I am innocent, believe me!

Help! My Stockholm host made me like "guitar heroes" I could not do anything against it, im sorry... tomorrow i´ll leave the place and then its all forgotten... so i need to find an excuse on why not to play tonight AGAIN. But we actually made a good team, we got much further than she ever got before.


Actually i made a detour via Stockholm only because of a Meeting (Couchsurfing Ambassador meeting) to get to know the nordic members and to participate in some partying here. I was quite disappointed. On friday, most people left from the weekly meeting at 8pm. We left at 10pm because it was getting too cold and most people had left anyway. On Saturday, i expected a really big party: BBQ for dinner and then going out. You fool! At 10pm most people went home altough it was even inside. At 12.30 the person hosting the BBQ came up and said that the party was over. Beause it had been so boring before, I tried to heat up the atmosphere a little together with Birgit, a girl from Austria. She had brought all the cheap alcohol from Austria and nobody wanted to drink it, as inSweden apparently everyone brings his own alcohol... And they keep strictly to the portion they brought themselfs.... Yes... its true. So we gave everyone drink vodka shots... until the bottle was empty. This did of course not prevent me from getting really pissed. And it came all suddenly...

(i don´t say anything, i don´t see anything, i don´t hear anything)

Hitchhiking from Karlstad to Stockholm was very unspectacular. I only needed one lift to get to the first gas station on the highway and then somebody picked me up who drove all the way to Stokholm. As my host lives in Södertälje, he even drove a different way for me and drpped me off at my destination. Sometimes its unbeleivable how friendly people are.


Ok folks, thats all for now, it took me quite some time to update this and it might take quite some time until i can update it again.

The adventures continue - where the hell is Karlstad?

After two great and relxaing days in Älmhult i hit the road again. It only took me a mere 20 minutes wait to get a lift to the motorway. There i asked around at the gas station but none of these reserved Swedes would give me a ride. They even told me they were going into that direction but they would not pick up hitchhikers. Finally i found a polish truck who took me a all the way to Örebro, he was driving Poland - Falun in Sweden every 2 weeks. As far as i could gather that from what he said. He didnt understand much english nor swedish or any other language i knew. Only polish... 4 hours of silence later i got stranded in Örebro. It took me a while to get into town first as the truck driver dropped me off at some gas station way south of Orebro. I would have had to turn left, but all the traffic was either heading north or to Gothenburg. People didn´t even know where Karlstad is. After some more sensles standing next to the entry of the motorway, closer to town, i gave up and took the train. At least i could relax a little, but i found out that the train costs here in Sweden had apparently risen since i was here the last times. Everything was getting more expensive... I also read an article about the inflation in Sweden.

Total number of lifts: 3
Money spend on transport: 191,00 SEK (33 Swiss Francs)


Karlstad - THE bike adventure!
Big were my plans for these 3 days stay but small the outcomes. My host Magnus met me at the trains station and took me to his home. There he proposed to go out for dinner: Canoeing and having a pick-nick there. Wow, fun times paddeling and we even saw a few beavers. Magnus told me i was doing well, which means alot if swdish people say that. Normally they would just express that as "not too bad". I don´t know what it its, but their vocabulary of expressing something in a positive way ends there...



There were 3 "community" bikes to borrow where my host lived. On one the key was missing (of course it was the best bike) which narrowed it down to 2 bikes only. On the first day, i crashed with antoher girl who was biking on the pavement. (i know Gabriele is going to tell me off now) On the second day, with the other bike, i almost hit a pedestrian. That bike tourned out to be even worse. The chain fell off and i suddenly could not brake anymore. Even if the chain was put back on there i could not brake anymore... and not even tread. So i pushed the bike home. On the third day... theres no other bike left i was doomed to walk around. Too bad as Karlstad really seemed like a very green area.

In the evening my host would entertain me. We went to visit a friend of him on the 2nd evening. He lived out of town with his wife. They wanted to watch the soccer game.. good i found a new friend - the wife - who acompanied me on a long walk through the forrest where we picked wild strawberries. Nice! And we still got to see the 2 goals sweden made in the match, altough we only saw 15 mins of it. Whats the big deal about it, u just got to sit there when the goals happen, thats all. The rest of the game is really boring, believe me..

