After four days on the road we are now beginning to feel like seasoned hitchhikers - the real deal! However, today was the first time we had to actually stand and wait for a while before getting picked up. It took a littlewhile to get out of Hannover,with complicated U-Bahn (or was it an S-Bahn?), bus and walking manoeuvres finally landing us at a filling station in Garbsen, a town just past the suburbs.
We sat making 'Berlin, Bitte' signs for a few minutes and them bravely went forth to the filling-station exit. Standing there for about half an hour, however, we were disappointed. We were the subjects of many a sympathetic glance, mocking smile and look of outraged horror, but no car actually stopped for us. Getting a bit fed up, we decided to relocate our lift-petitioning to another road. As we crossed the carpark though, we ran into a fellow hitcher, who was going in the opposite direction, but pointed us to a man who was going to Berlin. We press-ganged him in the carpark with a 'möchte sie zwei sehr nette Leute mitbringen?' (would you like to take two very nice people with you?). It seemed to do the trick, and this is how we got to know Harald Bär.
It was a strange coincidence that we met Harald because he too had a Scottish connection - he owned a shop that imported scotch whisky. He was a genuinely nice guy, and very interesting conversation, about topics as diverse as the German unification, travelling the world and the problems of the autobahn. He also drove incredibly fast, and in two hours we were in Berlin.
Since our arrival here we have managed to locate a youth hostel (the inexpensive and very nice Lette'm Sleep) and have been debating the all important question - to Dresden or not to Dresden? Tonight the plan is to check out some of Berlin, and relax a bit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment