This time I won't be so lazy and get this over with before it gets to be way over my head that I never get around to blogging it (like what happened to my hitchhiking trip in the Balkans, Greece, and Turkey this summer... I will eventually post it, I suppose, but so much happened during that trip it's burdensome to blog about now...). My spring vacation was considerably shorter than my trip to the Balkans, anyway, so I'll post it while it's still relatively fresh.
Denmark, dubbed the "happiest place on Earth", was a country I'd never been to, but have wanted to go to since I learned about the international happiness survey. Having learned my lesson from summer (being stuck or days in Albanian and Romanian villages where cars came by infrequently), I decided stick to larger cities. My plan was to hitchhiked to København (Copenhagen) by way of Germany and, I will have to brag a little, it took just over 11 hours to get there!
I woke up bright and early at the ass crack of dawn to hitchhike to Denmark. In fact, when I woke up, the sun wasn't even fully risen yet and the sky outside had a dull and grayish overcast across the sleepy city of Strasbourg. Packing some edibles (bread, water, fruit) and donning my clothes, I grabbed my small backpack and headed out to catch a tram to get closer to the German border. Crossing over the border from France by foot, which was relatively easy, seeing as how I live on the border of Germany now and all, I hitchhiked a ride out of Kehl with a German business headed for Frankfurt (am Main), a city I'm familiar with having hitchhiked to/from already.
Once at the rest area near Frankfurt, it was a 3-minute wait before getting picked up by a middle-aged woman and her mother headed to Hamburg by way of Hannover! It was my first time hitchhiking with two women! Awesomeness! They taught me many things =) including being wary of marriage... the woman was freakin' awesome. She was a mother of twins who were both 10 years old and lived with the father of the children but decided against marriage. She also warned me not to get married or get into a serious relationship before figuring out what kind of a man he was (i.e. does he clean the house, wash dishes, do laundry, etc.) Good advice from a more experienced woman, I suppose! Though, I never planned on getting married or entering a serious relationship any time soon to begin with. Progress continued on pretty rapidly and efficiently, one of the many reasons for why I love hitchhiking in Germany so much. After a quick stop at Hannover, at which the woman dropped a package, I was in Hamburg in no time at all. Hannover... ach, ja, die langweilige Hauptstadt Hannover. I guess you wouldn't get this joke if you don't know German and/or haven't watched this YouTube clip:
Once at a rest area in Hamburg, I bid farewell to the two women and waited a mere 5 minutes before getting a ride to Kiel. Being a smaller city, I suppose, explains the fewer number of drivers and thus the fewer number of drivers willing to pick up hitchhikers? I took the opportunity to eat my ration of bread, drink some water, and saved my pear for a later time. It never takes terribly long to catch a ride in Germany, I suppose. From Kiel, after waiting about 15 minutes, a driver said he'd drop me off in a rest area near a city called Flensburg. Unfortunately for me, I'd never heard of this city before I and just took his word for it when he said I'd be able to get to Denmark from there with no problems.
By the time I was at a rest area right near Flensburg, I was ready to cross the border to Denmark. A driver headed for a Danish city called Kolding picked me up and I made it across the Danish border. My driver, who had hitchhiked himself a couple decades before, actually told me I'd be better off if he dropped me off before reaching Kolding. Apparently rest areas are limited and hitchhiking would be near-impossible if I were to go past Kolding. I took his word for it and I was dropped off in what seemed to be a somewhat rural area.... and a very quiet rest area, before his destination. Once in Denmark, progress seemed slightly slower than in Germany as I got a ride after an average of 5 to 10-minute wait with drivers going shorter distances. I passed hands from drivers headed to Ejby, Vissenbjerg, Højby... then took a car headed for Nyborg, crossing over to another island of Denmark, to a rest area near the city of Slagelse. From Slagelse I was taken to Køge, where, it seemed, I lost momentum. By the time I was in Køge and already I felt like sunlight wouldn't be out for too long.
