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.