Hitchhiking back West

No I'm not dead, I know it has been a while since I last updated my blog. Ok so what have I been doing the last 2 weeks.
After I came back from Ukraine I spend about 5 days in Krakow in the appartment of George, a friend who I met 2 weeks earlier in a hostel in Krakow.
So the next day, monday the 7th of August I wondered through the jewish quarter of Krakow which contains allot of synagoges. Went into one (had to wear a jewish little 'hat' if I wanted to enter) saw a photo exposition and a movie about the Warsaw ghetto and the deportation of the jews. At the moment I'm reading a book called 'The Pianist' and it's also about the Warsaw ghetto in WWII, I found it very impresive to see a real movie about it. That night went to a club with George and his girlfriend and a friend of her.
The next day slept allot and went to the cinema 2 movies for about 7 euro (Pirates of the Caribean & The Da Vince Code) It's been awhile the last time when I went to the movies.
Wednesday I said goodbye to George and took the bus to Bratislava at 10:30. Around 19:30 I arrived in the capital of Slowakia a few hours later then expected. I smsed my HC contact and Katti picked me up. She and her boyfriend were planning to visit a movie so I went with them to see a movie called Show Begins (an English musical movie with Will Young?!?)
After the movie we went to their place and I got a nice bed to sleep in. Thursday morning I dropped my bags at Katti's work and I explored the city a bit. In the afternoon picked up my bags again and took the bus to Wien with my last Krones. In Wien got 2 metro's to Bernhard's house (my host for the next 3 days) Bernhard was already hosting 2 Lithuanian girls ''Elena & Ruta''. Bernhard is a cool guy, dokter and former left wing activist. That night we went out with the 4 of us to a small club with rockmusic, had a great time and they even played some Michael Jackson. The next day I spend my day in the park practising POI and playing frisbee with Bernhard on the background there was a huge tower. There are 6 big old towers from WWII in Wien who were made to protect the capital by having big cannons suited on it to shoot airplanes out of the sky. The rest of the day spend watching german Simpsons and playing cards.
Saturday the 12th the girls left early hitchhiking to Zurich. I walked around the Old part of Wien visited the big cathedral and a crappy free museum.
The following day I planned to leave at around 9:00, eventually it was 12:45 when I was standing at a good hitchhike spot. After half an hour I got a hitch from 2 guys who invited me to stay at a lake at a summer house with them and a group friends.
I thought why not and ended up at a beautifull lake with a nice group of people and had a nice BBQ that night.
Haiko the guy who picked me up from Wien brought me to a good hitchhike spot in the direction of Innsbruck. Got picked up by a pilot who had to go to Salzburg and he insisted me that I had to visit Salzburg because it is the nicest city of Austria. So I dumped my stuff in a locker at the trainstation walked around the city and left within an hour. I had to decide or I would go to the girls Elena & Ruta in Zurich or I would go to Stefan in Munchen. Munchen was closer by and because it was already 16 oclock I left to Munchen with a quickride from a happy couple. Stefan is a guy who I met in Laos 2 years ago and travelled with him for about a week.
It was nice to see him again and that night we bought a bottle of Martini and went to a few clubs for free with the connections of Stefan. Went to bed at around 8 in the morning.
Thuesday slept almost the whole day till 16:30, spend the day exchanging music and watching a movie.
The next day I thanked Stefan and his mom for their hospitality and I was standing at the road around 9 in the morning trying to get to Zurich in 1 day. Eventually arrived in Zurich at 8 oclock, long day of hitchhiking 6/7 rides and had to wait about 30-60 minutes between every ride that I got. But eventually had a ride from a Porche and a Ford Mustang. The old guy in the Porsche even wanted to have dinner with me and he gave me his email address. I told him that some friends of me were waiting in Zurich and he dropped me of at a gasstation where I found someone with a Ford mustang who took me to the centre of the city.
