3rd of September, 2022.
Hitchhiking in Sweden.
A man going shopping picks me up. I get surprised when I see in his car that it is not even 8 o’clock yet. Good for me! He tells me he can drop me off in a busier place. Well, he is not that wrong about that.
It happens that the spot is just the exit to the highway. It seems quite deadly for me. I decide to try my chances by walking in the highway and hopefully I can get to a better spot.
It is hard to decide if I should stand by the highway (because there is actually a lot of space for the cars to park, but they are coming quite fast) or if I should keep walking. There is a sign saying about a pic-nic area in less than 1 kilometre. I decide to walk when a few drops of rain start to fall.
By the time I arrive at the pic-nic area, a thin rain starts. I decide to wash my face and some socks at the toilet. It is a tricky tap, but I manage.
There is one motorhome and a small truck parked in here. The man from the first car which stops, refuses to help me. When I come to talk with this elderly man in the next car to stop, he first seems doubtful and about to refuse too, but when I show him my sign and start to talk with him, slowly he talks back and agree on dropping me off in the next gas station.
When I am in the car and we start talking, I think he finally realizes I am just a traveller. I tell him all about my travels and my goals, and we check in a book map which would be the best way for me to get in Vadstena. He tells me he is actually going all the way to Askersund! What? That’s amazing! He is going to visit some friends there and can drop me off somewhere outside the town, on the way to Vadstena.
Leif stops his van and he tells me to be going to Motala. It is great because it is the very next town to Vadstena. He is a very nice man and we talk a lot during the short trip. He is interested in travels and gets very surprise about my world journey. When we get in Motala, he says that he will actually drive me to Vadstena. Wow! That’s just fantastic! It is less than 10 Km between them, so in a few minutes we are there. Leif was planning to drop me off by the castle but the road to is closed, so he drops me off by the monastery.
I cross the “food and shops street”, following some live music which I don’t know where it is coming from. It happens to be an event in the main square, and there is a choir singing religious songs. Lots of people around, tourists and locals, some stuff going on but I don’t get much into it because I can see it is related to the church.
I first ask in a bakery (quite fancy once and full of people eating inside) if I could have some leftover. The lady is polite but say that everything is fresh so there is nothing she can give it to me. The next place I ask it is a small bistro, with perhaps only one or two tables with clients. The guy preparing the meals and the lady serving the clients are the actual owners. I talk to her and after asking him, she tells me I can choose what I want from the fresh products, they will give it to me. “Do you eat meat?” – she asks me. When I say I don’t, she tells me that I can have this vegetarian open sandwich option. I think this is their mark, this type of open sandwich which looks and taste amazing! The vegetarian option has some meatless sauce, different types of cheese and seeds, super fresh lettuce and tomatoes, all in a delicious sour dough rich bread. It is simply delicious! And before I leave, she also gives me a bottle of water! Lovely people, humble and helpful! If you are in Vadstena at any point, check it out their bistro, it is called Ejnebergs Bistro.
I sit by the castle to have my meal. I walk towards it then, hoping that they will allow me to visit inside. It is a gorgeous building! It is quite simple, but the location (by the sea) and the fact that it is surrounded by water, makes it lovely to the eyes. You can walk into the bailey, which is very nice, and then get your ticket to the inside of the castle.
While I am in the bailey, admiring it, an elderly man asks me if that (and he is pointing to The Hulk) it is how I travel. When I say “yes”, he bows to me, like in a reverence kind of way. Laugh. We start talking and he tells me he is German, and he used to have a huge apartment and lots of stuff, but that now he lives in an old motorhome and likes to travels a lot. But in any way he is very surprised with the way I am living and traveling. He says that I really understand the meaning of leaving with the extremely necessary. He also tries to sponsor me. He asks three times and I kindly refuse to all of them.
The young lady I talk to at the ticket office says that there is no one responsible for the place around and she cannot make the decision. That’s sad but I carry on.
I walk alongside the sea towards the monastery and the church. I have this strange feeling inside the church so I don’t stay long. It is nice and the ceiling is beautiful but I just didn’t feel like staying any longer inside. The monastery looks just like a normal building to me and I haven’t tried to visit their museum for free.
The weather is not great. A thin rain comes and goes all the time. Perhaps if wasn’t for that I would stay longer, and just spend some more time by the fortress, by the sea, and admiring the traditional buildings of this lovely small town. But after a while, I take my way to the road. I decide I will try to get as close as possible to the border with Norway today.
10 Years Around the World 