yesterday, i spent most of the day on the road. walking, riding the car, riding trains, sticking my hand out looking for a ride, smiling at every car, wondering...all on the road. from Amsterdam Centraal, i walked to Amstel Station for more than an hour. here, the place in the picture was the designated place for hitchhikers to catch a ride. Liftsplaat=Lift Place. Good thing there was another guy hitching at that time. He was on his way to Rotterdam and did not take the same car as i did. but he helped me with the confidence of actually continuing to hitchhike.
the first driver who picked me up was this moroccan dude heading to Utrecht, a town south of Holland. he was a cool guy and shared quite inspiring stories especially about his life. i was really thankful and he said he was also once a hitchhiker too. his story is he started school late as he first worked before going to university but one day, a guy he knew from school came in the kebab place he was working at and this guy was a big shot and was earning so much more than him. this made him want to strive more for his family, overcoming obstacles and all the hassles of starting school late, etc. now, he is a succesful engineer. he proudly shared that story and it is quite amazing that he was not sucked in to what his other relatives were into. as he shared, some of them were into the not-so-good businesses around the area.
he dropped me off in some gas station a few exits after the one he should have taken but extended to find me a better place to wait for my next ride.
the next one who picked me up was this lesbian exconvict. this was what she shared to me at least. she´s 26 and part indonesian and she does some braderies all over Holland selling clothes and other stuff. she just happened to mention that she got jailed in Breda, the town i was going to go to catch my next ride from. and when i asked her for what, she just said, `oh nothing, something stupid. i did not do anything, they released me after no one claimed the body of the hitchhiker i killed ´
at least that was what a thriller movie plot would go...she just said it was for some stupid reason and i just did not bother to pry more. anyway, she was on her way to Breda for a date with this new girl after just breaking up with another girl a few days before. she was actually really nice and it was her first time to pick up a hitchhiker too. she offered to drop me off in the train station and said i should just ride the train black but i decided i´d try to hitchhike again. after being dropped off in a gas station plus a few hours of trying and walking towards the highway to Antwerp, i decided to just go to the train station and follow her advice. i took the train with no ticket from Breda to Rosendaal then to Antwerpen Centraal. the first connection, someone actually checked but he got distracted when i started asking what the next station was and probably just assumed i had a ticket. my heart was pounding so fast during that time especially with what i still might have in my blood from the day before in Amsterdam. LUCKY.
more to come for the whole of the trip. now in Antwerpen! in Gert-Jan´s place.
goes and wanders
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