Friday, 11th of October, 2019.
Ruide stops the car and he seems very friendly. He is going to Innsbruck! I can barely believe! Such “long” and direct lift here in Europe? Over three hours in a car? Laugh. I know it sounds ironic but unfortunately it is the truth. Anyway, I am pretty lucky now, I think. But I am about to discovery that luck it is a totally new word for me.
We talk about different things, Ruide tells me some facts about the places we are passing but since he is actually from Switzerland, just living here in Austria for a while, he does not know some specific things about the country when I ask him. Later he will say, you should ask my wife. I get very surprise when he tells me the age of his “kids”. Just then I realize that he is over sixty, what for me it cannot be told at all. I take some pictures of the road (finally, to not regret later when writing about crossing the country, of not having any photos to publish together), I tell him about my travel plans, of course, and with his tips, I decide that I will not visit Innsbruck, but a town just beside, called Hall. So now Ruide is about to drop me somewhere around where I can make my camp, since is late evening already.
All of suddenly, he says he cannot do that. It is not nice and it is too cold for camping outside. I tell him that is what I have been doing and try to convince him that everything it will be all right, but he does not listen to me. “I will call my wife and ask her, he says”. And so he does. Elizabeth says “yes” but I get a little bit concern because Ruide tells me she will “pinch his ear”. So in my head now, she is not very happy with me coming and she might not be a very friendly lady. Well, I could not be more wrong.
Elizabeth gives me a sincere lovely look and hug when we first met. She is so beautiful and looks so familiar to me that it seems we already know each other for years. I also meet their lovely black Labrador. Elizabeth offers to prepare the dinner by herself and I can go have a shower. She is just so kind and treat me like a real guest. She even gives me some socks to put on and keep my feet warm. The bedroom where I am going to stay it is made already and I can even take a towel to take a shower. The house where they are leaving it is fantastic! Not just a nice house but mainly because of the wonderful touch of Elizabeth, with her great taste for art and gardening, everything looks beautiful!
The dinner it is a delicious pasta with fresh mushrooms, which Elizabeth collected from the woods, plus a salad. They also opened a bottle of red wine. During dinner we talk more about my travels and experiences since then, they tell me things about their lives as well and how they are together for almost ten years but married for less than that, and we see a photo album that Elizabeth made it. I even got chocolate for dessert! So after that wonderful night already, I even can have a warm and comfortable night of sleep in a bed.
After breakfast next morning, I go for a walk around with Ruide and the dog. We pass through what will be their new house in March of the next year. Not a rent house where they live now but their own. It is a nice walk into the woods. That is a wonderful thing about leaving in the countryside of Switzerland or Austria, there are always this wonderful trails through the forest, really incredible for me because it looks so cinematographic.
We come back to take my things and Elizabeth because they are going to Innsbruck so they can drop me in Hall. What a wonderful thing! I give them both my blog address and we say goodbye. It is so sad spend such short time with so extraordinary people. But I am for ever grateful for meeting them and for all their kindness and love.
P.S.: Even though I am very happy to for meeting Ruide and Elizabeth, their reaction about a girl being travelling like I am, it still makes me think. It is been almost half century since Cheryl Strayed had hiked the PCT in U.S., and after the movie I thought that, maybe, the world would start to see how much stronger we women are and what we can do. But no. Everywhere I go, from Africa to Europe, people still get very surprise about a woman travelling alone, carrying a lot of wait, camping alone, hitchhiking and all the stuff I do. It is sad, very sad and disappointed that the world can still not see our potential.