theContinue reading
Bombeiro-Surfing in Beja, Portugal (Sleeping at a Fire Station)
So I walked by the fire fighting station in Beja, Portugal, and decided that was the place I was going to sleep at. I’m coining this ‘bombeiro-surfing’ and it results in instant new friends! I don’t speak Portuguese – yet – but I know that ‘bombeiro’ translates to ‘firefighter’. And as you know, ‘surfing’ is short for couchsurfing—but without the help of the CS platform, of course. (See mosque-surfing, yurt-surfing, and café-surfing) But all joking aside, I’d read or heard somewhere that bombeiro-surfing is actually a legit thing to do when traveling in Portugal. I’d link to where I saw it beforeContinue reading
Gibraltar: Tech Problems and Blind Hitchhiking
I’m back in the UK! Last night I found a last-minute couchsurfing host in the Spanish border town of La Linea. He was so kind to drop me at the border today. So now I can go hitchhiking Gibraltar and explore the monkey rock. The guy who took this photo is a born and raised Gibraltarian. He organizes some of the concerts for the national week here. Many people in the streets dressed in the national colors in anticipation of this week. It culminates on the 10th of September when it’s their national day. The border crossing to Gibraltar wasn’tContinue reading
Yurt-Surfing in Andalucía, Spain
How life gives you awesome people: what began as a spontaneous one-night freecamping invitation after a bad ride, turned into a three-day yurt-surfing adventure with my new friend from Hungary! Turns out she lives at this awesome place hidden in the woods with alternative housing. Housing such as yurts, caravans, and other ‘outdoor furniture’ (Spanish law is strange). The first night I pitched my tent next to her caravan, from where you could even see the Rock of Gibraltar! After that, we crashed at a yurt (i.e. yurt-surfing) at her neighbor’s place, because the winds were too strong. Yurts areContinue reading