22 Jul 2011 No Comments
The last kilometers
I sat there with ~29 euros and hoped that it’ll be enough to get from El Ejido to Sevilla.I also thought about the back up plan.If I couldn’t afford the bus to Sevilla I planed to take one to Malaga and hitchhike the rest of the way.At the same time it was already getting dark and I needed a place to sleep.It was already late to try to couchsurf.Even if it wasn’t late Ej Ejido is a small town and there were little chances I could have found a last minute couch there.I had two choices:to sleep in the bus station or to go to search for something better.I chose the second option even without thinking much.I’d rather sleep somewhere on the bench than try to sleep sitting.After some time of searching I found a suitable place – a roof of a warehouse.After a minute I was already on the roof unpacking my sleeping bag for a night.
The next day started early.Around 7am I was woken up by the noise of passing cars and people going to their jobs.The departure of my bus was at 2pm so I had 7 hours to do something.As I was worried about the money I decided to find an office of “western union” and to withdraw some.An hour of asking people and walking around the town and I was there.It was still an early morning so it was closed.After several hours it was already open.I was even lucky enough to find a english speaking worker there.I was happy that I’ll get the money and will not have to hitchhike anymore.Unfortunatelly I was said that I could only withdraw money in Lithuania after the worker checked my money transfer number.I could not do much, but to expect the ticket to be less than 29eur.On the way to the bus station I noticed a ATM.I didn’t know how much money exactly were in my credit cards, but it wasn’t more than 15eur.Luckily the least ammount to withdraw at this ATM was 10eur, not 20 as in other ATM’s and I was able to get the last 10euros from the machine and now was pretty sure that 39eur will be enough to get to Sevilla.After several hours of waiting the bus arrived and the smile shined in my face.I was even more happy after succesfully bought the ticket which costed 31eur.If not that ATM I would had to go to Malaga because of 2euros.After 7 hours in the bus I was in the bus station of Sevilla.7 hours! It was only ~400km and it took 7 hours.The bus stopped in all the villages that were around to pick extra passangers and of course didn’t used the highway.The first thing I noticed in Sevilla was that it was very hot.I thought it was the engines of the busses which made the air in the station so hot.I was wrong though.I went outside and it was still hot.It was 9pm and the temperature was ~30° celsium.That day I had’t eaten anything but a sandwitch and an apple so I decided to search for a superkarket.After a while I found it, but I was stopped near the entrance.The bastards were closing and didn’t let any customers in.There were some food machines and bars still open, but I didn’t want to spend my last 9euros in cash left(I would have bought something using my credit card in the supermarket) as I hoped to buy the ticket to Càdiz with theese money.The night was approaching again, so did the time to search for a spot to sleep.I wanted to try to go to Cádiz by bus the next day, so I found the bench in the park next to the bus station and slept there.It was so hot that I didn’t even need the sleeping bag.
I got up early in the morning again, something around 7am again.This day I had to get to Cádiz somehow, it’s only 140km left.I was tired after weeks of hitchhiking and didn’t want to do it anymore, but at the same time I didn’t know how much the bus ticket to Càdiz costed.I went to the bus station to ask and guess what.They said I had to go to another station,because the aren’t any busses going to Càdiz from this station.I had no idea where that another station was and also wasn’t sure if I could afford the bus so I decided to hitchhike anyway.I went towards the end of the city hoping to find a suitable place to hitchhike.I reached the entrance to the road to Càdiz, but it wasn’t suitable for hitchhiking.I could have tried anyway of course and someone may have stopped after several hours of waiting, but I was tired, my feet hurt and it was 40° celsium hot.In the direct sunlight where I had to hitchhike it was even more.It’s even hard to describe my feelings back when without swears.It wasn’t the first time in such situation so I wasn’t lost.If it was Poland or Germany, even France I would just have found a shadow and slept there for a while or just rested the whole day.But it was only 140km left of 4000, I couldn’t stop there.I decided to try to find that other bus station and to see if I could afford the ticket.Several kilometrers of walking and I was there.The destiny showed it’s sense of humor again.The ticket costed 11,80eur and I had 9,60.I knew this could have happened and switched to my plan B – to ask peope to give me 2 euros ;D Actually I didn’t asked them just to give it to me, to increase my chances I asked them to exchange it for me.I knew I had approximatelly 5 euros in one of my credit cards, so I tried to explain the situation and offered to buy something for those 2 euros I asked for.First tries were not successful as the people couldn’t speak english well.I doubt if they even understood what I wanted.The smile in my face shined again when the woman I approached not only spoke english, but also gave me those several euros I desperatelly needed.I counted my cents again and happily ran to buy the ticket.After several hours the destination was reached.I can describe the journey similarly as I describe my hitchhiking to Paris I did last summmer(2010) – I’m happy to have experenced it, but I’m not sure if I would do it again ;D.
).Did I say bus!? Oh ;D The reason I’m taking a bus instead of hitchhiking is that… it’s really hard to say the honest one(s).I have never thought that it’s possible to cheat on yourself so hardly.What I mean is that it’s only ~400km left to my destination and I could easily get there, by hitchhiking, but I try to think the reasons why should I take a bus instead of hitchhiking, be it not very nice hitchhiking spot here, a little bit complicated route or the fact that I can afford the bus ticket.Yes, theese add up, but I think there is one core reason which decides eyerything – I want to get to Càdiz faster.This is not very important reason, so I try to come up with others like complicated route and etc in order to allow myself to take a bus.Ah, human brain is complicated, but interesting though.
.So I left another comment, and several more, gave him my email adress.He send me a long email, I sent him one too, and another one and hundred more.Actually before we started our email series I asked if he wanted to meet up, because he seemed to be a really interesting person and after a month I planned to start my journey around the world.I had no destination at that time so it wasn’t important which way to go.So as planned after finishing my highschool I packed my backpack,took hundred euros and started my way to Cádiz, the city in the southern Spain where he lives now.The thing is that we share a similar worldview and have common goal to improve the society.We disagree on some stuff, but thats just the way to filter the ideas even better and I hope to start a common some kind of project.