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Raus aus der Komfortzone – Rein ins Wasser

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So jetzt übernehme ich hier mal. Wer ist ich? Juliane mein Name. Aber ihr könnt mich gerne Spaßkanone, Weltenbummlerin, Reise-Buddy oder Manuels bessere Hälfte und die die mich noch nicht kennen, ihr werdet mich noch gut auf diesem Blog kennen lernen.

Fangen wir mit einem kurzen Update zu Manuels T-Shirt an: Es stinkt wieder. Es wurde zwar einmal gewaschen, aber wieder mehrmals durchgeschwitzt. Bisher haben wir relativ Glück mit dem Wetter, die Sonne ist noch scheu und versteckt sich meist hinter den Wolken. Einmal pro Tag ergießt sich, ankündigend durch steigende Luftfeuchtigkeit, ein Schauer von max. einer halben Stunde.

Shark Bay Aussichtspunkt


Eine Tauchschule zu finden bzw. sich für eine zu entscheiden war gar nicht so leicht. Die Tauchschulen-Dichte auf Koh Tao ist so hoch, wie die Anzahl an Mückenstichen auf Manuel Beinen.


Wir haben uns für die Phoenix Divers entschieden. Zum Abschluss der Buchung bekommt man dort noch 3 Nächte im 8-Bett Zimmer. Da schlagen wir gleich zu.
Und nach unserer letzten Unterkunft ist dieses Zimmer glücklicherweise mit Airconditioning ausgestattets, ein Upgrade.


Der Open water Kurs besteht aus 3 Tagen:
(Ich habe vor jedem Tag wirklich nicht gut geschlafen!)


Tag 1: Theorie und dann ein Nachmittag im Pool mit voller Montur. Dort heißt es Atmen üben, Sauerstoff verlieren, was tun wenn etwas defekt ist, Zeichensprache lernen und Maske runter und wieder rauf und das alles unter Wasser natürlich. Das mit der Maske war für mich eine große Challenge! Das hat mich sehr viel Überwindung gekostet und nur der Gedanke daran, das alles am nächsten Tag in 12 Metern Tiefe zu wiederholen verursacht für den restlichen Tag und die Nacht einen Ruhepuls von 160.


Tag 2: Theorie Teil 2 und der schriftliche Test am Vormittag und zwei Tauchgänge am Nachmittag. Meine Nervosität steigt mit jeder Sekunde. Ich schaffe gerade mal ein halbes Porridge vor dem Start. Manuel sagt noch: „Genieße dieses aufregende Gefühl.“ Für mich gehts ab aufs Boot. Während der Fahrt kurze Besprechung über den Tauchgang und dann Ausrüstung an und ehe ich mich versehe, bin ich schon am Bootsrand und nur einen großen Schritt davor entfernt zum ersten mal die Unterwasserwelt von einem ganz neuen Blickwinkel zu sehen.
Mein Lehrer Charley fragt ein letztes Mal ob ich bereit bin. Ich sage „Ja“ und denke „Nein“. Und hinunter.
Alles was ich höre sind mein Herzschlag und die Blubber die an meinen Ohren hinauf in die Freiheit vorbei rauschen. Unten angekommen bin ich überwältigt von einer Vielzahl an Fischen die mir auf Augenhöhe begegegnen. Die Übungen verlaufen reibungslos und 55 Minuten vergehen wie im Unterwasser-Flug. Wahnsinn. Ein schönes Gefühl sagen zu können:“Ich habe einer Muräne in die Augen geschaut und sie hat gleich überrascht zurück geschaut.“
Zwischen den Tauchgängen, ziehen wir uns auf das wankende Boot zurück. Dieser Fakt und der, dass die Anspannung endlich weggefallen ist, bringen mich dazu, mir einmal die Schiffsschrauben von nahem anzusehen.
Nach den Tauchgängen erwartet mich Manuel schon am Strand und er hat seinen neuen Freund den Sonnenbrand mitgebracht. Es war nur eine Frage der Zeit, wer von uns das Unglück hat, als erster seine Bekanntschaft zu machen.


