Where to begin?
Yesterday was a crazy day. Even though I had three terrific hosts I decided that after a week it was time to leave Copenhagen. I made my way to a busy intersection leading out of the city that Soren recommended and found a lift without too much trouble. Actually, I found two lifts. The first one took me about 1/2 a mile to a better location - the one I had started at and moved down the road from because I thought it sucked. However it turned out to be ok because another guy picked me up within 20 minutes or so.
Unfortunately for me this guy was only going to Roskilde, which was not on the way I intended on going. He dropped me off at the next fork in the road and again I waited. A guy from Turkey who spoke no english picked me up. He read my sign "Karlslunde" (on the way to Germany) and dropped me off right there - at this rest stop just down the road in Karlslunde. He didn´t understand that I was going the same direction as he, even though I kept pointing to Germany via Rødby/Puttgarden on the map. He just kept pointing at my Karlslunde sign. No luck.
Quite a while later a german trucker named Armin waved me over to his rig. He wasn´t going to the specific place I wanted to go (a completely different direction, no less) but I didn´t care at that point. I had waited long enough and was ready to go anywhere not to be stuck in Karlslunde. It turned out the Turk dropped me off on the wrong side of the motorway to find a ride to Robny Havn. Thanks a lot.
I couldn´t have met a nicer lift giver than Armin. He was incredibly friendly and talkative. Plus, he only briefly talked about Bush and Iraq. He offered me beer and gave me a coupon for food on a ferry if I ever happen to use Scandlines in the future. To top it off he went out of his way to find a good spot for me to hitch from. But before he dropped me off he graciously treated me to a steak dinner. Can you believe my luck?? He wasn´t even allowed to pick me up (that´s a no-no for truckers) and now he was feeding me steak! And it was a good one, too. I didn´t know they made steaks that good outside of Texas!
Before he said goodbye he scoured the parking lot of the truck stop he dropped me off at for a German bound trucker. He said a few words to him and I had a ride to Germany! Thanks Armin!
Unfortunately the new trucker didn´t speak a word of english. I thought the agreement made by Armin was that he drop me off just across the border in Flensburg but this didn´t appear to be the case. We passed Flensburg by. No worries, it was still daylight (doesn´t get dark until after 11pm here) and I didn´t have arrangements there anyway. Then he pulled into a truck rest stop (they have tons of them here) with no traffic and stopped. He made the "sleep time" gesture and I got out.
What happens next? I´ll have to write about it later. My prepaid time is up right now and there´s a line for the computer. I´ll finish my story later!
Posted May 19, 2004 08:20 AM @ (GMT - 6)
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Nice site, good on ya for getting out there. I'm planning on a trip at the end of this year/ early next year and just starting a bit of research. I'm from NZ, and travelled Australia for 6 months last year in a campervan. Was just looking at the Oktoberfest website, tonight, so much to do and see, take it easy.