Back in the US, Northern States for the Summer
My time in Europe was both productive and fun, which I'll talk about, but a budget flight landed me back in the US, where I decided to spend the summer rolling across the northern states. Winters up here can be pretty brutal, so now is the time to hitch around for a little adventure and check in with friends.
I'll catch you up on my Europe travels, and you can choose to listen to those stories as well by freely subscribing to the "Freestyle Travel Show" on any podcast app, or use these links here:
Just reading those titles, you get an idea of the path I was on. I caught up with a couple of friends, one in Amsterdam and another in The Hague. From there, my next big target was Portugal, where yet another friend was living who I hadn't seen for a while.
So, on down I went, through Belgium, France, and Spain. It was pretty go-go-go, but I got some good rides along the way and even some breif invites. For example, a guy in France picked me up around sunset on a rainy evening and invited me to meet his wife and stay the night, complete with some home cooking, local wine, local cognac, and plenty of stories to be told.
I also caught up with a friend in Spain, someone I'd met while volunteering for Couchsurfing.com back in 2008 in Alaska. From there, I at last made it to Portugal, where my friend had already gotten us tickets to Flamingalo, which called itself "Portugal's Burning Man."
My friend is a techie, travel-minded guy, like myself, and he's actually had a lot to do with Couchsurfing, BeWelcome, Hitchwiki, Trustroots, and other nomadic types of sites on the web. Between hikes and the festival, and catching up, I found myself writing some code for both Trip Hopping and rideshares.org, a new little project we started on a whim.
Speaking of Trip Hopping, a lot has gotten done over these past few months in my free time. I recommend heading over to TripHopping.com or downloading the app on Android.
I've gained access to 4,000 bus companies around the world, so along with flight costs and hitchhiking spots, you'll now see the times and costs of bus tickets for wherever you're going. I've also made it easy to find travel companions. You can load up all your preferences on your profile to show potential hosts, guests, or travel friends what you're about. On top of that, those preferences can be used to give you super-specific recommendations on what to see and do no matter where you are in the world.
Trip Hopping is awesome, get after it.
Actually, it's on Trip Hopping that I found a flight from Athens, Greece, to New York City while I was sitting in a coffee shop in Lisbon. For just over a hundred bucks, I found my ticket across the Atlantic Ocean. All I had to do was hitchhike from Portugal to Greece in less than two weeks. Easy.
I got moving, inching my way into Spain, staying with a host here and there, stealth camping in French cities, and stagnating a bit in Italy. I paused for a couple of nights in Lubljana, staying with a Trustroots host who'd done plenty of hitchhiking over the years as well.
At last, I blasted through Croatia and Serbia via 18-wheelers and the rest of it, crossing borders until I finally got into Greece and caught one last ride into Athens. Once there, I had a place to stay with a few housemates who'd all done their share of traveling. I roamed around the city, hit some breweries on my birthday, and at last jumped on the NYC-bound flight.
This was two months ago, and my route from there was from New York to Virginia Beach, down to North Carolina, across the state to Nashville, and up through Indy to Michigan. From the Upper Penninsula I came down through Wisconsin to Iowa - and that's where I am now.
Those stories are also on the podcast:
Since being back in the States, it's been a lot of checking in on friends and family. One brother in Manhattan, a friend who originally picked me up hitchhiking who lives in Virginia Beach, another brother in North Carolina, and my third brother and other family in coastal North Carolina.
I saw one of my Mississippi friends in Asheville, did some pet-sitting in Nashville, then saw more friends one by one on the run up through Indy and Michigan.
So now I'm in the middle of it, catching up with Liz in Sioux City (she's been on the podcast a handful of times and we're recording another episode today), and next I'll be backtracking to Minneapolis to see another old friend.
The summer will keep rocking on, hitching westbound. The exact path isn't laid out, and diversions are always welcome, so we'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, you can follow along on Trip Hopping, Instagram, and the rest of it. See you down the road!
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