general

It is unbelievable how fast the last two months passed. But I made so many amazing experiences and met so many people that it could also easily be four months. In this post I will tell you about my experiences in Estonia.

But first there is one more story to be told about Finland. On my way to Helsinki, this woman picked me up.

She told me, that she was a teacher and also a musician. What I didn’t know was that she was actually really popular in Finland. How did I find out? She was car number 100 so I posted an Instagram story about it. Then some people that I met earlier in Finland answered to my story. See yourself:

Her name is Kristiina Brask. That’s what I love about hitchhiking. You never know what kind of amazing people with different stories are awaiting in the next car. Many people ask me if I ever had any bad experience with hitchhiking so far. If you’re waiting for some awful stories now, I have to disappoint you. So far only nice people stopped for me. Maybe I’ve just been lucky but I like to think that only nice people stop for hitchhikers so there was not a single car, where I was scared or anything.

After one night in Helsinki, I had a ferry to Estonia, to Tallinn. I choose a nice hostel in the middle of the old town. Tallinn impressed me right from the beginning. The old town, a lot of street musicians, small streets and just a great atmosphere. I met some people in the hostel with whom I spent the evening and the next day together. There was John from the Netherlands, Konstantina from Greece and three guys from Germany. In the evening I went to a football game with the Germans between the two clubs from Tallinn. Although there were not so many people there and mostly children, there was a good atmosphere.

After the game we did a pup-crawl. It was a funny evening and we came back to the hostel late.

The next day Juliane came from Austria to visit me. I picked her up from the airport in the afternoon. We didn’t really have any plans, what we would do for the six days together but the idea was to hitchhike around Estonia a bit. Well sometimes things happen differently. We ended up spending the weekend in Riga because the guy that picked us up went all the way to Riga so we decided to go to Riga as well. There we met up with my friends that I know from the erasmus+ project in Izmir. Read about the project here.

What else did we do in Riga? We did a free walking tour, went to a crazy czech bar and went to the beach in Jurmala.

On Monday we drove back to Tallinn with the same guy that took us all the way to Riga on Friday. Toms has had a party weekend and was super tired so I offered him to drive. He agreed immediately and so I drove all the way back, while he was sleeping on the back seat.

In the evening we hitchhiked to the Lahema national park where we spent one night in the tent right next to the beach. Besides the many mosquitoes it was a perfect spot.

The next day was my birthday and I was more than happy not to spend it alone. We hitchhiked back to Tallinn and spent the afternoon with sightseeing and mainly eating. A perfect day.

In the evening we met up with Liis, a friend of Juliane from her time in America. We went to a nice sushi place and had a great evening.

The next day it was time to say goodbye again.
A wise man said once: Happiness is only real when shared. This is one reason why I enjoyed travelling together with Julie so much. It’s just great to have someone around that is as adventurous as you and you can do crazy things together.

I brought her to the airport and stayed one more night in Tallinn. This time I stayed with a guy that I found through couchsurfing. After that I traveled around Estonia a bit more. I went to Narva, which is right next to Russia. That was very interesting for me to see. Right in the middle of the city, there is a river and on one side you have Estonia and Russia on the other side.

In Narva in the hostel I met a guy from the Netherlands with whom I drove around for one day and after that I met up with Liis again. Her parents live not far from Narva and she offered me to host me and to show me around a bit. I stayed for two nights and I got a private guided tour through the monestry in Kuremäe, we went mushroom picking and the best part: I got invited to do a presentation about my trip in a local school. Liis` mom is headmaster there and so she organized, that on Monday morning, we would do a presentation there. Liis spoke about her time as an AuPair in America and I told them how I started and what experiences I made so far. The students from 13 to asked a lot of questions and I really enjoyed it.

I want to thank Liis and her parents again for everything. Thank you for being so kind and spontaneous, for showing me around and giving me the chance to speak about my trip to inspire others.

Then I spendt two more days in Estonia. One night in Tartu and one night in Pärnu. In Tartu I had a free night in a hotel because they have a cooperation with the school I did the präsentation in. After that I left Estonia and now I’m again in Riga meeting up with my friends here again but I’m going to tell you about my adventures here in the next post.

Thank you for reading. Here are some more pictures of the last weeks:

After Norway I continued to Sweden. I wanted to go straight to Stockholm because I knew that on the 15th of August I was going to meet Evelina, a good friend of my best friend Liam on Aland, which is the island between Stockholm and Finland. It took me two days to hitchhike from Oslo to Stockholm.

In Stockholm I stayed in a hostel for two nights because in the cities it is difficult to find a place for the tent. Evelina recommended me the Crafoord Place Hostel. So this is where I went. The next day I took part in a free walking tour, where a guide is giving a free tour for around two hours and in the end you can tip him if you want.

It was a very interesting tour, we learned about the history of Stockholm and the original story behind the stockholmsyndrom. The best thing was, that I met three other people that were also traveling alone. Jorge from Spain and Judith and Alina from Germany. We got along very well from the beginning so we decided to spend the rest of the day together.

In the evening we went out and one guy from my hostel, Marco from Italy joined us as well. It was a fun evening. We tried Mead, which is some kind of alcohol made out of honey. It was a funny evening.

Especially Judith’s story was interesting. She was studying in Vaasa, Finland and after that, she decided to drive back home to Germany on her old bicycle. She really recommended me to. go to Vaasa when I’m coming to Finland. She is writing about her trip for a german newspaper and after a couple of days she sent this:

So funny to see your own face laughing out of a newspaper.

