Hamburg, Sauerkraut and Wieners!

My time in Hamburg was nice.  I was just thinking today how I cool it was to meet Laura and how kind she was.

Saturday night we had been out dancing and seeing the town.  I'm not sure if you know... but Hamburg DOESN'T sleep.  Laura ended up going home.  She invited me to go with her.  I decided not to since it was "still early".  The night progressed and I never looked at the time.  The next thing I knew I was off to the next place, and the next place.  Long story short I noticed that everyone around was starting to be kind of shady.  You know, facial expressions etc.. I decided to leave. When I stepped outside the sun hit me straight in the face and I almost melted. I guess you can't get into the last place with garlic.

This photo was apparently taken at 7:09 am.

      This guy started talking to me and let me know the scoop about the place I was in.... now alone.  I let him know he reminded me of my brother and we became friends. Haha!  
     Eh Tim?  Small resemblance after 9+ hours on the town?

This is what was outside at 8:59am when my phone says I left. Not shady at all.

    It was now 9 am I was..... some where and it was starting to rain.  I knew if I walked around long enough I could find a train, go back to the main station and figure out how to get back "home".  After a long, long walk in the rain I finally found the subway. Yay!  I jumped in the first train I thought might go the right direction and viola.  I was at main station, four more stops and two on the bus and I would be home.  I remember standing, waiting for the bus which said "4 minutes", falling asleep standing up, waking back up, seeing "4 minutes", falling asleep, waking back up, seeing finally seeing "2 minutes" falling asleep, waking back up...... finally "1 minute".  Now I have to sneak on the back of the bus so I don't have to pay.  Two stops and four naps later I made it!  It was now almost 11 am and the plan was to leave Hamburg that day.
 
     I slept little bit.  It was now 5 pm.  I needed to shower and figure out how I was going to leave Hamburg.  The original plan was to hitchhike but it was now nearly dark and I didn't have an escape route.  Plus, as you can imagine I was pretty tired and my stomach was upset.

     I decided to try and sneak on the train to Essen.  This way I could stay the night with my friend instead of sleeping.... who knows where.  I figured out the next train was in 15 minutes.  I was starving so I grabbed wally and went upstairs to grab food.  Like an idiot, I didn't know how to open these special kind of train doors and I missed the train.   It was two hours until the next train.

     An older Spanish gentleman started talking to me.  He as on his way to Paris with an old suitcase and  clothes that were thrown inside with everything else jumbled together.  He was cool.  When the train finally came I opted to sit in the same area as him.

      Since I hadn't paid the 70 euro for the ticket in advance I was going to try to plot a free ride.  Well... it almost worked.  The ladies who checked tickets were nothing short of jerks.  I mean, yes, I was trying to get a free ride but if my story had been completely true they were ruthless.   I mean, 70 euro or almost 100 USD was a lot compared to a free trip hitch hiking.  This was also money I didn't really have.  But whatever.  I got a nap in a warm place.

     When I arrived at the Essen HBF I realized that I still didn't know where I was going and that my friend was most likely in the next city.  I had to find wifi now and get a hold of my friend.  Finally, a starbucks in the center of town and free wifi!  I messaged him and he said he would be back in Essen as soon as possible.  Since it was now 3 am the next train would arrive around 6 am.  I decided to wait there on a sweet granite bench so I had internet.  It was now getting quite cold.  I had all of my jackets on, scarf, gloves, warm socks, hats... everything I owned on!  I decided the only remedy would be to jump into my sleeping bag.  I kept checking my phone through out the night.  Around 8 am I decided my friend wasn't coming so I could just sleep.

       The next thing I know boomboomboomboompshhhpshhhhboomdoublebooompppshhhh,drum rolll, wake the heck up!! we've got and orchestra of samba drums and whistles and you need to wake up!!!!!!  Get out of bed!!!!!

      I found this quite entertaining.  I had never been woken up so officially!  I felt a little strange since I was literally sleeping in the center of town, in a sleeping bag.... like a bum.  The impact of this group of drums, so intense and perfectly in sync with each other I couldn't help to smile and be amused!  I packed up my sleeping bag and headed for a bathroom back at the station. This way I could brush my hair and splash some water on myself.

