Adventure starts when you leave your front door

Disclaimer: I'm writing this on a German keyboad, so do excuse any strange mistakes or characters that may appear.

It's been almost a week since I left my family in Rotterdam to hitchhike my way across Europe. I have no idea what I'm doing or where I'm going, aside from that I want to meet up with as many people as I can and explore as many places as I can.

I have never hitchhiked before and have never done anything like this before. I have never trusted strangers, or in the goodness of people. I have never liked going outside of my comfort zone. I have never traveled on my own aside from one plane trip to family in Johannesburg and my flight to Amsterdam.

I have never. I have never done this, I have never done that, I have never tried those. I don't know what exactly drove me to hitchhike and abandon all reason. I suppose its a combination of wanting to overcome the crippling fears that have held me back for so long, the lack of money and the need to do explore and have an adventure. Perhaps in a few months I will be able to explain it, but for now I'm content knowing it was something along those lines.

I headed into what I thought was the direction to Belgium. A helpful almost-ride later I was heading into almost the right direction but at a horrible crossing. A Dutch gentleman picked me up and offered me a ride to Arnheim. I accepted, and found a couch to surf there. My host took me drinking and we shared stories over some beer next to the river. The next day, I said my farewells, walked almost 5km to the road that led to Nijmegen and got a lift from a Rastafarian guy. My host in Nijmegen took me to see Mumford & Sons, and by see I mean we sat outside the venue in a park where the sound was good and watched the big camera screen. It was amazing.

I decided to head for Germany next. Several lifts and a few free beers later I found myself on the outskirts of Goch with no lift and no place to stay. I slept in a bush next to a farm after losing my sleeping bag trying to catch a lift onto the Autobahn. It was cold and uncomfortable, but I wasn't afraid. I was at peace.

The next lift took me into Duisberg, where I was exhausted after hours of walking and trying to reach a highway that went out of the city. It was a dump. So I witnessed a very peaceful riot and slept on some chairs in the station. The next day I got two lifts into Cologne and explored the cathedral and city. Then it started raining and I got two consecutive lifts to put me on the path to Frankfurt, which lead to Bavaria. Western Germany is unpleasant and I wanted to get back into green contryside.

My last lift left me at a truck stop where everybody was heading the direction I wanted to go, but nobody wanted to or could, due to space in their cars, give me a ride. A Dutch student approached me as I was standing next to the toilet area and offered me a lift along the A3. We drove together for a few hours and had an amazing time talking about this and that, before he dropped me off in Wurzburg. Here, I met a friend I had been playing online games with for almost two years for the first time, spent a night sleeping on his floor watching the LCS, and then exploring the town the next day. Within an hour or so of walking, he found me a replacement sleeping bag for 15€ from Facebook, and organized for me to stay in his old fraternity house. He also lent me his laptop for the night, from which I am writing this.

German keyboards are very different from what I'm used to.

Tomorrow I will go out to find a notebook to write in and to see a castle. After that, I will hit the road again. Where am I going? I don't know. I would like to go to Prague to meet another friend, and I have some sort of plan of where I want to go. For now, I have no idea and I am extremely happy. I have not been this happy in many years.

This is an adventure. It started by leaving the front door.