Ever since I was
younger, travelling has always been a crucial part of my life. Owing to my
mother’s profession, travelling was something we were used to. I took my first
plane ride when I was two months old and now, I have been to a total of 38
countries. And I’m not even halfway to my target number, as I intend to visit
every country in the world. However, now that I am in university, I wanted to
try something different and this time travel as independently as possible. This
way, I thought I could see more of not only the world, but myself too. Hence in
January, I undertook the university challenge of hitchhiking to Berlin all the
way from St Andrews.
In October, my
flatmate/best friend and I asked around for a third male member, and luckily an
hour before the deadline for applying, we formed a team to race to Berlin. My
friend, being as equally adventurous as I am, we decided together since last
year that this was something we wanted to do. Once we formed a team, we later
on formed a JustGiving page for all the donations of our friends and loved ones
to support our cause. This was in the end not only a great big adventure, but
was also a great initiative to raise money for charity. We were excited and
were ready to go.
When January finally
came after our long Christmas vacation, we had our onesies ready and packed our
backpacks for our trip. My two other teammates had just flown over from Asia a
few hours prior to the race, but neither the jetlag nor the fever could stop them
from fulfilling our commitment to this challenge. At 5am, we together with 200
other racers all gathered around the St Salvator’s Quad, and were all put onto
buses. We were off to an unknown destination. We were all ready and excited for
the unexpected.
Our first stop was at
a gas station and it was pouring and it was dark. We had no idea where we were,
and all we knew was that we had to get away from this place as quickly as
possible. After an hour of waiting and speaking to the people at the gas
stations, we managed to hitch our first ride. To our surprise, the man who
offered us a ride was a well-known figure from BBC’s Dragon’s Den, and he
kindly offered us a ride in his Bentley down to near Edinburgh airport. For our
first ride, I must say, we didn’t at all expect it to be with a man this
famous, and for us to ride as comfortably as in a Bentley. Nevertheless, I
think I can say that we all felt that our trip was off to a great start.
After our first
hitchhike to Edinburgh, unfortunately the next few rides did not come as
easily. After spending hours in the same gas station, we were shooed away by
the staff and we no longer had an idea of where to go. In desperation, we
decided to walk to the airport, hoping to hitch a ride on a plane to Berlin. This
was probably the lowest in our trip, and we almost decided to turn back to St
Andrews. However, while walking to there, we noticed a gas station and decided
to try one last time. This time, it worked.
After our long wait
stuck near Edinburgh airport, our hitchhikes came more frequently, and after
getting rides from a former military officer, the owner of Cromars in St
Andrews and so many more, we made it down to Newcastle. We were told that one
could take a ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, but unfortunately when we got
there, the ferry had already left and the next one would be leaving in two
days. Disappointed, we decided to stay the night at Newcastle in probably the
most “interesting” hostel I’ve ever stayed at. We looked at different options
on how to continue our trip and noticed that a ferry from Hull to Rotterdam was
leaving tomorrow. We decided to get on that ferry tomorrow but until then, rest
in our new temporary home.
At the break of dawn,
we got up and decided to start hitchhiking. Luckily, we got a hitchhike almost
immediately to somewhere so close to Hull, and a few rides later, we were
already close to the ferry. We got the hang of this hitchhiking thing. When on
the bus to Hull city centre, we decided to call the ferry company to try and
book a ticket. As I mentioned to them that this was an initiative for charity,
they even gave us a discount. This trip not only brought out the best from us
as a team, but it also made us see the best out of the people we got to meet on
the way. We experienced so much kindness from strangers, in this particular
case the man on the phone never even met me. This alone restored our faith in
humanity. When we got on the ferry, we were allowed to announce during the show
to ask for possible lifts, and a man kindly offered us a lift to Hamburg. Prior
to Race2, my friend in Hamburg offered to take us to Berlin if we stopped by
Hamburg. So basically, at the end of day 2, during the night on the ferry, we
were already set to make it all the way to Berlin the next day. When the
morning came, we were all ready to go to arrive at our final destination and after
a stopover in Hamburg, we made it to Berlin by night.
Race2Berlin was one of
the biggest adventures, if not the biggest adventure I’ve ever had in my life.
I have never embarked on such a journey before, as I have always been used to
travelling with a known destination, with known means of how to get there. For
the first time, we had no plans except the goal of getting to Berlin without
spending a single penny – and of course all this is for charity. For the first
time, I felt more free than ever, and more accomplished and proud of completing
what seemed to be an impossible challenge.
