Hitchiking maiden voyage

27. Aug, 2017

I was supposed to go with my car and 4 other friends on a road trip through Europe. As it always goes though, some people quit just before departure for various reasons (no hard feelings).

So in the end it was only me and one friend left. The hardcore crew. 

He convinced me (rather easily) that we should go hitchhiking. He had done it 2 times before.

But I was a hitch hiking viring... Plus to be honest I have been living my life a little too comfortable lately. Sitting in my CEO chair at the office, driving my comfortable car and going out at fancy places whenever I felt like it.

I love a challenge and it was great to get on the road in dirty sweaty clothes, standing at the side of the road and being the most humble and bottom-of-the-food-chain version of yourself you can be.

Actually that experience was in hindsight just what I needed. 

Also to be refreshed by what really matters in this world. Kindness and love. We received plenty of that when we were on top on our emotional roller coaster.

At other times hours of being ignored like we were air. Thirsty, hungry and burning in the sun. The downside of the emotional ride.

Finally getting a ride in such a condition is a feeling you can't describe.

The most memorable ride, one that I will never forget, was after officially giving up (meaning we were too exhausted to even put our thumbs in the air) on a hot hot road with no shadow on a small island in Croatia. 

Suddenly after hours a car stops in front of us. We were rescued by a monk who happened to go very far in the same direction as us.

Apart from being a very interesting person, he gave us so many things I still can't really believe it happened.

  1. A pair of new shoes for my friend
  2. Dinner x 4
  3. A hotel stay in Montenegro
  4. A lot of beers and snacks
  5. after dropping us off he gave us 50 Euros for our journey onward.

And you have to remember we were the rich Danish kids and he is from the relatively poor Balkans. I guess sometimes kindness is hard to explain logically.

21 days with at least 21 amazing stories to tell. This was one of them.

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Karsten Madsen

This is my public diary. My passion is to build cool novel things. My dream is to improve ethics in this world.

Go to my "about page" if you want to read a longer story :)

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