I wasn't able to find a host in Zurich so had to stay at an expensive €26,- dormitory room in a hostel, good that they have free breakfest.
Got up early had a big breakfest and took some bread with me for my lunch/dinner. In this period of my trip I was travelling on an extreme low budget 5-10 euro per day, hitchhiking and staying at people's houses and eating bread with chocolateppasta and drinking only water. Only walked an hour and a half through Zurich then I left hitchhiking at 11:00 in the direction of Paris. Hitchhiked first to Basel, then with a few rides to Metz, as it was already 19 oclock and I was standing at a gasstation at the highway I planned to spend here the night. As I was updating my journal and sending an sms message to the girls who were already heading to Paris that I could not make it to Paris in 1 day, when suddenly a guy asked me if I was trying to get to Paris. I said yeah and because he was heading to Paris aswell I had a good ride of about 3,5 hours.
After catching 2 metro's in Paris to the hotel the girls picked out to be the cheapests I arrived at 24:00 o'clock. Good to see some familiar faces again, that night we bought a big bottle of 2 liter wine and had a small party in our hotelroom.
Friday 18th of August we walked all day long through Paris with our bags looking for a Host; rain, extreme tired after 2 hours of sleep and finally when I'm in Paris I still can't see anything because we had no money to stay in another hostel.
Eventually we found a guy called Louis in the suburbs and it took us 3 hours to get to his house.
Saturday I went with Elena to the Louvre, one of my goals this trip to visit this huge museum. Walked around between 11 and 16 o'clock ofcourse couldn't see everything but saw some incredible master pieces. The rest of the day we visited the Notre Dam and the Eifeltower and later that night we went out with some friends of Louis.
I planned to leave Paris on sunday but because we arrived back at 6 in the morning I slept sunday till 15 o'clock and after that Louis showed us Paris a bit; Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triomph & Champs Elysee.
Elena & Ruta cooked a nice pasta meal with a special cheese sause.
The next day (monday) left Louis' house at 9 in the morning took a train and 2 subways to a good hitchhike spot. I heard that it's always hard to hitchhike out of Paris but seriously I had a ride within a minute after I made a sign I wanted to go in the direction ofLille.
After 2 rides I ended up at a gasstation at Abbeville with a Belgium guy who wanted to hitch south. We asked allot of people but because allot of cars were already full with kids I finally found a belgium couple who wanted to bring till Antwerpen. They had a nice van without any seats in the back, I was sitting on a camping chair and at every sharp turn the van made I was sliding to the other side with my chair.
Arriving in Antwerpen around 20:00 and took the train to Roosendaal the first dutchtrainstation, in the Netherlands I can travel for free during the week with my student card. I wanted to visit a good friend of mine (Dennis) in Leiden in the West of Holland but because there was some trouble with a leaking fuelcar I arrived in Leiden around 1:15 at night after travelling for 16 hours.
Thuesday I spend the day watching some movies at Dennis' place and later on I went to see Sanne a friend of mine who I met and travelled with in Australia. Stayed the night at her place and in the morning I went to see my grandparents and had a great breakfest at their place. I wanted to stay longer in the west of Holland but because my parents planned to leave the next day for a few weeks on vacation I wanted to see them before they left.
I arrived back in Groningen at 16:00 by train. After 55 days of being on the road.
I had an amazing trip, saw incredible things and tasted some of the fine cultures Europe is rich. And ofcourse the people I've met during my journey made my trip wonderfull. It was great to meet my friends which I met in other trips and met again in this trip.
I had no expectations of any city of country and maybe that's good because then you will never be disappointed; right?! I visited my main goals I wanted to see; The Love Parade, Auswitch and the Louvre. And learned allot about the history of Europe.

