If I got a quid for every time someone here said the word "super", I'd be super rich by now! Sorry, I got lost in an entirely irrelevant train of thought as I just overheard a conversation where someone uttered the word super. Again. Super interesting and super cool. It's said quite frequently here in tvind! Anyway, onwards with typing about me leaving Munster and my first hitchhiking experience.
So after Michael's departure back to tvind, taking with him all enthusiasm, optimism and just an overall positive vibe, we were back to our reluctant selves as more issues arose. I'd rather not go into details and turn this into yet another moan about work and our manager, so I'll just say the last straw came when Antonio and myself had a very heated argument that had escalated far too quickly for me to remember what was exactly shouted amidst all the profanities. I no longer wanted to stay, period, and for Antonio the feeling was mutual. Same for Honza too.
So it was time to leave and our only option was to hitchhike back to Denmark at least and maybe use public transport once we get close enough to tvind. Honza suggested we write several locations on different cardboards (pictures further down), so drivers could see straight away where we wanted to go. We decided that the key locations to hitch rides to were: Bremen, Hamburg, Flensburg, Kolding and then Holstebro - if things go accordingly anyway. I suspect that hitchhikers destinations are always subject to change depending on the drivers who stop to pick us up. After spending our last day preparing, planning, relaxing and packing, we had an early night as we were going to leave fairly early.
We left Puning 5 at around 7:30 so we could catch a bus to Munster then another one to the outskirts of Munster. Unfortunately, the second bus didn't quite take us where we wanted to be dropped off and thus we had to walk a few kilometres, which was exhausting as I had two bags with me and the large backpack on my back was straining my shoulder and neck muscles. I was relieved once we arrived at our desired petrol station on the (A1?) highway and got bought us both a cup of latte. Now it was time to play the patient waiting game.
For my first experience, it wasn't going particularly well; we kept being rejected by everyone that we asked for a lift off of, and after an hour or so of crossing my fingers in anticipation of the next person we asked, I became exasperated. After about an hour and half of being constantly declined of getting a lift, Honza came running to me with a smile upon his face. "Finally, we got a ride!" A man who drives a transport van had approached Honza offering a ride and was luckily heading to Bremen himself. We didn't converse with our driver much so it wasn't a particularly exciting ride, but I didn't care. After what seemed an eternity of waiting, it was nice to finally be out of the vicinity of Munster. Honza got a map up on his phone and he agreed to drop us off at a gas station on a highway close to Bremen.
Once again, we played the waiting game. I got my ukulele out as we sat with our cardboard sign stating we wanted to go to Hamburg. This time we waited for around an hour before two blokes around our age offered a lift and conveniently to Hamburg as that's where they were heading themselves. These guys were a lot more talkative than our previous driver and their company car was more comfortable to boot. They are work colleagues who travel around and build stages for concerts which sounds like a pretty cool job. After the driver dropped off his colleague in the city, he generously took us about another 15km north of Hamburg to another gas station on the highway for which we were very grateful for!
There was a cafe at this stop, so we opted for a quick refreshment and ate some lunch we had packed before sitting with our sign to Flensburg. Although I was getting some looks and smiles as I played my ukulele in hope that it would better our chances of getting approached by someone, none did. Eventually though, a Danish guy in military uniform approached us and asked where we were heading. I told him that although our next planned stop was at Flensburg, we would rather skip that place and cross the border into Denmark and he could perhaps drop us off close to Kolding. As it happened, they were heading 20 kilometres south from Kolding and although they are not allowed to pick up hitchhikers, "Fuck it. It's no problem," he said, which was delightful to hear! So we walked over to his military jeep, met with his comrade and off we went.
As a bloke who is anti-military, I was somewhat weary of riding with these two fellas, but I was just very grateful for a long ride that would mean us being a lot closer to our final destination. As I mentioned before, plans change and for the better in this case! And as it turned out, they were NATO soldiers which is the lesser of the two evils I suppose. Unlike the army, they don't just go into a war zone all guns blazing but rather try for a diplomatic approach first - from what I gathered anyway. Our driver was very talkative and him and Honza talked a lot about the current conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and politics in general. I mostly abstained from engaging in their conversations lest I let slip something that would offend our courteous and charitable drivers, who even gave me a cigarette, and they sling us out. There's a time and place for such debates and being on the highway on a tiresome journey, for me, was not it. Though, it was certainly interesting to hear his opinions. I remember the driver (also the guy mostly talking), talked of how he would eventually like to leave and pursue a job in protecting wildlife as he very much likes nature. All the best to the guy!
