Day 6: God created all countries, except The Netherlands

… they did that themselves.
(expression from Lars, for those who do not know the Netherlands, we are below sea level)

Mission:
Organize workshop to earn our stay: Mission Accomplished

It’s strange how much work it takes to keep everybody posted. Writing a daily blog, taking pictures, editing footage takes quite a lot of time. Therefor last morning we were working on that, before we started with our workshop Creative Entrepreneurship.

Before we’d forget, we took a picture of our host Silas. Silas has been a CouchSurfing host for a few years now and in that time he hosted dozens of people. After a year or so, he thaught it would be great to make a memory board. Behind us, you see part of it. Silas hosted people form all over the world. In Europe, almost all countries /states are covered. The Vatican is one of the few exceptions.

After a home made pizza for lunch, we started with the workshop. Due to recession a lot of temporary contracts were not proceeded in Denmark. Especially in ICT there were some job losses. Astrid and Silas decided they didn’t want to do nothing or be unemployed and they are starting a new project: an outstanding dating website.

The weather was gorgeous, so it was possible to have the workshop outside. We are still editing the footage of the workshop. If it is done, I’ll integrate it in this blog.

After the workshop, we were invited to join them for a BBQ. I think this Travel4Free experience is going to spoil me. HomeMade and biological food has the best taste. And so far we received it almost everywhere. The meat was minced, added herbs to them and shaped into hamburgers, homemade rolls, a lot of vegatables, great baked patatoes & homemade sauces. With a dessert of strawberries and icecream. Lars & Karen, some friends of Silas were at the BBQ as well.

Karen is a math teacher at high school, in my opinion a good one. She cannot help that her classes are pretty big (32 students). But she tries to challenge all students and trigger them to think about math. Challenge based learning, some competition and using creative reporting tools (such as a song) are a few of her methods.

Check hanqglobal for more info about the workshops and tips& tricks

Day 5: Sleeping in at a fairy tale

Mission today:
Go to our steady place, find workshop opportunities: Mission accomplished

After a night out, we loved to sleep in. Morten had to leave at 9, but he was kind enough to offer us to stay a bit longer. Sleeping in meant we could skip breakfast.

After lunch we left his lovely “fairytale home” on our way to Silas. Silas is a CouchSurfing host who offered us “a last minute couch” to stay for a few nights. Pronunciation in Danish is pretty difficult. Understanding what people are saying is hard to do. We almost went to the wrong place, because I thought Silas was saying a different street name. Thanks to Silas, we came and got us at the bus stop, we did arrive.

In the afternoon we were busy arranging some workshops and updating our internet profiles. While doing that, I got in touch with Na, a Chinese girl I met at a networking party in The Netherlands. At the moment, she is working in IT in Denmark. Replying to my Facebook “Hello!” she invited us for dinner. And what kind of a dinner. At first we were planning on eating Thai food. Unfortunately that restaurant was closed. Chinese, became the restaurant of our choice.

Na ordered for us. Some seriously spicy food, she promised. Emma is having Indonesian roots, but I’m a true European girl. Not really used to serious spices. With some mango juice to at the side,  I was hoping to be able to eat the food. And the food was marvellous. Catonese duck, a wonderful spicy fish soup with peppers and bean sprouts and pak choi.

After today we’ve got three good leads for workshops. A workshop for “unemployed” inhabitants who have a drive to become entrepreneurs, at the outgames and at the company Na is working for.

After enough sleep, we did mainly labour. It does seem to be easier to get enough food, rest and sleep for free.

Day 4: Old friends & a steady place

Would you like to see what route we’ve traveled in the mean time, click here.

Mission:
Find a place where we can stay for a few nights, so we can earn some money back
Mission partially accomplished. We did find a place, but we’ll go there tomorrow. This night we spend at a friends place.

Consequences of lack of money

What if: You don't have any.

