Damn nice pic, no?Taken somewhere in Spain.
Yo peeps, just got back from my Morocco Hitch..well sort of and it was AWESOMEEEE. However Me and Izzy could only managed to hitch to Southern Spain because some bastards people at the Morocco Embassy refuse to give me my visa, so yeah. BUT logically, the difference between South Spain and Morocco is juts one ferry ride..so we sorta still made the hitch! So to begin...
Friday (14/03)
Started the hitch on a heavy note, having gone to London for our last attempt to get my visa. Reached there at 10.30 only to find out that opening hours was from 9-10. Like DOUBLE-U. TEE. EFF. right? So we decided fuck it and maybe try our luck at the embassy at Madrid.
So off we went, walked to the outskirts of London (it was one fucking long walk)...reached the A28 highway..and thus our hitch started! Waited for almost an hour before we got out first hitch! Brought us all the way to the outskirts of Portsmouth, where we had to walk through this jungle trekking path which took another hour before we found this main road where we managed another hitch all the way into town, where we met up with Izzy's aunt and uncle, who provided us dinner - really nice folks. After that, got a "hitch" from the aunt to the ferry port, and off we went to Le Havre, France!
Izzy, hitching at Portsmouth
Saturday (15/03)
Reached Le Harve at 9 in the morning in which me and Izzy waited outside of the ferry port for this trucker dude whom we found to take us alllll the way to Madrid, but sadly he failed to show up. In broken spirits, we walked another half hour to a service station where we saw about 7 pairs of hitchers trying to get a hitch. Took me and Izzy a good hour before we got a hitch to Normandy Bridge, where again, there was a line of hitchers as well. Waited for probably another hour before we got a ride with two travelling French dudes to Liseaux, which was this small town with literally farmhouses left and right of the road..sheep, goats, haystacks, log, everything! We had to walk up a hill for about 20 minutes and were about to give up when a man stopped for us to give us a lift! It was honestly a hallelujah moment. He had a very eager son who could speak english, and so for the next 2 hours plus he practiced his English with us, while we tried to perfect our French. (mine is still shit lol). Anyway, they dropped us off at Le Mans which was awesome, and he even gave us free McD vouchers! We tried hitching to Tours but it was getting pretty late, so we found a hotel and rested the night.
Pulling into Le Havre port.
Somewhere at the border of the French waters.
Yours truly, hitching. (you can see the competition at the side lol)
The sign reads : Charity Hitchhike - South, Please!
At Liseaux, a man made up of ceramic pots.
Sunday (16/03)
By far, this day was the day we had the most hitches - Five to be exact. We started the day pretty well, took us 3 rides to Tours. We met Jerome who was our 2nd hitch of the day, which made a lasting impact on me and Izzy because he came up with the silliest quotes..and the trademark quote of our entire hitch was " I wish the world - no money, only Love " with a really strong French accent and bad English. Moving on, we had the most harrowing experience on this day as well as we were dropped off at a toll station by a lady, our 4th hitch. We waited there for a good FOUR HOURS in the sopping rain and wind. We were both wet from head to toe, shivering like two mad cows in Antartica. To make matters worse, we were finally chased off the toll station and had to walk 2 kilometers in the cold rain to another road that was FREE as opposed to the toll road. We finally managed one last hitch to Poitiers before it went dark. Got a hostel and had a good rest after drying up lol.
Our sign.
Some scenery, you can see the rain outside. Lol.
Some good food, after a day in the rain.
No idea what it was that i ate, but it was good.
Monday (17/03)
Got pretty lucky on this day as our first hitch brought us all the way to Bordeaux (south of France). From there we manage to get our first trucker, which turned out to be going all the way to Burgos, Spain. He was from Czech Republic and we had to camp out the night at this service station with his other Czech truckers friends. Ended up having cheap champagne, wine, and beer with the guys up to a point where me and Izzy got a little too worried with the situation. Our original Czech Republic dude was getting a bit touchy with Izzy and we had to fake a call from our organization insisting that we had to sleep together for the night. Finally, we slept in another Czech driver's truck as he could bring us all the way to Madrid! So we slept in the truck for the night while watching some movie, surrounded by the sound of the rain outside. We were pretty glad we were indoors.
In the truck
Our Czech driver
The truck that was our humble abode.
Just wanted to show how sunny it was.
Sleeping in the truck
Tuesday (18/03)
Finally got to Madrid the next day having pass through San Sebastian and Burgos. The north of Spain is truly really beautiful, with rocky mountains and towering trees, it was honestly the greatest view the entire trip. Unfortunately, my camera phone went out of battery, so no pictures of it here i'm afraid. We finally reached the outskirts of Madrid at around 4pm, where we met another pair of Warwick hitchers at the toll station who actually left a day after us! Damn those people had luck. Anyway, me and Izzy managed another hitch after that into Madrid, where we spent the night at the heart of the city and went out for some drinks and real food.
