Difference between revisions of "Random Roads/Submit"

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Click edit to submit your article. By submitting you agree that your work may be edited to improve style or grammar.  
 
Click edit to submit your article. By submitting you agree that your work may be edited to improve style or grammar.  
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==When you are all whatever, it all clicks together==
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''"You shouldn't think too much about how hard something might be, you should just go on the road and find your way. Just believe it can be done and you will see it will happen."''
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Reece is a traveler from the [[US]] who has been in [[Europe]] for 2,5 years now. He lives on a no/low-budget for quite a while and gets by what with whatever he finds on his road, of whatever finds him. --[[User:Robino|Robino]] 17:28, 28 September 2008 (CEST)
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Once, when I was hitchhiking through [[Akureyri]] to [[Reykjavik]] - hitchhiking here is really easy as most cars were driving on that route to Reykjavik anyway; I spend more time writing [[Reykjavik]] than holding the sign - a friend of my driver, was organising an exhibition and he asked me if I wanted to work for him, being paid in cash.
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Things like this happen. You just have to get to know the people and network around that. Like that you sometimes end up going to nice paces. I always wanted to go to [[Finland]]. In [[Iceland]] I met someone who offered me a job and a place to stay in [[Finland]]. It did take me a wile to figure out how to survive but even without papers these things are possible.
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When you don't really have plans you come to see it all falls into place. It seems that things fall together in that way, when you have less expectations and when you worry less. But when you need to be somewhere at a certain time it gets much more stress to find your food and to find those rides. When you are all whatever, it all clicks together. It is about letting go.
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=== Learning process ===
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The first times I came to [[Europe]], I had a budget and a return ticket. I was on holidays, visiting [[Europe]], using my creditcard. I always had to go back to the [[US]] to work and pay off my debts that I made while traveling. But now I don't do that anymore, I have no exit-ticket and basically no budget.
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Two and a half years ago I left the US with only 250 dollars and I made my way to Iceland for a job. I worked 90 hours a month in a youth-hostel just to sleep in a dormitory. To actually get some money, I had to work 120 hours a month. Since [[Iceland]] is pretty expensive, I ended up with nothing.
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At the end of those 3 months, I was going to overstay my tourist visa. The hostel arranged a ticket for me to the UK to go out. So I left [[Iceland]] broke and wanted to go to Ireland to volunteer at a different hostel. But with no money at all, I got detained and got send back to the [[UK]]. They detained me for 7 hours in an empty room and returned me for free to the UK.
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Then stayed at the [[London]] airport for a night walking passed the restaurant area with no money at all. That was hard. I could have done it differently by obtaining work-visas so that I could have stayed in a rather normal way - but I prefer not to have that responsibility, it is a different mentality.
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So I stayed in the UK and through a friend I went to a woofing farm where they payed 70 pounds a week, for 40 hours work a week. Though I still wanted to go to this hostel in [[Dublin]], in the [[Aran Islands]]. For nine years I really wanted to go this place. It was worth it, it is a special place. So when I got some more money, I made my way there, traveled then through Europe, got back to Ireland, got kicked out, and so on.
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But you shouldn't think about how hard something might be, you should just go on the road and find your way. Just believe it can be done and you will see it will happen. It is sometimes hard to figure out 'where is this damn highway' but once you are on the road, it always feels really good. Finding food is actually the hardest part, every morning you have that same thing again, and sometimes it can be really hard when you wake up hungry. Or at night's, and you are wondering around a random city and you really want to have a decent hot meal and a good cold beer and you see people having those meals...
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=== Slow Travel ===
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My traveling is now a lot slower, I need to build up that system of having a place to stay, getting a routine, get work, then start looking where I want to go next. Before, to stay at one spot for 6 weeks seemed forever, but now 6 weeks looks like nothing: go to a place, find a job, a place to stay, etc.
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The jobs I do can be pretty different. To get by, I sometimes just go out on the street and collect bottles with deposit. But you can also do woofing or construction work. My favourite work is do some bar tending, which is pretty easy to get a job in.
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What is essential about traveling like this is to meet local people. How I was traveling before - I was working and living in youth hostels - I met a lot of travelers. So wherever I was living, I always met the same sort of travelers. It didn't matter where I was - the experience was all the same.
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But now that I stopped traveling like this you have to interact with someone at some time. I am much more just wondering around in a city and I feel much more that I have to force myself to interact with people. Good things happen out of that, either they buy you a beer and you get by for some hours, or if you hitchhike, you get further on your way to a new destination, or when you tell your story to your driver they sometimes even help you with a surprise.
  
