1001lifts

My "new" old life has started!

2009-10-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Currently enjoying:

-Spending time with people who really care and whom i like
-cooking nice vegan food
-Relaxing a whole day doing nothing and just lying around
-not needing to worry about shift-start
-reading whichever book i want to
-surfing the net
-learning new things
-seeing adventures coming
-doing sports!
-spending time in the nature
-organising all the 24 hours of my day myself
-writing more exciting stuff than only this on my blog
-restarting on counting the lifts i get
-planning my next months travelling - still dont know where ill end up which is the best part of it!
-writing to my friends

The first week-end was brilliant. Hitchhiking!! Very unusually i spent 5 hours to ride 130km. Friday afternoon, lots of traffic (and the bastard are all sitting on their own in the car) and many accidents. I spent some time with my fabulous friends in Zurich. Altough i really enjoyed being in the "big" city again and felt so happy about seeing all the opportunities the city can bring, my brain silently recalled the reasons for having left in may. Hm its the money-hunting and the "showing" off your iPhone and the capitalism smelling badly... We even discussed it on the table on friday night. I probably convinced to more people to take part in CS.

What i appreciate the most about my "new" old life
->> Being surrounded by and socializing with alternative people of similar values.

A great step for me since i stopped pondering about work and the people there. I think i havent been thinking about them for the entire day. Thank you god.

Number of lifts from Düdingen to Zürich, central city:
4
Number of hours spent in traffic:
5
Number of really interesting people met while hitchin:
2 (i guess that doesent make it too tempting for others. he he the other drivers were ok, but no real good discussion came up)

End of July

2009-09-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

It took me 2 months to be able to write this, its not been easy to come out with the words. I packed everything into a letter instead of just keeping it like a diary..

Dear Norman
I dont know what to write which is quite unusual for me. You know the bubbly me, who can write many pages without looking up for a single second. I feel that stupidity gradually takes control of my brain. I think the constant physical labour does my body well, but the lack of culture, education, intellect creates this emptyness. I find it hard to write, to find words for expressing my thoughts. I realise myself that my brain used to be fitter before. It must be the TV consumption. I have thisurge to learn new things, memorise them and see an effect on my learning. The lack of good books makes it impossible. Usually, i dont socialise so much with the people from the village or the other staff. When i work i cannot go out as the shifts are late and the subsequent one starts early, so i dont get enought sleep. I dont want to diminuish these little hours of precious sleep even more by spending money sitting in a bar. It seems that most of the others are here for spending though. Also the workers of other hotels in town come to our restaurant just to sit and drink. I dont see any purpose in it. Id rather go for a walk in the clean air here and the beautiful nature. Im taking a deep breath, thinking "still 13 weeks to go". I was ill for 5 days already after the forst 2 months of working over here. Still recovering, i fear that i will get ill again because I never know when it will happen to me again. with the constant stress, pressure and lack of sleep and also lack of good and healthy food. I fear it iwll happen soon again. I cannto change the circumstances alot. I can try to sleep the maximum between the shifts, the maximum possiblle will still not be enough. And i can try to cook "my food" as often as possible. (Reality looks much different though. When im off i just want to relax and sleep and moreover i dont want to see the idiot when im off) All the rest is pure luck, or un-luck? I regret not having taken the other job in which i could have done late shifts almost every day to earn much more, also with more intellectual and linguistic challenge that would have done mee good. However, I know that the other job and living circumstances would have been different and probably hard to deal with too. Im glad when its over and i get out of here healthy and ok. My stomach aces. I hate to be like that. What happened to the strong and athletic young woman i once used to be?

Many things i have been pondering about, many things i wanted to write down, but never had the energy for that.

Late August
Symptoms, in chronolocigal order of appearance:
- back muscle tension
- insomnia
- tiredness
- headaches
- boredom
- crying
- depression
- paranoia
- avoiding all social contact
- suicidal thoughts
- lack of energy
- crying
- tiredness
- lack of energy
- loss of weight
- distrusting everybody

---- regular massage therapy ----

- boredom
- thinking of this being the end of eternity
- unableness to change things
- to mark time in this situation
- thinking its a prison

---- talking about the problems to others ---

- being aware of paranoia and trying to avoid it
- seeing a light at the end of the tunnel
- only 4 more weeks to go
- stabilizing the social contacts to friends and family

There might be some feelings missing. This is because i didnt write the things down as i went through them. Im only writing them down now, 4-8 weeks afterwards. It is gradually getting better, but symptoms will probably not disappear until i have left the place. My only hope is that it will not leave any permanent trace.

Im longing for the day when i leave this place.

Bye for now, greets from a sunny autumn day, somewhere in the mountains
...

The end of the world....

2009-06-07T10:51:00.001-07:00

..is in Bergün. A small village in the swiss south eastern mountains. My new home. Words cannot express what a whonderful town this is! I think i was really lucky to find this job up here and with every day i love it more.

Mountains, clean and cool air, absolutely breathtaking views, snow-topped mountains and a peaceful, sleepy village. What more can one want? Ok food is not the best, surely, sombody who likes meat and cheese will say its heavenly. For myself, we actually fight for the sallad bowl up here as fruit and veg is scarce for the personell..

Last week, i had 3 days off and headed home immediately. After leaving Bergün, i already started to feel sad, and spending time at home wasn`t really enjoyable, i MISSED BERGÜN!!!! How funny, locals, who gave me a lift told me "Einmal Bergün, immer Bergün!" (Bergün once, Bergün forever)

... to be continued.. with pics soon!

Hitching from the end of the world to my home town on a weekday:
5 lifts, 5.5 hours ---> about the same time than the train and, yes sounds unbeleivable in fact

Edinburgh and Killin' all!!!

2009-04-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

So, im supposed to tell you more about my recent adventures. Hm... only a short trip but very relaxing.... was in Scotland as you can see.. Tried some of the indigenous clothes and it fit me well!

First, of course had a look ad Edinburgh. A lovely city! Here i am playing zany on the sqaure in front of the castle. Nope, no pic of the castle. What for if you can have me??? LOL

Well i had never been to Scotland, but it was always on my list, so it came in quite handy at in march. Totally enjoyed it and it was a great thing to do, escaping boring Zurich for a moment. I must admit it was a real holiday for me. Not like usually, the traveller-thing. No, just relaxing and not thinking about tomorrow for a long time. That was indeed Amazingly relaxing!

We drove to a place called Killin (ha ha, i thought the same...). Whonderful place with nice waterfalls (Falls of Dochart) and smoothly buckled hills... and loooooads of fresh air.. plus some weirdoes... they are to be found everywhere:

Silcene, i kill you in Killin!!!

How to find a new job and a husband in 2 hours

2009-01-13T04:52:00.000-08:00

New day and new adventure...!!

For some entertainment during reading, click here

Hitching is not always fun, especially if you really have to do it because you have no money and in minus 6 degrees and on sunday morning. This time something really amazing happened to me though...I expect many strange things to happen while hitchhiking, but not that......

I hitchhiked from Zurich to St.Gallen on that shitty, grey and f**ing freezing sunday noon. Half past 11 and i was standing (oh now i can update the link on the hitchwiki ) next to the road that leads to the highway. Asotnishingly much traffic but the place wasnt the best to stand so i spend like half an hour there until somebody gave me a lift to the next city. From there i found another lift to like halfway to St. Gallen. The italian man and me talked a lot and had a fun time while driving. He was pretty amazed by my travels (nothing new most people are...) I told him now i had no money for the train and so needed to find another job and work first. He offered me a job right away in his company! How cool is that??? So before you, Mila, the new secretary of this friendly italian mans company!

To top all that, the next one to pick me up for the last bit of travel was a guy who is married to a russian woman. Of course i was going to tell him all my (travel-) experiences i had in Russia and that i liked it. Now, everybody who knows me, is aware that i always tell that joke that i am looking for some rich russian man to marry who can pay my studies and living in Australia for he next 5 years. I told him that i had been looking for a guy in russia but since they are all so materialistic, none was interested in me. So he goes: you want to marry a russian man? I know somebody! It turns out that his wifes brother, age 19 (beleive it or not) would like to come to Switzerland and marry a swiss woman... Because of the lack of money, i had to decline, even me can be materialistic for a change... especially with the russians... LOL We still had a nice chat and i gave him my card, and he will surely read all this here. Thank you Markus, it was nice meeting you! Leave your email address in a comment here and the 19 year old guys annual income ;) ha ha just kidding, dont feel offended..

So, i actually had lots of fun hitching that day and this story will most likely serve as little entertainment- story for hosts when i travel.

Total number of lifts: 3
Total number of new jobs: 1
Total number of new (potential) husbands: 1
Amount of fun: countless

Another day in paradise

2008-11-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

After 2 weeks in the canaries i have found some kind of "stable situation". I found a long term host in Lanzarote and friends.

After arriving to Fuerteventura, i had to find out that most people i had contacted didnt answer me or they are actually starting to answer me now (after a couple of weeks??? WTF??) I spend 3 days in Fuerteventura, Corralejo first. I kind of liked this place. Its full of surfers and therefore all these nice surf shops and stuff in the so called "main street" which is really small. The island is full of young people, as its more for surfing and active holidays than enything else.

I hitchhiked from the Airport to Corralejo, maybe a mere 40 kilometers away. As the touristic places are in the opposite direction, it was not easy to find a person who drove north. I finally found a nice lettish woman who was just about to arrive here too for living. She took me to Corralejo. There i stayed with my friends Tibor and Thomas, whom i knew already from last year. It was great to meet them again and we had some good chats. Due to the lack of hosts i then had to leave the island to Lanzarote, the neighburing island. Thomas arranged me a cheap way to get there, omiting to pay ridiculous amounts for the normal ferry... sure i was very happy to get on this catamaran for such a great price....
It turned out to be a nightmare. The sea was rough and me and some other poor tourists (i am not the tourist,,, i am the traveller, the others are tourists ha ha haa) happened to get seated at the back of the catamaran and throwing up into the smelly black rubbishbags they called "sickness bags" Maybe because they make you even sicker.. So after about 90 mins we are finally out of there, arriving in Puerto del Carmen on Lanzarote. The german guy, with whom the deal was made made sure he took my money (deutsche Gruendlichkeit!) and i left. No sign of pity from his part. But form the other crewmembers:yes. They tried to cheer me up and gave me cola as i needed to lie there at the harbour for another 2,5 hours until i finally was feeling well enouth to walk off with my backpack.

I had arranged to stay over with Jenni, a german (another german) woman who lives in Puerto del Carmen. she already gave me the adress but we had arranged that i would call her when i arrive. This woman, i still beleive she is a shadow here, could not be reached. I rang multible times, sent text messages but nothing happened, the phone was switched off.. I made it to her house after 3 awful hours walking in the sun, with the heavy packpack. Important to say, that the esplanade leads along the beach but is currently being rebuilt, so there were no busses coming.... i had no otehr choice than to walk. Arriving at her house i found out that nobody opened the door. There must have been something wrong with this shade...Luckily i had arranded another stsay for later before and already talked to that host Ryan. He picked me up 5 mins later. I have stayed with him for more than a week now, he is really cool and i like te place. The woman, in contrast, remains to be a shade.... she has called me once telling me what happened (something severe i dount want to share here for pricacy reasons) but only after a couple of days told me that the problem was solved. Still, no answer to my text messages... She remains to be a shadow,,,

... to be continued

Now let me tell you more about this paradise. Its full of tourists, tourist shops and a mere number of locals (they still exist here). Sure, its not the best place to meet locals, and the environment is artificial, but i am still quite happy to be here, not in a small countrysite town as there is lots to do here and everything is awailable. Supermarkets and shops, beach you will all think. I knew it. You want to know about the beaches for sure and you all beleive that i am lying on the beach every day..? Sorry, i have to disappoint you. I have only been to the beach twice, in the water once only... (because i had to pee... dont tell anybody please, we know only tourists do that) Its quite windy here, and lately its been a bit clowdy, even rainy and cold.. I hope it will get better this week and i can really enjoy the beach. I also tried to find a job, but no luck so far, there is little work, the canarios are in a very bad economical situation themselfs, they lose their jobs and many of them are poor. Prices for me are quite ok though. And even hitchhiking works... i will tell you later.. the battery of the laptop is almost empty, but there is enough time to tell you how i got into internet for free today

my host borrowed me my laptop and i walked along half of the esplanade to find a spot where i could finally get a connection. It took 2 hours but as we all know i got looooooads of free time.

Golden October in Zurich

2008-11-05T06:33:00.000-08:00

I came back to Switzerland to undergo a painful but also relieving back-therapy. We finally managed to get rid of the symptoms after the 8th session but i very much enjoyed the treatment..

The leaves hat already gotten yellow when i arrived to Zurich in the beginning of October. I got dropped down close to my host and friends place. I started with - you can probably imagine - dodging the fare. Good old Switzerland, too expensive for a poor traveler like me! But now i know how to deal with you!! Ha ha haaaa!

Ahhh, it felt somehow strange to be in this city again. It took me a couple of days to get accustomed to the fact that i was now in Zurich. The change form Munich to Zurich had happened all too fast. After a couple of days though i started meeting all my good friends here and started to enjoy it. Already in the first week i met so many of my friends here in Zurich that it simply flew by at once. The first week-end was awesome and afterwards i also spent some time with my family up in the mountains. They later became snowed in one evening in the end of October, when i as riding my dads car through the 25cm of new snow. That night got me some more experience driving in snow since i hadn' t done that for ages. I never owned a car.. only in Australia but there is no Snow there :) Time was flying and all of a sudden i realise its NOV 8th, time to pack and go.

Thank you Zurich: It was such a pleasure to see all my friends again and to relax a little bit after the long and strenuous journey! I had ever experienced such a nice community and so many great people in one place that it had wanted me to stay longer.

One thing i realised after some time is that its actually getting boring here. Everything is in order, everything works out well. I can say precisely what time i will arrive somewhere if i check the timetable (WTF is that?? now talking about timetables after the odyssey in Russia) and i can get whatever i like from the supermarket. And even getting it only takes 10 minutes. Ill be right back, no phone calls, no traffic jams, no endless waiting involved, no unforseen things happening... It is getting boring and one thing i could not adapt anymore was that my stomach has been rebelling against the western food ever since i left that bloody plane RIGA-BERLIN in September.

Ahh well.. My flight is leaving soon and heart-broken i am leaving this city. It will always be my favourite place. See you soon again!

Doin' the baltics!

2008-10-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

I blog, therefore i am!

I will never forget the weeks in the Baltics. I absolutely loved Lithuania and Latvia. Surely, it has something to do with the people i met but most places i have seen were just fantastic.

I first spend about 3 weeks in Vilnius at my friends place. He was kind enough to let me stay on the couch when i was ill which i am very thankful of. I wouldnt want to imagine me couchsurfing in this condition or staying in a hostel for 3 weeks... After recovering, he and his sister showed me around Vilnius and we also drove to the countrysite on one week-end to their house in the forest. I expected a small hutt without heating and water but it was a huge villa next to a lake for swimming with all the facilities you can dream of: we all had our own rooms, a living-room with an open-space fire, sauna and on top of that even internet! Its funny that they call it forest-house... well maybe just because it IS in the forest. We had great fun all together, walking at night without light and singing, getting scared by some monsters who were trying to kill us.... out there in the forrest... uhhhaaaa
Also i very much liked talking to my friends mother who had grown up in Siberia. Her parents have been deported to Siberia before she was born. It was shocking to hear and to learn about that past in Russias history. Also, when i was at the occupation museum i Riga (the one and only museum i have visited during my entire 5 months trip, but really worth it Never has anything toughed me so deeply. If you ever get to Riga, please visit it and find out about GULAG
Reading all about GULAG in there made me finally understand why the people in the Baltics are still almost in a "waiting for the evil to happen" position 24/7. They fear thet Russia is going to occupy them again. This is also the reason for them to work so hard day and night. To get their economy rise what would make them eligible for joining the supportive organisations....

Staying on that farm in Latvia was such a great experience. I got to meet all the family of my host including, father, mother, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces and uncles and aunties, also the farm hand who spoke in Russian to me. The little niece (probably about 4 years only) spent most time with me. I didnt understand her but we got along very well. When i was about to leave, she asked where i was going to. Her parents said Riga. But she does not like Riga, because its far away. How cute! She had accepted me as her "auntie" I could say... altough we could not communicate in one language. The farm was quite big, many cows which they were milking and lots of food. All you can imagine: cucumbers, berries, herbs, peppermint for tea, salads, apples and pears as many as you wanted. Just bend yourself and pick one of them! Of course much milk and everything that comes from it and is made out of it, meat from the cows... And when i say meat i mean like a kilo for each person. One evening there was some sort of leaving party for my hosts sister, who left for being an au-pair in France the next day. There was a 10litre bucket full of meat. Me made "shashlik" which is just grilled meat and fries came with them too. But don't think of Mc Donald's fries, no no! Real french fries, made in the oven, cut by hand and seasoned with fresh herbs and salt. None of the modern-western-world inventions needed, not even baking paper as we do use it here. .. the fries were so sticky and were glued to the baking tray.... but it was natural and true, tasting absolutely fantastic!