We also found ourselves in somewhat funny situation 10 kilometres after we crossed the German/Danish border: there was a random police check going on and they signalled even us over (not so weird apparently, as this military jeep was a German one) to a stop amongst other cars. All went well and then our NATO driver said, "Thank fuck they didn't have sniffer dogs on them because of what we've got in our bags, we'd be in big trouble." Curiously, I asked him what he had in his bag that would be problematic for them. "Bags of weed," he replied with a sigh of relief and then laughter. Thank fuck indeed!
True to their word, they dropped us off about 20 kilometres from Kolding. They even gave us a parting cigarette! We said our farewells and off they went leaving us at a somewhat desolate gas station; very few vehicles seemed to be passing through this stop which left us rather pessimistic. The sun was starting to set by then and Honza was certain that no one was going to want to pick up two blokes in the evening. After waiting for quite sometime, it started to look like he was right and we had to either go on separately or find shelter and stay the night; both weren't too enticing for me, but I was ready to hitch hike alone if need be. I felt like a pro already!
Fortunately for us though, a middle aged Danish bloke offered us a ride after seeing us sitting and waiting for so long. He was heading to Billund and offered to drop us off at the airport. I then called Michael and asked if we could use public transport from Billund to Ulfborg and he said he'd pick us up instead. Awesome! This guy seemed quite nationalistic in his views but was pleasant to converse with. As Billund is the place from whence Lego was first produced, he gave us tidbits of information regarding Lego. None important enough for me to remember except that Lego is now currently the most profitable, erm, toy? Manufacture? Product? Whatever.
So we got off at the airport and thanked our driver for taking us there. We were very hungry after a long journey without eating much, thus we opted to get something to eat at the cafe in the airport. After eating much bloating meal, we waited for about an hour before Michael arrived and to take us, finally, to tvind.
For my first time hitchhiking, it was overall a good experience. Sure, waiting to be approached can be tedious and being declined a ride for the umpteenth time can be exasperating, but once you finally get into a strangers vehicle, one thinks that there are still many good charitable people out there that'll go the extra mile for a stranded man that just wants to get somewhere, and you can't help but smile and be pleased. Media has caused a mass hysteria regarding hitchhiking and often when a story is told of hitchhiking, you can bet your arse it'll be a negative one. Many a malleable person is now weary of stopping to pick up a stranger in fear of being raped or mugged (although, strangely, most are fine with getting in a taxi and taxi drivers certainly have no problems?!). So like most other anecdotes of hitchhiking (not stories that tabloids are likely to publish), this one too is a positive one. I look forward to many more hitchhiking experiences. It's super cool!
So after Michael's departure back to tvind, taking with him all enthusiasm, optimism and just an overall positive vibe, we were back to our reluctant selves as more issues arose. I'd rather not go into details and turn this into yet another moan about work and our manager, so I'll just say the last straw came when Antonio and myself had a very heated argument that had escalated far too quickly for me to remember what was exactly shouted amidst all the profanities. I no longer wanted to stay, period, and for Antonio the feeling was mutual. Same for Honza too.
So it was time to leave and our only option was to hitchhike back to Denmark at least and maybe use public transport once we get close enough to tvind. Honza suggested we write several locations on different cardboards (pictures further down), so drivers could see straight away where we wanted to go. We decided that the key locations to hitch rides to were: Bremen, Hamburg, Flensburg, Kolding and then Holstebro - if things go accordingly anyway. I suspect that hitchhikers destinations are always subject to change depending on the drivers who stop to pick us up. After spending our last day preparing, planning, relaxing and packing, we had an early night as we were going to leave fairly early.
We left Puning 5 at around 7:30 so we could catch a bus to Munster then another one to the outskirts of Munster. Unfortunately, the second bus didn't quite take us where we wanted to be dropped off and thus we had to walk a few kilometres, which was exhausting as I had two bags with me and the large backpack on my back was straining my shoulder and neck muscles. I was relieved once we arrived at our desired petrol station on the (A1?) highway and got bought us both a cup of latte. Now it was time to play the patient waiting game.
For my first experience, it wasn't going particularly well; we kept being rejected by everyone that we asked for a lift off of, and after an hour or so of crossing my fingers in anticipation of the next person we asked, I became exasperated. After about an hour and half of being constantly declined of getting a lift, Honza came running to me with a smile upon his face. "Finally, we got a ride!" A man who drives a transport van had approached Honza offering a ride and was luckily heading to Bremen himself. We didn't converse with our driver much so it wasn't a particularly exciting ride, but I didn't care. After what seemed an eternity of waiting, it was nice to finally be out of the vicinity of Munster. Honza got a map up on his phone and he agreed to drop us off at a gas station on a highway close to Bremen.
