First of all, I can't believe more people don't hitch hike! Like, what are people thinking?? PAYING to travel to a location just a couple hours away...NEVER AGAIN (unless I'm with my mom, I wouldn't expect her to hitchhike hahaha). So, needless to say, last weekend went very well.
Lukusz and I started out in Rotterdam...on the on ramp leading to the highway. Our first sign said "Antwerpen" but after realizing people might be a bit "slow" in these parts (kidding, no offense to the locals) we decided to re-right it to say "Breda/Antwerpen". We got many smiles and nods/hand gesture telling us "shucks, I would but I'm not headed there" but within about 15 minutes of standing there someone stopped. We'll call him STIJN, because I really don't know if I ever knew his name. Anyway, Stijn was a pretty nice looking, late 20's Belgian dude, driving a relatively new Mercedes towards Antwerpen but ended up letting us out right before the city at a Shell station that Lukusz had sat at a while back for TWO hours waiting for a ride...I was hoping for better luck!
Luck DID come. Our next driver, who was maybe the 5th car that past us, stopped within 5 minutes. We'll call him Zaher (I just looked up "Moroccan name" in google). Zaher was an older Moroccan man, living 6 months in Holland/6 months in Morocco, on his way to his brother's (I think) in Brussels. Zaher was clearly a fan of clean cars and LOUD weird Indian sounding club music. Anyway, although our sign said "Gent", since Zaher was willing to take us to Brussels and because our destination, Aalst, was between Brussels and Gent, we thought... hey why not spend a couple hours exploring the capital? And that's what we did! We walked around the city, ate BELGIAN chocolate, and got a little lost. Finding a good place to wait for a ride was a little funny! Yes, we were in the center of the city but when I asked people "excuse me, which direction is Gent" all they could do was look at me like I was crazy and say "GENT?? Gent is faaaar" Ok, I knew Gent was far but that really didn't answer my question. I then started lying to people "Hello, I have a car, right over there, I want to DRIVE to Gent, can you tell me which direction the highway to Gent is"...maybe it's because they're French (j/k) in Brussels but they were totally NOT helpful.
Our next driver, "Pieter", drove a new yellow beetle, possibly gay, very nice guy. He couldn't understand why we could ever want to go to Aalst though. By this time I had started up another lie (small, white lies)..."yeah, we're visiting old friends" just to keep it simple. After getting dropped off in Aalst and realizing that we were at least 4 hours early for the show, we decided to explore the town. Aalst must be the shoe shopping capital of the country, SO many shoe stores. I found a book store and decided to buy Twilight, even though I feel really weird reading a teen vampire book. We then spent our extra time at 3 different cafe/bars until it was time to head over to the club.
The show- pretty good. Small bar, but fun. 5 bands which for me = getting tired. But the band we went to see, Vogue, played last and definitely made the wait worth it. We stayed with a guy named Jonas (his name I actually know!) in Gent. Which was really nice because we were able to just get up in the morning and start exploring the city. We didn't do much...I took a few pictures, we walked around and then found a nice little vegan cafe for lunch.
I had to take a picture of this guy (with the beanie) because he reminded Lukusz and I of someone else.
"Blind" guys making a movie.
Maybe it was because it was Sunday or maybe because the weather wasn't quite as nice but today we weren't as lucky when it came to rides. "Christof" picked us up next. He drove a cute little mini cooper (gay again?). He dropped us off at a gas station between Gent and Antweren but not before stopping at a different gas station and offering to buy us a drink, which I was happy to accept (I'm too cheap to buy OJ for myself). Our next stop worried me. Christof let us off at a random ass gas station with very little traffic. We sat (well, I sat, Lukusz stood with the sign) feeling discouraged for about 15 minutes. But then! a car stopped...I was so excited, I jumped up, got my bag and then looked in the window to see 2 people I knew!! It was the singer of Vogue with his girlfriend, on their way to his parents house for his birthday, which was NOT on our way but seeing that anywhere HAD to be better than here, we got in. Weeeell, I was wrong! Where they let us off was probably the worst place 2 people could EVER wait for a ride to Rotterdam!! I joked that maybe I should make a sign saying "anywhere but here!" We ended up getting a ride with old "Benard" and his dog "Pookie". It was the ride with Benard that I really got my little speech perfected "Well, he's Polish, I'm American, we're both living in Holland right now...just visiting old friends in Gent...and no, we are not students". He drove us about 10 minutes, right to the north side of Antwerpen and dropped us off literally on the side of the highway. We walked to the exit, crossed to the other side, and stood on the on ramp, right by the McDonalds. This is where "Anke" and "Augustijn" found us. They drove us all the way from there to Rotterdam and even shared their fries :) how nice! Home by 8pm!
Yeah so, that's about it I guess.
The coming week is going to be amazing. I'm meeting Jess at the airport in Amsterdam. We're staying in Amsterdam 3 nights and then training to Berlin where we will stay about 4 nights. Jess is bringing me the next two Twilight books (thanks dad!) and SOURDOUGH BREAD. YAY!!! Loads of pictures to come.
*All names, except Lukusz, Vogue, Jess, and Jonas are made up. Just to let you know.
