5th to 7th of August, 2021.
I am optimistic to get somewhere between Nice and Chamonix still today. Vish… If at least I knew…
After a long time of waiting, Stephanie finally stops for me. She is only going to Nice but I think is better to get out of here in case I need to camper somewhere around for the night. She drops me in the exit towards Grenoble, the next big city on the way to Chamonix.
I don’t know if it is the place of if it is simply France, but nobody wants to stop for me. And when I try to move a little further, a police car passes and they tell me I cannot be there. Great! After many hours waiting, I decide to make camping somewhere nearby and to try again next morning. I don’t even hide myself very much but since it is in between highways I think it is fine. And nobody disturbed me during the night.
Next morning, after more several hours of waiting, I start what would be a series of mistakes, which you could only expect from someone with no experience at all on travelling and or hitchhiking. I don’t know what happened! Don’t ask me why but I acted pretty stupid! Maybe it is the fact that I have some money so I could afford to take a bus? Anyway, I am telling you know this: if at any moment this happen to you, if you get stuck in a bad hitchhiking spot because somebody dropped you there, find some wi-fi connection and take a look in what Hitchwiki website suggests for the place where you are. Most of the times they help me a lot.
I try to find a place where I can get some wi-fi connection and take a look in Flixbus tickets to Lyon. From there, I would try to hitchhike again. I find a Lidl (what is good) but no place around has wi-fi. I walk a lot until I end up in a Library. But they are closed so the lady suggests I try the municipal swimming pool. I get in there and when I first talk with Samira, asking to use the wi-fi, she seems a bit rude and tell me to use the free wi-fi just outside the building. I try to, but it is not working properly.
When I ask for help again, I think she finally realizes my situation and we talk. I explain to her everything about me and my plan and it is when she turns out to be a lovely lady! She guides me to a nearby building, where I could use their computer and conexion, and she tells me to tell them that Samira sent me. I do that and I find out about a bus from Flixbus leaving soon from the airport nearby. A lovely lady from this building offers to walk with me so she can show me the way. When I come back to the swimming pool to grab my backpacks (Samira kindly suggested I could leave both of them there and she out take care for me), she asks this couple who is leaving if they can drop me at the airport. Apparently they leave just nearby there. And they say yes! Yay! So while I wait for the lady to get ready, Samira asks me if I want to take a shower or use the toilet. I refuse the shower but I definitely use the toilet.
Soon enough we are in our way: me, the couple and their lovely dog Akia. But before we leave, Samira asks to take a photograph with me and she tells me she helped me because she could feel I am a good person. Owm!
At the airport I wait for the bus because it says in the website that I can buy the ticket directly with the driver. And I know that by a fact because I have done before, right outside Paris. But nope, not here! When the bus arrives and I try to buy the ticket with the driver, he says he cannot sell me anything. So I decide and wait for the next bus, the Bla Bla Bus, which is coming later. Again, a lovely lady driver tells me she cannot sell me the tickets. During all this time I am crossing the airport terminal 2 to get connection and check my options.
Because there are no more options for today (Why the hell haven’t I tried to find another hitchhike spot?), I decide to camp (again!) nearby and get a bus tomorrow. Apparently, there is a Flixbus stand in the terminal 1 but by this time it is already closed. Yeah, there was a Flixbus stand ALL THIS TIME in the building just next where I was. Great, Lei, that was not stupid at all! By the way, to go from one terminal to another, you can grab the train for free.
I go to Lidl to buy some food and come back to the terminal 2. I plan to stay there until the evening, eating and using the toilet, so when it is dark I can go and make my camping. Why haven’t I remained in the airport? Because they close the building around 10 p.m.
My camping place sucks but what can you do? At least I have no trouble during the night. And it is Nice!
Next morning, I am at the Flixbus Stand before they open. I cannot miss this bus. The thing is, the cheapest ticket it is only for 2 p.m. which sucks as much as my camping place last night. But I take it. I would arrive late evening in Lyon, take a metro and then a bus to out of town, camp for the night, and hitchhike next morning.
While waiting for the bus I eat, I wash up, I watch a movie and I take a nap.
After 3 hours of delay (fuck you Flixbus!) my bus arrive. They actually had to send a replacement bus or something like that. That means, I would love the last metro and bus for the night, because we would arrive in Lyon near 2 a.m.! Oh my Loki! Everybody says how dangerous Lyon is and I am arriving in the central station in the middle of the night? Great! All of this because I behave like the stupidest person in the world!