So on my trek from Amsterdam;
I encountered quite a few difficulties! I hitched out of the spot that is set
aside for hitchhikers leaving Amsterdam,
which was well enough. The guy who picked me up (mid 40s) decided that my blog
sounded boring, and what could a person my age have anything interesting to say
anyway? He assumes I talk to myself on the blog, and according to him, I shouldn’t
have any followers…thanks!
The next people to pick me up was a car full of Muslim women
from Morocco.
They were sweet, gave me an umbrella, some apples, and a knife….yes! A knife!
At first I thought it was for the apples, which I was going to eat then return
the knife to them. One of the girls says “keep it…one of these days a man will
try to get smart with you!” Those girls were awesome! They took me to the
outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium.
I got stuck for a few hours at this gas station (the girls
had run in and arranged with the cashiers to help me get a ride by asking
everyone that arrived at the station). Finally, I was picked up by someone
headed to Calais, France,
which was not my exact direction, but still France! I was dropped off at the
turn off where he would go north, since I was headed south.
The next driver to pick me up was Romanian…uh! I hate to say
this, but had I known before hand, I would not have gotten into the truck with
him, those guys usually give women travelers a hard time…which is what he did,
and again with the HORRIBLE driving! I kept telling him to stop at the next station;
he kept replying “This one is no good.” He promised to drop me outside of Paris, and I watched as
we drove right through it, and kept going, until I screamed at him. I guess
these guys don’t know how to listen to a woman until she screams! He finally
drops me off, in a horrible place, on a highway that makes it extremely
difficult to turn around back towards Paris.
I sleep this night on a few chairs inside the gas station, where no one can see
me, pretty sad, huh? So, I decide, why not make lemonade from Lemons? I'm in
the direction of Barcelona,
which I have wanted to see because of Sagrada Familia. So, I began my long trek
towards Spain.
I get near the bottom of France and again have no place to
go for the night, luckily, the station I was at had wifi and was open all
night. This night, I don’t even attempt to sleep; I read and mess around on the
internet instead. Enter Spanish truck driver at 7 a.m. I get into the truck,
tired out of my mind, but willing myself not to sleep, because that’s just
completely unsafe, and even more reckless than I already am. He turns and says “We
will get stopped at the France/Spain border, if they ask you who you are, we
are like this (enter horrible hand movement here).” I tell him he needs to drop
me off immediately, first, because there is no border patrol in the Schengen
Zone, so why did he bring that up? Second, there is no reason to say nasty things;
border patrol doesn’t care about hitchhikers being picked up!
I am dropped at a station a few kilometers from the border
of Spain, still in France. I'm not
going to say where I slept at this point, it was daylight, and safe, and I was
in a good spot, so, I won’t say where I slept; just know that I got three hours
of sleep. By this time, I was FURIOUS with any sort of male being that came
within 200 meters of me, and really, I just wanted to punch men in the face. I
walk around the gas station, get yelled at by a few truckers looking for some
other kind of woman, then I walk past a few who don’t have the decency to walk
100 meters to the bathroom, several other problems…yea, I just wanted to throw
things at every male around.
Finally a female picks me up, and she is going all the way
to Barcelona! Spain is extremely different in temperature compared
to that of Paris, France; it was really warm! I got
into Barcelona
at around 4 p.m. that day and roughed it to the train station looking for wifi
(Mc Donald’s is at the train station, however, there is not a single plug in Mc
D’s and only ONE plug in throughout all the halls of the train station.) my
computer doesn’t hold a charge longer five minutes, and the cord to charge the
computer is messed up as well.
…To be continued
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