      I then realized that this drum roll was not just for me.  It was also for a marathon that was taking place throughout town. These drums were there to help cheer the runners on to the finish/lap line. I should have really captured this moment for the blog but I didn't for some reason.

      Around noon my friend finally got in contact with me.  He ended up sleeping in the other town on accident but we were going to meet up and have a late lunch/dinner.  It was nice to see him!  He is the only person on my trip so far that recognized me from LA.  When I was missing home a bit he helped me re-realize that everything was more jolly where I was.  Some times that's all it takes.

Before a..  well.... a few minutes on the town.

Essen peeps!

      I spent a week with him in Essen, had some traditional German food (like sauerkraut and wieners), met his friend, cousin who was visiting from Morocco and later his family and best friend.  All of the above were pretty awesome!  The week was pretty relaxing for me.  I took some sweet baths and caught up on the blog there.

     That weekend he, his cousin and I all went to Düsseldorf for a day on the town.

Exactly!   Hallå!

A view of Düsseldorf from above!

Me and my new friend!

Yep.  That's where we were.  Not in the lamp post silly!  The TV tower!

Salma, Tobias and me in Dusseldorf!

   

The historic trolly 

The Rhine  river 

We left Dusseldorf just as it started raining and headed back to Essen.  Yes, we went out again.  The next day was Tobias' mother's birthday.  I was happy to be invited!  We went to Wuppertal where he was raised and had an awesome tapas dinner with the whole family, listed to a bit of opera and had some delish coffee and moroccan pastries. (Not in that order.)  It was a night of warmth, family, friends, laughs and friendly kisses.  I truly enjoyed it!

Salma's cousin, Salma and me at dinner.

    The next day I woke up, cleaned a bit packed my things, had dinner with Tobi and snuck on a train to Wuppertal to meet my Tobi's friend.

    Those stories coming soon!

Another 2,174 km! - PART THREE

After hiking around rainy Ålesund for a couple days and hanging out with the cool Czech guy it dawned on me that getting all the way up to Tromsø in time to be back in Stockholm by the 28th of September wasn't really realistic.  It was another 20 hours of straight driving north then many many hours back to Oslo and Tønsberg. To do this hitch hiking was going to take many days.  It was already quite cold where we were and the northern lights probably weren't going to be what I pictured during this time of year.  Plus, I really wanted to go dog sledding and it is still to early in the year for that as well.  In the morning I chatted with my travel companion and shared the bad news.  This now meant that we were going to turn back around, have less time to hang out and not finish the mission after all.  Ugh! I felt like an evil, evil being that morning. Luckily the news was taken quite well and we were off to hitchhike back towards Åndalsnes to catch a train back to Tønsberg in the morning.  It took us all day to get just a short distance out of town.  I think we caught four cars and we weren't even to Åndalsnes.  The good news is we had terrible places to wait for cars.

Here are a couple chronologically:

We had a competition to see who would get the car first.... neither of us did so we moved places. 

We weren't getting picked up by the gas station so we walked the open highway and picked up and dropped off just down the highway.... here.  I was pretty alright camping on that platform but we got a ride.... :/

The last spot was by a.... chicken ranch?  The sun was already going down. 

The last car wasn't just passing by Åndalsnes it was actually going all the way to Oslo.  So instead of getting to Åndalsnes and not having a place to sleep we rode with him all the way to Oslo and kept him awake.  Well.... okay.  I slept a bit in the end.  

We arrived in Oslo around 3 am and were supposed to crash at my buddy's friend's place.  The only problem is that his phone had died.  So.......... I guess we were off to find a place to charge his phone....?  In the US those are very easy to find.  Not so much in Oslo.

While studying the walls for outlets and being totally exhausted a sweet blonde girl who had just come from a concert offered us a place to sleep.  I mean... WHO DOES THAT?! Second time in a row!!! This time from a girl who was staying by herself that night.  We didn't chat much because we were so exhausted but I could just tell her personality by the decorations and belongings in her place and scent. She was someone TOTALLY worth getting to know.  She had a guestbook in the bathroom along with an organ, dainty lace curtains, an awesome CD collection.... just cool beyond belief.  I'm sad we didn't stay there for the weekend as she offered so I could become acquainted with her.  

