I arrived in Goteborg on eve of Sat, April 22nd. I had hitch-hiked that day from Stockholm, needing only two rides. I was lucky to find a Norwegian guy who brought me from just outside Stockholm all the way to Goteborg - over 450 km away. He was a professor at the university in Goteborg, a young guy who was also working on his second degree. In his spare time he works as a bouncer at a club (for "fun", I was told). Before dropping me off he told me to drop by the club that evening. Once I was on my own in Goteborg I asked for directions to a hostel, and I quickly found one. What I found was actually a ship which had been converted into a hostel - certainly the most interesting hostel I had ever used! The ship was docked near Goteborg's large shipping port. I got a bed in a dormitory room where about ten travellers were staying, none of which were Swedish. In one room I met two Spanish girls, a Dutch girl, a German girl, a guy from Brazil and another from Finland. The girls had plans to go to an expensive club, so the guys and I decided to check out Goteborg's bars instead. This became a very frustrating experience. We walked around in the rain along the main drag of town, finding very many bars and clubs but none which would let us in! We learned that although the drinking age was only 18, most bars set their own minimum age higher to control the type of crowd that gets in. The youngest guy in our group was only 21; the age requirements in Goteborg tend to vary from 23 to 30! Finally we found a place which would let us in after we told the bouncer we just wanted to get out of the rain and have a beer. Incidentally, the club I had been invited to by the Norwegian guy wanted guests over 25 only, so even I couldn't get in there. The rain continued the next day, so I decided to spend a short time visiting Goteborg and then leave to continue in the direction of Amsterdam with the hope of meeting up with some friends there. Here is one of the market streets in Goteborg. I was also contemplating visiting a friend in Denmark. I made some signs with a destination of Helsingborg, a small city just a short ferry ride away from Denmark. I spent over three hours walking from highway entrance to gas station to highway entrance to gas station, but without ever having any success. At one gas station I met two Swedish girls who were also unable to thumb their way out of town. At this point I decided to give up and concede my first ever hitch-hiking failure. If I wasn't going to find a ride on my own I certainly wasn't going to do it with competition coming from the generally less dangerous sex. So I left for the other side of town, passing the port along my way. It occured to me that I could take a ferry from Goteborg to Denmark instead of crossing at Helsingborg. At 6 PM I took an express ferry at a cost of about $40 Cdn from Goteborg to Friedrikshavn, a small town in the North of Denmark. Here I am at the stern of the ferry. I arrived in Friedrikshavn at about 8 PM and starting looking for the hostel with a map I had found on the ferry. I arrived there at 8:30, only to discover that the hostel had closed at 8 PM!! This was rather discouraging, and worrying, as I knew I had no other options in this small northern port. I asked one man if he worked at the hostel; he said he didn't but that I could use an extra mattress from his room. What I discovered next was really unbelievable. The man was a guest at the hostel. He was the coach of a handball team participating in a tournament in Friedrikshavn. Just what sort of a handball team you ask?? A team consisting of about twenty 17 yr-old girls. His idea was to let me sleep on the floor of the TV room, as it would not be locked at night. I gladly accepted his offer and spent the evening eating cake and watching television with the members of the handball team. At 7 AM the next morning I packed up and left the hostel about one hour before they would open, as I didn't want to be caught and end up paying. I found this to be fair since I didn't have a proper bed or any breakfast or clean sheets from the hostel, nor could I even get in to their bathroom (I had to urinate out the window in the middle of the night). Since it still very early, I spent some time on the shore near a small marina. Despite the rainy weather, I enjoyed the view and the smell of the sea. I left Friedrikshavn with the hope of hitch-hiking to Odense on the island of Fyn where my friend Henning lives. After a few rides I was picked up by a German on his way to Hamburg (Danes, like Swedes, hesitate to pick up hitch-hikers). We made a few stops at gas stations along the way so I could call Henning. There was never any answer, and since I had no guarantee he was in Odense at all, I decided to change my route again and continue with the same ride all the way to Hamburg. At one station we even picked up some other travellers which filled the car! That evening I was once again at my aunt's place in Hamburg, where I had been just one week earlier. Back to the Main Page - Zurück zur Hauptseite