But I suppose people are in a charitable mood during the holidays, whether they are religious or not! A family picked me up! Never before had I hitchhiked in a car with a family... but like they say, there's a first time for everything. Usually, I think parents don't want to pick up hitchhikers, either because they think it's dangerous or they think it will have a bad influence on their children in some way (maybe I'd inspire these youngsters to become hitchhikers?). But I suppose this family was not your average family since they picked me up happily and let me stay in their home for a few days! They had two young children, Michael and Christian who were 9 and 15, so I was really surprised that they didn't think I'd make a bad impression on them and turn their innocent young boys into future hitchhikers. I later found out through a conversation I had that they themselves hitchhiked across Europe as youth and said it was a little sad that it had become a "dying sport". Still, without fail, they did say it was "dangerous" for a girl to do it alone. They'd apparently hitchhiked together as a couple before they decided to have children, but never as individuals.
By the time we'd reached København, it was already almost 21h and discovering I had no concrete plans as to where I'd be sleeping, the family insisted that I stay with them for Easter! How could I refuse? Good luck was smiling at me and embracing me, so I accepted. Their home was quaint and cozy and the futon in the living room was comfy. I had an incredibly good night's sleep that night.
Easter morning, I had a "traditional" Danish Easter breakfast with the family. Danish isn't a language I'm very familiar with, so my limited knowledge of Swedish, combined with German, made them laugh a few times and they encouraged me to speak in English, which would be good for their two sons who were learning it in school. I was given some Easter candies and the family took me to show me around the town later that day. On Monday, the parents didn't have work so it was another day spent with the family and I was thoroughly saddened to see that the famous mermaid statue was nowhere to be found! Apparently it was sent over to Shanghai for an exhibit and wouldn't be back for a while. This means I have to go back to København, if not just for the famous mermaid statue! It was a nice city and much more lively than Strasbourg, so I'd definitely prefer living in København to living in Strasbourg... though French does sound a lot nicer than Danish. I guess I'd probably prefer life in Paris to life in København if I had to choose. Still, it was a fun city.
Tuesday, the parents went to work and I was left with the kids who had off from school. I made sure to cook and clean, trying to be the best guest I could be. I was shown around town by the children, who attempted to teach me some Danish in exchange for my English =). It was pretty adorable, especially the little one, Michael, who thought it was pretty amusing that he spoke better Danish than a 22-year-old! I decided I'd head over to Stockholm the next morning. I prepared a very French dinner for my lovely Danish family the night before my departure. The boys' parents, Peter and Vita, offered to drop me off at a rest area just on the outskirts of the city before going to work, which would make my hitchhiking easier than from attempting to hitchhike out of the center.
The next morning, I was dropped off along with a package of some Danish pastries (Yes! They have Danish pastries in Denmark!!!) to eat in case I got hungry along with some Easter candy... which was an added souvenir since I'd already bought some candy the day before, but I guess for Danes (with the #1 per capita consumption of candy in the world), you can never have enough candy! I thanked them for everything and their generous hospitality, at which they simply smiled and laughed, saying I was welcome to their home any time I wished and they gave me their address, business cards, and wished me the best of luck. This is why I love hitchhiking! Once you start hitchhiking and meeting people like this, your life and your world view will never be the same.
Once on the road again, I hitchhiked a ride with a driver going to Malmö, a city on the southern tip of Sweden. Hitchhiking to Stockholm took about 4.5 hours from København, which I must say, isn't too shabby. My maximum wait time was 15 minutes and once in Stockholm, it was still the early afternoon! I called up Erik on my arrival at which he exclaimed, "What? Already? Who did you ride with? A Formula-1 driver?!" I might as well have been =) Progress was fast, what can I say?
