CasaRobino

We had no clue who we were helping out here, but late at night we received a text message from a stranded hitchhiker in Poland. "Can you check in the internet how to hitch out of Poznan direction of Berlin please?". Rene went on investigating on hitchwiki.org while we also called in Kadri, who has most hitching experience in Poland of all present. Together they found some good info and we texted the hitchhiker back only 5 minutes later. Instantly we received a reply: "thanks man, I appreciate this :)". Welcome to the hitchhikers hotline.

I was merely eighteen years old, more than twenty years ago, it was like my maident journey, something calling me.
A friend said she wanted to hitchike to Amsterdam and that she knew other people who had done it and it was safe.

We were a small group of three people but it was difficult to travel together so we split up, had okay journeys, nobody was troubled or hurt, rather the contrary, people on the road were kind, even gave us a bed and a meal sometimes as well as a lift.

This can be considered how Davide's post titled "If you were a woman with child..." could have gone. I love to think that my story and Davide's one are linked, that an alternative conclusion made by path crossing and time shifting, is possible.

Today, I remembered my first contact with hitchhiking.
I was only 7 and my sister 1. My mother decided to took us to the amusement park in Rome (only 50 km from my hometown). She thought we needed distractions: back at that time my parents were in the processes of separation, so I think she wanted to spend some time with us.

We have two pigeons that have build a nest in the tree right in front of the house. The egg is white. We are also getting forward with the gardening. On the rooftop we have rucola and other types of crispy lettuce and on the balcony beans and lots of herbs. And wow, isn't it growing fast!

While Hitching from Krakow to Zilina, I got stuck in Cieszyn for the night. While sitting at a truck stop, thinking about life, and figuring out where I was going to sleep, I noticed a car pulling in. It was dark, around 10 pm. A lady got out of the car, and as I approached her I realized that she looked as if she had just been crying. She had a strange stagger to her walk, as if she had just been through something traumatic.

"I never see hitchhikers", I was told today by one of my five drivers while going back and forth to and from Den Haag. As a response I gave a summary of five people that I know, who are also hitching somewhere in Europe today, and added a short story about night-hitching, and how one can do large-distance hitchhiking.

Yesterday, I ate breakfast in Maastricht, lunch in Amsterdam, and dinner in Maastricht again.

Pedal, pedal, pedal, thumb, thumb, thumb. Look left, look right, flat farms, all identical. Stick out your thumb. 5, 10, 15 minuted. Red lights, brake. stop. get in. Ride.

Our journeys to Texel may have been quite different, but in the end we all arrived. Two may have biked, four may have hiked. Who cares. We are all here together, out of the casa robino.

Six o' clock this morning they woke up (well, that's what they said) and I just called them (Rene and Davide): they were already cycling north of Alkmaar... As a nice surprise, six of us are going up to Texel for a short adventure, two are cycling, and 4 will be hitching today. We found a nice host who is ok with us 'squatting' his place and cooking for him, and there are old friends to meet.