Hitchhiking to Steemfest Day #2

As most of you know by now, @anomadsoul and I are hitchhiking from Brussels to Lisbon in order to attend Steemfest. We posted a vlog about day #1, but since time was limited and the internet in the gas station was horrible we didn´t have a lot of time to write a full on post on what happened (most of it is covered in the vlog though). We finally have some time and semi-decent wifi, so now we´re able to keep you all a bit more updated on the second day.

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Day 1

For those of you who didn´t see the vlog; long story short: we made our way from Brussels to Bordeaux. We arrived there around 3 AM. There was no proper spot to get some sleep. @anomadsoul stayed up all night and I only managed to sleep for give or take an hour inside of the gas station! This post will describe the event from my point of view, starting at around 6 AM, day two.

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6 AM

"Tudududududu", my alarm goes of. It´s time for me to leave my little hidden sleeping spot inside of the gas station just before Bordeaux. I barely slept an hour, but the early drivers will start coming in, and I can´t have them see me laying knocked out in a little corner - not even after a long day of hitchhiking. Groggy as hell, I start to roll up the mat and sleeping bag and make my way to the common area where @anomadsoul is still working on getting the video up to speed for you guys. I buy my first gas-station-coffee and get some "pain au chocolat". Not much later @anomadsoul declares there isn´t much more to be done with how bad the wifi is and the uploading of the post about the first day will have to wait a bit.

7 AM

It´s cold outside of the gas station, but we know it´s the best place to ask people for a ride, and so reluctantly we leave the warmth of the gas station to ask around if anyone is going towards Spain. Luckily for us an older French man picks us up with his van. I get in the back, and after a short conversation I fall straight asleep. @anomadsoul sticks it out in the front, I have no clue how he is still awake.

9 AM

We arrive in Tarbes, a bit in the wrong direction, but it seemed the best option to get on a better highway towards Spain. We both go for a coffee, the nap in the car, the coffee and some rays of sun quickly make me feel a lot stronger. I start asking around for our next ride, while @anomadsoul manages to upload the video. A father and daughter going on holiday in Spain pick us up. We can only join them up until Bayonne, as they were picking up more people there! That is still perfectly fine for us and so we get in! This time around it is @anomadsoul who tries to get some shut-eye, while I keep the conversation with the driver going (we tried to switch between the two us, as to not be rude to the drivers). Quite a lot of topics are being covered, ranging from simple weather talk to philosophical debates about the current state of the world.

1 PM

After catching a fifteen minute ride to Biarritz, we are pretty much on the border of France and Spain. Here is where we figured it was going to become harder to catch a ride. Spain is notorious for being difficult to hitch through. After talking to multiple people and not getting a ride, it seems the general sentiment is right. Luckily, a camper arrives with an older couple, now not to judge, but generally speaking it´s harder to get picked up by older people. So when I the wife tells me I have to ask her husband, I am expecting not to get a ride. But the beautiful thing about prejudices is that from time to time you get proven wrong. They are going all the way to Burgos, which is perfect for us!

6 PM

After I had misread the map a bit, the couple drop us at a toll booth near the outskirts of Burgos. They are going a different direction than we are, and it is the last spot we can talk to drivers (which makes hitchhiking a lot easier compared to thumbing). Quite immediately though a person tells us we are not allowed to hitchhike there. Instead they point us to an intersection, which is a way worse place to be at. Cars speed up and there is no way to talk to the drivers. I am still hoping for a ride, but with dusk coming upon us, I know we are running out of time quickly.

8 PM

It´s too dark to keep on hitchhiking, we´re pretty much in the middle of nowhere and we don´t have any food left. The only real option we have is to set up camp for the night. We jump over the ridge next to the highway and make our way down to a small field. As it is quite cold tonight, we decide to only set up @anomadsoul´s two-person tent. Working together, we get the tent set up in no time. Unfortunately the underground isn´t exactly what you´d call smooth. So after a first day with barely any sleep, it very much seems like the second night is going to make up for it. Out of exhaustion I sleep an hour only to wake up again. Rinse and repeat until the morning. Stay tuned for day three.

If you wanted to know how @anomadsoul experienced the same day, you can check out his post. We thought would be interesting to write from both points of view!

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Vlog

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!steemitworldmap 42.381372 lat -3.585663 long Getting stuck in Burgos after a day of hitchhiking d3scr

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