Europa Roma 3

From Italy through France to Spain

After a great birthday night with Pietro, in the morning he dropped us off at a cafe on the main road.  15 minutes in the rain, we were picked up immediately by Guido who was a cop but off duty.   He took us to his holiday house up in the mountains.  The whole village had a really unique typical mountain house style, stone on the bottom and wood on the top, they were very photogenic as Emmanuel would put it.  It was raining heavily, but we spent almost the whole day with Guido.  He bought us lunch at a local restaurant which was superb (another awesome birthday lunch).  He then dropped us off at a petrol station and gave us a crystal that he got when moutain climbing around Aosta. We were then picked up by a man and his daughter in 15 minutes.  We definitely thought that Italy was awesome for hitch hiking.

As we had away from the mountains, it was starting to get difficult to get rides but we managed to get up to Bra through Torino at night and camped there.  We didn't manage to get dinner because it was 11pm when we got there, but there was a tree full of ripe pears which we had instead. Free food!

In the morning, we tried to hitch away from Bra which took us HOURS! So we have up on Italy and decided to go back to France and head to spain.  Luckily we were picked up by Frederico who invited us to his house and gave us home made pasta for lunch and let us have a shower.  His mom and he were heading towards the border of Italy and France that afternoon, so we came along with them.  They dropped us off at the tunnel where we started to hitch again and was picked up by a father and son French who were heading to Cannes.  Viva la France!!

from left to right: made friends with Shampoo the dog on the way to Chamonix; Chamonix glacier; bday drinks with Pietro and friends; Aosta valley (5 to 8); lunch with Guido

We got to Cannes late at night, so they dropped us off at the petrol station.  It was a bit of a hectic and tiring night because of  the windy road on the mountain, I took some nausea tablets and was totally knocked out!  Bad call!  We had dinner and decided to try and hitch some more at 10pm because we couldn't find a nice place to camp.  We got a ride straight away who took us to another petrol station which was bigger gas station near Marseille.  I had no energy left so Emmanuel went off looking for a camp spot and ran into some people who did the ring scam again to him.  Unbelievable!  They take every opportunity they have.  We finaly got a perfect spot to camp that was hidden from everything so we could have a good night sleep.

The next morning, we continued on hitching trying to get to Spain.  After a few rides, we ended up in a place called Avignon, which apparently was a place where the Vatican City was for a while.  It was a cute little town, with a really big castle surrounding the old town where the pope used to live and the Avignon bridge that was half destroyed caused by some battles and flood.  We spent the night camping in a quiet little spot close to the river and walked around town the next day.  I found a really nice patisserie that had really delicious looking cakes, and decided to get my birthday cakes there.  They were the best cakes I've had, it was perfect!

From left to right:  Town Frederico lives in Italy, very cute; Italian town in the mountains;  Met a fun French when hitching in France, if only he had a bigger car; Avignon;  Avignon bridge;  Trying to hitch to Spain

After exploring town, we continued on hitching towards Spain.  Twice in a row, we saw other hitch hikers who were on the spot where we wanted hitch.  Rule of thumb is never hitch on the same spot with another hitch hiker, you have to be at least 1km away.  We ended up getting a few rides with a few interesting people until Narbonne, France, where we decided to stay for the night.

We had a pretty relaxed morning and hitched after lunch.   Wiki Travel and a few people said it would  be hard to hitch in Spain, so that day Emmanuel tried approaching people because it would be easier.  Within 10 minutes we got a ride with a Spanish man who was on the way to Barcelona.  Spain, here we come! Finally!  It was quite a long drive but we had interesting conversations.  Juan dropped us off at the petrol station north of Barcelona because we weren't interested to go into the city.

We cruised around to find a camp spot and got our dinner.   Prices of food in Spain are definitely cheaper than France.  Yaaay!  We found a nice spot on top of a hill where we were able to see almost the whole town.  We had our dinner and enjoyed the beautiful sunset and saw behind us that the full moon was rising as well.  It was a spectacular view.  The only weird thing about the campsite is the amount of snails there were considering the climate is so hot and dry.  When we got up in the morning, snails were climbing on our things.   Yuck!

