2nd of September, 2022.
Hitchhiking in Sweden.
Pelle stops his working mini-van and the trailer he is pulling. We talk through the window for a while, because he is trying to figure out which is the best way to get to Vadstena and if he can drop me there. There are several ways to get there, so until now I actually don’t know exactly where he drops me off, but somewhere around Fallum. He is a nice guy, and has the name of the best Brazilian football player of all times.
On the road he drops me off, it takes some minutes and a few cars until Goona stop. He is a very charming middle age man, with blues eyes and greyish hair and beard. The way he looks at me, shaking his head and laughing, when he is pulling over it is so funny and cute!
Unfortunately, Goona is not going too far, only about 30 Km. He is really surprised about what I am doing and he keeps repeating it is fascinating. Oh, thank you! But the place where he drops me off is not so good. And it is actually in the wrong way. But I forgive him.
It is a parking lot in a fast highway and it is slightly difficult for the cars to park. Luckily for me, after only a few minutes, a lovely lady sees me and pull-over even before the place I was expecting them to park. She is the one to tell me that I am in the wrong direction, showing me on her phone where to go. The easiest way now is to walk a few kilometres back and take another turn.
I try two different places, trying to find out the best place to hitch. Sometimes is hard to make the decision: should I stay or should I go? And that is mostly when you cannot see anything ahead, and you don’t know if there will be a parking place for the cars. What if the spot ahead is not there?
After walking much more than I expected, I finally get to a spot where it seems that the cars can park. A lovely young woman, covered in tattoos, stop her car quickly and check where I am trying to go. Unfortunately, she is not going that far, and she tells me to “be careful” before she leaves.
Here in Sweden, I see quite a lot more of “grumpy” people driving their cars than in Finland. And what surprises me the most is how, most of these people, are the one who “supposedly” I would guess to be cool with someone hitchhiking, or with life in general, like people with many tattoos, or with cool hairstyle, or cool cars. I guess that you just really cannot generalize. Stereotypes sucks!
A red Aldi stops. At first, I can only see the lady driving and the guy on the passenger seat but when I open the back door, there is a girl there too. Wattras, Therese and Aurela are all very nice. And Wattras tells me he drank many beers already. In fact, Therese pulls over soon enough so he can get another one from the trunk. And he gets one for me too! Uhul! And it is a good one, a Czech beer. We chat a lot, I laugh a lot and the whole lift is real fun. They seem like a very relaxing family, like very easy going. At the gas station where I come out, Wattras offers me a shot of this Swedish liquor, made out of liquorice. It is not bad but most likely because I can barely taste the liquorice.
The sad thing is that I forget my hat in their car. My so warm and lovely hat. It is so sad! I cannot believe it!
I get another lift not too long after I start. A young man called Yohann is going to his girlfriend village, something over one hour from here. He is a very chill and nice guy. Yohann also gets excited about my journey, and asks me lots of questions. He takes a different route than the one I was planning to. Still on the way though. At the village we stop, Kolsva, I decide to stay overnight and carry on tomorrow morning.
At the centre there is a lovely park and some shops. For some reason I decide to camp in the park. And I go to ask in a restaurant / pizzeria called Zorba (there is a Greek flag on top of it) if I can get some left-overs.
The lady with whom I talk, tell me I can take a seat because the boss said they will prepare a pizza for me, and she asks me what do I want on it. What? Unbelievable! I want to cry of happiness! I tell her I don’t eat meat, so they can put whatever they want. She tells me they will make a vegetarian.
There are quite a lot of people in the restaurant. They are all eating and drinking a lot. It is a small and cozy place. In a few minutes they bring my steaming hot and delicious pizza! Yummy! I eat almost all of it, just saving two pieces for tomorrow breakfast. And I full fill my water bottle from the water they brought to the table. Before leaving, I say thank you again many times.
Across the street, I sit in a bench, and keep waiting for less daylight while I decide where to camp. I finally make up my mind for a spot slightly not visible, at least not right in front of everybody’s eyes, and that is it.
10 Years Around the World 