*The creepy featured photo is from outside of Alblasserdam, all teddy bears tided up in a fence. #hulkstrongestavenger, #ironmanthebestavenger
11th of February, 2022.
I wake up with the bells of the church and with Wilma footsteps: 7 a.m.
She brings me a thermal with hot water and a cup with different options of tea. We say goodbye and she goes for her daily swimming classes. But before she leaves, while I am still in the toilet, she filled my water bottle. How lovely of her to remember…
I prepare my stuff and after I enjoy one sandwich with my tea. When I am almost ready to leave, Rob comes to say goodbye.
I am a bit confused with my initial directions but I know I have to cross the huge bridge, so I go there. When I am still crossing the bridge though, I start to have doubts about my hitchhiking spot. It is like I am feeling I will not manage to get in there. And when I get to the end of the bridge, I am right: my directions don’t make any sense.
I stop a young man and ask him some information but he is a prat! And deaf! When I tell him I am going to Belgium, he says “But this is Holland”. Ah-ah! No way! Are you serious? And then he is really lazy and stupid to find directions on his phone. So after all I decide to go back (so annoying!) and try to hitchhike before the bridge. Actually I don’t know why I haven’t thought about that before…
Crossing these huge bridges is always a problem. There is the wind, the lack of space, and the worst here in the Netherlands: bicycles. Funny fact is: cyclists complain that the cars don’t respect them, but they don’t respect the pedestrians either!
I am a little crossed with the fact that I have to come back all the way. What if there is not a good place for hitchhiking in the other end of the bridge? But at the same time, something is telling me that there is a reason for that. Maybe if I was in the other place, where I initially planned to be, maybe I would be stuck there the whole day! But I am also a bit crossed with the Netherlands. Sometimes it seems they are so worried about the cyclists, that they forget all about the pedestrians.
There is a actually a very good hitchhiking spot. Probably even better than the other one. There is a bus stop right at the corner, plenty of space for the cars to park and to see me. In a few minutes, Peter stops. He says not to be going to Breda, just nearby, but he can drop me in a gas station in the highway. Yay!
Peter has a graduation in Philosophy but now he teaches cooking. He was a chef in his own restaurant for many years, but after having to close his restaurant, he became a teacher. He drops me in a very busy gas station.
Most of the people are very friendly and one lady wearing a Nirvana t-shirt even tells me “Be careful with whom you go”. Hehe.
The first time Mehmet tells me he is going to Antwerpen, I don’t really understand. I think it is because he didn’t really demonstrated he want to take me there. But after he got inside his car and stop in front of me and repeated where he was going, I asked if he could drop me outside of Antwerpen, in direction of Hasselt. He says yes and parks his car a bit ahead.
I think that at the beginning he is as doubtful about me as I am about him. But soon enough, we both realize how good person each other is. We even have some stuff in common. And our conversation makes us get to know more about each other. But as he says, I get to know much more about him than him about me.
After getting some coffee, we arrive in Antwerpen where he will meet his brother. I meet him too. We have another quick stop in town before Mehmet take me to a gas station in direction of Hasselt. He actually says he would drive me to Heers if he hadn’t to go back to The Hague, where he lives, still today.
Mehmet tells me that when I am in Brazil, I should tell him so he will come to visit the country and I can be his tour guide. All included! And when I come to Turkey (his family country), which it will happen soon, he can show me Istanbul for a week, but I will be his guest. That is the plan. Before I leave him, we call my host, Jaqueline, from his phone. She sounds lovely and tells me if I manage to arrive before 3 p.m. she will still be at home, after that, she will be working and only coming back at 6.30 p.m. It is near 1 o’clock now. Her place is about 1 hour driving.
This gas station is even busier than the last one. There are so many cars coming and going that I actually get confused about who to talk to.
Ahmed and his friend tell me they are not going towards Hasselt. But when they are leaving the shop they say it is actually in their way so they can take me. They are from Iraq but are leaving in Belgium for almost 10 years now. Only Ahmed speaks English so he translate my story to his friend. They drive me a bit further from Hasselt, just 15 minutes before Heers.
As soon as I put my backpack down, Eric stops his car. He lives in Heers. Eric also likes to travel, but if he could travel a lot like me, he would prefer to do with more comfort, with a campertrailer, for example. He drops me right at Jaqueline’s address. I arrive at 2.30 p.m.