We packed our stuff and to lose abit of weight to  carry, since I have hiking waterproof shoes now, I've decided to get rid off my sneakers at the campsite.  We headed back to the petrol station where Juan left us and hitched a ride with a Moroccan man Hatim.  He was heading to Manresa where he lives and we just tagged along as long as it's not a big city.  He dropped us off at a potential place for camping and it turned out to be the perfect camping spot.  Emmanuel found us a really well hidden spot really close to the river, tap water, fig trees with ripe fruits and 2 minutes walk to Aldi.  It was the best camping site we've had.

After staying and resting for a couple of nights in Manresa, we packed up and headed towards the beach. We had a ride with a couple of women who were cousins to Sitges, south of Barcelona. It's a bit touristy town but pretty down home so it was nice to hang out with beautiful warm weather, so we've decided to spend a couple of days there.  Apparently another hitch hikking magical coincidence happened, that we turned out exactly on the day of the town's major festival of Santa Telca.  Perfect timing!! Having a very festive moment.  Pictures to come in next blog.

From left to right: rainy italy; first home in spain; snails going crazy in hotdry spain; Spain graffitti;  Bye bye sneakers; Local kids picking figs next to our camp;  Emmanuel swimming in river; Goat attack in the afternoon;  Our home in Manresa; View from the river; Sitges; Sitges cathedral;  Figs we picked in Manresa; Our camp first night in Spain

Europa Roma part 2

After spending 3 nights at St Antoine in our beautiful 5 star accommodation beside the river, Pierre, being the unbelievably kind person he is, picked us up to take us to the highway so we could start hitching to Paris.   We were dropped off on the ramp off the highway heading towards Caen where the morning was very foggy and cold.  We stuck our thumbs out for 10 minutes until a man stopped for us and apparently was heading towards Paris.  It wasn't as perfect as plan, because we wanted to stop by a town for the night first to get internet and confirm places to stay from the 'bewelcome' website.  But having to take as much opportunity as we can while hitching, we bit the bullet and came along for the ride all the way to Paris.  It was a really nice and interesting ride with Marc, who is a doctor and very fluent English speaker.  We even were given lunch when we stopped at the service station, including cookies from Le Mont St Michel which I have been curious to try when I saw Japanese tourists in Le Mont lining up to get big bags full of these cookies.

We were dropped off at the round about of Arch De Triumph.  As we were saying goodbye to Marc, he gave us a rock melon that he thought we should try because it was very sweet.  Marc's so nice.  What a sweetheart.  After admiring the Arch De Triumph, we sat down to enjoy our melon and a man came over giving us a ring that he found which may belong to us but insisted we take it anyway.  Being confused and surprised to have a 'golden' ring with us, he came back a few seconds later to ask for money for the ring he gave us.  We gave him money that he wasn't happy with and took the ring back.. WEIRD! Super weird! Anyway, turns out this ring scam is common in Paris, along with other stuff.  That day we couldn't imagine sleeping in the park with lots of scammers and pickpockets around the city, we'd feel really restless and worried in case someone steals our things.  So we tried to get some internet and checked our accommodation situation straight away.

Luckily we had a response from Vincent who was happy to have us on a short notice.  We walked 6 km across town with our bacpacks to his place.  It was a hot day, 30degrees celsius, so we were sweating alot.  Not complaining about the heat though. Altogether, we stayed about 4 nights in Paris and had a great time with Vince.  We met at night most of the time and learnt how to drink spirit the French way. Paris was interesting and tiring at the same time.   So much walks and places to visit, we tried to visit as much places as we could.