 
==Zoë's first time hitchhiking==
 
==Zoë's first time hitchhiking==

Revision as of 16:28, 28 September 2008

Random Roads - Hitchhiking zine
( Home - Ideas - Submit - Issue 0 - Checklist - Contributors - Manifesto )


Click edit to submit your article. By submitting you agree that your work may be edited to improve style or grammar.

When you are all whatever, it all clicks together

"You shouldn't think too much about how hard something might be, you should just go on the road and find your way. Just believe it can be done and you will see it will happen."


Reece is a traveler from the US who has been in Europe for 2,5 years now. He lives on a no/low-budget for quite a while and gets by what with whatever he finds on his road, of whatever finds him. --Robino 17:28, 28 September 2008 (CEST)


Once, when I was hitchhiking through Akureyri to Reykjavik - hitchhiking here is really easy as most cars were driving on that route to Reykjavik anyway; I spend more time writing Reykjavik than holding the sign - a friend of my driver, was organising an exhibition and he asked me if I wanted to work for him, being paid in cash.

Things like this happen. You just have to get to know the people and network around that. Like that you sometimes end up going to nice paces. I always wanted to go to Finland. In Iceland I met someone who offered me a job and a place to stay in Finland. It did take me a wile to figure out how to survive but even without papers these things are possible.

When you don't really have plans you come to see it all falls into place. It seems that things fall together in that way, when you have less expectations and when you worry less. But when you need to be somewhere at a certain time it gets much more stress to find your food and to find those rides. When you are all whatever, it all clicks together. It is about letting go.

Learning process

The first times I came to Europe, I had a budget and a return ticket. I was on holidays, visiting Europe, using my creditcard. I always had to go back to the US to work and pay off my debts that I made while traveling. But now I don't do that anymore, I have no exit-ticket and basically no budget.

Two and a half years ago I left the US with only 250 dollars and I made my way to Iceland for a job. I worked 90 hours a month in a youth-hostel just to sleep in a dormitory. To actually get some money, I had to work 120 hours a month. Since Iceland is pretty expensive, I ended up with nothing.

At the end of those 3 months, I was going to overstay my tourist visa. The hostel arranged a ticket for me to the UK to go out. So I left Iceland broke and wanted to go to Ireland to volunteer at a different hostel. But with no money at all, I got detained and got send back to the UK. They detained me for 7 hours in an empty room and returned me for free to the UK.

Then stayed at the London airport for a night walking passed the restaurant area with no money at all. That was hard. I could have done it differently by obtaining work-visas so that I could have stayed in a rather normal way - but I prefer not to have that responsibility, it is a different mentality.

So I stayed in the UK and through a friend I went to a woofing farm where they payed 70 pounds a week, for 40 hours work a week. Though I still wanted to go to this hostel in Dublin, in the Aran Islands. For nine years I really wanted to go this place. It was worth it, it is a special place. So when I got some more money, I made my way there, traveled then through Europe, got back to Ireland, got kicked out, and so on.

But you shouldn't think about how hard something might be, you should just go on the road and find your way. Just believe it can be done and you will see it will happen. It is sometimes hard to figure out 'where is this damn highway' but once you are on the road, it always feels really good. Finding food is actually the hardest part, every morning you have that same thing again, and sometimes it can be really hard when you wake up hungry. Or at night's, and you are wondering around a random city and you really want to have a decent hot meal and a good cold beer and you see people having those meals...

