my first week

dear friends,

I hope this message finds you well. The first week of my journey has passed since I left Portugal and I am happy to share a few moments with you. It started off with a lot of challenges that tested me right from the moment I left my home. As you can imagine, sometimes we need to change plans in order for new possibilities to arise, which I had to learn already in my first days. I also had a beautiful time of recovery and friendship that was following afterwards, but please find out by yourself:

my trip to Germany

After I said goodbye to my partner Nora and my great mentors Oskar and Gabriele I was heading towards Lisbon in the early morning by train so I could catch a ride I found online which should have taken me out of Portugal towards Spain so I could have a headstart and be on the highway hitchhiking. When I arrived on the location to catch my lift I got the message, that my ride got spontaneously cancelled. Already after two hours into my journey I had my first test, which I took with a grain of salt but quickly accepted the challenge. I organized a sign and in great positivity I stood at the road for more than an hour getting roasted in the sun. It took me quite some time until a friendly local stopped and drove me a few kilometres on the highway to a nearby gas station.

It was a pretty bad spot as the highway divided right at the entrance of the gas station and people that would have taken the route I needed were not keen on stopping at that point. So I waited and changed back and forth with another spot in walking distance for more than 4 hours until, thanks universe, a driver stopped and offered me to take me along. I was so happy that I got that support even though the 3 guys in the car were completely stoned heading towards a football match of SL Benfica Lisbon. Everything went smooth and I got dropped at another big gas station, where I spent another bunch of hours until a kind young couple took me along and dropped me close to Coimbra late in the evening.

I called it a day and had my well deserved late night dinner at the restaurant and was reflecting about my first day. To be honest, compared to what I was used to I felt pretty unsuccessful for my first day of hitchhiking, yet I also knew it was not too easy to hitchhike in Portugal, especially after covid. I then chose to look at it from a more positive side and was thinking wether I will be more lucky the next day. To finally rest I had to still find a good spot where I could put my yoga mat and sleeping bag on the ground. I sneaked out the fenced area and found it right in a nearby eucalyptus forest. With my mind still meandering through the past days I luckily fell asleep.

The next day I felt great and after I washed my night off and had my first coffee I got back on the street early and wanted to tackle the day with a lot of positivity. I talked to so many people and I was astonished, how well I could communicate in portuguese, that was definitely much better than during my previous journeys. Nevertheless I was not successfull for the whole morning, nobody wanted to take me along to either the cities close by or in the direction I wanted!

I got ever more frustrated and after some time a man that I met already in the restaurant asked me if he can help me and after some negotiations I got a lift by three very kind people towards Porto. You need to know that I always wanted to travel towards Spain, but not to the north of Portugal. I got ever more north as nobody wanted to take me in the direction of Spain.

While I was resting in the car I kept thinking back and forth about some ideas: Should I take another shared ride that I could book online just to get out of Portugal and maybe even through Spain? Should I get out just before the city and continue to try to get to Spain? What makes more sense? What do I do if nothing works?

They then dropped me in the city of Porto, where I booked a shared ride to San Sebastian and tried to get back on the highway. As you can guess, I had the next downer as I saw online that the guy I wanted to travel with saw my requests, but he waited and waited to approve my booking and in the end just didn’t respond at all. I got ever more frustrated.

After I had a good lunch in order to settle my nerves a bit I called Nora and explained my situation and how I felt. I had already researched, wether or not I could also take a plane from Porto to Hamburg in case no other option worked out. It was so hard for me to imagine I would skip the hitchhiking and pay quite a lot of money for the flight. All my pride and my previous experiencses were judging me for not being strong enough. But given my inner state and also level of exhaustion it felt relieving to imagine that all that effort would just be gone. Well, I gave me a time limit for two other shared rides that I requested – if they accepted me or not until a certain time would determine the outcome.

And so it happened that I booked the flight last minute to Hamburg.

Arriving in the middle of the night I then took the last train direction Lübeck, I had just missed the last opportunity in order to get to a friend. I then found a great spot to sleep just outside the train station in a little forest in a little town and was happy I could continue my journey in the morning.

Arriving in Mechow

Finally I arrived close by the community project Wandelgut of my friends and took the chance to walk there – a 6km walk through amazing green forest and past some incredible lakes. I was so happy I could finally breathe fresh, humid air again and fill my lungs with the smell of forest.

I was filled with a lot of joy and gratitude when we then came home and I had the chance to be at this wonderful emerging community that is located directly next to a natural reserve with a lot of birds, wild goose, the fire-bellied toads with their nice sounds, and amazing lakes around it.

I had finally met my friends again after a long time apart and it was a big gift that through the flight I could spend much more time with them. We had a lot of time together, from working in the garden, cooking, talking, excursions and swimming in the beautiful lakes, it was great to enjoy each other’s presence.

One of the most beautiful things was to spend time with their son who grew so much since the last time I saw him. He is a great kid and we had also used the time to play and to further get to know each other.

After five days it was time to say good bye and I had to leave to South Germany. Thank you Julius and Nika for your presence in my life and the great friendship we share since so many years. I hope it will not take that long to see you again.

Next stop: South Germany

Now I am at my Mother’s place where I am preparing my bike, my gear and myself to go on the bike trip. I had my first testride with the new one, I took it into the woods and over the single trails of my teenage years that I liked to ride for my mountainbike training. It felt awesome. I am so much missing the forests and mountains in Portugal.

Well, today is the last day where I prepare the remaining bits an pieces and will then be off to my first station, which is Taizé. I hope to get there by sunday afternoon, I want to take it easy in the first week and see, how my body reacts to so much riding.

Thank you for tuning in and for reading and for the support I feel in my back by all of you.

See you soon!