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==When you are all whatever, it all clicks together==
''"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."''
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Reece is a traveler from the [[US]] who has been in [[Europe]] for 2,5 years now. He lives on a no/low-budget for quite a while and gets by what with whatever he finds on his road, of whatever finds him. --[[User:Robino|Robino]] 17:28, 28 September 2008 (CEST)
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Once, when I was hitchhiking through [[Akureyri]] to [[Reykjavik]] - hitchhiking here is really easy as most cars were driving on that route to Reykjavik anyway; I spend more time writing [[Reykjavik]] than holding the sign - a friend of my driver, was organising an exhibition and he asked me if I wanted to work for him, being paid in cash.
Things like this happen. You just have to get to know the people and network around that. Like that you sometimes end up going to nice paces. I always wanted to go to [[Finland]]. In [[Iceland]] I met someone who offered me a job and a place to stay in [[Finland]]. It did take me a wile to figure out how to survive but even without papers these things are possible.
When you don't really have plans you come to see it all falls into place. It seems that things fall together in that way, when you have less expectations and when you worry less. But when you need to be somewhere at a certain time it gets much more stress to find your food and to find those rides. When you are all whatever, it all clicks together. It is about letting go.
=== Learning process ===
The first times I came to [[Europe]], I had a budget and a return ticket. I was on holidays, visiting [[Europe]], using my creditcard. I always had to go back to the [[US]] to work and pay off my debts that I made while traveling. But now I don't do that anymore, I have no exit-ticket and basically no budget.
Two and a half years ago I left the US with only 250 dollars and I made my way to Iceland for a job. I worked 90 hours a month in a youth-hostel just to sleep in a dormitory. To actually get some money, I had to work 120 hours a month. Since [[Iceland]] is pretty expensive, I ended up with nothing.
At the end of those 3 months, I was going to overstay my tourist visa. The hostel arranged a ticket for me to the UK to go out. So I left [[Iceland]] broke and wanted to go to Ireland to volunteer at a different hostel. But with no money at all, I got detained and got send back to the [[UK]]. They detained me for 7 hours in an empty room and returned me for free to the UK.
Then stayed at the [[London]] airport for a night walking passed the restaurant area with no money at all. That was hard. I could have done it differently by obtaining work-visas so that I could have stayed in a rather normal way - but I prefer not to have that responsibility, it is a different mentality.
So I stayed in the UK and through a friend I went to a woofing farm where they payed 70 pounds a week, for 40 hours work a week. Though I still wanted to go to this hostel in [[Dublin]], in the [[Aran Islands]]. For nine years I really wanted to go this place. It was worth it, it is a special place. So when I got some more money, I made my way there, traveled then through Europe, got back to Ireland, got kicked out, and so on.
But you shouldn't think 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. It is sometimes hard to figure out 'where is this damn highway' but once you are on the road, it always feels really good. Finding food is actually the hardest part, every morning you have that same thing again, and sometimes it can be really hard when you wake up hungry. Or at night's, and you are wondering around a random city and you really want to have a decent hot meal and a good cold beer and you see people having those meals...
=== Slow Travel ===
My traveling is now a lot slower, I need to build up that system of having a place to stay, getting a routine, get work, then start looking where I want to go next. Before, to stay at one spot for 6 weeks seemed forever, but now 6 weeks looks like nothing: go to a place, find a job, a place to stay, etc.
The jobs I do can be pretty different. To get by, I sometimes just go out on the street and collect bottles with deposit. But you can also do woofing or construction work. My favourite work is do some bar tending, which is pretty easy to get a job in.
What is essential about traveling like this is to meet local people. How I was traveling before - I was working and living in youth hostels - I met a lot of travelers. So wherever I was living, I always met the same sort of travelers. It didn't matter where I was - the experience was all the same.
But now that I stopped traveling like this you have to interact with someone at some time. I am much more just wondering 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.
==Zoë's first time hitchhiking==
