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