After a comfortable night in Tettingen, it was time to move again. In fact I didn't visit any city or place in this stay, but it was such a cool experience just for the interaction that I had with my host and the unknown places that walked around. She was even cooler in the ending. In the ending she just dropped me close from a highway in the morning, where It was easier for me to move from there to the next destination.
This was a kind of problematic day. Once I didn't find any host yet, I was traveling without direction. My draft plan was sending all of my requests to cities around Mannheim and Karlsruhe.
My first ride was from the place that my host dropped to Merzig. A small city in the way to one of my possible final destinations. I started everything at 7am. A super cool from the USA just picked me up there. He was living in Germany for the past 15 years and he was telling how happy he's feeling about to live there now. It was a really interesting talk.
Afterwards he dropped me in a gas station in the way. I was trying to make trips from small cities that was in the way to my final possible destinations. From the second ride in a gas station I arrived in another city few kilometers away then I started the hard part of the trip.
From this city I wanted to go direct to Karlsruhe, once I've found a potential host there. Then I needed to use Mannheim as a hub. A german girl from picked me up in a gas station in this city and told me that would pass close from Mannheim. Great, it would be half way already. However after few minutes she dropped me in a rest area in the highway. I remember that I spent 3h there trying to hitchhike and It didn't work at all. My Karlsruhe signal actually would never work. The reason why was that one of the guys that I asked ride he explained me that the exit that goes to the direction of Karlsruhe was before the spot that I was and all of cars were going to other directions mostly going to Frankfurt.
Then I was stuck. I couldn't just walk back to somewhere in the highway or just cross the highway to ask a ride in the way back. I could go to another city ahead and then come back with another ride, but then I just decide to jump a wired and start to walk in a forestry. I was in the division of two states: Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. I don't know why I was having intense experiences in the borders often. It's not gonna be just this time.
I just started to walk in this really big forestry and after one hour it started to became a park with regular path, fountain and other human interventions. Walking few kilometers more I just arrived in the city: Mannheim. After not knowing where I was, I just found myself again in the civilization. The walk actually was great, the connection with the nature was intense because of the inexistent of urban interactions there.
Once I was in the city I needed to find the highway that I would take to go to Karlsruhe. But I was in the another extremity of the city the reach the cool point I would need to walk more 5km.
This day I walked a lot, about 20km, almost a half marathon.
The spot that I chose in Mannheim wasn't actually a good one. I waited more than 2h there and no rides. During my waiting I was sending more urgent Couchsurfing requests to people in Mannheim. Finding a ride wouldn't be easy that time, once it was getting dark. Yes, I left at 7am and it was almost 6pm, I've done almost 200km of hitchhiking in 11h. I think that I super estimated myself after the first experiences. But the farthest journey I've ever had by hitchhiking before this day was 50km in Belgium. This time was 250km, I believe that for me as beginner it was too much.
It was my first fail in the trip. I was super tired and hungry and I couldn't wait more there until get darker. I took a tram to the train station and there I just booked a 16 euros train, for 50km of distance. For my daily budget it was too much. Once I planned to spend no more than 10 euros per day. When I talked about the 7 euros for any distance in Belgium, now can you understand why I said that it was cheap there.
Anyway 16 euros less in the pocket having the first failed hitchhike trip. At the same time it was a cool day that I need to learn with the difficulties, find solutions and respect the limite of my body.
My lesson of the day was:
- Don't super estimate myself from previous successful experiences;
- Enjoy more time appreciating the nature by myself;
- Learned the weight of my backpack and started to feel it like part of my body;
- Sending urgent Couchsurfing requests is pretty bad;
- Avoiding to take trains in Germany.
My peaceful spot
She's trying again :D
Almost a half marathon
Wir sehen uns!
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