From left to right: Apples from Pierre's garden; Our last morning at Pierre's house (photo 2 & 3); Eating melon in Paris before we almost got scammed; Arch de Triumph; Vincent and us; Notre Dam Cathedral, Paris; Pompidou building, Paris, walking towards Vincent's place; Photo with Egyptian princess in le Louvre; Pantheon building, Paris; French kiss under Eiffel tower; Emmanuel and his twin

The morning we left Paris, it was pouring down rain.  We took the train to  get out of the city into the suburbs and hitched from the train station.  The morning was a bit frustrating with the rain and also because I was having my annoying migraine.  But once we got to the petrol station on the highway, we didn't even have to stick our thumbs out.  We had Mohammad offering when he assumed we needed one to the edge of Reims and in Reims, we also had Gabriel a.k.a Angel Gabriela offering us a ride to our destination, which was Strasborg.  It was a pretty long drive to Strasburg, but luckily Gabriel spoke fluent English so we talked about many interesting things along the way.  Not just an interesting ride, we were also catered almond cakes and apparently the car that Gabriel was driving is used for a film set to drive the stars around.  So we were basically in a town car.  We got to Strasborg at 9pm and we hooked up  with my friend Gilles who we stayed with for a couple of nights.

The next day, we walked around town, enjoyed the atmosphere and admired the Notre dame.  In the morning, we went with Gilles as he was heading south to another town for work.

We got off just on the north side of Strasburg.  It started to rain when we were hitching that morning and my shoes weren't waterproof, so I got out a couple of plastic bags and wrapped them over my shoes.  'Bricolage', as the French would say. A few minutes later, we got a ride from a woman and her son who were heading to town. There was a bit of a miscommunication that went and we ended up being dropped off in the middle of town.  We then ended up walking across the border to Kehl, Germany assuming for Frankfurt.  We tried to hitch from there for hours while it was raining and ended up taking a bus to Sand.  In the rain, we tried to look for a good spot to hitch but couldn't find any place safe that was heading to Frankfurt, so we ended up hitching back to Strasburg.  From Strasburg we got a ride with Veronica close to sunset and ended up  being invited to her place for the night.  Veronica lives in Obernei, it's such a cute little touristy village.  We had a few glasses of wine and had a little tour around town.

After a very goodnight sleep, we got up and were given a surprise of the best croissant we've had in France.  It was sooooo GOOD!  Veronica then dropped us off on the ramp heading south.  We had a few short rides and due to another miscommunication, we ended up in the middle of a town called Me......... where Emmanuel bought me a water proof hiking shoes.  We then walked a few KMs to find a good place to hitch and after a few rides, we ended up on the road exiting Besanco in the dark.  We were going to  camp there for the night but had not yet eaten dinner.  So we thought, lets try hitching a ride in the dark, since there was nothing else to do anyway.

We stuck our thumb for only 2 minutes when a car stopped for us.   A girl was happy to  take us to a station on the highway, but after talking for a bit, she invited us to stay at her place.  There, we met her mom, sister, friend and boyfriend.  We had a great time.  It was such a nice experience enjoying the night with such an open and cheerful family.

From left to right: Petit France, Strasburg; Notre Dam Cathedral, Strasburg; Cute Mideivel building; Silly photo of me; us and Gilles and housemate; Rainy hitch in Sttrasburg; Wet shoe with bricolage waterproofing doggy bag; Walked through border of France and Germany; Night in Obernia; Our lovely Veronica and us in the morning after a goodnight sleep at her 17th century flat

In the morning, we were dropped off at the tollgate of the highway where we waited for about 2 hours then moved to a service  station on the highway.  We had a few nice rides, then ended up getting another crazy ride.  We stopped in the middle of the way because we didn't feel comfortable.  We continued on hitching in Bonjou Jileu til 10pm, then gave up and found a place to camp near town.