This is a very terrible, dark picture of the place at 5 am.

In the morning we caught the remainder of our train to Tønsberg, relaxed, unpacked and slept like little babies. Going back "home" was slightly surreal but a nice feeling.  I mean, Tønsberg is now my third home. Kind of strange when you think of it.

The next day I slept in a bit and started repacking my things for Gothenburg.  The plan was to jump on a free (with voucher) ferry from Sandefjord to Strömstad then hitchhike from there to Gothenburg. After finally packing everything and enjoying one last coffee it was about 5 mins too late to get on the ferry.  It was poor planning on my part.  I should have looked up times the night before.....  This now meant I had to take a bus or train back to Oslo and from Oslo to Gothenburg.... and pay for it.  Sounds alright I guess..... except there was a 4 wait in Oslo for the next bus.  This also meant I wasn't going to arrive in Gothenburg until 3 am.  

I REALLY wanted to be able to meet up with my cousin and dance off all the built up emotions from the last month.  I was a bit down compared to when I left Sweden or the US.  It doesn't seem like that would be possible with so much beauty around, but it was true.  I think the weather and other vibes really influenced my state of mind. 

So 4 hours of waiting in my favorite bus terminal was in my future.  I decided to knit and do my best to be cool with the situation.  When I arrived in Gothenburg at 3 am I called my new host (who was expecting me) and got no answer.  It was then that I called my cousin.  GOOD NEWS! She as less than 5 minutes away from me!  So we met up, found someone to pawn Wally onto for a few hours and off to dance we were! The clubs often don't close until 5 or 6 am. The "A team" was back in action and our mission was  about to be accomplished!!!

We hung out until the early morning, grabbed Wally (the backpack) and waited for the next set of busses.  I'm sure I smelled horrendous but I was greeted "home" with big hugs and some scrumptious food of some sort... and OF COURSE the famous coffee! :) 

Ma-ma quickly scooped up all of my revolting clothes and washed them in a jiffy.  I'm not sure what she does but my laundry has never been as pristine as when she washes them.  Maybe she washes them with love? ... Like you "cook with love"?  I can't figure it out.  I took a much appreciated shower and finally slept.  We had a delish dinner the next night and I caught up with some peeps on the net then packed the next morning.

The note says "bread for Nicole" so I could make sandwiches and take them with me on my trip.  They saved my gluten free bread. Oh how I love them! They're so, so kind.

The plan was to hitchhike to Stockholm (even though I had a few days to get there) and meet up with another CSer who was on a trip to Germany.

It really should have been a brilliant spot!

By the time I got to my spot the sun was already going down.  I thought, I'm a girl this could work... but there were NO cars in this spot.  Bummer!  So, I hopped back on the bus and went to the closest stop with free wifi.  I didn't know what was going to happen this night but I knew it would work out.

It was then started looking for options on my phone.  I happened to find a group on CouchSurfing for Gothenburg Hitchhikers which had been created less than an hour before.  Maybe they were online?  If they're a hitchhiker maybe they'll understand the situation and let me come by...?  I got an almost immediate response... and BOOM I was in business!  I jumped on a train from central station about 20 minutes out of town and arrived at my new home.

My new host was pretty cool.

.... and so was my cozy room! :)

I think we watched a movie that night then passed out.  The next day my host ran out to do some errands and I was home doing ... something.  I guess it was something useless.  Haha! Oh well.  The following day we went up north so he could do paperwork for his new sailboat.  Déjà vu??? Yeah, kinda. 

I guess there is no pic of his boat.. but I did get some of the harbor.  Too bad this is only 1/8th of the boats there...

Baby starfish anyone?

..being bored towards the end, staring at fish and cloud reflections.. and me I guess...

After finishing the boat festivities we ate at this bar that has free food with purchase of one drink then met up with some friends.  It was a good day. :) 

The next day we went shopping.

.... and watched another cool movie.  In the morning it would be time for me to pack it up again and make a move on.

The plan was now to head to Germany via Copenhagen solo since my ride had to cancel last minute.  How?  I wasn't really sure!  Stay tuned! ;)