I have a 1000 questions, but nobody to answer them. I asked the flatmate of my host in Klaipeda (i spent more time with him as my host did not "have time" to talk to me while he was there) about the future of lithuanian agriculture. To explain it for you, here is how it works still nowadays: Older people often still live in the country site and grow their own food there. As they own loads of land, they are able to grow enough for themselves and all the family, their kids and so on. However, thats all they have, no money. The kids often choose to live in the cities, because they do not want to work for food only. -- we are talking about countries in the EU now folks!!! -- They have enough money to support their family on the country site and would get them the things they need. Also, what i learned from my host in Tallinn, its not necessary to go to the supermarket that often (more than once a month would be considered "often" i guess) as she didn't need anything. She got fresh vegetables and fruit from their parents and rarely got something from the shop. Its not so common to go to the supermarket because a) they dont need anything and b) they dont have so much money anyway. Ok lets get back to the problem i was going to portray. Nowadays, young people want to live in the cities, have money, nice clothes and travel. Nobody wants to live in the country site anymore. So i whonder, what will be in 20 years time? Will they all buy their overpriced imported and tasteless food from the supermarket too? The answer of the roommate surprised me "don't worry about that".

I spent 6 weeks in the baltics in total. Visited Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Unlike many other travellers i have met along my way, i do not only visit the capitals. Oh no, that would be a shame! I like to see the smaller towns, i visited Klaipeda, Talsi, Ventspils, Paernu: Have you ever heard about these places before? Still, these were quite populated areas and i would have loved to see more small towns. Unfortunately, the baltics are not so densely populated, which is why i could not find accomodation so easily out of town. It will all be changed in my furture travels! I was able to learn alot form the people i have met and i am very thankful for that!

Back to Europe

2008-08-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

dont be afraid to be different

Woooow! This place is whonderful.

The last days in Russia had been horrible, i felt some illness coming up and just wanted to leave. Many times i had been close to tears because i was fed up with what heppened there, with the fact that nobody talked english or nobody even wanted to help and make an effort. Why should they, they will get their paycheck anyway, no matter if they help me or not.
I breathe a sigh of relief when we finally cossed the border and are in to Estonia.

My frist stop in the Baltics is Lithuania, where i visit my friend Romas. Here are some first impressions abut Lithuania. Vilnius, the capital has many international influences and is claimed to be the middle of Europe.... if you count Russia to Europe: yes.

The lithuanian flag

Vilnius

modern buildings, wow!

I love this funny language:

Visiting the Sovjet Park:

blueberries, freshly picked by a babuschka! hmmmm!

The sovjet playground, its still like this in Russia now.I've seen many colorful playgrounds!

They took the finger off, so nobody could hang more rotten food on there... it happened in Lithuania before the curtain fell. I don't remember, but the granny was deported to Siberia like so many other Lithuanians. Also the grandma of my host! She now lives in Lithuania, the children brought her back

Hi Lenin!

Sovjet times water distributor

Russia : the last weeks and reflections about the trip

2008-08-01T10:44:00.001-07:00

ST. Peter, the gulf of Finland

Kazan main street, sure we are not in Istanbul?

Ok. here i am back in Europe but trying to reflect the last days in Russia. To sum up, i would say it was a very good experience to see Russia. One month was probably too much, but actually i dont know why i decided to stay the last week, maybe it was about the money. It was quite convenient to run around with a 1000 Ruble note and be king for a week (!!!!) . That equals only about 40CHF... Of course train tickets were expensive, but food and stuff was so cheap. I liked that. Of course, who does not!

riding on the elektritschka

I even bought some new shoes, as mine were sooo distroyed... My last host in St. Petersburg (i had 3 different ones) helped me to buy new shoes... without her help it would have been impossible as the girl working in the shop was too lazy to search for my size. She had to go to the storage 3 times for me. Because we requested it. She thought we would give up after the first time. From all the shoes i had tried, these black Nike ones fit best and felt so comfortable. I didnt care about the price (that stuff has mainly europen prices) i just needed some good schoes as mine were too old and too fucked to be seriously thinking about keeping them. Anyway, i finally found the right one of my size, it fit perfectly and i showed it to the girl. Ha ha, so now she could not deny anymore that there was a last pair somewhere. She had to ask her boss to help her and i finally got my wanted shoes. Uhhhhfff! without my host, that would never have happened as i used her for translation. And they were not that expensive!

And later that day, i found out, that the shoes are actually not Nike, just a fake brand. But who cares... they are comfy.. ( i already fully adapted to the russian way of "Schoenrederei")

What is "Schoenrederei"?
I found a translation in LEO for the verb schoenreden: to blandish
I hope its understandable for everyone. I remember some things like the watermelon thing. One girl told me that we should not buy watermelon now as its not the season yet. The farmers would put chemicals in there to make them appear red. In reality they are not ripe yet and you will get an upset stomach if you eat them.
I later found out that this is not true and ate a whole one in 2 days... not in Russia of course. Maybe they were just to expensive.... i will never find out..

Other story about blandishing:
It was organised that i should drive to the forrest with some girl. Instead we "only" went for a swim in the lake ( read in the last post about that) which was perfectly fine. Somebody blandished: its better that way, as there could have been ticks....

These are only small things which do not make a big difference, but if you are a tourist and dont understand, its quite hard as your western brain will adapt immediately as we are used to people being straightforward.

The best one of course is the story about crossing the border. As i said eralier, russians just make something up when they dont really know something for sure. So i was constantly panicing about crossing the border (back to Europe). Would one registration be enough? Nobody could anser me this questions e.g. they all made up stuff... " It depends on the day and the person who is at the counter. If that day, somebody needs money, you will be charged.

White woman with red passport: nobody cares. Whereas the french people got checked really carefully.... ha ha!!! nobody looked at the registration. And i was stupid enough to try to get another registration in Petrozavodsk, where i stayed the last week. I tried to get registration, lost half a day but could still not get it. Welcome to Russia!!! :) That was an awful experience, but since i had already been there for 3 weeks, it did not surprize me.

