It was over Spring break of my 2nd year; 2016 (3rd April 2016), the date that changed my life, much thanks to Marc for being up for it too (couldn't have done it without you)
Day 1
We didn't really prep anything for hitch hike besides buying the biggest map ever before today (hahaha i know riight....was Marc really the right partner? Kidding hehe) We bought the map then chilled playing "Exploding Kittens" at a friend's place near UCL till 3AM, that's when we realised we needed to head back to start off early tomorrow weeeeehehehe.
So okay, Day 1, we started off from leaving Central London at 2PM roughly and arrived at Falconwood about 4PM; where we started our first hitch. It was realllyyyy difficult to hitch tbh, we even got assh*le drivers coming up to us asking, "Where'd you want to go? Go FUCK OFF"... but its cool, both of us were just like, "Meh, that's not gonna kill our vibe". A driver was nice enough to pick us up and send us to Dartford ! (which wasn't really that far from where we were but he said there's a better possibility to hitch from there); then from Dartford, we hitched an empty bus to Blueswater, hoping to get a bus from Blueswater to Dover. We had to pay for the tickets though just cause we realised it was difficult to start from Central London... thats when I realised,
I LOST MY WALLET!
"Was so bumped cause I've never lost my wallet before !!!!! And I had about 100 pounds in that wallet as emergency money for the trip....which was dumb cause the emergency is now and I don't have the money zzzzzzz. Felt so tempted to just turn back and cancel the trip while we were still in UK but kept telling myself, I still have my passport, this trip is going to be worth more than getting bumped cause of my wallet"
When we got to Dover, we tried to hitch hike at night at the port to France. Neither did we know that we were hitch hiking at the wrong place near the port... so the POLICE suddenly came to us and told us to get into their car.....OMG I was ready for the worst to happen already... but they said they were gonna make sure we stand at a safer area *PHEW*
So we tried again hitch hiking from somewhere further from the Port which we failed to get a ride and decided to sleep at the terminal around 12AM (you can check out the video I've made how we ended up sleeping on the cold benches....which wasn't the worst scenario we were prepared for cause we even had a tent incase we get stranded hehe)
I remember we had another stranger sleeping somewhere nearby us too, and gosh it was definitely not the most comfortable way to sleep.. not being able to change to pyjamas and sleeping in the cold, still we had shelter so Alhamdulillah :)
(even had a clean area to pray Subuh when I woke up the next day)
Day 2
Me & Marc tried to hitch hike last night at the Ferry Port and it didn't work out well so we slept at the terminal. Woke up this morning at 5.30 AM just to try and hitch again but failed after 2 hours. So we took a break and decided to walk to the nearest petrol station which we met Dan who approached us and bought us £30 tickets each to Calais, France !! He also donated £40 to the charity we are fundraising for !! God bless Dan !!
The moment we got on the Ferry, me and Marc were determined that we had to find our next "driver" to hitch hike.. We went to different floors and had the challenge of time limit since it didn't take long to arrive to Calais, France from Dover ! We asked the old couple enjoying their coffee by the corner, the Spanish couple who couldn't really speak English... pretty much everyone else... until we met Dan and Paul ! They were driving to Holland; on a business trip as part of their work with DHL. They dropped us off at Antwerp, Belgium and donated for the cause as well !
Day 3
From P+R metro at 11.30AM, we walked to the nearest petrol station. We realised it was easier to hitch from petrol stations since that's the only place we could legally stop drivers and talk to them :)
and this was our FASTEST HITCH EVER! Within just 5 minutes of waiting, we managed to hitch a ride with a lovely couple celebrating their 3rd year anniversary at Liege, Silka and Yaru
Yaru plays the percussion and told us he knew a Malaysian song..... which he plugged it on his speakers, a nasyid song called Debu ! HAHAHAHA that definitely took me and Marc by surprise !!! IF only he knew what the song really meant though....
We were dropped off at a petrol station before Maastricht, Germany. That's when we met the amazing guy, Victor ! He first insisted on checking our documents just to make sure we were not refugees and he'd get sued for driving us around if we were refugees. Next thing we knew, we were on a blabla car with Victor (from Moldova), Lovely (from Phillipines) and Kamal (from Afghanistan). Victor kept on telling us that Kamal was the one insisting that they shouldn't leave us stranded there at the petrol station... well God bless both of them !
Victor offered us to stay at his place in Aschaffenburg, Germany ! (which me and Marc had problems pronouncing the place the whole time) hahaha. Victor kept insisting that it was God who sent him in to buy coffee at the station (because he never stops at long drives usually) and meet us
We slept at his house with his girlfriend, Tatiana. We got the mattress and the floor which we were beyond thankful for in his humble home. He told us that his girlfriend cooked us dinner (That's when I was thinking like ya Allah, please let it be fish or seafood cause I really don't wanna deal with the Halal food problem now), and alhamdulillah, they cooked us fish and salad for dinner ! Which was soooooo goood !!
Day 4
We got up at 8AM to the smell of cappuccino..... such a bliss. He even packed for us sandwiches to bring along for the trip (Ya Allah you have no idea how thankful I felt especially the fact that I lost my wallet then). He dropped us at the nearest petrol station to the highway which we got picked up by Haans who is on a business trip from Koln.
(Mad respect for this guy; he still goes dancing with his wife every once in a week even with his busy schedule)
He dropped us off at the highway from Nuremberg, Germany towards Munich. Then we got to hitch another car !
It was by a guy named Florian; a mechanical engineer from a small town near the border of Austria, driving a BMW and was from a business trip in Nuremberg, Germany. (Can't seem to find a picture with him though but he was pretty fit). Another guy to have mad respect for.... he goes mountain cycling every weekend (or hiking or skiing depending on the weather) and goes for kung fu every Wednesday.... hmm what do I do every week besides sleeping and going for classes....
He dropped us off at a parking spot near Munich by the highway which was pretty dead tbh so me and Marc were kinda prepared to just camp there if anything...
We tried hitch hiking for Salzburg but met our hero, Marino ! He's a marine engineer, has a girlfriend who works for the European Commission and they've been together for 11 years !! (Also recently just got married over summer) #relationshipgoals
He was on the way to Ljubljana, Slovenia to meet his fiance so we followed his route straight to Slovenia ! We slept in a youth hostel there where me and Marc managed to check out Slovenia a little bit
Day 5
After many long hour drives in the car, I decided that I needed a jog in the morning and discovered Ljubljana further, knowing that I'd want to come here again one day
and Marino contacted us, dropping us the GREAT NEWS !
That he'd want to go down to Rijeka, Croatia (our final destination) to see his brother a little.... and so he brought us to his brother's house :)
God Bless Marino !
We got to our last destination, Rijeka !! Contacted Linked about our safe arrival, then me and Marc decided to chill a bit in Rijeka before heading back to UK.
Marino's brother; Andro, is one of the most talented jazz drummer I've ever met !
He was nice enough to invite us for a jamming session with his 2 othr friends, Phillip and Irgo, then at night we went to Phillip's gig at a cafe called "Living Room" (Dnevni Boravak)
We chilled there with the locals, taking our time discovering Rijeka and decided to make our journey home from Pula on the 7th day of our trip (that's when we heard the calling of our datelines and assignments hehe)
Though we were tempted to hitch our way back, we knew we had to get ourselves back to uni ASAP and the trip was memorable enough as it was short and pleasant :)
Though the trip was months ago, I wrote everything down daily in my phone, waiting for the right day to post it... as 2016 was coming to an end, I decided that a tribute to one of the most amazing highlights of this year needed to be written down :)
Check out our video on Youtube or down here !
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