In the morning we continued on hitching trying to get to the highway towards Italy.  We got a ride after breakfast, and a few more rides until we got to the Chambeuy, which is just in alps area.  This was the first time we saw mountains in Europe.  The glacier on it was incredible.  The view was spectacular!  After lunch, we read a bit about Italy and on wiki  travel it was said that Italians are the least people to pick up hitch hikers.  Hmmm, after our experience in France.  We just had to find out ourselves.  So we hitched to the tunnel and to the tunnel and through it, we got rides from the Mont Blanc tunnel workers.

When we got to the other side, we were definitely in Italy.  The sound of people speaking was different already, buildings were slightly different.  We then walked to the service station to  get a map and hitched from there.  We stuck our thumbs out for 30 seconds and someone stopped for us already.  Pietro, our first Italian ride and wiki travel, proven wrong already.  Pietro invited us to stay at his place which was really nice.  It was the night of my birthday and I was having the best birthday because I was dreaming about Italian food and drinks and a night out for my birthday and it all came true.  Another magical experience of hitch hiking.

Route France to Germany to France to Italy

Europa Roma

Map of our Europa Roma trip Chapter 1

Our trip to Europe started with our hitch hiking trip from Nowra, NSW where I ended my work on Friday noon.  We've been preparing our bags to be as light as possible resulting with 5 set of clothing, mattress, sleeping bag, swag, tarp, pegs, personal hygiene stuff and first aid kit totaling to an amount of 10 kg all together.  Felt very proud considering it's our home now.  That's gotta be the lightest home to live comfortably.  On our way up to Sydney, we had a few interesting rides to Budgong, the next day from Bomaderry to Wollongong, then from Wollongong to Bathurst the day after and as we hit Sydney, we caught trains to Redfern and the next day to Marrickville to spend our last night in Australia.  We had a great trip up as we managed to spend time with families and friends.

From top left to right : Our lightweight home; Farewell morning tea at office; Callala Bay, Jervis Bay NSW; Baldhead, NSW; Redfern, NSW; Farewell drinks at Bank Hotel, Sydney

We planned to go to the airport at 4am for the 9am flight so that we get allocated seats in the emergency exit.  We ended up waking up 2 hours late, panicked and rushed out the door that ended up getting stuck abit as the key to the door was jammed! ARGH! After 5 minutes, we finally managed to get out.  We ran up to grab a cab and immediately got one when we reached the main road.  We ended up getting to the airport on time and got seats in the emergency exit.  Our total of 35 hour flight with Southern China airline was a pleasant experience.  Totally recommended if you're looking for a cheap yet comfortable flight.

We arrived in Amsterdam early in the morning, put our bags in a locker and cruised around the city the whole day.  We felt that spending a day in Amsterdam was enough for us.  In the evening, we caught a train to the outskirts of Amsterdam ending up in Zaandam (north of Amsterdam).  We found a nice area  to camp just outside Region College, which is an area of trees beside the canal where sheeps were on duty to cut down the grass.  The next day we hid our bags amongst the high grass and visited town.  Holland was funny with their must pay toilet policy and diffiiculty to find taps.  The urban design is very orderly also which made the country quite tricky to hitch hike.

From left to right: Amsterdam Canal; Emmanuel in Amsterdam;  One of the old house that's gone wongky due to the sandy soil; Ship that went to Indonesia when the VOC monopolised Indonesian's economy; Zaandam Canal; More Canals; Our home for the weekend in Zaandam; The long line to see the famous Anne Frank's bunker; Colourful Dutch style hotel; Holland with its 2 level bike racks; Our home for the weekend in Zaandam

Our first hitch hike in Europe was from Zaandam to Den Haag aka The Hague.  We had a ride from a Russian Dutch who was driving to Amsterdam but happily drove us to Den Haag.  What a nice dude!  He ended up dropping us off on the beach where we spent almost the whole day before meeting my friend Lili.  We had our first swim in the North Sea.  It felt sooooo good, after not showering for 3 days.  After meeting Lili and Michael, we walked to the national park of Den Haag where we spent the night.  It was a really nice park, with well maintained greeneries and water, again, orderly and neat.