Well friends and Family this is the last blog message of my Eurotrip, in my next trip I plan to do the same thing with this blogsite.
Where will Joost be going next? "I don't know, just keep in touch and you will find out"

My email and MSN is go_pray@hotmail.com

Thanks for reading and keep on travelling

Greets Joost.

Like a stranger in Kiev

Back in Krakow at the moment after spending a week in Ukraine. Planned to stay there for 3 weeks but finded it pretty hard with the Ukranian/Russian language and the cyrillic alphabet they have and also the lack of tourists/travellers which I thought was a positive thing but if there are hardly any then is pretty hard to communicate. Here is the story of my adventours in Ukraine.
So left around 18:00 o'clock on the saturday the 29th of July by train from Budapest to Kiev. Shared my train cabin with a woman from the ukraine who spoke some english so I could practise my Ukranian with her. In the long ride I met some Swiss guys and a russian guy who told me about the differences with Russia and Ukraine.
The ride took about 25 hours (1 hour time difference) and I arrived at 19:00 the next day. The first moment I stepped of the train I heard marching sounds from the speakers sort of national anthem of Ukraine I think, well to me it sounded pretty russian (well the language is almost similar) I met on the station 2 guys and a girl from the czeck republic who where planning to go to a guy called Alex which they contacted through Hospitality Club. I had also send an email to him and from the Czecks I heard that I probably could stay at his place aswell.
Arrived pretty late at his house because they needed to exchange money first which took some time, had to take 2 subways and a bus to get to his house.
Because in the suburbs of Kiev they don't have streetlights at sometime pretty big potholes in the road and it was raining and dark, it took us quite a while to find his house. (Well the Jacub and Tomas did because they knew a bit of Russain)
Arrived in a small house and were welcomed by Alex's mom. Took a shower and slept on the floor of Alex his room.
The next day we explored the city saw a big Lenin statue visited Independence Square ,where the orange revolution took place, and went to a famous Monastrie with caves where they kept mumified monks to display & to a minitature museum where an artist carved like chessbords on a hair and other incredible things. Had some cheap dinner and drank a few beers in a bar with nice live music. Kiev is a big city it looks pretty western with big shops everywhere, Macdonalds and LCD television sets in the subways but besides the russian letters on the buildings and everybody speaking russian you wouldn't know that you were in a former Sovyet country.
Without the guys from Czeck I would be probably be lost finding Alex's house or ended up staying in a expensive hostel.
Monday morning we said goodbye to Alex and put our bags in the locker room at the station, visited some churches, the Chernobyl Museum and the Freedomstatue of Ukraine. Because of the size of Kiev we travelled by subway all the time and also because it's only 1 Hrivna (6,5 hr in an euro) per ride it was pretty cheap.
At a certain moment when it was really full in the subway someone picked my pocket and stole my wallet, I noticed it only a few seconds later when it was stolen but still I looked for the person who took it but it was already to late and the guy probably left the subway at the next stop. Goddamned, well the good thing is that I had all my valuable stuff like Passport, drivers license and bankcard in my moneybelt and only lost around 6/7 euro in Hrivna and some small memory things I collected during travelling throughout the years. And later on I noticed that also my return ticket back to Budapest was in there, I didn't really plan to go back to Hungary but still I wanted to try to sell it it to other travellers who were heading to Kiev and Budapest. Well shit happens right?
Because the train was already full to Odessa I planned to go to L'viv in the west of Ukraine that same day. Said goodbye to Elishka, Jacub and Tomas thanks for your help with finding my way the first days in Ukraine. The first available train to L'viv left at 4:29 (thats right at night) spended my time on the internet and reading & guarding my bags between the sleepin bums on the benches at the train station of Kiev.
Still had a good night rest in the train and when I arrived in L'viv at around 14:00 o'clock on wednesday, a german guy called Florian was waiting for me at the station. In Kiev I contacted a girl in L'viv who could help me with accommodation and one of her other guests picked me up at the station and showed me around town that day. He left later on to Romania.
My first impression is that L'viv is like the Wild West or should I say Wild East, everybody is driving like grazy and allot of roads are under construction and buildings under restoration. People call it the next Prague but then without the millions of tourists; it's a beautifull city.
I liked it right away.
That day I met Iwanka my hostess for the next 3 days. Iwanka is a very pretty girl, extremly kind and friendly and always willing to help me with finding my way in the city.
Later in the evening we went to Iwanka's aunt's place where her mother and her aunt have a publishing company. Her aunt was hosting 6 other people from Hospitality club and 3 other dutchies from my home town Groningen, small world isn't it?
Had some drinks with the group at her aunts house and later Iwanka's mom brought me and Iwanka back to their house in a small former rally car (the first car in the Ukraine), I forgot the name of the car but soon I will post some pictures of it. It was an amazing experience and her aunt even has a same brand car as her sister.
The next day I walked around town visited one of the old orthodox churches and the viewpoint with the ruines of a castle. I also bought a ticket to Krakow at the busstation with the help of Iwanka because the busstation is about 8 km out of town. I planned to leave Ukraine because of the lack of other travellers and also because of the language difficulty and mostly because my money is running out pretty quick.
Later in the evening played some cards with Iwanka and Viera (another HC guest). Friday I went with Viera to the cemetary of L'viv which is famous for the size of it (400.000 people are burried here) and the beauty of all the overgrown stones.
I bought some nice flowers for Iwanka and her mom for hosting me, and founded out on time that it was an oneven number of flowers (oneven numbers mean badluck and are meant for funerals) so had to take one out.
Iwanka made I delicious meal for me before I left and she even brought me to the station (which is still 45 min by rolleybus or tram)because I didn't know which bus to take. My bus left at 22:00 and I feelled sad to leave Iwanka and L'viv. I want to thank Iwanka and her nice mom and aunt again for everything they did for making my stay in L'viv amazing, and maybe see you in the future in Holland or Ukraine when I have short hair or even dreadlocks ;)
That night had a rough night sleeping on half a chair because a large man was taking the space of his and half my chair.
Arrived at 6 in the morning at George picked me up around 9. (remember George everybody? no? well it's the american guy who I met in Krakow 2 weeks ago) George now has an appartment in Krakow, he works here and is searching for the perfect girl to spent his life with.
It's kinda weird being back in Krakow and I noticed that the weather changed allot, 2 weeks ago it was around 30 degrees and now it is les then 20. Time for wearing shoes again, which I hate when I'm used to sandals.
Yesterday caught some sleep during the day and me and George went out to some clubs. Today got up late and walked around the city.

My plans for the next weeks are, well I bought a ticket to Bratislava (capital of Slowakia) for wednesday and already found some accommodation there through HC. And then going to Austria and or I'm making my way back to Holland quiker then planed because of the money or I'm hitchhiking to Rimini, Italy where I have a friend where I could stay for a few days and chill at the beach.
From now on I'm only gonna try to stay at people's houses through Hospitality Club and hitchhike all the way back starting from Bratislava.

Tomorrow I'm planning to go back to Auswitch and maybe explore the saltmines the next day.

I hope you are all well and enjoying your vacations just like I am.

Greetz Joost.