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{{RandomRoads}}

It costs 29 Euros to take the train from [[Heerlen]] to [[Amsterdam]] which seems accessible, especially since we want to support the efficient, comfortable, comprehensive Dutch mass transit system. But it misses the point - the point which is about radical sharing. And about story telling. And about dropping social barriers. And about taking useful risks. And about modeling behaviors for a more sustainable future.

He is totally charming. Speaks good English. He is an art lecturer, who amazingly makes his money from the entry fees to his lectures. He rents out auditorium space, self promotes and makes enough to live relatively comfortably. I can't conceive of someone doing this in the US, unless they had a huge name - and then thy would not do their own promotion.

We part in [[Tilburg]]. We never shared names - often it is part of the culture of hitching - to be vulnerable and nearly intimate with someone and never know this label on their identity.

--[[User:Paxus|Paxus]] 6:08, 20 October 2008 (CEST)

''From the 23rd of August on twelve people in five groups made their way hitchhiking from Hamburg to Saragossa for the Open Network Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli, a charity movement from Hamburg-St.Pauli, which provides different villages in Latin America and Africa with clear drinkable water resources. On their way the hitchhikers called attention for the worldwide drinkable water problems with 5,000 flyers in different languages and through the media.

Malte, participant and member of the organization-team describes the way how the idea of such a race was born till the end with reactions of friends, surroundings and media.''

'''Unforeseen competition in Corsica'''

We imagined some great evenings and stories if we only had met these guys once to share some time together on a bonfire...Too bad we didn't...

2 years later in 2008, after some time of traveling, working and studying we decided to organize a hitchhiking race for two weeks to a certain destination somewhere in Europe.We heard about this charity movement from Hamburg-St.Pauli called "Viva con Agua", which was known to raise money for social projects in another way we know it from big organizations. We liked the idea of an open network, where everybody has the option to move, organize or participate in something, with own ideas and influence. We also liked the idea, that Viva con Agua doesn't just ask people to donate money on a simple bank account but involving them in every project they run. Organizing parties, concerts, cultural and sport events or arrange "Water Days" in schools with a charity run afterward, so the kids know what they're running for. They also walked 1000km from Hamburg to Basel with a wooden bicycle from Kongo to the European Football Cup opening game in 39 days to call attention for the worldwide drinking water problems and collected deposit cups on every bigger festival in Germany the whole summer long.A crazy crew of young people willing to move something, open for new ways and ideas.

Behind every of these activities stands one simple idea: to combine fun and social engagement.

So our idea of a hitchhike race fitted perfectly in the philosophy of this a little bit different charity organization. A hitchhike-race, the ultimate combination of fun and the possibility to support the drinkable water-projects in countries in Latin America and Africa. We liked the idea a lot and so started to work out everything necessary.

First we needed to find the route, checkpoint city's and organizing information for every hitchhiking group like maps, hitchhiking phrases, security issues, meeting points in the checkpoint city's, etc...Then we started to promote the race in the internet (not that successful) and our home towns Kiel and Hamburg in the university, bars and public places, spending nights tagging traffic jams and bus-stations with posters and flyers, talking to everybody we know, telling about our project and tried to motivate them to join. Everybody was interested, a lot excited, some said they're joining definitely - and some weeks before we planned to start from Hamburg to Saragossa we were kinda sure: we are freaks who like to spend our free time half the day on a dusty road or a smelly gas-station just to be the fun-and-fear-factor for hundreds of car-drivers. Only 1 more group signed up after weeks of spreading the word of the hitchhiking race in August, making a trailer for youtube.com and informing people - all the effort for only one group?this was definitely not what we wanted...but organizing a hitchhiking race is like hitchhiking itself - you can only influence it to a certain point, than everything is going to happen on his own.It was disappointing.

'''Wow! it seems to work! - Reactions close before the start and after two weeks of hitchhiking'''

And two weeks before the race actually started, our project started to evolve like the rule number one of hitchhiking: you always get away.

--[[User:Wukk|Wukk]] 02:46, 1 October 2008 (CEST)

''"You shouldn't think too much about how hard something might be, you should just go on the road and find your way. Just believe it can be done and you will see it will happen."''

But now that I stopped traveling like this you have to interact with someone at some time. I am much more just wandering around in a city and I feel much more that I have to force myself to interact with people. Good things happen out of that, either they buy you a beer and you get by for some hours, or if you hitchhike, you get further on your way to a new destination, or when you tell your story to your driver they sometimes even help you with a surprise.

Shaun "Master of Air Guitar" is from Canada, Vancouver and has been traveling through Europe for 1,5 year now on a low/no-budget. How does he make it happen?

Now I am traveling without a plan to go home, I have no exit-plan, just a one way ticket. I have my guitar and I can also make jewelery for money, and I can always do that if it is needed, if I run out of money for example.

Since I arrived in Europe, I just kept on traveling until my money was finished and I really didn't think of my money until I run out of it. Though that didn't worry me at all. Once you are traveling and you stay in a city for a bit longer, you meet people from all over the place who you then meet up in the city where they live. As you keep on expanding your network you also get more opportunities on the way.

You can also do farming, for which you don't always need special skills. Farmers pay you cash, you can pick grapes, strawberries. Take for example WWOOFing (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), you don't make money, but you have a free place to stay and free food. I did a lot of that. Even when you don't know how to farm, you can still do simple work like digging a hole.

And sometimes things just occur to you. I was just sitting in Brussels and making some bracelets as some girls came up to me and asked me if they could buy them of me. "How much you want for it?", they asked. "A euro?", I replied, and they said, "no way, is that all?" and so I raised the price a bit.

=== Hitchhiking ===

''How does hitchhiking fit in all that?''

I didn't have many doubts either. I thought it was actually going to be pretty easy, without any big problems. Being robbed was the only problem I could think of. Accidents, injuries, getting sick, or hit by a bus, that could happen at home also, so why should I not travel!?

In Canada I got rides from quite some people saying they have a certain image about hitchhikers, that hitchhikers are generally dangerous. So they say, they normally don't stop for hitchhikers but since I am a girl, and since it is rainy, or since it is bloody cold, sometimes women do stop for me.

---Sarah Jane from Canada

The Hitchhikers Control Card was a small booklet for each city with places where to stand, with the telephone numbers of police and the date issued. It would be valid for a year. The other side of this card had space for drivers to put their personal stamps that were provided by the government.

--- by Noemi.

[[Category:RandomRoads]]