We woke up in the morning amongst trees, close to the canal with beautiful white swans.  After  breakfast, we tried to walk towards the highway to hitch but there were no shoulders and it was impossible to hitch safely.  So we ended up catching the train to Delft and hitched from there.  Our second hitch in Europe was with a very interesting man who is an expert in nano technology.  His name is Carel.  On our way to Rottterdam, he invited us for coffee at his place and met the rest of his family including his teenage son who came out last with cloud of marijuana smoke around him.  Nice! Carel seems like a cool dad.

He then dropped  us off at a petrol station that leads to Belgium.  He used to hitch hike and suggested that petrol stations are the best places to hitch in Holland.  At the petrol station, as we were enjoying our loaf of bread, a Scottish guy named Kevin came over and got us meat, cheese and chocolates because he couldn't stand seeing us eat just a loaf of bread.  What a guy!  Afterwards, we then had a ride from a father and son who dropped us off close to the border of Belgium then continued on hitching a few rides until we were on the border of France.  It was getting dark so we camped in the small village close to the petrol station beside a yard where there were a couple of miniature black sheep.

From left to right : Den Haag beach, Holland; Den Haag fancy hotel in front of the beach; Our home in Den Haag; Delft, Holland with its orderly and neat road; Delft Canal; Our home in the border of Belgium and France; The miniature black sheep beside our camp; The cute trees (reminded me of Hobit land) close to where we camped; Hitchin a ride at the petrol station (border of Belgium and France); The Canadian monument we visited with the Belgiums; Me and the Belgiums on the monument

In the morning we continued on hitching and got a ride with 2 keen historian guys who were visiting memorials in France, so we tagged along to see one in Vimy Ridge which was a Canadian memorial and parted at a small town in Beaumont.  We looked around for shops etc but the town was so small we couldn't find anything.  So we walked towards where the Belgium guys were to get a ride to the next place they were going to visit.  As we walked on the very quiet road, a man stopped for us and was a fluent english speaker.  Francois his name is.  After we got to know eachother, he invited us to stay the night at his house in a small village called Colincamps with his wife and mother in law who were also good english speakers.  We had an amazing time there, he introduced us to the best cheese and the best wine I've ever had in my life which didn't give me any hangover at all.  The wine's were Bordeaux, Burgundy and a couple more that I couldn't remember the names.  As far as I can remember, I was quite drunk that night.  The next day, Francois took us to a couple of memorials, gave us cheese, sausages and wine for a picnic.  He then dropped us off at the main road toward Amiens.  What an amazing guy he is.  It was such a perfect experience for an introduction to France.  Funny we thought, because in Holland and Belgium, we were always warned that it will be impossible to hitch in France and that French people are not very friendly.  After meeting Francois, seems like they were proven wrong immediately.

On our way south, we had a couple of weird identical rides, which were from a couple of guys who were young and crazy.  We rested for the day after such a dramatic experience from wonderful magical morning to crazy rides in the afternoon.  We camped just on the river bank of Abbeville.  So far our main problem for camping in Europe are the stingy nettles and blackberries, although blackberries were edible so they're not too bad.  In the morning we got a ride with Arnould who took us to Mers Le Bains where we ended up staying the whole day and night.  It's one of the most beautiful town I've ever seen.  Extremely beautiful architecture with the style callled 'Belle Epoque', the beach which we swam in was very unique and beautiful as well.  The beach was covered in smooth small stones, had tide that comes up really reallly quick and had amazing cliffs on each side.   We felt like we were in fairytale land.