Not being able to spend any money, makes you value what you have got a lot more. Throw away anything (or accidentally lose something) is going to hurt a lot. Being “rich” you might overeat. Not spending any money, makes you question if you are hungry, how hungry you are, what your body needs most and how to get it. You’ll easily eat less then normal, because you know that you’ll like something the next day as well. If you don’t have any money to spend, you’ll also open up to other people a lot more. Everybody is open for a nice talk, but hardly anyone is initiating one. People are very willing to give you a place to stay, a breakfast and even a lunch for on the road. Hitchhiking seems to be a lot more difficult. Holding your thumb and a sign is very last century. If you ask people in person (eg at a gas station) it is more likely that you get a ride. Especially people who are making business trips (transport, sales managers, etc) are very likely to take you. Keeping in touch with the world is important: internet for free is usually at a library, municipal/city hall or at universities, in some countries bars and restaurants are offering free internet too.

Our day
After sleeping at the Children’s Culture Centre, Maria, our host invited us for lunch at her place. On the way we got lost. We missed going right womewhere and suddenly we were at a different area in Denmark. The shortest way from there was a very nice walk over the cemetary. We’ve passed a small supermarket on our way. They were throwing away tons of vegatables and fruits. Just because there was a small spot on them, they couldn’t be sold anymore. Reminded me on 2012 Recycled Food Dinner.

At Maria’s we found ourself: Homemade bread, biological meat (salami and liver pate), lovely cheese, vegatebles (carrots and paprika), apples in lemon and lemonwater. All of this on top of Maria’s inspiring story made this lunch absolutely perfect.

Afterwards we went to the library (free internet) to search for a place where we could spend a few nights. CouchSurfing host Silas was kind enough to reponse really fast within a matter of minutes. Telling us that we are very welcome to stay till Thursday. Unfortunately he had to go and be home by 22h00. We couln’t get in touch with him before that time. Old friend Morten moved from Rotterdam to Copenhagen and bought us a great dinner with beer.

As one of the members of the organization of Outgames 2009 Morten gave us also some t-shirts, a lovely candlelight and some paper to be able to smoke pot. I wonder, but not going to try, if that’s for real or one of his famous jokes. On top of that he offered us to stay for the night in his lovely home, so we could relax a bit more. Nicholas, another friend from back home, and also a friend of Morten invited us to join him at the Outgames. At the Outgames we also got some beer from a volunteer who was working there.

What to do next:
We got so much out of this trip so far, but we did spend some money in order to reach our destination. So, we are going to give workshops, to make up for that. People can value it at the end of the workshop. Several options for us to give workshops here in Denmark:

• The Hub Copenhagen
• World outgames
• KaosPilots
• The City of Copenhagen, many many homeless / unemployed people here. Wonder if we can inspire them.

All our workshop enhances modern devices and social media. Laura Elsman of www.e-seevideo.com gave us some nice tips in Dutch, translation underneath.

1. video maken: gebruik een statief! Of: hou je arm dicht tegen je aan om het beeld te stabiliseren.
2. Bedenk goed wat je wilt opnemen voordat je op record drukt. Zo blijft je materiaal ‘schoon’ .
   
3. Als je mensen interviewt voor camera, laat ze dan de vragen in de lens beantwoorden. Dat voorkomt lelijke kaders.
   
4. Bij geinterviewden die te weinig zeggen: stel open vragen. Bij te veel: stel gesloten vraag. Of trek de mike weg!
   
5. Film zo weinig mogelijk! Jij denkt dat het interessant is. Online video is kort en krachtig! Less is more!
   
6. het geluid! altijd koptelefoon of oortjes gebruiken! check tijdens het opnemen of het ok is.
7. Scherp stellen: stel in op manual focus (niet auto), zoom in op de ogen, stel scherp! Belangrijk!
8. Varieer in schots: close (beeldvullend), medium (verder weg) en wide (totaalbeeld). Succes!

1. Making a video: Stabalize your camera. If you don’t have a device, keep your arm close to your body.
2. Think, before you record anything. Keep your material clean.
3. If you interview people in front of a camera, make sure they look into the camera.
4. If you interview someone: Closed questions for those who talk a lot. Open questions for those who hardly say anything.
5. Less is more! I=Online video is short and powerful. Only you believe it is interesting.
6. Sound: Use a headphone while recording, so you know while filming if it is ok.
7. Don’t use auto focus, but use manual focus. zoom into the eyes and select this. Very important for “sharp” pictures.
8. Vary the shots: close (covers the screen), medium (pulling of) en wide (complete image). Good luck!

More tips are coming. Feel free to ad anything.