Good luck!
Im still trying to figure out what 'good luck' really means here. As i dont think it really means good luck:

I went into a hotel to ask about registration. The girl at reception said they would not do it for people not residing in their hotel, i should go to the post office. (in english, wow!) At the post office its all very modern and they even have a fair cueing system, it seems... There is this machine where you take a number and then the number will be shown above the perticular counter where you need to go... Just like in Switzerland. But of course the machine has like 100 of different options, all in english... somebody helped me and pushed a button for me, even though i said its about registration i dont think the man understood.

- another tourist came in later and wanted to buy stamps. A huge challenge here as nobody understood the simplest word 'stamp'. Not even when the man showed a letter with a stamp on it and pointed at it. uhm!?!?!?!?!?!?!? -

Petrozavodsk tourist info. Cool! Please take a closer look...

Anyway, the queing system doesent really work, people tend to get a numberlap, but then they dont wait until their number comes up, they just squeeze in the next free queue...... I dont bother to get annoyed by this, as nothing really surprizes me anymore here... its finally my turn and i get to the counter and start in my best russian to ask about Registration. The girl is panicing as i dont understand and start to talk english. She starts to shout at me (why? i have ears and wont understand ifshe talks louder, its not about that, its about the fact that i dont understand all things she says in russian) and she tries to tell me to go somewhere else, but its so difficult for her to point out IN ENGLISH on my map, which lies on the counter, which adress it is i have to go. She gets to the backoffice where somebody obviously talks english to get the Adress written in english letters for me. that was toooooo hard to show me on the map, no, she needed a translador for showing me the adress...

I wanted to get out of the door, when a russian lady apporached me and asked "sprechen Sie deutsch" I said yes, and expected her to help me with explaining to the post office staff what i wanted, but instead her Deutsch is very poor and she staggers good luck in russian to me... I whonder if she knew that the office was only opened one day a week and i was not going to be lucky.

My conckusion of the tanslation of "good luck" in Russian:
I guess "good luck' in russia means that they pity you and appreciate that you have this difficult task to fulfill, they acknowledge that you might not be able to sucseed and hope that nothing bad happens to you while trying and area happy not to be in the same position...

On the last week i met a finnish girl who lives in Russia. |Finally somebody i can talk to in a normal way, no baby language. She said she loved this country and had problems to live with the european culture. I asked her why. She could not answer me. "I dont know" Then i asked what she specifically liked about russia.... she could only say that "anything is possible in this country" thats why. Again, I didnt understand but didnt want to get into a whole discussion...

Russia week 2

2008-07-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

While learning that food is quite affordable for me here, i also get to know 2 young students from Uzbekistan. They tell me that things were double as expensive in Russia as in their home town Taschkent. We are comparing the cigarette prices and i pay 19 rubles (about 85 Rappen) here. Sacha tells me - standing on the balcony of our Moscow host (tonight only 6 guests, wow, that means loads of space tonight!) in the flat with about 35 degrees celsius. He and his travelbuddy like scandinavian rune inscriptions and would like to visit Norway and Sweden. They ask me how much money you need for travelling there for a month if they only slept in a tent and hitchhiked. I told them 500 euros, a number that for them is unacheivable, unimaginable. They headed off with 1 USD and want to go to Krim in Ukraina. Can you imagine?

The next day they accompanied me to the train station because i had to wait several hours and didnt want to go somewhere else. I asked them why they didnt visit the town (it was still reasonably close to the centre even if they came by foot. They told me thy didnt have money for the metro and walking made them very tired. Of course, that day - it was already 4 in the afternoon - they hadnt even had any water or food. I gave them some money and told them to buy some food and water, because i just couldnt stand this anymore and had to cry. And on top of that, even though they didnt have ANYTHING they would still cook for everybody in the apartment the night before, just as i did the thight there before and share it with all the other traellers.

Have you ever peed black urine? I have. Shortly before the train left, i needed to go to the toilet. The first time this day, in spite of the 30 degrees heat. Toilets are dreadful in Russia. So dirty and you still have to pay. If it only was the smell that would be ok, but there is water and urine everywhere on the floor and its really dirty. The first time i micturated a dark brown liquid. Dehydration is essential here due to the lack of toilets and if you find one its, well as said above, very dirty. You might get infected with some desease. (The fact that eveybody touches eachother every so often in the metro or on the street because there are just too many people who live here in Russia does surely not delight you, neither me)

- let me just throw this thought in here:
Now i understand why you hear so much about people dying of heat in Russia every summer. Walking to the trainstation in Moscow, along the street i see many homless lying on the street, some unconcious, some unable to walk in a dreadful condition, dirty smelly as you have never smelled before. No one cares. They try to get some rubles by begging if their condition allows them. But i guess its these people who are doomed to die in hot summer here. There is no where to go you are exposed to the sun all day, no water available nowhere if you dont have money. I dont want to give them anything becuase i fear they might touch me. That could be any disease. Who knows, this is Russia, anything is possible.

Now i also understand why people live behind 3 iron walls here. And they all have different keys. I came back from shopping for food the other day in Kazan, when i made a shocking experience. Let me tell you about shopping first. The supermarket was only about 5 mins walk away, but it had been raining heavily before. And because the streets are not paved, water runs everywhere, mud, slops... incredible. It took me about one hour until i was back as i had to climb and waddle through the mud. Concentration at my top, in order not to fall into the slop. That would have been a disaster. A shower afterwards is necessary, including my slippers. Anyway, i came back to the building and opened the first door downstairs. A homeless, dirty and smelly woman, almost unconsius, mumbling somthing i could not understand was lying on the stairs blocking the whole gangway. I had to somewhat climb over her and mu disgust and fear to get a disease is heightened again.

You might think i am exaggeratin but let me tell you this. If somebody sneezes here, they do not put their hand before the mouth. And neither when thei cough... yummmmm!

Dont think i was able to get all the things from the shop i wanted to. Dream on! Only the simpliest vegetables and fruit (no bananas today) are available. Well, you get used to it and improvise your meals accordingly.

Its the day 21 of July and i already feel worn out from travelling Russia. You cant imagine unless you have seen it with your own eyes. The conditions in which people live - and they are considered very good - were a ral shock for me. The bathroom: there will be a picture soon.