Foooddd.
At a live-music bar.
(freaking exx though, Corona was 4 euros!)
The view from the balcony of our room
Random shot of the subway near where we stayed
Cool shit no?
Wednesday (19/03)
Woke up quite early in the morning and left for the Moroccan Embassy, waited for the Visa section to open only to find out that we couldn't apply there as i could only apply in England due to my English visa which gave me an address in the UK. So that was that. Me and Izzy were feeling a bit down, but what the heck, we continued down to the Granada! Took us the whole day to get to Granada, and by the time we reached it was already 11pm. We finally had to sleep the night away with 6 other hitchers at the bus station, where we were ready to take a bus the next day to Orgiva where the DRAGON FESTIVAL in conjuction with the Spring Equinox (and coincidentally with Easter Weekend as well) was being held in the high mountains of Spain. That i have to say, was a whole new chapter of the journey.
Thursday (20/03)
Woke up pretty early as we didn't get much sleep the night before anyway. Left the bus station to Orgiva which was this small ass two which practically consisted of a 3 rows of shops along the mountain ridge and a cathedral. They didn't even have a proper bus station. So me and Izzy got off at center of town, hoping to find a tent we could live in while at the festival, but it was to no avail. We were deeply screwed. And again, it started to freaking pour. Finally, we decided to take a chance and head for the festival, make a few friends and bunk in their tents. So we started walking in the rain, led by this Israeli girl who knew the way to the festival. So in the rain, we walked and walked and walked up the mountains, across some beautiful scenery. In the end the rain was so heavy, we had to shade ourselves in a tunnel and hope for a ride. And indeed, our hitching skills paid off when we were picked up by this English woman who was going to the festival as well. And lo and behold! It turned out that she was actually the master of the "Healing Space" at the festival and had a house up the mountains, about 5 minutes walk away from the festival. She very much kindly offered us her "Healing Room" in her house for us to stay after hearing about our predicament. That was seriously another hallelujah moment.
Orange tree.
The town of Orgiva
Picture of the mountains
The tunnel we shaded ourselves in
Friday-Sunday (21/03 to 23/03)
Spend the entire weekend at the festival which was AWESOME. Saw a lot of hippie (and quite pagan) performances, ate a lot of festival food, was surrounded by the smell of weed and cigarettes everywhere, and everywhere we turned, someone had dreadlocks. Izzy didn't feel quite as special anymore there. We seriously enjoyed our time there though it was clearly a hippie and up to a certain extent a pagan festival, where we saw gypsies, tarot readers, healers, and that sort. It was an interesting experience. Me and Izzy even participated in this "opening ceremony" which required all of us to hold our hands with each other and walk into this "labryinth" of rocks, all the way chanting this song we did not know the lyrics to with people we did not know. We both agreed that was probably the hippiest thing we could have ever done.
Lol. Living in the house was quite an experience as well, as it was an eco-friendly house which ment we did our ahem, "business" in holes and covered them with sawdust. We finally had to leave the festival on Sunday, fun as it was to head back to Madrid and back to civilisation!
At the Healing Space
The festival
You can see the festival on the left, and a river on the right and the mountains.
The labryinth of stones where we did the opening ceremony
A big ass puppet.
Fire performance
The full moon
This was the house where we stayed in. Its completely made out of haystacks covered
by cement, while the floors are made up of beer bottles covered over by tiles for insulation.
The festival from the house
Me, on the roof of the house.
A caravan
Something that looked cool. No idea what it was.
Monday - Wednesday (24th - 26th 08)
Hung out at Madrid, took a hell lot of pictues. Met some really cool people - 2 german guys and 2 polish girls whom we hung out with and travelled and explored the city. Went to various bars and restuarants, visited the Prado Museum and the Caixa Forum, did alot of sightseeing at the Retiro Park and the city. We even rowed a boat in a lake in the middle of the city! To be honest, among all the cities i have visited in Europe, Madrid by far is my favourite. It is just such a beautiful city which so much culture and history, and plenty of things to do! I recommend anyone who wants to go for a vacation to go there! It was seriously an awesome place and i am definitely planning to go back. And so, on Wednesday morning, me and Izzy took a plane back from Madrid back to England.
A vertical wall grown with plants and the CaixaForum, Madrid.
A collection of artworks
It was truly an amazing experience, and i think i might just do the Prague hitch next year haha. So well, just want to thank you guys for the donations again, and even though we didn't make it to Morocco, as the saying goes...Its not the destination, but the journey that matters.
Lol. Thanks again guys and see you guys soon! Will upload more pictures when u get them from Izzy!
Peace!