In Stockholm, I realized a crucial mistake of having forgotten a jacket or coat. Despite it being mid-April, the weather was freezing, quite literally. The temperature hovered around 0C at night and in the morning and throughout the day, it rarely climbed up past 5C. In such weather, I lost all motivation to hitchhike to Finland or Norway, which, according to Erik, would be even colder. I decided to just relax for once during vacation, which is something I'm not terribly used to doing. Still, I guess a relaxing vacation is nice once in a while. I felt no pressure to go on a sightseeing rampage like I normally do since I'd been in Stockholm 3 years ago with Tomasz. Instead, when the temperature was warmest, I talked throughout the city, reminiscing, walking the streets that gave me a pleasantly eerie feeling of déjà vu and spent some time making Swedish and American foods with ingredients that I couldn't find in France.
Once strange thing I learned this time around in Sweden: some clubs downtown don't let you in unless you're 25!!! Another we tried to get into wouldn't let me in because I wasn't 23!!! And you thought the U.S. had harsh rules and uptight bouncers? Think again! Talk about age discrimination! Didn't take too many pictures in Stockholm since most of the city I'd already photographed before. I will upload everything to Picasa eventually... just need to find the motivation to... and also if my camera and laptop cooperate with each other, which, as of late, they've haven't been... Oh why does technology hate me so much? While I was in Stockholm, I did update my documents and got a new ID card and all that jazz. Was there for about a week before deciding to head back to Strasbourg before classes started. I figured I'd give myself two days, so I left on Wednesday to Denmark. I did get controlled by the Swedish police while hitchhiking out of Stockholm. According to the policemen who stopped me, I was standing in a place where cars couldn't stop. When I apologized profusely in what I call "svengelska" (mixture of Swedish and English), explaining my situation, they smiled and said they'd give me a ride to a better location. Sweet! Now I can say that I hitchhiked with policemen! They dropped me off at what they deemed to be a better place to hitchhike out of, wished me luck, and drove away. They were right, I got a ride out of Stockholm after a 10-minute wait!
This time around, I made it just near the border of Germany and Denmark, in a very rural area before it started to get dark. I ended up hitchhiking with a farmer, who invited me to stay with him and his wife for the night since the sun was already setting and it would be better to sleep in a warm house than in a cold rest area on a bench. I happily accepted and met his lovely wife who fed me a warm dinner and they gave me one of the spare bedrooms. They apparently have 4 sons, all of whom have moved out, leaving a couple vacant rooms in the house. Actually, it was quite funny because they thought I was a child! They both thought I was a high school student or a first year university student until I told them I was 22! Apparently I didn't look much older than 17 or 18 in their eyes. Maybe what my friends say is true. I haven't changed much in the past 5 years in terms of looking more mature as I should. I still have some baby fat on my face... damn. I guess if I'm anything like the women in my family, I'll finally lose some face fat when I'm in my 30s. My mom was (and from what I've heard, both grandmothers were) prettiest in her 30s so maybe the same will ring true for me too?
After a warm dinner and a warm shower, I slept in a warm, *real* bed for the first time in a long time. I slept like a rock for a good 8 or 9 hours before starting my journey again. The Danish farmer dropped me off at a nearby rest area and it was smooth sailing from there. On the journey back from Denmark to France, the maximum wait time was 10 minutes and the minimum wait time, 1 minute! I hitchhiked with 3 German businessmen and 1 German businesswoman, 4 cars, just like last time, to get to Strasbourg. It was also the second time I hitchhiked with a solo woman driver!
Now I'm back in France with a pang in my heart and an ache in my stomach... an ache to travel more. This short break just wasn't enough... I can't wait until the week is over so I can go out and venture somewhere (preferably somewhere warmer: I'm thinking Andorra and Portugal?) once again and add some more beautiful memories to my collection. =)
Today's Random Quiz:
| You Are Flares |
 You tend to be a bit rebellious. You're more likely to dress for yourself than dress for the occasion. You are both peaceful and jovial. There is a happy calm that surrounds everything you do. You are broad minded, well read, and well traveled. You are open to anything that comes your way. |
