I've just returned from a 5 day hitch-hiking trip from
Liege, Belgium to
Copenhagen, Denmark and back and decided to write how things were going!
1st Day Summary: 630 km, 10 h, 8 drivers, 5 nationalities, max speed 200km/h
I started my 2000 km, 5 day hitch-hiking trip in Liege, Belgium at 10:00. The Sun was shining, which is more than surprising when you are in Belgium, but temperature still remained about 0 degrees Celsius. It was cold and my Autumn-type anorak was the best motivation to get a car as soon as possible.
20 minutes of gestures, smiles and sign waving with the name of the nearest town, Aachen on it and I'm glad to introduce myself to a Belgian guy, who agreed to give me a lift to the nearest service station on the way to Aachen. 5 minutes and we are on place. I didn't even manage to ask for his name.
Service stations on European motorways/highways/autobahns are definitely my favourite places to hitch-hike. You get in touch with people, explain the situation and off you go! But it was not the case here, where people either easily frightened responded “Comment?” (stands for “How” in French and is being pronounced like “Common” in English) or ignored trying to escape any contact. And I’m not exaggerating. I looked neither like a beggar nor like a criminal and therefore couldn’t understand why the hell they’re so afraid. Probably because they couldn’t get over the fact that it was the first sunny day in the country for the last 20 centuries J
After 1 hour of fighting against the cold and Belgian ignorance I managed to persuade one secretary to give me a lift to Aachen. Having a good knowledge of 4 languages, this was probably the most intelligent secretary in the world ;)
Right where dropped off, I carried on with the next sign of Dortmund. And after another cold and depressing hour I got a man going 50 km that way. We couldn’t come to an agreement in German, since I don’t speak German. Instead we switched to, guess what? Russian! And a man who, 15 years ago moved to this country, now despite all the stereotypes did believe that Germans have a sense of humour!
Next one was the pilot of Bundewehr (German army), who had his aircraft not only in the sky, but also on the earth! And going at about 180 km/h through bends, we had to struggle with “G” forces and forces of gravity not to take off.
There’s nothing to tell about the next driver, who couldn’t speak none of the languages I know, except the fact that he was slightly faster – by hitting 200 km/h.
Fortunately my “Bremen” sign was noticed immediately when I half-consciously fell out of the “200 km/h” car. It was a group of 3 nuns/sisters, who gently agreed to give me a lift. What an irony! You’re sometimes only 1 car away from hell to heaven! These ladies not only revealed their astonishing travelling experience to Latin America, but also helped me out with the next car. But it wasn’t an easy task! In the beginning the driver didn’t want me to join him, simply because it was a part of his principles – don’t pick up hitch-hikers. But nuns were stronger than principles!
We had a long way to go together and in a little while Antoine opened up for a friendly conversation. As it turned out, by the age of 21 he managed not only to become a professional pianist, but also work for BMW and complete over 200 skydives. However, he said that one of the most exciting moments in his life was helping out one American, who occasionally was left without money in the middle of German metropolis at night. This is probably because afterwards the same American hosted my driver in New York for 4 weeks, going out almost every night ;) “Now we are best friends!” concluded Antoine.
It was completely dark, when Antoine dropped me off right after the city of Hamburg. But it wasn’t a problem on the perfectly illuminated German service station, where I immediately spotted a van, number plate of which started with “KI”. This meant only one – car registered in Kiel. Surprisingly, but on my polite offer to pick me up, the driver fishily asked in a perfect British English: “Are you going to tease me?” And while I couldn’t find, what to answer, he continued: “That’s right, because otherwise I will kick you off! Jump in!” But, before we moved on, we had to wait for a couple of children on their way from toilet. They were rather confused when approached the van saw me in it. The last one even turned around and went looking for the vehicle he arrived in.
As a result, at 20:00 I reached Kiel accompanied by a family of English soldier, who served in Germany. My former classmate, who was doing her Erasmus exchange in Kiel at that time showed me the town. I was impressed how clean and tidy Kiel was. But at the same time I was astonished that even on Friday night it remained totally deserted!
To be continued…