Once again, we played the waiting game. I got my ukulele out as we sat with our cardboard sign stating we wanted to go to Hamburg. This time we waited for around an hour before two blokes around our age offered a lift and conveniently to Hamburg as that's where they were heading themselves. These guys were a lot more talkative than our previous driver and their company car was more comfortable to boot. They are work colleagues who travel around and build stages for concerts which sounds like a pretty cool job. After the driver dropped off his colleague in the city, he generously took us about another 15km north of Hamburg to another gas station on the highway for which we were very grateful for!
There was a cafe at this stop, so we opted for a quick refreshment and ate some lunch we had packed before sitting with our sign to Flensburg. Although I was getting some looks and smiles as I played my ukulele in hope that it would better our chances of getting approached by someone, none did. Eventually though, a Danish guy in military uniform approached us and asked where we were heading. I told him that although our next planned stop was at Flensburg, we would rather skip that place and cross the border into Denmark and he could perhaps drop us off close to Kolding. As it happened, they were heading 20 kilometres south from Kolding and although they are not allowed to pick up hitchhikers, "Fuck it. It's no problem," he said, which was delightful to hear! So we walked over to his military jeep, met with his comrade and off we went.
As a bloke who is anti-military, I was somewhat weary of riding with these two fellas, but I was just very grateful for a long ride that would mean us being a lot closer to our final destination. As I mentioned before, plans change and for the better in this case! And as it turned out, they were NATO soldiers which is the lesser of the two evils I suppose. Unlike the army, they don't just go into a war zone all guns blazing but rather try for a diplomatic approach first - from what I gathered anyway. Our driver was very talkative and him and Honza talked a lot about the current conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and politics in general. I mostly abstained from engaging in their conversations lest I let slip something that would offend our courteous and charitable drivers, who even gave me a cigarette, and they sling us out. There's a time and place for such debates and being on the highway on a tiresome journey, for me, was not it. Though, it was certainly interesting to hear his opinions. I remember the driver (also the guy mostly talking), talked of how he would eventually like to leave and pursue a job in protecting wildlife as he very much likes nature. All the best to the guy!
We also found ourselves in somewhat funny situation 10 kilometres after we crossed the German/Danish border: there was a random police check going on and they signalled even us over (not so weird apparently, as this military jeep was a German one) to a stop amongst other cars. All went well and then our NATO driver said, "Thank fuck they didn't have sniffer dogs on them because of what we've got in our bags, we'd be in big trouble." Curiously, I asked him what he had in his bag that would be problematic for them. "Bags of weed," he replied with a sigh of relief and then laughter. Thank fuck indeed!
True to their word, they dropped us off about 20 kilometres from Kolding. They even gave us a parting cigarette! We said our farewells and off they went leaving us at a somewhat desolate gas station; very few vehicles seemed to be passing through this stop which left us rather pessimistic. The sun was starting to set by then and Honza was certain that no one was going to want to pick up two blokes in the evening. After waiting for quite sometime, it started to look like he was right and we had to either go on separately or find shelter and stay the night; both weren't too enticing for me, but I was ready to hitch hike alone if need be. I felt like a pro already!
Fortunately for us though, a middle aged Danish bloke offered us a ride after seeing us sitting and waiting for so long. He was heading to Billund and offered to drop us off at the airport. I then called Michael and asked if we could use public transport from Billund to Ulfborg and he said he'd pick us up instead. Awesome! This guy seemed quite nationalistic in his views but was pleasant to converse with. As Billund is the place from whence Lego was first produced, he gave us tidbits of information regarding Lego. None important enough for me to remember except that Lego is now currently the most profitable, erm, toy? Manufacture? Product? Whatever.
So we got off at the airport and thanked our driver for taking us there. We were very hungry after a long journey without eating much, thus we opted to get something to eat at the cafe in the airport. After eating much bloating meal, we waited for about an hour before Michael arrived and to take us, finally, to tvind.
For my first time hitchhiking, it was overall a good experience. Sure, waiting to be approached can be tedious and being declined a ride for the umpteenth time can be exasperating, but once you finally get into a strangers vehicle, one thinks that there are still many good charitable people out there that'll go the extra mile for a stranded man that just wants to get somewhere, and you can't help but smile and be pleased. Media has caused a mass hysteria regarding hitchhiking and often when a story is told of hitchhiking, you can bet your arse it'll be a negative one. Many a malleable person is now weary of stopping to pick up a stranger in fear of being raped or mugged (although, strangely, most are fine with getting in a taxi and taxi drivers certainly have no problems?!). So like most other anecdotes of hitchhiking (not stories that tabloids are likely to publish), this one too is a positive one. I look forward to many more hitchhiking experiences. It's super cool!
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