We sneaked into the cathedral of Szeged in Hungary while some musician was playing the clarinette. Then we sneaked out.
Notice that the woman who walks back and forward almost reminds you of Uma Thurman. And the music? Yes. It was in ‘Kill Bill’, where Uma played the main character. There you have it. Very authentic ;) .
“Hitchhiking to India? Really?!”
Yes, really!
We have answered this question quite a few times already, and we have seen many playful smiles upon many people’s lips in many countries. Almost every driver, every person we have a quick chat with, anyone who hears about our current mission reacts this way.
It’s like they think to themselves, for a second or two, that “Wow, life can actually be just as good as you make it!”.
Then comes question no. 2: “What do you work with?”
When I had just finished school and I was traveling, it was easy to give people a satisfying answer.
“I have just finished school” was for most people equal to “I’m about to move on to university”, though this was never really outspoken, just a floating assumption.
People liked that idea, anyway. Either that, or that I would go back to a normal, regular job. In that best case, very soon.
But time goes on. It is now 2,5 years since I finished school. I have changed my answers many times, because people keep asking me.
“What is your job?”
Well, we don’t have any jobs at the moment.
“Aha, so you are a students?”
No.
“So you take a year off or something?”
No. We travel, and we work with a website. And we dance The Chicken Dance. We are in the middle of our beautiful lives and we are not sure where our project is going, but it is exciting and we enjoy it very much!
When I can’t seem to calm the boiling frustration of the fact that we actually have no idea how long we are traveling for, I tell people I used to work in service industry, in restaurants and cafés. Because that’s the kind of jobs I’ve always had in between school and adventures around the world. And I am very good at that, but it is not my greatest challenge or my passion.
I try to tell people that it’s just the way I’ve been making money. Because personally I don’t see that as my profession or something that I “am”.
I have other stories to tell, not including a so called normal working career.
“OK, so you are a waitress. Very good.”
Even the people with who we communicate only by body language and drawings, sometimes look like they’ll go mad because they don’t get it. They just can’t put their fingers on what we ARE if we are not doctors or teachers or lawyers. There are no such things as not having anything to go back to. No such things as not knowing exactly how to make your living for the rest of the year.
For most people it is just way too far from the only life they ever knew.
I apparently make more sense to the people if I tell them what my job is.
I must be either a waitress, or a bit crazy.
Truthfully, I rather put “crazy” on my business card.
I believe that I can teach people something if I don’t just let them see me as a waitress, a word that they already know. They might understand that they are just as free to live the life they want as I am. By just leaving them the with the idea that I have a regular job that I need to go back to soon, I also leave them with the same old thoughts that there isn’t much to change in this world.
But I disagree with that.
My job is not my identity.
Life educates us every day, it is the same for me as for other human beings.
I learn, and I try to teach when I believe that I can do so.
We are more than our university degrees.
We are also people, free to break out of our boxes and discover ourselves.
I mean to say bigger than “you can become whatever you want to be”.
Blink once, then open your eyes.
You already ARE whatever you want to be. You choose to reduce or enlarge yourself, you choose what people will see when they greet you.
How will you introduce yourself next time?
We’re hitchhiking from Poland to India. On our way we get to meet a lot of beautiful and positive drivers who shares a tiny part of their lives with us. In this video, we meet Niko from Bulgaria, who works with renewable energy. Niko was friendly and picked us up though it was already dark, and drove us all the way to our friends waiting in Popovo. Thank you again Niko!
If you recognize this video, it is because we posted it once before. But without the actual vıdeo… So here we go again!
We’re on the way towards Turkey and we’re communicating using
German. Amanda sits next to our driver, an older Bulgarian man with car problems.
– “Gross problem mit das Auto!”
– “Turkey, geld!” He’s somehow going to Turkey in order to get money to fix his car.
Or what is he telling us?
We’re learning Turkish now.
– “Marhaba!”
– “Salam aleikum!”
– “Merci – alles gut!”
Our dicta phone is coming handy. When we can’t communicate properly, we usually try to learn bits of the language of the country we’re traveling in.
He’s playing Turkish music to us. I reckon I would get the same show from the local immigrants of my home country if I’d just asked them. Why didn’t I?
– “Scheisse!” He doesn’t like what he hears.
Constantly switching tapes, cursing in German.
The landscape is fantastic; It’s open, wide, hilly. Sunny. Looks like a scene from “Gladiator”.
The bass is scrambling more than his motor.
Broken speakers.
Our driver look a bit like a mix of Danny De Vito and Jack Nicholson. Catsy eyes and eye-brows with a kind smile and dark colors. Pattern baldness. Compressed space between eyes and mouth.
– “Karta! Karta?” He is asking us for The Map.
We don’t have one.
– “Wir haben nichts einen Karta”
– “Wass?! India! No karta?!”
We’re hitchhiking to India and we don’t have a map.
Haven’t really thought about it before.
Never felt the need for one.
Amanda draws a map and points at Gotland.
– “Zu hause.”
– “Aha?” He really couldn’t care less.
We’re driving on a really lousy road.
He tells us that this is the road where his “Auto” broke down.
– “Hier, das Auto, electroniks, kaputt!”
I can smell newly put asphalt and cigarette smoke. He is constantly smoking.
Gangsta rap on the radio. Probably produced by the stoned guys that ran the hostel (also serving as a hiphop studio) where we slept the other night. It was a nice place but poorly managed.
Now we’re starting to understand each other.
– “Vize Auto, my friend, autobahn london – iraq.” He’s saying that his friend (who is going to fix his car) is waiting for him in Vize, and that he’s gonna let us off at the motor way that connects Great Britain to Iraq.
We’re entering Asia now.
Before this trip, I’ve never thought much about roads.
– “Eh.. trinken sie Kaffe?”
He’s inviting us for coffee.
Amanda is stuck in the door with her seatbelt.
– “Yes. Coffee. Teşekkür ederim.”
We’re hitchhiking from Poland to India. On our way we get to meet a lot of beautiful and positive drivers who shares a tiny part of their lives with us.
In this video, we meet Ejder – “Dragon” who is working in Bursa, Turkey.
He took us from Yavola to Bursa.
Thank you again Ejder!