Day 9 – 100 Kilometres Out Of The Way

Date: 4th of July 2015

Route: Fischbach – Liège

Vehicles hitchhiked: 2

Although it was very pleasant to spend time in Fischbach, which was a verdant and scenic village, we had to move on. After eating a hearty breakfast, we went together with Hiroko and Mariko to Luxembourg City, by bus and by train; we said goodbyes there. Then Maia and I took a two-storey train to Capellen, where we wanted to start hitchhiking.

In a two-storey train; producing a new card

To get to the chosen petrol station, we had to go along a dirt road for a while, and then choose between two paths: one leading through bushes, and the other through fields. I persuaded Maia to go for the latter (although it was extremely hot), because the path seemed to be shorter than the other one. But it wasn't. It was leading all around the petrol station, but not a single entrance was visible. After some time Maia became impatient, and crossed through a fence. I followed her, but was stung by nettles, unfortunately. According to Maia, it was a punishment for making the wrong choice :-)

The path in the heat

We asked a lot of people on the station for a lift, among them a group of Polish guys who had been camping there; no one agreed to take us, so we moved to hitchhike near the exit. After some time a friendly Luxembourgian stopped next to us and agreed to give us a lift. He told us interesting stories about his hitchhiking adventures in France and Australia. He drove us to a parking lot for trucks in Arlon, apologizing that he couldn't take us further.

It was Saturday, so truck drivers had to have an obligatory break from driving. It meant that on that day we could only count on cars to give us a lift... There were just a few of them on that parking lot. All the drivers that I asked for a lift were heading in other directions and no one could help us... I braced myself for waiting for a long time for the next car to stop on that parking lot, so I sat on the grass. Maia was standing next to one of the cars for a suspiciously long time, and talking vigorously with the driver.

I didn't know how she had managed to convince him, but the driver agreed to detour – 100 kilometres out of his way (sic!) – and take us to Liège.

Sitting in the car and listening to nice African music (the driver was from Congo), I was contemplating how kind some people could be, and, on the other hand, how distrustful others might become because of media's influence.

After we arrived in the city, we hid from the sun in a nearby park. We stumbled upon interesting ruins there, and took a few funny photos on them.

One of the photos on the ruins

While walking to our host's flat, we ran across an island on the Meuse; it was pretty large, and lots of houses and other buildings were situated on it.

The island (behind me)

Feeding ducks in a pond on the island

After we met with Virginie, we quickly did our laundry, and then the three of us went to sit near a fountain. Maia tried to swim in it, but it was definitely too shallow; she didn’t feel hot anymore, at least.

Later we went shopping together, and prepared a healthy vegetable salad and fried aubergine for supper.

It turned out that the fountain was too shallow to swim in it ;)

Virginie was a cool girl who had studied law. In the evening she guided us around the city – we enjoyed walking with her a lot. She showed us interesting places, which we most probably wouldn't have seen if we had travelled like normal tourists.

Maia claimed that being in that town made her feel extremely happy. She especially liked a bar with a very peculiar atmosphere and lots of unique paintings and sculptures.

One of the paintings which you could see in the bar

Virginie asked us if we fancied climbing famous city stairs with more than 300 steps; it was hot, so we didn't feel like doing it... We took a funny photo on an old fountain instead, and then all of us walked to a park to train yoga there. While we were stretching, several rabbits were jumping around us :-)

The famous city stairs

Despite having an invitation for a party, we didn't go there. We felt tired, and wanted to go to sleep early. Well, covering around 300 km per day had its disadvantages...

Maia and I on an old fountain