Contrary to most popular hitchhiking wisdom, boats are actually hitchable. I have only hitched a 12-meter big luxurious motorboat so far, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to hitch an ocean-crossing containership. These big chonky guys travel everywhere, so the possibilities are endless! What I figured out so far: You’ll need to obtain your STCW-95 (Google is your friend) to flaunt it in people’s faces You’ll probably need to work aboard. I’m not sure if you can still call it hitchhiking then The more experienced you are at sea, A) the greater the chances they’ll take you and B)Continue reading
hitchhiking
Hitchhiking Bucket List: #1 The Top Gear Crew
This one might be difficult, but it would be the absolute dream to hitch along with (one of the) Top Gear guys, wherever they might be and whatever car they are driving at that time. Whether it’s a crazy fast car on one of Europe’s good highways or a Lada Niva somewhere in the taiga. Doesn’t matter if it’s Jeremy, James, or Richard. I don’t care. They probably all live inside the United Kingdom, so that’s probably where chances are highest. I have no idea when I’ll be back in the UK. A hitchhiker can dream… But perhaps they always driveContinue reading
Types of Drivers: #1 the Six-Gear Business Person
The business traveler is one of my favorite types of hitchhiking drivers of all time, mostly because of the sheer efficiency of these people and because they have well maintained and comfortable cars. All Business, No Playing Around You will only encounter this guy at a service station, usually with an espresso in his right hand and his car keys in the other. He might stop his car for you just after he was driving away from the service station. His suit jacket is on a clothing hanger on the back of his chair, the suitcase is in the trunkContinue reading
74 Kilometers of Potholes En Route to Tusheti, Georgia
I hitchhiked to Tusheti in northern Georgia with a random Czech traveler. The road was 74 kilometers long and it might just qualify for the road with the most potholes? Was the road one big pothole? Anyway, a four-wheel-drive vehicle was a requirement for even a short attempt at this road! I had started quite early in the daytime. This Czech guy showed up spontaneously at the same hitchhiking spot and we decided to join forces. During the long wait, he played my guitar awesomely. This made the wait quite good. You can see in the picture that the firstContinue reading
Welcome to Panama! A Border Crossing Adventure
Welcome to Panama! But no, this was yet again more of an adventure than anticipated (and hoped for). This picture is from yesterday’s (11th of June) border crossing from Costa Rica to Panama at the binational city of Paso Canoas. I hitchhiked into a town called David around sundown with yet another good samaritan from Honduras. It was a tight call whether I could cross, but I made it! The Panamanian immigration officer asked me for my (doctored in MS Paint) flight ticket to Madrid. And it worked! But then he asked me for proof of sufficient funds, which comesContinue reading
Getting My Yellow Fever Vaccine (+Bonus Shot!) in Trujillo, Honduras
I wrote this post in 2021 many years later after the actual events. Back in 2014, I had barely started the first iteration of this blog (Escapist) and it was basically a Tumblr. So this post about how I got my yellow fever vaccine in Honduras is based on memory and photographs. My First Medical Tourism Experience While hitchhiking from Mexico to Panama, many fellow travelers going up or down the Gringo Trail exchanged information. So basically all insights about travel and vaccination requirements came from hearsay. I was 22 years old and had freshly dropped out of university. AndContinue reading
The Best Travel Apps
I was planning to write about ‘the best travel apps’ for a long time, and I’m finally stuck somewhere with WiFi to actually do it. So here we go. Starting with the obvious observation: The last decade has seen some incredible progress regarding technology and so it has affected the way in which we travel. It doesn’t matter whether we go to an all-inclusive resort in Turkey or go backpacking in a crap hostel with bedbugs, We, the (privileged) people who travel have started to expect WiFi and other services everywhere. We bring our own laptop (heavy), tablet (perfect) or smartphoneContinue reading