(Kommentar von Manuel: „Diese Freundschaft ist nur entstanden weil Juliane „unabsichtlich“ die Sonnencreme mit aufs Boot genommen hat“)

Manuel mit seinem Freund dem Sonnenbrand


Manuel hat in dieser beiden Tagen, seinen Auffrischer, ein paar Fun Dives und am Strand chillen untergebracht.


Tag 3: Noch zwei Tauchgänge bis ich mich Open Water Diver nennen darf. Manuel hat sich dazu entschieden, diese Tauchgänge mit zu machen. (für ihn Fun Dives). Eine Sichtweite von max. 3 Meter. Daher müssen wir in 18 Metern Tiefe nah beieinander bleiben, um uns nicht zu verlieren. Es ist wirklich mystisch und ein bisschen gruselig, weil man gar nichts um einen sieht. Man weiß fast nicht wo oben und wo unten ist. Wir müssen nach ein paar Minuten wieder auftauchen, weil wir uns verschwommen sind und wir nicht zu unserem Ziel Punkt finden. Auf jeden Fall eine weitere neue Erfahrung.

Nach unserem ersten gemeinsamen Tauchgang


Dieser Tauchschein war wirklich eine Gefühlsachterbahn für mich und ich würde jedem empfehlen einzusteigen.


Als Abendprogramm besuchen wir das Queens Kabarett, eine echte Lady Boy Show. Volle Lipsinc Power mit vielen Outfit Changes.

Queen’s Show


Am nächsten Tag machen wir mit dem Scooter und Schnorchel-Ausrüstung sie Insel unsicher. Wir machen einen Stop bei Sharks Bay. Der Name ist Programm, wir schnorcheln einige Meter hinaus und da ruft Manuel: „Ein kleiner Schwarzspitzenriffhai“. Aber das Wort ist zu lang und ich leider zu langsam um ihn auch zu sehen. Aber wenig später erwartet uns ein anderes Highlight (nicht Hailight): Vor uns eine riesige Meeresschildkröte, die sanft durch den Ozean gleitet. Für mich war es einer dieser Museumstage. (Wer „Big Five for Life“ nicht kennt, Buchempfehlung)


Am nächsten Tag heißt es: „Neue Insel, neues Glück“, also geht’s mit dem Boot nach Koh Phangan.


Dort fahren wir (Manuel, Ich, 2 große Rucksäcke, 2 kleine Rucksäcke und 1 Roller) zur Unterkunft und zum ersten schönen Sonnenuntergang dieser Reise.


In den nächsten 3 Tagen erkunden wir die Insel von Nord nach Süd, Ost nach West und alles wieder zurück. Wie oft wir schon „wir haben so ein Glück“ gesagt haben können wir schon nicht mehr an vier Hand abzählen.
Die Insel bietet uns nicht nur wunderschönen Ausblick, sondern auch viele nette Menschen.

Tipps bei den Einheimischen holen

Natürlich dürfen auch die Food Markets nicht fehlen und viel neues Essen probieren. Manuel bekommt einmal unabsichtlich scharfen Curry-Reis, leider verliert er diesen Kampf, aber ich freue mich! Dann durfte ich seines essen.

Manuel vs scharfes Essen


Nach den neuen Abenteuern geht’s für uns von der Ostseite an die Westküste und es heißt: Krabi: Here we come.

Bis zum nächsten Mal,
Juliane

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Three months and friends from all over the world

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The last weeks were so busy that I didn’t find time to write my blog. This is why now it’s going to be a longer post because so many things happened.

The last post I ended with coming to Riga and Riga was great. I spent five days with my friends there. We went to the Sigulda national park, watched a horror movie in the cinema, went out in Riga’s underground, watched the sunset at the light house and much more. A big thank you to Irina, Kristina and Andrey for that awesome time.

Irina, Kristina, me and Andrey partying in Riga

After Riga I continued alone again. Every time when I spend some time with other people it feels strange to be alone again. Nevertheless I wanted to enjoy this time being alone because soon one of my friends will come to visit me in Vilnius. Before that I hitchhiked to the west coast of Latvia. On my way to Ventspils a young couple picked me up and although they did not want to go to Ventspils, they decided to make a daytrip there and show me around so they drove me all the 80 kilometers to Ventspils and we spent the afternoon together.