There are 2 sockets in the entire appartment. One is in the kithen and one in the living rom, where 12 more sockets are attached ( i dont know how that thing is called in english, neither in german). The kitchen: wow luxury they have a microwave oven. Stove with 1 frying pan and one pot. But most people have a washing mashine and they would even use it for one t-shirt only. Wasting energy and water is a must. Also mobile phones are indispensable here. Everybody has one, but internet: they have email adresses but not always internet. Maybe only at work or a very slow connection. But even that is a praise for me. Its common to know somebodys mobile phone number even before you know their name.. they will just call you up and day they are a friend of a friend. So friends give the numbers of friends to people that are completely strangers. Its normal. NARMALNE! Downstairs, of course folks, i am not mentioning the bad smell in the building, the letterboxes are almost all distroyed. Here will be a picture soon:

DO NOT SEND ANY MAIL TO RUSSIA, PEOPLE WILL NOT GET IT!

Travelling is extremely difficult here and complicated. Nobody speaks anything else than russian. If you need to queue for a train ticket, calculate at least half a day for that procedure. As i said before queuing in russian is different, and even if there are only 3 people ahead of you it might still take more than 1 hour until it is your turn. In Kazan i wasted 3 afternoons/evening just for a train ticket. It was just too difficult to get. Once we got one but then discovered that the date was chosen wrongly by the seller. Now all of you think that they would change it for free. NIET! Its our mistake. My friend Renata says "The seller is always right, "Its you against the system" We pay the fucking 100 rubles and change it. Of course Renata communicates with the seller as i have lost my temper long time ago... So, fatality is a common and widely accepted thing in Russia. Its just like that, and we cant change it...- so the peoples attitude. Renata is 22 and lives with her parents and grandma. She needs to work, so she can support her parents. Without her, they would never be able to make a living and pay all the bills. They cant afford fruit as tehy are expensive but she will bring me some and more presents every day. Also, she insists on paying the bus tickets everytime as " you are a guest and travelling, you need the money for travelling" Telling her that i am vegan is out of question.
She would like to go abroad but come back for 2 reasons if i got it correctly: a) supporting her family with money and b) marry and get kids in Russia because if Russian people do not get kids, the number of Russians in the world will decrease. If you look at the crammed metro, supermarkets and streets during rush hour, you dont really understand why they want to become even more people.

Russian villages

I dare to find out how it is because Renata told me that the conditions are terrible. No paved roads and maybe no water inside the house. Later, i had the chance to go and see a russian village and swimm in the lake. It was an experience:
We had planned to head off at 9am and one friend of a friend (again) called Tanja would pick me up. Fine, my western style brain told me i get up at 8 and will be ready at 9am. At 7.45am Tanja calles me and said that her father, the driver, was ready and if they could come and pick me up. I said " no, i just woke up (because she called me) and i could make it 8.30am. Ok, nothing bizzare in this yet.
10 phone calls later and 30 mins later we are waiting at the bus stop where i was supposed to be picked up. Despite of them being in such a hurry, they only turn up at 9am... so what did we say?
The day had only started but i was already exhausted.

Riding 5 people in a fairly new Lada in Russia brings some comfort. The motor risks overheating, therefore we need to switch on the heating inside. Remember it is 28 degr outside 9am in the morning already. We finally got to "california" as they call it - the village and drive through the village. Sany road, water pipes go along the street, above the ground next to the car. Rusty of course! In the middle of the forrest, we find 2 apartment buildings in which their friends live. I got to taste the russian food - mhh delish but full of butter of course. Anyway its only margarine my host says after 30mins... again fatality and denial.. I had diarrhoea the next day.
We then ride through the forrest to the lake where we are supposed to go swimming. Sandy, winding road, sometimes all muddy where you have to detour through the forrest, improvised road. I asked if they had a spare tire with them and they replied yes. Because our driver did not remember exactly where it was, the friend has to join us. (no signs and many winding roads)

Riding 6 people people in a fairly new Lada in Russia brings some comfort. Especially in that heat and in the forrest. Normal tyres. On they way back one tire goes flat and we have to change it. They didnt even have the right tools for that, so we spend an hour there. I dont understand why they didnt simply ask a more modern car that was passing (much traffic) for help.

Back in the village, we get more food that was also delish. But we need to hurry, because we need to be back soon. I try to express my utter thankfulness and praise the grandmas cooking skills. She seems delighted and invited me back.

One hour in the traffic jams of the city and i am back. But i think it has done me good. I have never been more easy going i guess. And always prepared for anything! This is russia, anything can happen!

Russia week 1

2008-07-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

Finally, finally an update. It has been very difficult to reach internet and to save some time for the blog.

Week one survived! I acheived these things:

- Getting a russian simcard and getting it to work propperly after 3 days.
Ahhh communication! When i arrived it was dreadful. My swiss mobile phone would not work. I got out of the bus and didnt really know where i was, somewhere in St. Petersburg. I finally found some other tourists and asked. Then i was desperately trying to find a payphone. NIET! Impossible. I even asked in Russias only tourist information (true!) and they told me to simply get a simcard. For communication, i walked along Nievsky Prosket and tried to find people who could lend me their phone to write sms to my host. After about 30 min that worked, some young russian guys helped me. That per se is amazing as i look like a vagabond and if you know about the russian dress code for women, its a nightmare. If not wearing high heels, you dont get any attention. But i only found out about that later.

- Finding the correct train station!
Thanks to my polish HC friends. And finding the ticket box thanks to a russian man, who talked some german! Amazing! German, i couldnt beleive it as i thought english would be easier NIET! again. Ha ha. Nobody speaks english here. Almost nobody. Buying a train ticket: thanks to my 2 hosts. One told me how its working and the other one wrote down the necessary words for buyinig it. Queueing is an art in Russia. Forget all your ideas about queuing in western world. This is Russia, anything is possible. But i managed, after under 1 hour of queuing, thats probably a new world record for a tourist. Russians do not queue like anybody else in the world. NIET! The go to one queue and then reserve the space. Then, they go to another queue and reserve a space again. And so on, and so on. Eventually, they will just pick then fastest place they had reserved.