Slow Travel

My traveling is now a lot slower, I need to build up that system of having a place to stay, getting a routine, get work, then start looking where I want to go next. Before, to stay at one spot for 6 weeks seemed forever, but now 6 weeks looks like nothing: go to a place, find a job, a place to stay, etc.

The jobs I do can be pretty different. To get by, I sometimes just go out on the street and collect bottles with deposit. But you can also do woofing or construction work. My favourite work is do some bar tending, which is pretty easy to get a job in.

What is essential about traveling like this is to meet local people. How I was traveling before - I was working and living in youth hostels - I met a lot of travelers. So wherever I was living, I always met the same sort of travelers. It didn't matter where I was - the experience was all the same.

But now that I stopped traveling like this you have to interact with someone at some time. I am much more just wondering around in a city and I feel much more that I have to force myself to interact with people. Good things happen out of that, either they buy you a beer and you get by for some hours, or if you hitchhike, you get further on your way to a new destination, or when you tell your story to your driver they sometimes even help you with a surprise.

Zoë's first time hitchhiking

The first time hitchhiking, something that is always special. A bit scary sometimes as you don't really know what to expect. How did that go with Zoë, whose first hitchhiking trip was 888, the European Hitchhiking day?

Where did you start?

Zoe photographed in Paris at the 888-event

I took the train from Maastricht to Utrecht to join a pre-888 meeting, the hitchhikers gathering. I wanted to find someone I could travel with, as I didn't want to hitch alone. At the meeting I quickly found my partner. We got lost in Utrecht for two hours the next day as we were trying to find our spot. Some guy gave us a lift from the city and dropped us on the highway. There we waited for two hours.

But isn't that illegal?
Yes, and we were afraid that some police-car would stop to jail us, but a nice guy actually stopped and brought us to the first petrol station. There it finally really started. Until then I actually thought it was all just a big joke, that this whole hitchhiking thing wouldn't work.

At the petrol-station we also met another hitchhiker who was going to Paris and who had departed from Copenhagen. Later we met Jan from Berlin, and he was all covered with sweat as he had come walking to the petrol-station with his huge backpack. So we were all there, trying to find rides. But then I found one car with enough space for all four of us. (what happened then?)

Did it meet your expectations for the first time hitchhiking?
It was way better. I thought it was just from the highway with your thumb up. But it wasn't. It was just hitching from petrol-stations and it was quite safe, and really fun. Actually I didn't know what to expect, I thought I was going to die, haha. It did take longer than I thought though.

I decided only two days in advance to join, the day I heard about 888. I wanted to do something different, I was looking for some excitement and adventure. When I arrived the next day at the Utrecht meeting, everyone was fully prepared, with maps, signs and lists of the petrol-stations. I was a bit in shock then. I had zero preparation and came with a half-broken suitcase.

I was really surprised how much the trip helped me to build up self-confidence. Also the people I met at the event inspired me a lot. Most of the people who were there are very different from myself. I met someone who was 19 and who had hitchhiked for weeks already. He just had his backpack. And also people who had been traveling in that way for years on a row, without the need for some kind of security. That really is impressive.

So what's next for you?
Next is buying a backpack! I was hitchhiking with a suitcase and that doesn't work. It was even broken a bit, so I had to carry it along the highway and also in Paris when I got lost hitching out. So I am not hitchhiking anywhere until I have a good bag! Then, maybe hitchhiking across Australia or somewhere and meeting people along the way.

Going back home from Paris, you hitched by yourself Were you afraid?
Yes, very much. I kept pushing my departure back for very long, to see if there was anyone who wanted to join me. But nobody did, so I had to go by myself. I was afraid in Paris itself, but once I was on the highway I was fine.

How do you approach your potential drivers?
With a big smile but I am also picky. I was looking for families, couples and women to hitchhike with. I think you have to be, it is one thing to hitchhike and trust people, but another to ... you know, I am a woman and also from South-Africa, where bad things happen relatively often. So what could happen to me is much more on the forefront of my mind. So I am definitely more picky. I actually ended up waiting at one petrol-station for some hours more as I could have, as I let a lot of cars go without talking to the drivers.

