Hey Casaists.. Maybe one of you well-travelled people has some suggestions to help me with my problem. I have been travelling non-stop for way too long now, and kind of made a slightly stupid choice to tour with yet another band. So I left my van (also my home, I live in it) between Hamburg and Kiel, in Germany, in a village in the middle of nowhere with pretty much non-existent transportation links, and picked up the band with another van and ended up in La Spezia, Italy. I got really sick in La Spezia, all the tiredness of never giving myself any rest came out all of a sudden. I couldn't do anything, so I took the offer of another band to drive me to their house in Montpellier, France, where I can stay for a few days until I get on my feet again. So I am in Montpellier, and it doesn't look like I'm getting much better. I think it will take months of rest to fully recover, as it has been years of non-stop overworking myself.
So, what I really need is a way to get to either Hamburg or Berlin. If I get to Hamburg, I can get my van and slowly make it to Berlin where I can rest. If I get to Berlin, I can start resting at friend's houses and when I feel a bit better I can go get my van. I'd rather have my van with me though, as I'm homeless without it!
The problem is that I hate flying (for ethical and ecological reasons), I don't have much money, and I'd probably die if I had to wait for hours stranded in a gas station while hitch-hiking with a high fever.. I don't really want to stay here for more than a couple of days. Ideally, the best thing to happen would be some freaky people with a bus to be returning from Spain to Germany, and take me with them, so I can just lie down in the back of the bus and not have to worry about it..
I can't really think at the moment and I'm too tired, so if anybody has any suggestions, please tell me..
Comments
Back in Berlin, with van, in one piece....
Hey everyone, thanks a lot for your input, much appreciated. I am finally back in Berlin, in P43 at the moment, eating some lovely vegetable soup and resting.
So it turned out that the band covered the cheapest form of transport, which was a plane from Montpellier to Frankfurt Hahn, so that one was easy. Apart from the guy at the airport who decided it would be a good joke to tell me that the flight had been cancelled, and I almost had a heart attack on the spot... When he noticed how utterly shocked I was, he said "um, sorry, it was just a joke"....
Then a really good friend came and picked me up from Frankfurt, drove me all the way to near Kiel where the van was, we picked up my van, and drove in a convoy to Berlin. About 100 km from Berlin, we pulled into a rest area on the highway, where my friend got out of the car to pee in the bushes, but the cops pulled in, having stopped a driver to search him, and saw him taking a piss, and ran up to him to tell him it is illegal to pee in bushes in Germany... So he was fined 25 euros for taking a piss, and this is not taking the piss, pun intended...!
After he finished talking to the cops, we both started our engines, and he left the rest area in a hurry, only to find out a minute or so later that I was not following him... This was because, trying to pull off, I realized I could not get the van in gear!! No gears would go in, because the clutch refused to disengage...! I went under the van (still sick with a fever) and adjusted the clutch, but still no luck. So I remembered an old trick, which is to switch the engine off, select 4th gear, and start the engine again pushing in the clutch pedal at the same time, with the handbrake on. This shocks the clutch assembly and un-jams it.. Luckily it worked, so I was off without too much drama, and arrived in Berlin. The clutch still makes weird sounds, but works for now, so I won't worry about it until I get healthy again.
I'm still extremely tired, my fever keeps on going up and down, and I'm generally a bit out of it.. So I'll stay around Berlin for at least a few weeks, until I can feel healthy again. I really wanted to avoid wintering out in Berlin, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be an easy thing to drive to Greece before all hell breaks loose with the weather. I guess I need to find a decent place to park up for the winter here if I'm going to stay that long. Most wagenplatz places in the city are full to the brim already, but there's a few just outside Berlin, and there's also the option of wild-camping on small roads in Neukoelln...
I also realized I never wrote anything here about the nomad base in Greece.. I will, soon...
Take care everyone, and thanks again for your help.
Jesus
Good to hear
Just caught this thread now.. too late to help, but I'm glad to see the support here and that you made it in one piece to Berlin. Hope you get better quickly, Jesus, and perhaps I'll see you around in Berlin one of these days.
Dan
good rideshare overview
check http://triphopping.com/rideshare/Montpellier,%20France/ (disclaimer: I'm working on this site ;)
I found this one that could get you all the way to Karlsruhe: http://www.carpooling.co.uk/lifts/show/815878ff7e0df6e13ec6aa2f78d52bb8/...
From Karlsruhe you will have plenty of options...
good luck
rideshares dortmund to
rideshares dortmund to hamburg,
http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/mitfahrzentrale/Dortmund/Hamburg.html?c...
looks like there are many many so u shouldn`t have problems once u get there
good luck, rest well!
hey try this, it's today so
hey try this, it's today so you have to hurry
http://www.covoiturage.fr/trajet-montpellier-hamm-3862931
gets you to hamm, somewhere near dortmund i think. that's a big city so there should be people ride sharing to hamburg. or there is a special weekend ticket u can get on the trains in germany i think it's cheap..not sure about details though
Man, I'm sorry this isn't
Man, I'm sorry this isn't going to be more useful..but I've been there quite a few times and once winter hits and I'm still travelling, it's quite a worry to be damned sick on the side of the road and having to continue on.
I used this sometimes when I was based in London :
http://www.kelbillet.com/train/
People put their train tickets on there that they don't want and you can get them a lot cheaper. You would probably need to find something from Marseille, but more likely Paris to go your direction, and it's unlikely that anything will go straight to Berlin. If you have some money, it could be okay, but will involve switching trains a couple of times and thus getting two tickets.
Otherwise, Co-voiture from Paris may work. I don't know how much money you have, but hopefully it's enough to get you to Berlin without hitching.
Also, try the car sharing sites on CS, there's still quite a lot on there and you may get lucky.
Otherwise, just fly. I know you don't want to do it for all the reasons under the sun, but when businessmen are flying several times a week, you flying once is not going to make a difference and you'll look after your health. Bite the bullet. Environmental consciousness, as well as philosophical for travel is the way we need to be heading, but don't suffer for it against yourself. You're not gonna do anyone any good being sick for months when you could have been taking care of yourself.
I don't know what would be cheaper for you, but Nice looks quite cheap and probably Paris too if you can get there.
Well, good luck and look after yourself. We've never met but I've heard stories of you and appreciated very much your comments on problems I've had before related to work and the like.
Let us know how it goes?
Hugs,
Jass