- Being hosted by Anton Krotov. A crazy round the world traeller. By chance, through my host we ended up staying in that appartment. all the walls are papered (literally!) by articles about his travels. One shelf for photos about his travels. And one corner in the apartment for the books he wrote. He is also selling them. Unfortunately in russian only. Otherwise i would have bought one.

- Riding electritschka. Thats the russian suburbian train. Its slow, but funny. We climbed up the train station. Yes, climbed because we didnt want to pay. Thats what most of the people do. Then they just bribe the conductors. We made it 3 people from St. Peter to Moscow in about 12 hours, on 3 different electritschkas, spending 200 rubles all together (about 9CHF).

- Finding out a little bit about russian culture. Russians often make something up if they dont know what to answer to a question of a european. But its hard to tell if they are lying. So you spend ages asking the same to different people and then still you dont know the truth only until you are in the middle of it. They would say that its not possible to go to one place by electritschka because a) they have never been and b) they want to save you from disaster. They will feel much better afterwards because they saved you. But for an european its a disappointing experience. Let me tell you about how i found out about what to see in Moscow:
I asked my host and she said i should ask the other travellers here since they were all very experienced and from Moscow. That sounded evident. So i did that. The answer: "Many things" and he ran to the kitchen.. I asked the next person (an ukrainian, sorry Andrej) and he started about registration and all that. He told me that its very important and bla bla bla... so after one hour i still know nothing about the sights of moscow (except that there is no tourist information in Moscow) and since i dont have any idea where to get information from, i whondered around aimlessly. Saved one more person from good experiences!

That week was a cultural shock. But what i didnt know, i had only been in the most civilized plaes of Russia. After all i stayed in good health, was strong and alive, and still without diarrhoea! (the latter one was about to be changed, a dreadful imagination as toilets in Russia. NIET! Do NOT use them....

Important: The pictures here are only from St. Petersburg!!!

More adventures to come... getting to Finland

2008-07-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

Starting from Oland, i cought a ride with the neighbour which happened to drive into town just in the moment when i was passing by with my backpack. She was about to get into the car and i asked her if she could give me a ride. Not only that, she even drove me to the gas station out there next to the motorway. Good, no need to worry about getting to the highway! So, I already got there at 8.30am so there was not much traffic at the gas station i had to learn. So I walked over to the other side of the motorway and put myself at the entrance of the northern route, which actually was right between 2 roads... a little dangerous, but a very good spot, i thought. The sun was burning at 8.30am already. Why now, and during the last days i had been freezing?? The world is sometimes unfair.. but at least i had a sunbath the day before down by the sea with my dear friend Solveig. After about 40 minutes which had been the longest wait so far on my entire trip, 2 women stopped and took me all the way to Stockholm. I was really lucky and they were so friendly and dropped me in a suburb of Stockholm at the trainstation. Because the bus drivers in Stockholm had been on strike these days, even the train ride was for free. I made it to Stockholm without a single penny. Ha haaaa!

On the ferry from Stockholm to Finland, which took 12 hours, i had time to reflect about my journey and to write a little bit. And i really looooved to be there for 12 hours not needing to talk to ANYBODY! I looked through my expensed which had not exceeded the my budget altough i had been travelling through very expensive countries. I was quite proud and felt really good. Of course theres always unforeseen stuff that can happen and still i would be off very well as now i was starting to get into the less wealthy countries. Lets face it, i thought by myself, i could go on like this for 2 years if i really wanted to. But that would be crazy, i would be broke afterwards and that was not my intention.

on the ferry, childhood reminicines, the candy

I arrived in Turku in the evening, Finland. It had been a was a very hot day, 30 degrees and the sun was still burning. Getting further north again also meant more day and night light. Its something cool but you need to get used to it. Sleeping becomes more rare because the sun does not set untill midnight and rises again at about 3am. its something that i still have to get used to. It also means that in the evenings for example at 8pm, the sun is still high up the sky.

My host met me at the bus stop and we spent a great evening together with the typical cider, an alcoholic drink. Thats a very famous drink in the northern countries. We spent all week-end together and had lots of fun. I discovered an alternative artist/student bar in Turku with old fashioned tables and chairs, one even a I discovered Turku with only little money, we sat in the park drinking, which was illegal, but everybody would do.

Midsummer in Sweden

2008-07-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

Booooy, i havent written in ages. Very sorry folks but thats just the way it goes when you are travelling... So, i am trying to shorten the text a little bit for everyone of us in order not to get too tired reading all that stuff...

Sweden was nice, just nice. Well the landscape is great, the clean air and the countrysite, water, blue sky. I met some interesting people and was able to improve my swedish for quite a bit. I had been speaking swedish for all most the entire month and then when i suddenly had to switch to english, i was starting to stagger.... ehhhhhhmmm ha ha
...but theres always a but... sweden is unfortunately i have to say yoo much of a car, success and career oriented country that sympathises alot with the US. So i had to keep my mouth shut all times... almost. As Alexandeer supertramp said. "20th century inventions!"

Anyway, no reason for you to miss out on all the news...

I left from Sodertalje in Sweden, near Stockholm, trying to hitch from a very stupid place, in the middle of a roundabout. My host had told me that she usually used this entry to the highway... i beleived it as there was heavy traffic, but as i understood only later, they all drove to Stockholm, which was in the opposite direction that i had to go... So i continued and walked across the bridge to get to another entry on the other side. Luckily, there was a bycicle path so dont worry folks, i didnt walk on the highway, as in Germany... and later in Kalmar, but that comes a little later.
Frmo the other side it was really easy to catch a ride, avert 3 mins somebody stopped and took me to the next gas station along the highway. From there i found a truck driver who drove all the way soth in my direction. Easy peasy! In the middle of the drive he had to take a 45min lunch break, compulsory, he told me, the company rules. I understood. First i thought i would wait but then we saw another truck at the gas station and my driver told me that he knew the guy was driving in the same direction. So i tried to cacth a ride with him and sucseeded.