For the next day I had an overnight ferry to Aland. Aland belongs to Finland but people are speaking Swedish there. I expected a ferry and was surprised when I came to the harbor and a big cruise ship was waiting there. It had 11 decks with restaurants, spa and casinos on it. I had a small cabin with my own bathroom in it. I slept very well and we arrived at Aland early in the next morning. Evelina was already waiting for me to pick me up. I had four great days on Aland. Evelina showed me around the island, we explored new areas, did some hiking, watched an amazing sunset, played god for some ants, visited an old castle, tried some Aland specialities and much more.

Thank you Evelina, you’ve been a great host and I really enjoyed spending time with you. Also thank you to your flatmates Thoa and Oona for letting me stay at your place for three nights.

On Saturday in the afternoon my ferry to mainland Finland left. Since I had no other plans, I tried to hitchhike north to Vaasa after one night in the tent a little bit outside of Turku. On my way, a woman asked me if I was hungry and then she invited me to her place and made me some food. What a nice surprise. This was the first time, someone who picked me up, invited me to their place and it shouldn’t be the last time. After eating, we discussed what the best route for me would be and then I continued north.

Thank you so much!

I made it to Pori and then Yyteri where I was surprised to see a big sand beach. I found a great place for my tent and then I met two french girls who were also looking for a place to camp so they joined me.

After swimming in the sea the next morning I continued to Vaasa.

Judith, the girl from Germany that recommended me to go to Vaasa, asked a friend of hers if I could stay at her place for one night so I had a place for the night. It was great.

A big thank you to both Judith and Luca for being so spontaneous and friendly.

After Vaasa I didn’t continue north but more to. the middle of the country. The next stop was Tampere. I was quite lucky and found a guy from Gambia that took me nearly all the way to a gas station a little bit out of Tampere where he bought some food for me.

I have the feeling that I only meet the nicest of the nice people. And if you think it cannot get any better than this, then you’re wrong.

I waited about one hour and was already looking for a place for my tent because it was getting quite late and it was also cold. It was frustrating because many cars passed and no one seemed to recognize me. And then the following happened. A guy stopped and said that he would only go to the city center. I thought: „at least I’m not at this shitty bus stop anymore. Maybe I find someone in the city that takes me a bit outside of Tampere where I can put up my tent.“

So I got in the car and on my way to the city, I asked him, if he knows a good place to sleep in the tent. After some thinking he said: „You know what, actually you can stay at my place.“
I couldn’t believe my ears. „Yes I have three boys but they are at their mothers place so there is a whole room free.“

So this is how I met Harri. He is 39 years old and loves all different kind of sports. For the rest of the evening we had food together and then we played Fifa on the Playstation.

He had to work the next day so I thought I also need to leave very early in the morning but he said that I could sleep as long as I want and as he was only working until 1 pm, he asked if I wanted to stay longer and we could go to sauna together. All of the people I met so far here in Finland told me, that I can’t leave the country without having been to a sauna here. So that’s exactly what we did. We also played disc-golf together. In the end I stayed from Tuesday until Saturday in Tampere. We went to a Lenin museum, played Minigolf (I know I lost… just by one shot), football, went to a funpark where we tried the biggest roller-coaster… I felt like a child again.

Thank you so much Harri for everything. It was a pleasure to spend time with you.

One day before I left Tampere I found out that one good friend of my cousin is doing her semester abroad here in Tampere so I texted her if she was free and since she didn’t had any plans we met for one afternoon. Such a funny coincidence.

I have four days left in Finland. On Tuesday I booked a ferry to Estonia to Tallinn so I need to be in Helsinki at latest on Tuesday. Finland was amazing so far but I am also really looking forward to Estonia.

Thank you for reading and thank you to all the people who made this trip so amazing for me.

As always, here some more pictures of the things that happened during the last weeks:

Hello and welcome to my Blog. For all of you that don´t know about me: My name is Manuel Huisbauer and on the 9th of July I´m going to start a trip around the world. At the end of May I was finishing my Bachelor Degree when a good friend of mine asked me if I wanted to join him at an Erasmus+ Project in Izmir Turkey. At first I was a bit sceptical but then I decided to give it a shot. I thought it might be good trial for my upcoming journey around the world and that´s exactly what it was. The aim of this project was: “Intercultural competence through experiential and reflective learning in refugee and immigrant youth integration”. An interesting topic for me because in Austria you can read everyday about the “refugee problem” in the newspapers. There where 4 participants out of seven countries all over Europe. The countries where: Turkey, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Austria. The trainers where from Lithuania. The organization I was going with is called “the BetterMaking organization”. Check them out on Facebook here.

Click here to read more…

 

I am not sure yet and changes are possible at any time but that would be the rough route for my first 4 months through Northern Europe.

After 3 years of preperation the time has finally come. The time to say good bye and go on the biggest adventure of my whole life. After going to New Zealand in Dezember 2014 I knew that I wanted to do a bigger trip after university. Now, after graduation I will pack my things and on the 9th of July I will start from my hometown Piringsdorf / Austria. The first 4 months I will hitchhike through Northern Europe. Then, at the end of October, I would like to return to Austria for a week or two and then fly to Southeast Asia. From then on I have no concrete plans anymore, but I want to be spontaneous and flexible in order to see where my gut feeling will lead me. Thats the plan so far but maybe everything will be different.

I will try to keep you updated here on my Blog. Thanks for following me.

Manuel