My last ride was going to Liege, which is about 20 kilometers away from my destination, Maastricht. But the final petrol-station, where we arrived at 12 at midnight, was closed. So I thought, I want to get home, but I don't want to spend the night here as a woman alone in the middle of the night with nobody there. So they dropped me at the train station, where I spend the night. That was really cold. That is by the way the next thing I really have to buy: a sleeping bag!

Not knowing what would happen next

Shaun "Master of Air Guitar" is from Canada, Vancouver and has been traveling through Europe for 1,5 year now on a low/no-budget. How does he make it happen?

"The adventure of it all, not knowing what would happen next, all the different places, and friends you haven't met yet, places you haven't seen yet, all that pulled me into traveling."

I met Shaun in Paris, during the 888 event. He was smiling and holding a broad sign saying "Paris s.v.p". He then came to Amsterdam where I hosted him a small week. We had a great time and while talking we decided to write down his story, to help inspiring other travelers, that you do not have to fear to travel with little resources or a ticket back home Robino 16:47, 30 August 2008 (CEST)

The first time traveling, I had no money. I had a backpack and a ticket to Costa Rica. I thought I would just go there, get a bus to the beach and put up my tent to sleep there. I met many people, who were just sleeping on the beach, for free, and like that I met many people who had done that for years.

I was living of coconuts and bananas, I didn't even need money. People I met who did have money were surprised, that I traveled like this, they said I was naive. But it helps being naive, because it makes you realise that it is very possible. I later hitchhiked back from Costa Rica to Canada.

These type of experiences inspire you with all kinds of further travel-ideas. On the way, you also learn better how to travel as such. For example, my backpack is now way lighter. At first it was 90 liters, now just 30 liters.

Now I am traveling without a plan to go home, I have no exit-plan, just a one way ticket. I have my guitar and I can also make jewelery for money, and I can always do that if it is needed, if I run out of money for example.

Lifestyle

Shaun being photographed in Paris at the 888-event

I left Canada with 4000 euro's, which is quite a bit actually. I had been working for 8 months back home, had cheap rent and worked in a restaurant where they gave me free food. My lifestyle was based on saving this money, to not spend it, I wouldn't buy useless stuff, there is nothing you can learn from buying things.

Since I arrived in Europe, I just kept on traveling until my money was finished and I really didn't think of my money until I run out of it. Though that didn't worry me at all. Once you are traveling and you stay in a city for a bit longer, you meet people from all over the place who you then meet up in the city where they live. As you keep on expanding your network you also get more opportunities on the way.

So when I ran out of money, I randomly went to Dublin. I did some couchsurfing and so I stayed at a few different places there when I started writing people just asking for any tips on how to find a job, if they know anyone for a room to rent, and letting them know I am very low on money so they know I cannot pay rent straight away. I got word back from different people with websites for jobs and through a friend of one girl I actually got a room and some work.

Skills and Resources

But the essential thing is that you actually don't even need that money when you travel. You come to this point when you realise the different things you can do to get by. What I do when I have no money, is going to the bakery at closure time and ask them if they have any food they are going to throw away, and you can do the same thing at markets, and so on. Grocery's stores throw away their old food too, but sometimes it is still really good, and you just have to cut off the bad pieces.

If you have a low budget and you want to travel for years and years, you should be able to have some skills to be able to get by with. If you can make something, if you can make art for example, or offer poetry even and ask people if you can share a poem with them. I actually met someone who printed poems and shared them with people and made his money through that.

You can also do farming, for which you don't always need special skills. Farmers pay you cash, you can pick grapes, strawberries. Take for example WWOOFing (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), you don't make money, but you have a free place to stay and free food. I did a lot of that. Even when you don't know how to farm, you can still do simple work like digging a hole.

But even painting - I was once working for a guy painting his house in exchange for a free place: I painted for two days painting and stayed for a week.

