Return of the Marmite

I'd travelled by train and hitchhiking from Vienna, to a small town in Switzerland. I'd spent the weekend in Aargburg and then stayed the night in Freiburg in Germany. I'd hitchhiked from Freiburg to Friedrichshafen, had a wee adventure, but managed to get to Munich. Decided to stay the night at Munich central train station (Hauptbahnhof) before heading out to hitchhike towards Vienna in the morning.

So, apart from taking a selfie on my laptop of me with the Marmite, and trying to catch a nap here and there in the waiting area, I walked around the entirety of the Hauptbahhof, both above ground and below; and I walked around the neighbourhood, just to fill in the time. I also used the free wifi to look up things on the internet, to chat to Lisa and to do other internet stuff. When it finally got to dawn, I started walking, making my way to the city limits. I was standing just after a bus stop, not a perfect position but I had made a pretty large sign that said "Austria / Österreich". Being so early in the morning, the traffic was not very heavy and I did have to wait for an hour or so. A van stopped, an electrician on his way to work or something. He didn't speak English, but my German was good enough to ascertain that although he was going to Austria, he was going to or through Innsbruck, whereas it would be more convenient for me to go to Salzburg for getting to Vienna. He offered to either take me to Innsbruck or would drop me off somewhere on the way. I agreed to get dropped off on the way and hopped in.

Just as we were about to leave, some other hitchhikers had got off a bus at the bus stop and had come up to the van to inquire about getting a ride. I believe they were Austrians and wanted to get to Salzburg. There wasn't enough room, and to be honest, I was pretty glad. If they were trying to get to Salzburg as well, we'd probably get dropped off at the same spot and then either try to hitchhike together, which as three people would severely limit the possible rides we could get, or we'd be competing or have to take turns, which would really suck.

On the way, I made some small talk with my driver: he was from Croatia but had been in Germany for around 20 years. We had a look at the GPS while he was driving and we decided that the Raststätte at Irschenberg would be a good place to drop me off, and it was the last stop before he went one way to Innsbruck and I would turn off to Vienna; moreover, I had read about it on hitchwiki.org as a good place to get to if you were hitchhiking out of Munich.

He dropped me off, and I quickly figured out the best place to position myself to get all the outgoing traffic, where they'd have enough time to see me and have enough room to stop. I got my laptop out and took a selfie of myself, with my Marmite and my "Austria / Österreich" sign.

Absolutely perfect weather!

As I was putting my laptop back into my backpack, I noticed a guy walking over from the petrol station. As he got closer, I noticed he had a gun, and pretty much then, he announced himself as a police officer, and pulled out some ID. He asked me for my passport, so I gave it to him as well as my Swedish residency card. His colleague drove over in an unmarked car, and came out and had a look at my passport as well...they noticed my Austrian and German visas and asked if I spoke German, and I said I spoke a bit. I'm happy to say that I managed to answer everything in German, except the odd word that I didn't know here and there. While the colleague took my passport away to check it on the radio or whatever it is they do in the car, the original cop started asking me questions. How long had I been in Europe? (About 2 years) Where was I coming from and where was I going to? (I'd come from Switzerland, had a weekend meeting friends, I was heading to Vienna, and then eventually heading up to Berlin, then to Sweden). Do I have any drugs or illegal items? (No). He didn't seem to believe me, asking if I was sure I didn't have any drugs and started asking me if I had individual drugs...hashish? MDMA? Cocaine? After a couple of these, I told him that I had I was trying to hitchhike over borders and taking drugs would be too risky...luckily he found that pretty funny. He asked to look through my wallet, which I acquiesced to, because I didn't have anything to hide and just wanted to get on with my hitchhiking. He didn't find anything interesting, and asked if I could begin emptying my backpack. It was a bit annoying, but I started to do it anyway, answering his questions, and after a just a few seconds of taking stuff out, his colleague came back with my passport and said everything was fine with it. As the stuff I had taken out was literally sleeping bag and a couple of t-shirts, the cop told me that I could stop emptying my bag, and they pretty abruptly got back into their car and drove off.

Only about 10 minutes later, a car stopped, with a young couple. They asked where in Austria I wanted to go and I said Vienna. They were going to Vienna as well, and they would take me the whole way if I wanted. I couldn't believe it, a ride the whole way to Vienna from just 50km or so out of Munich. They were a young couple from Slovakia originally, but living now in Vienna. We made some small talk, and I tried to stay awake, but it was really warm, and I was really tired, and I fell asleep before Salzburg, and pretty much slept the whole way to Vienna. I felt a bit guilty, but they didn't seem to mind. When I woke up, we were on the motorway that runs around Vienna, and they wanted to know where they could drop me off. They weren't going near Lisa's apartment, so they decided to drop me off close to a subway stop. They let me out, and I was officially back in Vienna.

Picture of Gasometer I took  off Wikipedia.org
© Bwag/CC-BY-SA-4.0 

Where they dropped me off was at the Gasometer buildings. These are really cool, old gas holders for town gas, that have been converted to apartments, shopping areas and offices. I'd read about them, but hadn't been to see them personally (although I've seen them in the distance a lot), and I thought they were amazing. They gave me a feeling of dystopic, futuristic video-games, areas where the unassuming protagonist will begin their story. I didn't go in, though, I really wanted to get to Lisa's. I took the U-bahn to the closes stop to Lisa's and walked the 5 minutes or so to her apartment. I rang her bell, but nobody was home. As I didn't have my phone, I pulled out my laptop and tried to connect to the apartment's wifi from the street...didn't reach. I could either wait for someone to get home, or try to find some internet. It was a nice day, I didn't feel like walking any further, so I took off my boots, pulled out my book, and sat in the sun, outside her apartment, and eventually, her flatmate came home and let me in.

I messaged Lisa, had a shower, had a nap and then when she came home, we had dinner. After a day or two in Vienna, we took the train back to her parents house, and I finally felt my adventure was at an end. Definitely one of the longest continuous hitchhiking journeys I'd ever undertaken, I'd had a great time, met some great people and hopefully, won some great Marmite. 

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