On the last evenng i organised a BBQ / pick-nick thing through Couchsurfing starting in the late afternoon. It was great to meet new people from the area and to get the people form the area get together. They came up with some good ideas for future meetings. A hat dinner party!! After some playing kubb, freesbee and Boomerang, people made their way home.. Arrived home at 9pm already, Magnus and i decided that going to sleep now was too unhealthy and we didnt want to put ourselfs into that risk. So we started to play Yatzy and drink Rum. After 2 rounds of winning i started to loose (why on earth ??????) The evening ended with us watching youtube "mana mana" song and more silly ones.

(thats what alcohol leads you to! keep your hands off!)


Karlstad was great too, so far i liked all the places i`ve been to, i think its because i am being hosted by locals.

My bag is too heavy

I need to get rid of some stuff.. thats for sure, but what? Ahhhrgggg! I already did in Copenhagen but still its 17kgs when i last weighted it. How i know? I got to stay with somebody who had a scales. in Älmhult. Its a little town in southern Sweden. Its not just any town, its where Ingvar Kamprad build up his very first IKEA and started a busines. We boycotted it by climbing the IKEA roof at night where we had a great view of the entire village.





Also went dumpster diving for the first time of my life with my host. I have only spent 40 SEK (about 6 Swiss Franks) there during 2 days and since i had hitchhiked there, the first money i spent was in the next town. I really enjozed staying in Älmhult: out in the country site, breathing fresh air, biking around, swimming in the lake and cooking for the entire family. My host Jonathan (im his first guest) still lives with his mother, stepfather and sister in a typical red swedish house. Ahhhww! The whole family accepted me as a guest they even took me to their stables outside in the forrest and showed me their Iceland horses. Also the dog, who is known to be very shy, accepted me as a pal. Not to forget the cats... I wish i can find more of such towns along the road.


Ahh yes the hitchhiking part:
I started in Copenhagen. Its been bloody hot and i´ve been standing next to the road for about an hour. Not to mention the 30 mins walk from the train station to the spot, in the burning sun. First car that stop would only go to Malmö. I knew it! I´ll be fucked again! Most cars that passed were swedish, but they didnt stop. The guy who picked me up -originally from Lebanon but who had been living in Denmark for quite some time- wanted to drop me off on the motorway itself, which i refused. So i got dropped off somewhe completely out of the way. The traffic is directed in an inner and an outher ring = motorway. I got stranded at the inner ring. I stood at the exit of a huge commercial centre and thousands of cars would come past me. Most laughing their head off and honking. I dont understand why they didnt stop to tell me that i was standing in a completely wrong place. Finally, somebody stopped and said he would take me to Helsinborg later, he just needed to get something in a shop nearby, I should wait for him. I can still hear him saying "100%" sure.... of course he never returned. about 2 hours later, a swedish guy had mercy for me and picked me up, dropped me at the outher ring at a gas station, so i could continue easily from there. It only took me 10 minutes until i found somebody that would drive to Växjö, which is very close to Älmhult. A real swede. Very reserved first, but gradually defrosting: he started to talk and even chose the slower way to Växjö that would get past Älmhult. In the end he even quickly drove me around Älmhult to tell me where all the sights are and what i am supposed to look at... funny ;)



Total number of lifts form Copenhagen to Älmhult: 3
Money spend on transport: 0

Copenhagen - the party never ends

Its been a dreadful day, im tired, sunburned, thirsty when i get the the ferry terminal. Ahhh,,,, the cool and salty air, feels like coming home. I have been missing the sea sooooo much. Finally i managed to got hold of somebody on the ferry, 2 danish lads whom i immediately encouraged to speak danish, after all i did learn some at uni... They drove to Copenhagen directly and i was so relieved, i would be able to get to Copenhagen on time and catch up all my time. Of course i bribed them with my swiss chocolate directly.. so they could not escape anymore with some excuses...

