New Year 15/16 in Russia

On Christmas 2015 I could finally return to my friends in Mother Russia. I took a flight in the evening of 26th of December and returned 20 days later, having had a nice, but cold time with banya (Russian sauna), hitch-hiking at -20°C, nearly falling into Volga, walks at 2am on forest streets and stuff:

Part 1 – Yegoryevsk

Birdhouse Russian style

Town of Kolomna

Kolomna

Walking back…

…at 2am

Yegoryevsk

Cold Yegoryevsk

Little cold, so what?

Part 2 – Hitchhiking to Nizhny Novgorod

Hitchhiking to Nizhny Novgorod at -20°C

Nizhny Novgorod

Broke the ice – but on the wrong occasion

Lonely Fisherman on Volga I

Lonely Fisherman on Volga II

Church and Soviet panel flat

Ice fishing

Being bored…

Hitchhiking back

Part 3 – Shchyolkovo, Moscow

Red Square at Christmas time

Shopping centre GUM

Capitalism has arrived in Russia

Taking a snow bath after banya

Babushka

Sabaka

Tavarish Lenin with Christmas Tree

Ice skating in Gorki Park

Moskva

Elektrostal – Hitchhiking back

Part 4 – Yegoryevsk

Night Walk II

Yolka in Yegoryevsk

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Hitchhiking in Germany – Photos

A9 – Talbrücke Schnaittach

A9 – Talbrücke Schnaittach

A9

A9

A5, Karlsruhe-Durlach

Berlin, ICC/Funktower

Denmark – 22nd June till 23rd June

Due to some incidents, I needed to buy a German Railway pass (like Interrail). I with this ticket I’m able to use nearly all trains within Germany.

When I handed my Bachelor thesis over to my university on Friday I spend the same evening with my closest friends, but used the ticket for a week-end trip to Denmark before returning to Karlsruhe.

To Rødby I took the direct train from Berlin to Copenhagen with departed at 11.15am and arrived in Rødbyhavn at about 4pm. I used the ferry Puttgarden-Rødby, which I took some years before during a Sweden vacation with one of my friends. As I assumed, nobody checked the ticket before the train boarded the ferry, so I black rode the 45 minute passage.

So I arrived in time at 4pm and “Aldi was ’bout to close“, so I hitched to Rødby to buy the most famous Danish beer: UGLENS

No offence to the brewery, but it is also know as Eulenpisse (Owl Piss – see the small owl), and

You should have drunk it (at) once

It will be drunk with my friends at once in Berlin for the umpteenth time. After I succeeded that mission, I hitched to the beach of Rødbyhavn. I had my tent with me, but because camping is illegal in Denmark, I used the tent cover to put me and my stuff on. I enjoyed the sunset and the sound of the Baltic Sea with its ferries, birds and waves.

Unfortunately it was not easy to sleep….I covered myself and my stuff with the tent cover, wich was blue. First a father with his daughters saw the strange cover and shaked it…It was an awkward situation, when I crouched out of the cover… 😀

30 Minutes later, two women with their dogs caused the same awkward situation. The dog even became aggressive. Well it smelled that there was something not legal happening.

After these incidents I found sleep for one hour, when it started to rain. First it was nice, I stayed dry and the sound was great. But then it rained harder and surprise ^^ I got wet. So I ran out in the rain and built up my tent. With no warm clothes I spend the night on the ground and in the fresh air. I even lit a candle inside my tent but due to the wind, it didn’t warmed the inside.

After a short night I packed the wet things, got in my swimming trousers and hitched on the ferry, because I didn’t want to black ride it again.

I stopped in Hamburg for two hours, so I bought a bread roll with fish and walked a bit through the city – although I don’t like Hamburg very much. Well and then I entered the train to Karlsruhe to arrive there one hour before the TATORT.

Nancy – 19th April till 21st April

After more than one month without having hitch-hiked to a foreign country (I hitch-hiked back to Berlin during Easter), it was time for a week-end trip again.

I choose Nancy as destination, because:

• the distance was much higher and there is no direct route so it was more challenging than to Strasbourg and I got to know how hitch-hiking in France is like

• a fellow pupil’s name from basic schooled was Nancy (apparently a girl’s name)

I decided not to go via Strasbourg or Lauternbourg because the first one seemed – from my last experience – hard to transit and the second one hard to start.
So I choose to go via a popular outlet store near the Germany border.

A boy visiting his parents drove me to the French border which I crossed by foot and went to a round-about. There a truck stopped and took me to a toll station.
There are really great. You can easily hitch-hike in France from toll station to toll station – if you are using the French Autobahn.
At this toll station of Sarrebourg for my first time in western Europe I got offered a ride by a girl that was visiting her friends in Nancy. Beforehand a woman stopped only to apologize, that she wasn’t heading to Nancy; so I decided that hitch-hiking in France seems to be nice.

Nancy itself is not a great city. Rather visit Strasbourg. The city’s patron was a Polish King? – I dunno – called Stanislav (the French call him Stanislas for whatever reason…) So there’s the Stanislas square, a nice park and I went outside because I was bored. The weather was rainy and cold, which didn’t improve my impression of Nancy.

In the evening – like in Strasbourg – we met with my host U.’s friends and flat mates to play various social games in a bar.

When I left Nancy, I waited for 2 hours till someone stopped. He told me, my spot would be bad, he’d know a better one. I agreed and he drove me to Luneville.

NEVER LET YOU DRIVE TO LUNEVILLE 😀
There is a service station before the exit which is better for sure.

However there was I, in the village behind the moon…I placed my backpack and guess what I saw…a motivating painting:

I was not the first one who got lost here. But the others seemed to have died waiting for a ride, using a STRASBOURG-sign like I did….it was really funny 😀

So I jumped like an insane everytime a car used the driveway.
And really, after only one hour and 300g of Haribo, a husband, who has been in Berlin in the French sector, and his wife stopped and took me to the toll station in Sarrebourg.
There I only waited about 3 minutes till a young couple gave me a lift directly back to Karlsruhe.

Strasbourg – 9th March till 10th March 2013

Living in Karlsruhe means, that the distance to France is much more less than from Berlin. So I couldn’t miss the chance to hitch-hike à la France pour y parler et améliorer mon français.

My first hitch-hiking trip was to Strasbourg, a border town some 90km south of Karlsruhe. Though the distance is not much, it took two hours to finally arrive at the outskirts of Strasbourg.

I thought I’d be smart and only buy the tram ticket to the city centre and play the innocent tourist, when the inspector comes. And guess what just before the last stop, they came in…. They spoke very good English, were nice and believed me, that I forgot to validate the ticket. I just gave it to him and promised to act correctly next time – although I think nothing would had happened, because I didn’t had any personal ID with me…

Without a ticket, I just went by foot to my host A. who lives one hour from Strasbourg main station. But because Strasbourg is a really beautiful city the walk was nice.

At her place I repaired her bike and then she showed me the city. In the evening she invited some friends and we drank beer, they smoked weed and we played a nice card game till 4 in the morning.

When we got up in the afternoon, the weather was turning from sunny to rainy – perfect for hitch-hiking…
Fortunately after we ate something A. drove me to the Germany border town Kehl and after waiting for some 15 minutes, I got a ride to Karlsruhe.

When I arrived at home – right before TATORT – , I felt like having had a long vacation – it was very nice.