Agnis and Elina

I found a great place to sleep in my tent next to a lake and the next day I continued to Kolka, which is a small town in the very north of the Latvian west coast. I arrived at noon and it felt like I was stranded on a lonly island. No other people, just me and the sea. The weather was great but still after some time I got bored. In the movies this looks like a big adventure but in real life after not even two hours I was so bored that I decided to head back south. I catched some rides fast but I couldn’t make it all the way to Liepaja. In Jurkalne I decided to stay for the night and it was the best decision that I could make. The place I found there was without a doubt the best place that I slept in the tent ever. There was a big sand beach, perfect weather, no clouds and a beautiful sunset in the sea. In that night I decided that this would be my last night in the tent because it cannot get any better than this. See yourself:

Paradise in Jurkalne

The next day I continued to Liepaja where this guy picket me up and on our way we stopped at some shops because his job was to sell alcohol to those shops. At one point he asked me if I already tried the best Latvian beer. I declined so he came back with a bottle of beer for me. That was not what I expected at 11 am.

After that I spent one night in Liepaja, the next day I continued to Lithuania to Palanga, spent another night there and then another night in Klaipeda. As I stayed in hostels from now on, I met more people there. In Palanga I met a couple from Lithuania and they offered me to take me to Kaunas two days later. I agreed so I continued the next day to Klaipeda, where I went to see the sand dunes in Nida. After one night there, where I met a nice girl from Hongkong, the couple from two days ago, Aidas and his wife picked me up and took me to Kaunas, where we went to see Žalgiris Kaunas, one of the best basketball teams in Europe. It was great fun and cool atmosphere in that modern arena.

In Kaunas I also found out, that the pope Francis was about to come to Kaunas the next day. I decided to wake up early to see that event. When I arrived at 8 am in the place where he would hold a holy mass at 10, there where already 70000 people there. Luckily I was able to get a free ticket and then I also entered that area. It was unbelievable what a big thing that event was. After one and a half hours of waiting he arrived. In his papa mobile he drove past me but he didn’t stop for a hitchhiker like me.

In the afternoon I met up with Joyce again, the girl from Hongkong that I met in Klaipeda. She also wants to go to Vilnius after Kaunas so she decided to join me for hitchhiking from Kaunas to Vilnius. It worked well and in Vilnius we met very cool people in the hostel. One day we rented a car and Joyce, Sam and me, we made a road trip to the hill of crosses.

Sam, Joyce and me at the hill of crosses

It was so much fun in Vilnius. We met Victoria and her brother Daniel from London and even after this few days we had so many inside jokes we kept laughing about. #blessed

Daniel, Victoria, Joyce and me in Vilnius

I spent four days in Vilnius and then Lukas came to visit me. He was my first stop in Linz back in Austria and now we’re going to hitchhike together for 10 days. We stayed one more night in Vilnius and the next day we started our adventure. First we only went to Trakai, where there is a beautiful castle.

Then we wanted to go to Poland to Gdansk. It was already afternoon and it was very cold. We waited at the main road from Lithuania to Poland but not many cars passed. After two hours of waiting a Russian Maserati stopped. We couldn’t believe it.

This guy told us that he would go all the way to Warsaw so we decided that we would also go to Warsaw. I texted Emilia, a friend of mine from the Erasmus + project in Turkey. She said that we can stay at her place and that’s what we did. Even though it was Sunday, we went out in Warsaw and luckily Emilia was free the next day so she showed us around in Warsaw. We met up with some friends from Lukas and also John, the guy from the Netherlands that I met in Tallinn.

John, Lukas, Emilia and me in Warsaw

We stayed one more night and the next day we hitchhiked to Gdansk. It went really well this time. Gdansk is a beautiful city. Unfortunately it is already very cold and Lukas and me we’re both a little bit sick. We met up with Sam again. He is also traveling through Europe. Then we tried to hitchhike south to Krakow. We were not lucky that day and at 5 pm we were still only 170 kilometers away from Gdansk. Luckily one guy stopped that went all the way to Warsaw so we ended up in Warsaw once again even though we didn’t even want to go there. Emilia was so friendly and hosted us again. We went out for a karaoke night and the next day Emilia joined Lukas and me to hitchhike to Krakow together. I was a little bit afraid that nobody would stop for three people but we were lucky and in the afternoon after four different cars we made it to Krakow.

