Posting live from a BP petrol station outside of Ioannina in Greece, where two French hitchhikers decided to come as well! Hitchhiking clearly ain’t dead. Now we’re chatting about our travel itineraries and hitchhiking around the Balkans and southern Europe. They are going in the direction of Patras and Athens. I’m going to Igoumenitsa so this is where our roads intersect and split again. Greece is definitely part of the ill-defined Balkan Trail. We exchanged contacts, so I might see them again once I’m in France hopefully later this year! How do you like my hitchhiking sign in Greek script? TogetherContinue reading
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Literal Book Worm (Kruče, MNE)
This little fellah – a literal book worm – was reading along with me last night. I led the bendy boy off the page and onto a wall to not squish him. I’m reading the book The Price of Salt/Carol that Aleksandra had lying around her place by torchlight. It’s basically about two women on a road trip, which makes my thumb a little itchy to hitchhike on to Albania. I’m slowly preparing to leave Aleksandra’s elaborate hospitality here in Kruče. I didn’t meet her via CouchSurfing, but this has been my longest surf so far! Apparently, I arrived here on the 16th of May.Continue reading
Croatia’s Adriatic Highway: Makarska to Kupari nearby Dubrovnik
I took this photo while hitchhiking the coastal road of Croatia from Makarska to Kupari nearby Dubrovnik in a truck. There’s more than one ‘Autoroute du Soleil‘ and the French don’t own the rights to beautiful north-south holidaymaker routes! If you’re wondering where you need to go to travel here, look up Croatia’s D8 road. It’s part of an international road called the Adriatic Highway. It goes from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Croatia again followed by Montenegro. Here are a video and the Google Streetview version of that video for location accuracy: 2020 update: The onlyContinue reading
Sibiu to Timișoara: A Fluffy Hitchhiking Companion in Romania
When hitchhiking from pleasant Sibiu to Timișoara, I had a very lucky ride. The driver couple had this very sweet dog that I shared the back seat with. I know, I know… the dog looks like she’s not having a great time or is quite hungover. But I swear the dog was just enjoying my scritches. As this huge dog was a source of heat, I soon had to take off my winter hat, gloves, scarf, and coat to make this work. I’ve been wanting to travel to Timișoara since that first summer hitchhiking trip around Europe in 2013. I’d heard goodContinue reading
ANWB: Geographical Knowledge and Hiking Socks
As a preparation for the next big hitchhiking trip through Europe, I visited the shop of this organization mostly known for towing your car named ANWB. It’s kind of like the Dutch version of Triple-A or another roadside assistance organization. According to these maps from the ANWB, Poland and the Baltic States are just North and East Germany. Ahem, should we tell them? Anyway, it’s nice that I received these free paper maps from them. I intend to use them mostly as a way to track my route with the pen I received from a young student of architecture in Zanjan,Continue reading
Northern Cyprus! Ferry from Taşucu (Turkey) to Girne (Kıbrıs)
After a rough night on the rolling sea, pretending to like immigration officers and a heavy rain shower to say welcome, I have arrived in Cyprus. Northern Cyprus. Vake yeah! Getting to the port town of Taşucu to make it to the night ferry was a hellish experience. But I made it. That’s what matters. Now I’m in the port town on the other side. The Turkish people call it Girne and the Greeks call it Kyrenia. Likewise, the island of Cyprus is known in Turkey as Kıbrıs, it’s capital Nicosia as Lefkoşa. You know. So let’s talk about the big elephant inContinue reading
Schönbrunn, Vienna
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
Three Days in Kyiv, Ukraine – Celebrating my 22nd Birthday
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