Hitchhiking: About life on the move

Sina and Niels have been hitchhiking for three years. Your goal: once around the world.

by Lena Schindler

50,000

They have covered kilometers since October 2017, they were taken from 500 rides – police motorcycle, horse-drawn carriage, truck. Before Sina Bohsung and Niels Angne, both 29, stood by the road with two rucksacks and a guitar and left the Black Forest behind them, she worked as a real estate agent, he had just finished studying theology. They have been full-time nomads ever since. When they wake up in the morning, they usually don't know where to go to sleep in the evening. They made a conscious decision to move slowly and not to take the plane, their big dream is a complete circumnavigation of the world by land and water. Sustainability is important to them, but also being able to feel the distances. They prefer to approach a country through its people – like those who stop when Sina and Niels stick their thumbs out …

Departure

Sina: My curiosity has always drawn me into the distance. When Niels and I met, we soon found out that we both dream of a trip around the world. I couldn't have stayed in Germany for someone else and was happy that he wanted to come with me. We got married and a year and a half after our first meeting we stood on the street with our backpacks.

Encounters

Sina: When you go on holiday, you often hop from one sight to another – but we often leave out the big attractions entirely. We want to immerse ourselves in a country, exchange ideas with people and learn from them about their culture and their country. Now when we hitchhike, we don't wait more than five minutes on average for someone to stop. Often a few planned kilometers turn into a hundred, and some take detours just for us, or they invite us to visit them. As a thank you, we cook for them, learn English with them or make music.

Niels: In Vietnam someone stopped once and said: "You can come along, but you have to drive, I'm tired." I was allowed to sit behind the wheel and he slept soundly while we were driving, even though he didn't know us. This trust touched me very much.

favorite place

Sina: We have now traveled through 24 countries. But what made a lasting impression on me was the hospitality in Turkey and Pakistan: How generous and open-minded the people are!

Niels: We don't inquire so intensively about the countries beforehand because we want to be on the move with an open mind. We hardly had any idea of ​​Romania. Suddenly we saw horse-drawn carriages driving through the streets as if time had stood still a hundred years ago.

money

Niels: At the beginning of the trip we had savings of around 20,000 euros, of which more than half are still left today. Before the corona pandemic, our daily budget was an average of ten euros for both, now it's around 15 euros. We hardly need any money for transport, only very rarely for a ferry or to rent a motorcycle on site. When we cross the ocean, we want to work on ships. And since we do couch surfing or camping, the overnight stays are also inexpensive. Sometimes we work for board and lodging, then we don't need any money for weeks, so we have a buffer for visa costs. However, we don't just live off our savings, we earn our living with online guitar lessons, our self-produced music and our social media channels.

Sleeping place

Sina: We have now stayed in every conceivable place: on a police station, at the harbor basin in the open air or on a carpet on the floor – as is customary in Iran. We have already pitched our tent at a military base, in a clearing surrounded by coyotes on the edge of the forest or in the middle of the desert. We were accepted by people from all walks of life, with all kinds of world views.

culture shock

Niels: Since we mostly travel on remote paths, it is actually the most unusual for us when we come to very touristy places. A bizarre situation arose once in Pakistan when a man wanted to know if I was poor because I could obviously only afford a woman. And it was a real shock when a driver in Greece offered us to sit on a skinned pig that was lying in the passenger seat. That was a bit too much for us.

fear

Sina: At the beginning of the trip, I often wondered whether everything would go well. I've never hitchhiked in Germany, only once as a rehearsal with Niels. In the meantime I also hitchhike on my own when only people with scooters are out and about. Then we separate and meet at an agreed place. In those three years we have never been exposed to any human hazard. But we don't get on everybody or get off again if someone drives too fast.

Niels: We did not experience the most dangerous situation of our trip while hitchhiking, but when we were escorted by the police through terrorist areas between the border crossing from Iran to Pakistan for four days, sometimes in a tank. We got into a life-threatening situation when our borrowed motorcycle on the Karakoram Highway – the highest highway in the world, between Pakistan and China – had a flat tire. Suddenly stone avalanches came down, we were trapped for three days with all the people who were there. A few men from a truck caravan who became our friends actually gave us one of their vehicles so that we could settle down there. This generosity was overwhelming and touches us to this day.

Noise

Niels: When we went out into the world together, it was a dip in the deep end. We had never lived together before. But it worked well from the start. We don't always sit as close together as you might think. When hitchhiking, one person usually sits in front and talks to the driver, the other listens to music in the back seat. And when you go couch surfing, you dedicate yourself to the hosts. But of course: The typical challenges every couple faces are of course a little more intense when they are together 24/7.

Sina: Since we've been on the road, there has hardly been any routine in our life, we experience a flood of impressions. As soon as we notice that we cannot give anything back to our hosts, that we are exhausted or that we need time for ourselves as a couple, we withdraw, camp for a while in nature or go to a cheap hostel.

homeland

Niels: The idea of ​​home has become abstract for us over time. But because we have each other, the feeling of home is always there. We are no longer attached to material things, but what has often been extremely helpful to me is our tent. It doesn't matter where we open it, inside it always looks the same, that gives a feeling of security.

Arrive

Sina: Half a year ago we were stranded in a guesthouse in Bali due to Corona. We were previously in Sumatra, but the German embassy advised us to come here, because the island lives from tourism and the health system is better. We took a plane from Sumatra to Bali for the first time. As soon as the pandemic is over, we would like to continue on our way and take a ship to Australia.

Niels: Even if we are here unplanned, we enjoy being in one place after such a long time on the move. It will be years before we travel around the world. Should we settle down, we could imagine opening a vegan café on the beach in Portugal. But we are far from ready to stop.

In the footsteps of the tramping professionals – at least virtually: travelowls.de and instagram.com/travel.owls

BARBARA 52/2020