Day 3: Paradise in Germany

Mission of the day: Have some fun! Update all online networks. And get to Copenhagen, finally
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

When we woke up, clean towels were arranged for a lovely shower. Lennart prepared a lovely breakfast (all biological) and we got a map of the town. Rolls with homemade jelly are one of the best breakfasts you can imagine.

If I’d ever have to live in Germany, Flensburg would definitely be the place: lovely people, clean air, beautiful environment and best of all, hardly any tourists.

What to do next? Hitchhiking to Copenhagen didn’t work out and due to an accident trains weren’t going. A bus driver did want to bring us to the Danish border. The train to Copenhagen was F***ing expensive. But we were in the middle of nowhere, so we took the ticket anyway. Danish public transport is horrible: Expensive, packed all together, confusion about where you can/cannot sit (even for Danish people not clear). But there is one huge “plus”: Danish people are great. Everybody is speaking English, very friendly, willing to help you and up for a nice chat.

Our place for the night

Maria, the CouchSurfing host of the day, is nice enough to give us a place to stay at the children culture center, in the middle of Copenhagen. Tonight we  are sleeping in the (sports)gym.

Tomorrow we are going to get some work done: Due to today, we have to earn € 100,00.
Breakfast and Lunch are arranged as well as a meeting with friends and a request to The Hub Copenhagen to met up.

For now, blogging and Tweeting is what we do. Germany isn’t very wired. Over here we do have got Free Internet Hotspots (@ the library tonight)

Emma online with B-friend @

Day 2: Tips to travel4free or at low cost

If you’d like to travel 4 free it’s easiest to not have any plans at all or prepare very well. A few tips to travel4free if you want to go to a certain place:

If you are going to hitchhike:

• Know some directions and common itineraries to your destination
• Get yourself a confirmed hitch at hitchhikers.org
• TNT (post delivery) is going almost every night to a lot of places all over Europe and they are allowed to take hitchhikers.
• Flower trucks are decent guys and usually driving in the night o It is easier to hitchhike during workdays, business people and trucks are very willing to take you.
• Look fresh and smile
• In the weekend it is harder to find a ride, even in vacation season, cause most cars are stuffed with family and luggage.
• People from your own country are most likely to take you.

Not free, but cheap is the train in Germany in the weekend.

• You pay € 40,00 for an entire day in the weekend with 5 people. You can go anywhere you’d like with metronome lines. Transport to a night of going out in Berlin a return ticket would be € 18,00 a person…

For a bachelor party in Germany it is very common that the Junggeselle has to sell drinks /schnapps to the public. They have the Bachelor party the weekend before the wedding. We met a few groups on our way to Hamburg. They are very generous in case you cannot pay and 2 schnapps and some candy later we were quit happy from the Feigling.

Raises the big question: What do we do? Travel to Denmark today or go out in Hamburg with our Bachelors? Rough question. According to the bachelors, nothing came free in Germany. They were willing to pay so we could join them. But the bachelors didn’t dare to ask friends in Hamburg if we could place our luggage there. This was our turning point: a little sightseeing in Hamburg would do. The closest we could get to Copenhagen, the better. However, we couldn’t get there, so on our way, we had to find a sleeping place.

We sat ourselves next to Lennart, a Linguistic expert. After an hour we felt like going to make nice conversations in the train, to find ourselves a couch. We were just telling him what we wanted to do and before we knew it, we found ourselves in a very interesting conversation. 30 minutes before arrival he said he could maybe help us. He was spending the night in his mother’s house in Flensburg and we were welcome to crash for the night. After a real cup of tea, Emma and I got his room (cause there were two beds in it) and he took the guest room.

Lennart offered us a home, instead of just a couch. Another peaceful and lovely house at a true home: A great place to live

Day 1: Everything is new

En daar gingen we dan. Net even later dan gepland. Lees voor het Nederlandse verhaal van Emma hier

On the road. A little bit later than planned. 2 Hitchhike virgins.

Target: Copenhagen in one day: Mission unaccomplished.
But the experience is unforgettable. Meeting inspiring and helpful people everywhere. This is our story.

So far we hitchhiked with 6 different people. A true challenging experience.
The hardest part was to get out of Rotterdam from “Blijdorp”. Nobody seemed to go east. Even god (a priest for that matter) wouldn’t take us.