And sometimes things just occur to you. I was just sitting in Brussels and making some bracelets as some girls came up to me and asked me if they could buy them of me. "How much you want for it?", they asked. "A euro?", I replied, and they said, "no way, is that all?" and so I raised the price a bit.

That is how I came up with the idea of going around and sell the bracelets that I make. My plan now is to hitch to the Baltic countries, to make bracelets and to sell those in the Greek islands. Someone told me it was easy to sell them there, and that I could make 8 euros on average an hour.

Hitchhiking

Shaun sleeping early morning in Paris at the 888-event

How does hitchhiking fit in all that?

It is the lowest budget way of traveling. If you go short distances, you can ride bikes as you can go anywhere with that, but for larger distances, hitching is a really great way of traveling. It is not completely risk-free obviously, but you have a choice of who you want to get in the car with and if you can 'read' people you can be a good hitchhiker.

How does one become a good hitchhiker? To start with, it is all in your attitude, if you're sitting on a back bag on the side of the road, not looking to anyone, you will never get that ride. But if you are standing up, big smile, and your thumb is out there with enthusiasm, you look the drivers in the eye, yeah, then it works pretty good. Equally important, when you're not getting your rides, don't feel bad about it, your right ride will come along, just wait and stay positive.

Did you have fears or doubts before traveling? Well, there is the fear of never leaving the same place, the same old town. And doing something other than what you are told to do when you are born, school, job, marriage, house, kids. That fear pushed me into traveling. The adventure of it all, not knowing what would happen next, all the different places, and friends you haven't met yet. Places you hadn't seen yet, that pulled me into travelling.

I didn't have many doubts either. I thought it was actually going to be pretty easy, without any big problems. Being robbed was the only problem I could think of. Accidents, injuries, getting sick, or hit by a bus, that could happen at home also, so why should I not travel!?

Hitchhiking Image in Canada

In Canada I got rides from quite some people saying they have a certain image about hitchhikers, that hitchhikers are generally dangerous. So they say, they normally don't stop for hitchhikers but since I am a girl, and since it is rainy, or since it is bloody cold, sometimes women do stop for me.

This is beneficial for me, but is also pretty sexist. I think they should be just as compassionate to a male as they are to me. Or, why don't they think I have the same potential as a man? That I can be as dangerous as a guy because also I could have a gun or knife and be as 'powerful'?

They don't see us hitchhikers as just ordinary people who have office jobs for example, or whatever, and who just have go from place A top B like they have to themselves.

I am not so pessimistic about hitchhiking in Canada though, because I do get a lot of good lifts, and other people tell me that they like picking up hitchhikers, that for example they themselves used to also hitchhike.

In the 50s and 60s it was much more common to hitchhike. But these days, in different ways, people are taught to be afraid. The media image and the government give us hitchhikers and the concept of sharing a bad image. Also in general terms, people are taught to be afraid of others. That's a big shame.

---Sarah Jane from Canada


Hitchhikers Control Card

The Hitchhikers Control Card was a small booklet for each city with places where to stand, with the telephone numbers of police and the date issued. It would be valid for a year. The other side of this card had space for drivers to put their personal stamps that were provided by the government.

Even on television there were advertisements for people to hitchhike, also saying it would be perfectly safe for children to hitchhike without their parents.

But many hitchhikers also had fears of why the government was controlling even hitchhiking. Using the card was risky because the government could use the data you provided, whether you were communist or not. It was also just another way to control society, with the police abusing hitchhiking to have deeper surveillance.

The hitchhikers' card died somewhere in the 70s. Someone actually got killed and people stopped using these cards. Generally Polish people don't like control over themselves by the authorities, so hitchhiking was something you would do without letting the police know about it. People just wouldn't give out their names anymore merely because they wanted to travel safer.

It actually worked in a way, my uncle experienced. It can become handy, but the people that stopped for him would have stopped anyway. He felt safer though because once when he got robbed, the thief was stupid enough to give a stamp when my uncle entered the car, and so the police could track him quickly.

--- by Noemi.