In Krakow I was impressed how many people were out in the streets. Even at 2 am but the semester has just started and there are more than 200 000 students in Krakow. I stayed three nights in Krakow and went out every evening. On Monday Lukas had his bus back to Vienna.

Thank you Lukas for joining me on this trip. It was nice to walk along with you.

After I brought Lukas to the bus station I met up with Milena, another friend from the Project in Turkey. I love it when I have friends in different countries of the world. We also met John again and then we went out with Livia from Romania and Samantha from Singapore. It was a fun evening.

Milena, Livia, John, Samantha and me

After that I hitchhiked to Wroclaw and Poznan where I spent one night each. On my way to Gdansk, where I arrived yesterday, an 80 years old guy picked me up and he even invited me to a restaurant for food. There’s no age limit for picking up hitchhikers.

It is funny that at the same day I got invited a second time for food. In the evening one guy invited me to his house a little bit outside of Gdansk before he dropped me right in the center at my hostel. These are the special moments that I’ll remember for a long time.

Tomorrow on Saturday my best friend Liam is coming and we’re going to participate in another Erasmus + project here in Gdansk. I can’t wait. Gdansk is now my last stop for the trip in Europe. After the project I’ll head back home. I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends again.

I’ll keep you updated on my plans for what’s coming next.

Here are more pics from the last weeks:

Not sure if Austrian flag or Latvian 😛

Sunset at the light house in Riga

Sam, Joyce and me on the road trip to the hill of crosses

Lukas, Emilia and Samantha in Krakow

Getting invited to someone’s house for food is unbelievable. So many nice people out there.

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Whaat? Already two months…

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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.

Kristina, Andrey, Irina, Juliane and me in Riga

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.

Birthday cake

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:

Funny things happen while hitchhiking

Football game in Tallinn

First time hitchhiking for Juliane

Sander my couchsurfing host in Tallinn

Traveling around Narva with Gidi from the Netherlands

Estonia on the left side, Russia on the right

Tartu or Pisa

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Nice people everywhere

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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.

Free tour Stockholm

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.

Jorge, Alina, Judith and me

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.

Miri and me

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:

Trying berries in the wild with Evelina

Pirvate island in the sunset

Lenin museum

Minigolf result

Italy or Finland? Magic sand beach in Yyteri

adventurepeople

Malmö, Oslo and more…

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I had an amazing week in Malmö. As said in the previous post, I visited Roxana there. On Monday we went to the beach and I was not sure if I was in Sweden or in Italy. Tuesday was the first day of my trip where the weather wasn’t so good. In the evening it got better and we went to the places where Zlatan Ibrahimovic grew up.

After that we colored the canvases we bought. It was a nice evening sitting on the balcony next to the sunset and painting a sunset.

On Wednesday we made a day trip to Ales Stenar. A kind of Swedish Stonehenge. We decided to hitchhike the roughly 1 1/2 hour ride there. It took us 4 different cars. After waiting for about half an hour Roxana wanted to give up and take the train but exactly at that moment a car stopped. The guy was amazingly nice because he didn’t even had to go to the place we wanted to go. He was just free and decided to help us and take us the first couple of kilometers to Trelleborg. Unbelievable and also all the other people that picked me up have been awesome so far. Half-way between Trelleborg and Ystad we waited at a bus stop. No cars stopped but when the bus came, the bus driver told us, that we were welcome too. We couldn’t believe it. This was just crazy.

On thursday I met Thomas and his girlfriend Silvy in Malmö. They bought a van and transformed it into a campervan. The last two weeks they traveled Norway and now on their way back we met in Malmö.

It was nice to see you again. Enjoy the rest of your journey.

And a big thank you to Roxana for hosting me. It was awesome. So glad to see you again.

On Friday I continued my way north. This time it felt somehow different. It was the first time, I hitchhiked without a specific destination in my mind. It took me not too long to get out of the city. One guy that took me, told me of an amazing place called Mölle. So that was my destination for that day. But it was not easy to go there. I waited at a bus stop for nearly two hours until a 17 year old boy came and asked me what I was doing. I told him my story and he offered me to pay for my busticked to Mölle because he was also going there. We had a nice conversation and he told me that I was an inspiration for him. That felt really good to hear.