Its just amazing, how much people are willing to give if you just dare to ask them! I made from Stockholm to Kalmar with only 3 lifts, could have in 2 lifts, but chose 3 to be faster. But because of the talking i was so worn out when i arrived to Kalmar, where my brother lives.

I had not been to Kalmar in many years, so not travelling there was out of question. But i wanted to , just to see my relatives again and my nephew and niece again, which are growing older fast. I feel like an old aunty admitting that and asking them in which grade they are goin as i cant seem to remember it. Didnt our aunts keep on asking us and we would get really angry if they coulndt remember it next time?

Upon arrival i received a present from my niece, a necklace, in fact a really beautufyl and fancy one which i later lost or forgot. I am heartbroken about that and i cant tell her. As it was the day before midsummer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer preparations were being made. Building the "Midsommarstång" and cover it all over with flowers had to be done, I had the chance to participate and i was getting very curious about the next day. I was really looking forward to it. I expected people to dance around the Midsommarstång all day and night, and be drunk. None of that, it only turned out to start after lunch and only last about 20 minutes. That was it?? Yes, that was it! Then people started to eat sweets, cake and drink coffee. Eating sweets is quite common here, every day, yes! Thats usually on TOP of a piece of cake or ice cream after dinner on a special occasion. Its quite cheap to get also, i bet its the cheapest food to get in Sweden, sweets! The rest is bloody expensive.. I keept on hitchhiking, even after i had moved to Oland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96land where i stayed with the relatives. I hitched back and forth to the library in Kalmar to get free internet and to meet up with my new won friends from couchsurfing. I had also organised a meeting and unbeleivable 5 people showed up!

we picked12 litres of strawberries

This weeks new add to my playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax_N4d0Efb0&feature=PlayList&p=31DF7AAA12FC3CE0&index=0

Total numbers of lifts from Sodertalje to Kalmar: 3
Money spent on transport: 0

I am innocent, believe me!

2008-06-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-06-18T05:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-18T04:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-18T03:39:00.000-07:00

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??

2008-06-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

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

Warm up and good-bye

2008-05-31T08:08:00.001-07:00

My room on the day when i left

I had to get to my hometown to deal with something which really was not included in my time calculation. Anyway i made it to Bern where i said goodbye to a good friend of mine.

Spending the last night at my parents place was quite strange, the last times i was doing this, it felt differently, but now, i only had very few things that i left there and was fully aware of the fact that i would not come back so early.

The net day, early afternoon i had to leave already. My father insisted on giving me a lift to the motorway which was about 15 min away and from there i hitched back to Zurich. In two cars. It was quite funny, the second lift i got, was at a quite shitty place actually, somewhere in Bern but after about 30min somebody stopped who was going to Zurich. Achmet, a turkish guy who lived in Switzerland for 16 years gave me a lift to Zurich. He even invited me for a coffee at the gas station on the way. We figred out that we ad the same dreams: living at the beach somehwere in a warm country. Well, I wished him all the luck!

Total number of lifts: 3
Total of money spend for travelling: 5.10 (train from Bern to Düdingen)

See my room getting emptier and emptier

2008-05-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well, things finally advancing over here. Bed and the rest of my furniture is gone! Yah!
So the last challenge is to get rid of all my smaller things. And note, for this last week, i don't even have a storage means, no cupboard, no drawers, not even a bedside table! Still a matress though...

:) more soon and with pic of me in the empty room!

I want to break free, i want to break free -20MAY

2008-04-19T03:17:00.000-07:00

Counting the days until my fabulous journey will start

Derrik Jensens book "The culture of make beleive" gives me lots of valuable input.. Also many new thouthts. I recently talked to my friend about the perversity of our culture, to live in expensive appartements, just because they are 15 min closer to the station or further away form much less wealthier ppl. And to buy strawberries from Spain, or other fruit that has been flown in from SouthAmerica just because we cant wait any longer.. We support the continuation of the destruction of this planet, which is done on purpuse, just because some customers want to pay less for their "ah so beautiful" flowers, so we agree to put pesticides into the air every day.

Also what makes me insane is the constant glorification of materialism and faviritism of people with unimportant traits here in this city. For instance, money as such is not only a must, but sombody with more money and nicer clothes will be treated much better in everyday life: For instance in the shops (I know i am saying "in the shops" and not "in some shops"). Somebody in a suit and with nicer hair will be served much quicker and in a frendlier way than me when i got and buy something at MERKUR Hauptbahnhof. Well, it could be any shop. The shocking reality: somebody who is begging in a suit and tells people that he just lost his job will make more money than a real homeless begger in filthy clothes.

Moreover, somebody who looks good but probably is a complete prick will be favorised too. It will be much easier for him/her to find a partner, to find friends and a good job with adequate payment than your ugly, fat neighbour whom you don't want to meet in the gangway but who could be great for the job but still wouldn't get a change due to the form of appearance. But Zurichs inhabitants somehow seem to hold fast to these TOTALLY nonrelevant traits. Buy more, consume more, get nicer cars, houses, rings, braclets, suits, dogs, breasts, hair color........

Your beauty will not help you if you are out there in the forrest, trying to build a shelter, or trying to find food. Neither will your money be of much use, if you cannot trade with anybody anymore.

Considering these and many more facts and pondering about our civilisation gone mad, I think of various ways on how not to pollute the earth at all, or at least to a minimum extend only and to not to be blinded by these meaningless and pointless and superficiality.

But then i realise that its impossible, if we continue to live in this modernised world with cars, plastics, conveniently packaged goods we buy in the supermarket every day. I sometimes doubt that i alone can change anything about it. It needs much more, a global break-down before we start to see clearly. I know for sure, i want to stop supporting this madness!