hitching to münster

i had already contacted my couchsurfing host to let her know i was going to be hitching to münster, and i was confident to make it in a day. i was at the hitching point at 9.30 a.m. six hours later, i was still there!! mad as hell of course, but i had to calm down cos it was no use to get angry, i mean, this is hitching after all, there are good days and bad days. but six fucking hours? this was a bad day for sure. ( i was once waiting three days hitching to katherine from tennent's creek in northern terrorities, australia... but that's another story!) finally, a small car pulls up, i didn't even ask where he was going, i just clamboured in happy to have finally got a lift. claudio was his name, an italian engineer now living in czech republic. says a lot that he was a foreigner in this country too. i asked him to drop me off at the services on the motorway before his destination, plzen.


after 45 minutes or so asking at the pumps, i got a lift from a german guy, stefan, to the next services, just before the czech-german border. he was going to germany but the wrong direction for me, and i had to be strong to refuse the longer ride into germany. an hour or so at these services, lots of traffic but no luck, wrong direction or didn't want to take me. i got talking to one african guy hanging around at the pumps and he said he was going to nürnberg with some other people, and so i decided to ask the driver. jon, from prague, was driving his friend and another passenger to bonn, and i had the feeling that this was a mitfahrgelegenheit trip. i asked anyway, and jon said he had to ask the others, which he did... "i can play some drum rhythms for you...", i added to promote myself. it worked. i squeezed into the back with my rucksack on top of me and one of the other guys holding onto my drum. first services in germany is good for me, i had told jon. but as we approached these services just after amberg, jon was hinting that he would like to take me further. they were going to nürnberg to drop one guy off and pick up another passenger, and as we were going there, jon changed his mind and said it would not be fair to the others to take me further. i could see he was torn between wanting to help me out more and being fair to his paying passengers. in the end, we agreed that i would get out at the first services on the a3 when they got back onto the motorway, not that far out of nürnberg. i was happy that i was on the right motorway to frankfurt and we said our goodbyes.


i got another lift, from wolfgang, and it was a chance to practice my very rusty german as he spoke no english. i got dropped off at the services before frankfurt and after sussing out that there was not so much traffic now to ask, i walked into the forest a little and slept rough that night. it was a surprisingly warm night considering it was the end of november.


in the morning, i got up at first light, drew up a sign for a45 and stood by the exit road. not so much traffic, but i would get all of them (the ones at the restaurant, the pumps, and the truckers), i reasoned, rather than asking the very few at the pumps. it was a good tactic cos after half an hour, a truck stopped for me. i climbed into the cab, happy to be away so fast.


jürgen was his name, a trucker for 30 years. again, just german, but no worries. it was a relatively slow lift, but long. to the services before the a1 at dortmund. there, i had my sign for a1 already drawn out, and again waited at the exit road. 5 minutes later, thomas gave me a lift to münsterland services outside münster.


from here, i walked down the service road to a main road 6kms from the centre of münster, and another 10 minute wait for my last lift right to the centre, courtesy of a tamil guy. by the look of his face, i think he was surprised to see me hitching there, but he said nothing, just asked me where i was from. "religious music from south india", he indicated to the music from the cd player. "very relaxing", i said. it was good to end this hitching trip like this after such a lousy start from prague!