In the evening I met a guy from Denmark while looking for a good place for my tent. Magnus is 23 years old and walked nearly all the way from Copenhagen to Mölle. He told me that he was sleeping next to the sea without a tent. I decided to join him. We climbed up to the top of the hill to watch the sunset. It was beautiful. The sunset in the sea.

Magnus has decided on that same day that he had enough of walking and that he would hitchhike to Oslo because his girlfriend lives there. What a coincidence. I also wanted to go north so we decided to hitchhike together to Oslo. It took us two days but I really had a great time. Hitchhiking together with someone else is much more fun than alone. We had deep conversations, danced to reggae music, slept in the kingsforrest, and after 8 different cars, we arrived in Oslo on sunday evening. Magnus‘ girlfriend has an apartment together with two other girls. She was about to come to oslo on Tuesday and also another girl would come back on Tuesday so I had a room for two nights in freakin Oslo. Who would have thought that three days ago. In the evening I went out for some beers with the roommate of Magnus‘ girlfriend and her friends. It was funny. The next day we did some sightseeing in Oslo. It’s a nice city but very expensive.

Thank you Magnus for the time together. It was nice to meet you.

A few days before I came to Oslo, a friend of mine sent me a message that he would also come to Norway on Monday. It was Jakob, who I met just a couple of months ago when he held a talk about his trip around the world. It was amazing and he was one of the people that inspired me to do what I am doing. He is visiting a friend in Norway and he asked me if I want to meet up at Stange, where they would spend a week at a cabin next to the lake there. So that’s what I did. I hitchhiked to Stange from where I had to walk nearly two hours to get to the cabin. It was exhausting because my heavy backpack was not meant for walking. Along the way I saw a moose which made up for the struggles. It was amazing.

At the cabin I stayed for two nights. I had an amazing time there. Playing the guitar, canoeing on the lake, sleeping under the stars, swimming in the morning… It was unbelievable. A couple of months ago I listened to the talk of Jakob telling his story of how he and Martin, the guy the cabin belongs to, hitchhiked from Vienna to Portugal and now I’m here with them and actually doing some similar adventure. Check out his Blog at thousandfirststeps.com. Thank you so much to both of you for the great time and keep spreading good vibes to the world.

That’s it so far. I am really enjoying the time on the road, meeting all these great people. I feel blessed to have such amazing friends and I’m looking forward to what’s to come.

Thanks for reading.
All the best,
Manuel

Here are some more shots of the last few days:

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Austria to Sweden in one week

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So the first week is over. It is unbelievable how fast time passes by. I’m on the road since last Monday and I had such a great time, met awesome people and made a lot of new experiences. In this post I want to share the most important moments with you.

Last Monday I woke up early. I was very excited and also a bit nervous. Me and my family had breakfast together and then suddenly my best friend Liam was standing in front of me. What a nice surprise. I said goodbye to my parents and Liam and my brother Matthäus went with me to the main street in our village where I put my finger out and tried to catch the first ride. This was the part I was most anxious about. How would that be to start my hitchhiking trip directly from my hometown. But after like five minutes, the first car stopped. It was a friend of mine, on the way to the airport where they went to Bali for honeymoon. What a perfect timing because my first destination was Vienna anyways. But not everything was easygoing. In the next city we had a car accident because another car came out of a parking lot and the driver didn’t see us coming and crashed into the side of our car. Luckily no one was hurt and after filling out the accident report we could continue our way to Vienna. What a start to the honeymoon but also for my trip. They dropped me off at a station a couple of kilometers before Vienna because I wanted to reach Linz on the first day where I was about to meet my friend Lukas. After about two hours of waiting, I found someone that took me halfway to Linz and he dropped me at Loosdorf where I grabbed some food and then I was lucky to find a young couple that took me directly to Linz. I met up with Lukas and we had some barbecue and than grabbed a beer in the city center. What a perfect first day.

The next day in the morning we drove a little bit around on the new motorbike Lukas bought about one month ago. Then he asked me if I wanted to try it as well. I never did that before but I agreed to try it. So we found a parking spot and I drove around with the first gear. It was funny and I was happy that Lukas trusted me with this.

In the afternoon we met up with some friends of Lukas and drove to the Attersee where we tried to sail but it started to rain shortly after we went to the lake. So no sailing at that day. In the evening the weather got better and we had barbecue again. After that we went to a bar where we watched the football game between France and Belgium.

