TR-advent calendar #21

/in ,

15387626_924110971023859_498260870_o

#21: Johannes

You can barely call it „hitchhiking“ when I first decided to stand by the road and hold my thumb out, hoping for somebody to pick me up.
It was in August 2011, after I just quit my physics studies, so I had a lot of free time and not much on my mind as I didn’t have any university related obligations. One of the best things to do with free time is travelling so I decided to travel Germany and visit all kinds of friends.

One of those travels brought me up North to Hamburg, where I visited a friend who studies at the armed forces. This puts me in quite a strange and interesting position, as I also stayed in the barracks. He told me that one of his friends just moved out, so I even had a room all for myself. In the following 3 days I had some odd and interesting talks and encounters, as well as some irritated reactions due to my clearly visible non-belonging to the armed forces. However those 3 days are a different story and can be told another time.

After those days, in which I also saw a lot of Hamburg itself, and which marked the longest period I have spent in this city so far, I decided to go back to Berlin. The only question was how I would get there. At this point of time I normally just looked up a rideshare, as it was well organized and quite reliable – but I was in adventure mode. I had time to spare, the road to Berlin is well travelled and I had a marker pen – all was set for the first hitchhiking experience of my life.

The fact that I even considered it, was mainly related to getting to know some people of Viva con Agua some months earlier at the World Water Day in Berlin. After some events and meet ups with the VcA group of Berlin I realized that hitchhiking is quite a usual way for many of them to travel. For me the feeling about hitchhiking was mainly coined by my sheltered and wary upbringing in the Thuringian country side.

My preparations were quickly finished – I got some old cardboard from a pack of Sherry in the barracks and looked up the best places to hitch to Berlin from Hamburg on Hitchwiki. Because the road is much frequented I didn’t have to look for long to find a good spot to start from – a roundabout right at the access road to the highway to Berlin, called Horner Kreisel. All that was left was find the best way to get there from the barracks by public transport, which was just another quick lookup and I was ready to go.

When I arrived at the roundabout the spot to put down my stuff and wait was easily identifiable by a vast number of stickers and writings on a big column, which clearly marked the place as the hitchhiking spot I was looking for. For the drivers, a bus stop just some meters behind the column was the perfect place to stop and pick up people. With some insecurity still in me I began to write the letters “BERLIN” on my cardboard. Next was the moment in which I realized that I’m really doing it, I’m hitchhiking and so I stood by the road, board in front of me, thumb out, and more or less smiling at the drivers passing by. Just about three minutes after I held out my thumb a Mini Cooper was coming to a stop at the bus station. With some disbelief as to how easily that worked I grabbed my stuff and went to the car.

The driver, about 40 something, directly told me he is going to Berlin and if I wanna jump in. As my feeling about the guy was quite good I put my bags on the backseat and got in on the front passenger seat. What followed was about 3 hours of a relaxed drive and some nice and interesting talks with the guy, who told me that he was hitchhiking a lot himself when he was younger. This way he properly was way more experienced in the whole thing and he even gave me some tips as what to look out for. When we arrived in Berlin he dropped me near a train station and all that was left for me was to take the train to my flat.

This way, the first hitchhiking experience of my life ended and after all those thoughts I had before about security or insecurity, what kind of people would stop, if anybody would stop at all, what remained was a feeling of joy. The joy of having travelled with a certain amount of randomness, a feeling of freedom. Since then I hitchhiked quite some times and every time was different, all of the people, all of the places, but one thing always stays the same at the end of a journey – the graceful feeling that I got to know new people who share this world with me and who are ready to help other people.

TR- Advent calendar # 20

/in ,

#20: Audrey

The first time I hitchhiked it was in summer 2011. I was a French exchange Student in Kiel at that time. Through couchsurfing I had met some nice german hippies who were involved in the NGO Viva con Agua. They were talking all the time about Tramprennen. I had no idea what it was about, and it’s only when they showed me videos of them of the road that I understood they were some kind of pround hitchhikers. It was the first time I heard that people enjoyed hitchhiking for the sake of it and not only out of necessity. And I found the idea as disturbing than exciting.

We were in Prague CZ wanting to head back to Kiel for the Kieler Woche festival. My friend Camille and I got dropped off at a petrol station outside the city of Prague. It was early morning, we had no idea of what we were doing but felt fairly confident we could get to Kiel before dark.

As we were two girls with no map and just one phone between the 2, we thought of some rules to keep safe. One of them was to stick together whatever happens or tell the other if we felt incomfortable.