From top let to right: Sticking thumb out to stop Francois; Albert church in France; Francois's nice garden in the morning; Photo with Francois and wife; British monument; Picnic given by Francois in the field outside Albert; Our home for the night in Abbeville; Hitchin the next morning in Abbeville; Ride to Mers Le Bain with Arnould; Asked Arnould to drop us off when we saw people lining up outside a bakery in Mers le Bain

From top left to right: Row 1 to 4 are pictures of Mers Le Bain, beautiful town and we watched the sunset as we had dinner (baguette, sausage and camembert); The rocky smooth stoned beach; Lying on the rocky beach which felt like having a massage; Our home for the night with a beautiful view; City light view from our camp

The next morning, after enjoying croissants that melted in our mouth and a fresh from the oven baguette, we continued on hitching while walking up the hill over to the main road and got a few rides until we reached Caen.  Caen has one of the biggest castle in Europe and amazing cathedrals that survived the D-day.

We camped just beside the castle that night and got up early in the morning when I started to feel drops of rain on my face.  It turns out it was a bit of a false alarm but it was good to get up anyway.  We spent the whole day in Caens admiring the buildings and how fashionable people are, even the homeless people are stylish there.  Can't wait to see what Paris is like.

The night after leaving centre of Caen, we camped close to the highway so that we can hitch easily in the morning.  We had a couple of nice rides with a few ladies until Villedieu les Poeles.  From there we hitched on the highway and had a police car stopping and asked us not to hitch on the highway, but they also gave us a ride to our destination which was awesome!

From left to right : Pictures 1 to 3 are photos of the beautiful Cathedral; Picture of wedding ceremonies where wedding convoys go around town and make loud noises; Picture of castle; View of castle at night from our camp; Emmanuel with the cops who gave us a ride to Le Mont St Michel

We got to Le Mont in around after lunch.  It is a really beautiful castle in an island that has medieval style houses within it.  On the top of the castle is a church.  It's a pretty cool place and full of tourist.  In the afternoon, the tide was rushing in so quickly, you could tell the difference by minutes.  When the sun was almost setting, we went back to the main land and set our camp amongst corn fields close to an animal park called Alligator Bay.  It was such a tiring day and lots of moving the last week.  That night all I could think of was a nice hot shower, warm bed and warm food.  But we really had to restrain ourselves to save money.  So stuck with bread and cheese.  So far, from the way we are living, we've been able to spend not more than 8 Euro each a day.

We decided to go to the quiet west beach area where we could rest for a few days before heading to Paris, so we started to hitch the next morning just outside of town towards St Malo.  A local man who actually lives in Le Mont St Michel picked us up and as we were telling him we wanted to go to St Malo to have a swim because we hadn't showered for a week, he invited us to have a shower at his place and that we could come with him in the afternoon as he was heading to his other house in St Malo then.  How perfect!

We were astonished as the car went into Le Mont, because vehicles weren't allowed to go in there accept buses and local cars.  We felt like VIPs when we were in one of the medieval style house while watching tourists walking around the castle.  Not just a nice warm shower, he also made us delicious salad, roasted pork and potatoes for lunch.  It was heaven.  After lunch, we drove to St Malo where he showed us around and helped us look for a campsite but no luck because the town was too crowded.

We asked if he could take us outside of St Malo where we could find a more quiet place to camp a couple of days and instead he offered us to stay at one of his place on the river bank outside of St Malo in a town called St Antoine.  I was so speechless when he took us to this '5 star accommodation' right in front of the river that had a million dollar view and fruits growing in the garden, showed us the house, gave us the keys to the house, said we could stay for the week and left us alone.  I couldn't believe it, what I dreamt and fantasized about the night before all came true the next day just because we met Pierre on the right time in the right place.  This is the magic of hitch hiking and why we love it so much.

From top left to right : First 2 rows are pictures of Le Mont St Michel; Me infront of Le Mont; Photo of  St Malo where Pierre took us for a tour around town; Photo of us with Pierre; Photo of Pierre's place in Le Mont; Inside Pierre's place in Le Mont; View from inside Pierre's house in Le Mont; The house Pierre let us stay in for a couple of days in St Antoine at the river bank near St Malo; Our home for a couple of days in St Antoine; The view from the 5 star accommodation we were given by Pierre