On Wednesday Lukas drove me and two other friends to Salzburg where he dropped me at a gas station on the highway. Thank you so much Lukas! It was an awesome start for my trip.

At first I thought that this would be a good place to hitchhike from but I was wrong. I waited for four hours. Then I found two young peaple from Germany and they where on their way back from Vienna. They took me all the way from Salzburg to Munich. They dropped me in a smaller Village a little bit after Munich because I wanted to sleep in my tent and that would’ve been difficult in the city center. The night in the tent was fine. I found a good place in the wood a little bit outside of the city. I woke up early the next day because I wanted to go as far north to Berlin as possible because I wanted to meet a friend from university there. In the evening I could hardly believe my luck. With 5 different cars, I was actually in Berlin. There was also a truck from Latvia and especially the last ride from Dresden to Berlin was amazing. It was with Lutz and he was driving through Germany because he needed to put on some Bluetooth boxes at the restaurants next to the highway. He drove 2700 kilometers in just under three days. We got along great from the beginning and especially the 80s and 90s playlist will stay in my memory longer. In the end he even brought me directly to the apartment of Sophie which is not far from the city center.

Lutz on our way to Berlin

I spent two full days and three nights in Berlin. The weather was awesome so I could do a lot of sightseeing. I went to the Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, and many more.

I tried Currywurst and listened to a bunch of street musicians. On Friday I walked around alone because Sophie still had to work but on Saturday we did some sightseeing together which was nice. I liked Berlin a lot. There are so many different parts of the city and on every corner there is some kind of memorial or museum because it’s a very historic city. A big thank you to Sophie, Lea and Jonathan for hosting me. It was nice to meet you and I had a great time.

Me and Sophie at the rooftop bar „Klunkerkranich“

On Sunday I woke up early because I wanted to continue my trip to the north. The most difficult part was to get out of the city. A tourist guide told me to take the metro to Frohnau and try to catch a ride out of the city there. Thats what I did and after 35 minutes a woman took me to the highway driveway. There I tried to catch a ride to Hamburg. I found a guy but on the way I looked at the map and decided that it would be better to go directly to Rostock because I wanted to skip Denmark because Roxana, the friend I wanted to visit in Malmò is there just until next Saturday, so I thought it would take to long. Thats why I wanted to go to Rostock and take a ferry from there directly to Malmò. That’s why he dropped me off before the junction to Rostock. I sat there for probably half an hour and then a car from Sweden stopped. They where about to go to Puttgarden where they wanted to buy some alcohol because it is crazy expensive in Sweden. From there they where not sure if there was going to be a ferry for that day but if there was one, they would go all the way through Denmark up to Malmò on that same day. I could not believe how lucky I was. Not only was I going through Denmark, I was also going to be in freaking Malmò at the same day I left Berlin. Unbelievable. I would have never imagined that I was going to be that fast with hitchhiking but it seems that really met the right people. So a big thank you to the people reading this, that gave me a ride, no matter how far it was. You are awesome!

So we went to Puttgarden and I helped them to buy the alcohol. Then we grabbed some food and watched the Worldcup final on an I-Pad which was very nice because I thought that I was going to miss it. Then we had to wait for half an hour for the ferry but that was perfectly fine.

Ferry to Denmark

We drove through Denmark and I arrived at Malmò shortly after 9 pm. Roxana picked me up at the central station and she was out drinking some wine with friends so I joined them. It was an amazing day and even in the evening I could hardly believe that I really made it to Malmò in just one day. I am so lucky. And also I have amazing friends. I know Roxana just for one month (we met at the Erasmus+ project in Izmir) and now I am here and I can stay at her place.

Sunset in Malmò

The start was more than successful and this first week was really amazing, but it was only the first week and there is still a lot ahead of me.

Thank you for reading. I’m happy about anyone who follows me on Instagram Facebook or here on my blog.

Here are some more impressions of the first week:

Not sure if Sweden or Italy

Worldcup fanzone Brandenburger Tor

Reichstag

Party in Berlin Ehab and Lea posing for the camera 😛

Short tour through Linz with Lukas

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Erasmus+ Project Izmir

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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.

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