I got to my new hosts place around 7pm. Helle lives in a student residence. Thats a really funny thing in Denmark. All the students live in thise huge houses with several floors and in big "corridors" each one has a single room but they share a spacious community kitchen/bathrooms. I had already been a guest in these and also this time it turned out greatly. You meet so many other locals and get to speak the local language right away, so i quickly realised that i cant really talk Danish. ;( I tried but i would not understand very much. So many positive things about living in a "Studentgaarden": The residence even has a shop where they sell candy, food and drinks. Sometimes they call up in the kitchen to advertise because they don´t have any customers. Not to mention that there is even a 24/7 bottleshop as well, maintained by some lad in the 4th floor (thats eliberately chose, i think) who had to stop eating just because the 3 girls wanted to get some red wine.

The next few days:
I had already been to Copenhagen many times before so i had absolutely no objections to see the tourist sights again. I rented a bike and biked around every day, collecting some cans and meeting up with some new friends in the evenings. the best thing about it was that i would not spend any money as i had to pay a huge deposit for the bike when i got it. So all my cash was in the bike - shop during my stay in Copenhagen. So whenever i wanted to spend something i had to collect bottles and cans. That tourned out to be very easy as due to the warm weather, people would stand and sit outside all night and block several streets and squares. I didnt find it that hot, but apparetly danish people did.. U cant imagine how many people there were, the streets were no more visible, from far away i would only see thousands of heads, like an ant-hill. But good for me so recycling was easy and i had my cash for the next day in 10 mins already. Of course i didnt spend anything on beers in a bar and thanks to Kieren, my new friend who did fire shows entertainment was at its best. He even inspired me to start with playing POI too.



If only they didn´t speak danish in Denmark, i would love to stay there!

Easy lifts in Germany??

From Göttingen i got an easy lift directly to Hamburg. I stood right in the middle of the centre, thinking, "ahh ill try, maybe someone will give me a lift to the outskirts, where the motorway starts" cause i didnt want to spend money on the bus.. Someody stopped there and said he was driving to Hamburg. So i got to Hamburg very easily, but the driver unfortunately asked me some money, claiming he is a "Harz- 4" receiver, and he lived on 300 EUR a month. I was ok to pay a little bit, but its definitely not the way you fool a hitchiker. At least i got to Hamurg easily and quickly.

In Hamburg i visited a friend Anja, whom i had hosted before via Hospitalityclub. It was a spontanious desision and had tourned out to be good to meet her again. We hung out in the evening at the river. Strangely everything there is full of concrete, i mean the river border. I didnt like it at all.

The next morning, i got up early to head to Copenhagen. Was i going to make it that easily? I thought to myself, while making my way to the liftershalt (http://www.liftershalte.info) Hasselbrook. I got a lift easily standing in the middle of a roundabout! Yes, its true, i followed the directions of the liftershalt and after only 5 mins somebody stopped who took me to the next gas station. That tourned out to be a complete failure. I walked around and asked everybody who took a break that this "Rasthof" which was far too small and therefore almost nobody was there. A friendly truck driver offered to give me a lift, unfortunately he drove into the wrong direction (we had thought that there is another gas station before the motorway turns right), be he was great companionship. Anyway, you wont beleive me how i got out from there. We found a car park a little later, where i would have had to climb over a high fence to be able to cross the motorway as there was a bridge very close. I didnt want to do so, then we continued driving and when we passed that bridte, i saw that there were stairs going up there. I shouted "there are stair" and the truck driver stopped immediately. That could have given him a huge fine, but he didnt care. I got out and climbed the stairs. Easy-peasy! The door of the fence was even open. I crossed and got to the carpark on the other side. The sun was burning, 30 degrees and i was tired and thirsty. I asked everybody and only one person agreed to drive me to the next exit to Luebeck and dropped me down at a MC Donalds where i walked up to somebody who told me where i could try to hitch. SO, i took the bus into town from there and tried to find another spot to hitch out of town north. But that was another 2 hours time-consuming excersise... finally, i gave up and took the train to the ferry, Puttgarden where i found a lift with some danish guys who drove into Copenhagen. Yepii! But it was quite difficult on the ferry. After about 30 mins i found them, and the ferry only takes about 45 mins..! You experience alot of time pressure there.
Ok, more about hitchink at impossible places later..

Sorry, no pics at the moment, but soon, soon hopefully

Total number of lifts to Copenhagen from Göttingen: 5