Adventure is out there!: Hitchhiking to Spain

At my university here, they have something cool called a fall break. It's like spring break...but in the fall!!! So I got to have a whole week off halfway through the semester and explore the world.

One of the clubs on our campus arranges a hitchhiking competition every fall and spring break. They choose a location that is pretty far from Utrecht and have groups of two and three race to get their first. The only rule is that you can use no money for transportation and must only hitchhike. It was an unforgettable and incomparable experience - it was the craziest thing I've ever done in my life!

Our destination this year was Zaragoza, Spain, which takes 14 hours if you drive there directly. I teamed up with a guy in my class (it's safer if it's a guy and a girl), and we headed to Zaragoza! Here's a recap of our incredible trip that consisted of almost 20 rides with the absolute kindest and most generous people in the world:

Above: Liege, Belgium

Below: French countryside

1. Utrecht to Eindhoven (Netherlands)
2. Eindhoven to Maastricht
3. Maastricht to Liege (now in Belgium)
4. Liege to Bastogne
5. Bastogne to Martelange
6. Martelange to Arlon
7. Arlon to Longwy (passed through Luxembourg and now in France!)
8. Longwy to Metz
9. Metz to Nancy
10. Nancy to Toul
11. Toul to Dijon
12. Dijon to Beaune
13. Beaune to Vienne
14. Vienne to a small rest stop in the middle of France
15. Random rest stop to Orange
16. Orange to Montpellier

17. Montpellier to Perpignan
18. Perpignan to BARCELONA (finally in Spain!!!!!!!)

19. Train from Barcelona to Zaragoza (we got stuck)

We left Saturday at 1pm and arrived in Zaragoza on Monday at around 9pm. It was the most exhausting but memorable trip ever. We did not win (the winners arrived at 2pm on Sunday after getting a direct ride to Zaragoza in a delivery truck!)...but we met the kindest people. Most of the people we rode with could not speak English, so in Belgium and France, we mostly just used broken French/English and hand gestures, but in Spain, I was surprisingly able to recall and utilize my Spanish from my high school days. We connected so well with all our drivers though; it really taught us that language is no barrier! Some of the memorable moments with our drivers:

The Belgian police picked us up on the side of the highway because they'd been getting calls all night about a 14-15 year old girl (...me) trying to hitch a ride in the dark on the side of the highway. They were extremely kind and brought us to the border of Belgium and Luxembourg "for our own security" and so they wouldn't have to keep getting calls about us.
A kind Belgian lady brought us to see a monument in Bastogne dedicated to American soldiers who fought in WWII. She then gave me her phone number in case it was too difficult for us to find a ride and we needed help.
We fell asleep on the car of the sweetest French couple and woke up to the wife giving us food she had bought us at a gas station. They then drove 30 minutes farther from their home in order to get us in a better and busier location and then, knowing that we knew no French, proceeded to ask everyone in the rest stop where they were going and whether we could ride with them to Spain.
The police picked us up again...but this time French! He was half-Spanish and was excited that we were going to Zaragoza, so he brought us 30 km to a better location but first told us to promise not to tell his boss.
A limousine pulled over for us but unfortunately was not going in the right direction.
We slept one whole night in the truck of an extremely generous and kind Romanian truck driver.
One lady in France missed her nephew's birthday party for us because she couldn't find a safe and well-lit place to drop us off, so she decided to drive us to a major city 30 minutes away instead (and then drove 30 minutes back home).

This trip really restored my faith in humanity, haha. Everyone was seriously so nice and kind and completely selfless. There are those few creepers (we fortunately met none of these) who give hitchhiking a bad name so that everyone thinks you'll get murdered doing it, but after the 50+ hours that we spent on the road, I came out with a much different and much more optimistic perspective on hitchhiking that I had before.

Made it to Zaragoza!!! (view from my hostel window)

After arriving in Zaragoza, we spent a few days with the other 30 teams who had all participated on the trip as well. I met up with my unitmate Cassy, and we explored the city together and also went kayaking with the group on the beautiful Ebro River. It was also really fun getting to use my Spanish! It was very helpful, and I was so excited that I could actually communicate with people.

Kayaking on the Ebro River w/ the Basilica behind

Aljaferia Castle

Inside the Basilica

Walking through the streets of Zaragoza

Excited about our churros con chocolate...yum!!!

After two days, we then traveled to Barcelona! There, we stayed at a cheap hostel right on La Rambla, the main street with MANY tourists that really never sleeps.

View of La Rambla from our hostel balcony

It was so fun to go sightseeing all around, especially with Cassy, because both of us were too cheap to take the bus everywhere, so we literally walked around the whole city and know it well now, haha. It's a beautiful city, and it was fun to see all its different areas -- it's right by the Mediterranean so there's even a long strip of beautiful beaches!

Barceloneta Beach

All the architecture and art was beautiful too; they are very proud of Gaudi and Picasso...for good reason! We saw many of Gaudi's buildings and visited Park Guell, a beautiful park up on a hill with tons of beautiful buildings and structures designed by Gaudi. We also visited the Picasso Museum for free!

Gaudi's Casa Batlló

La Sagrada Familia!!!!!!!!!!

View from Park Guell

We were also too cheap to buy expensive food, so we ate lots of bread and cheese but still were able to try tapas and sangria and paella and other Spanish goodness. Barcelona was also very different than Zaragoza, as the two are in different states. Barcelona is in Catalonia, where they speak Catalan (as well as Spanish, but Catalan is the main language), and Zaragoza is in Aragon. It was fun getting to see both cities!