After a few minutes holding our sign, a massive truck stopped. The driver, an older guy said in german: “HEY GIRLS we are going to Germany, you can come with us. One chick comes with me and the other goes with the truck following me” We looked behind his massive truck and another guy was up in another massive truck waiving at us. I responded “THANK YOU BUT we can’t, we want to stay together!”

Too late: Camille was already running to the truck with her backpack, happy we got a lift so quickly. Once in the truck the driver told me how much he loved french girls, since he had an affair with a woman called Nathalie. After that akward moment, I remember liking the feeling of being up high on the road looking down at cars. I liked also being invited into the truck driver as if it was his house, he was offering me coffee biscuits and cigarettes, while driving. We talked about his family in Poland, listened to polish old school pop music. I was looking at the back mirror all the time, afraid that Camille’s truck would disappear. The 2 trucks started a race on the highway trying to pass eachother. Not thinking of the speed limit, it was good to see Camilles smiling face everytime they passed us.

A few hours later we stopped and they shared their meal with us. Camille’s driver was very friendly but also had posters of naked women all over his cabine. She was in control she said. They dropped us 6 hours later in Leipzig and we continued our way to Kiel, without to wait more that 5 minutes. We even got disturbed during our break by a family at a station asking us where we wanted to go! We ended the day asking some guys to drive 200 kilometers out of their way to drop us off in Kiel. They partied with us all of the following night.

It was the first day of a very long love story with hitchhiking. Everyting can happen on the road, especially great experiences and random hilarious encounters. I can not imagine how the last 5 years would have been without hitchhiking. I gained confidence, freedom, trust in humanity and trust in my survival skills. I learned how to be patient, accept failures and wrong decisions, listen to my buddy and to not be greedy.

Last but not least I discovered also how privileged I was to cross borders freely and be welcome everywhere. During Tramprennen 2015 on the way to Albania, we met countless groups of people walking along the train tracks and hitching toward to North, while the friendly drivers of our air conditionned car were making disgusting racist comments.

The world is up to you when you are hitchhiking, only if you are a white european/westerner.

Well, to be honest I am not that white but it’s a fact that foreign people were much more welcoming with me than they had been with my dad a generation ago or than they are now with the people coming to Europe fleeing conflict they haven’t started.

So now, the question is: do you want to keep your privileges for watching TV? Or do you want to go learn about your limits and the world? There is nothing to feel guilty or worried about, just go and hit that road!

TR- Advent calendar #19

/in ,

15419328_924096924358597_1969232532_o

 

#19: Tue Gonzo

A bit more than 13 years ago, I read Jack Kerouac’s – On the road, which inspired me in numerous way, which is a total cliché, I know, but back in those days it hadn’t become a cliche yet.

Crap, I just realized that I’m not 60, so that also makes me a cliché, nevermind, back to my literary fueled wanderlust.

After reading the inspiring words of a young hitchhiker, backpacking his way around the United States in the mid 60s, I figured that I should try that hot old drug called Thumbing.

I wrote a bunch of my friends a text saying that I was going to do something new and exciting, several of them answered back interested in my new adventures, which is the equivalent of 50 likes, 12 reaction emoticons and 4 shares, in modern communication.

My plan was to hitchhike from Kalundborg to Copenhagen, the mind boggling distance of 120 danish kilometers ( which is just like normal kilometers, but better, and much more up it’s own ass about it)

Kalundborg is only about 20.000 people, so there’s only one way out of town leading to Copenhagen, and it only took about 15-20minutes to walk there.

My 17 year old self looked amazing, thumb in the air, wind in my hair, and what appeared to be a smile from a distance.

As you can probably imagine, it didn’t take long before a car stopped, they were only going to the next city, but that was fine by me.

The next spot was equally good, cars were slow, easy visibility and plenty of space for the cars to stop, I hardly had the time for my thumb to get cold before a car stopped.

What happened next, and the time after that, was that the car was actually going all the way, but I told them to only drive me 20-30kms.

Why did I say no to a direct ride?

Because my main interest wasn’t getting to Copenhagen, it was to try hitching, and through my thumb, to get into different cars and talk to different people.

After around 5-6 rides, I arrived to Copenhagen and walked the last 8 kms to the main station, got into a train going back to Kalundborg and spent the next 1½hours eating my lunchpack.