Walking to the Zoo, we started calling experienced hikers for some tips & tricks. Here are a few op them:
1.    Keep your sign upside down
2.    Make sure a car can make a stop
3.    Be specific on your sign

At a gas station we found our first hike. Just a few kilometers, but our host was convinced that it would be easier to find a ride to the north/east at another gas station at the A15. Father of a daughter of two and married proposed to meet after our trip: “Why don’t you want to cheat on your partner”. So far, our first official hitchhike experience.

View from Jan's truck

However, he was right. It took us just seconds to find a ride to Tiel . Rob, a first class sales manager had a lot to tell, cheap travel experience himself, and was a superman in community building to achieve that. At van der Valk Tiel he dropped us off and after a toilet stop, we found a short ride with Melissa to the next big gas station. And there we found Jan de Haas. Owner of a transport company he took us to the German border. For the first time in my life I found myself in a truck (a huge one).  A bit illegal, since Emma and I both hiked, it got excited when the police drove by. Hiding behind the curtain & listening to Jan’s great stories made this trip unique. Jan suggested we hitchhiked with a flower transport directly to Denmark. Unfortunately no such truck stopped at Elten.

Find service and very nice people here

So we were captured at the Shell at the border. After an hour we found ourselves a  hike to the restaurant Elten West 500 m further down the road.  Our press card got us a warm cup of tea and coffee. Now we are challenged to find ourselves a place to sleep tonight. Christine, the woman from the coffee is arranging a place and a ride. If we cannot find ourselves a ride to Hamburg/Copenhagen at 22h we can stay in this area.

And we didn’t. Unfortunately the place where we were supposed to sleep was closed, due to vacation. At a hotel nobody was empowered to make a decision to let us stay for free. But there he was: Rob, our guardian angel. Walked us though Alten trying to find a place and when that seemed to be impossible he offered a place at his home. His wive came to pick us up from Alten Germany and we drove back to The Netherlands for a great egg sandwich, drinks, hot shower and comfortable “couch”.

Conclusion Day 1:
Pretty successful. We spend € 0,00. No hungry or thirsty feelings.
It was kind of weird to ask for our first ride. Making a sign, holding your thumb up.  After the first day I was exhausted.

On the road
Reflection of Emma in Dutch in between rides

Checklist

Just an hour to go. Almost everything is packed:

• Camcorder (Toshiba: great device, small, light and easy to use),
• Memorecorder (Philips: hate it already, not compatible with Mac)
• Phone,
• Laptop,
• Rechargers,
• International electricity device (power plugs according to Wikidepia for foreign countries)
• Connecting cables to edit footage (to keep you posted)
• Post-its (colorful, small & sticky, beats common paper every time)
• International Press Card (in case we need them)
• Great Place to Live stickers & buttons
• Pasport (was lost yesterday, until I remembered making a copy of it)
• Cardboard
• Pens (to write on cardboard)
• Sleeping bag (a thin one, hope it’s warm enough)
• Towel (2 would that be too much)
• Pocket knife (for everything)
• Toilet paper (imagine being without)
• Toothbrush & paste, hairbrush, deodorant, soap, suncream.
• Led light (without batteries)
• Matches & candles (luxury girl)
• Plastig bags (to keep my stuff dry if it’s raining)
• Cup-a-soup (easy if I have to fill my stomach)
• Bottle of water
• Some meal/candy bars (in case we can’t arrange something, I don’t want to starve…)
• Some clothes (I need to be able to adapt to many types of weather)
• Creditcard (you never know)

Heavy stuff. Wonder who’s going to take me?

One day to go

Last hand on press card

Just one more night to sleep. Than I’ll leave on my way to…

It is time. Emma, my partner in crime, and I are going to show that it is possible to travel for free. For 11 days we go wherever the wind is taking us. One challenge: We are not going to spend a dime. We expect to get in hilarious situations. Of course we keep you posted on this site and the blog of HANQ.

HANQ is the school for creative entrepreneurship. Emma and I are the founding mothers of this crazy initiative. We are going to test all the 11 themes from 24th of July – 4th of August.

We dare you to join us. Can you travel for € 0,00 as well. Transport, stay, food & beverage, all should be included.