This was my first time hitchhiking, I successfully went from A to B and then back to A again, I turned down several direct rides, all in all it was like no other hitchhiking trip since then, but you’re allowed to do some weird, freaky stuff on your first time, right?

At least that’s what Santa always told me, Merry christmas everyone :)

TR-advent calendar #18

/in ,

15417787_924096917691931_994482926_o

Ho,ho,ho- here we go! Christmas time is coming and before we hitchhike home for Christmas (haha…) we want to present you the first Advent calendar on tramprennen.org! Every day until Christmas (or even longer) we want to present one story about the first time we used the best way to travel: hitchhiking! Have fun with the stories! And you are more than welcome to add your own experience! Just send it to gro.nennerpmartnull@ofni! Whoop,Whoop!

 

#18: Minerva

“Woah, hitchhiking? Like, standing-on-the-street-thumb-out real life hitchhiking?” I asked my new german roommates, a bewildered look on my face as they told me of their travels across Europe with just a backpack and a few hundred Euros. I had arrived in Kiel to start at the university in the fall, after learning German for a year as a nanny, and was lucky enough to get a room with some “Tramprennen” experts.

For me, hitchhiking was something out of the movies or maybe out of a Jack Kerouac’s book, because growing up in the 90’s in Colombia you had none of that. Sure, beautiful beaches and mountains, awesome fruit and food and some kickass dance moves; but it all came with a profound sense of mistrust in your fellow humans. You had to be aware at all times, watch out for danger and NEVER EVER let a stranger into your car; so it came as a little bit of a shock when Max and Anna told me that, it not only worked, but that they used it as a regular means of transportation, and that they met awesome people and places doing it.

It took me about a semester to overcome my Colombian fears and try it. It was summer, my guest-grandpa had just got surgery in Hamburg and I wanted to visit him. Max, Anna and another friend wanted to go to Hamburg to do something else, so it was perfect. We stood in front of the Ikea in Kiel, two girls and one guy, and hitchhiked. I couldn’t believe it: I was hitchhiking, ME, the person who was ashamed to even ask the driver of the bus in Bogotá to let her pay 30 cents less (yes, you can do that in Colombia).  I can’t remember how long it took, maybe half an hour, I think. After that, a Turkish guy in a lorry winked at us and we got in; I was ecstatic, he was even going to Hamburg!!!

After that and after taking a picture for my What-crazy-Europeans-do album, I was hooked for life. I’ve been to Istanbul and back, to the south of Spain and Italy, and so many more places that I would’ve never visited if it wasn’t for hitchhiking. I’ve met such amazing, hospitable, giving people and I’ve even introduced a couple of my fearing Colombian friends to hitchhiking!

TR-advent calendar #17

/in ,

15369639_924002824368007_1721653494_o

Ho,ho,ho- here we go! Christmas time is coming and before we hitchhike home for Christmas (haha…) we want to present you the first Advent calendar on tramprennen.org! Every day until Christmas (or even longer) we want to present one story about the first time we used the best way to travel: hitchhiking! Have fun with the stories! And you are more than welcome to add your own experience! Just send it to gro.nennerpmartnull@ofni! Whoop,Whoop!

#15: Benni

It was during my last year of school. A friend and I wanted to escape the crowds of Karneval in our hometown Koblenz, so we decided to make a small trip through Germany. First we thought about tanking a car but then I read an article about free traveling and how you can spend your holidays without money in Berlin.

One of the tips in this article was hitchhiking. I somehow got curios about this idea and informed myself further and in the end I really wanted to try the best way of traveling.

The parents of my friend helped us with the start and brought us to a petrol station on the highway, where they left us alone. It was a strange feeling, knowing that you are depending on some strangers goodwill to get you out of this place to your aim. None of us ever did it before in this way, so we started to write a sign with “Berlin”. I also read in the article that it is much more successful if you ask the drivers. Okay, that sounds not to hard but in the beginning especially on the first time it was quite an overcoming to talk to a stranger and then even to ask for a favor. After the first fifteen minutes and my first rejections I felt a bit uncomfortable and thought that this might have not been the best idea.

Luckily a man came to us and said that he could take us to the next petrol station, but he has to talk to his family first because his daughter was sitting on the back bank. They agreed and we got our first lift! All the worries directly changed into pure happiness. On the next petrol station, where the wanted to drop us the two parents talked to each other and offered us that they will take us to Berlin. That made things pretty easy for us and we agreed directly. On the way we had some nice conversations and we stopped at the former border to the DDR to visit the custom station.

Thanks once again Peter for your help!