After the ease with which I had departed Karlsruhe, it was in high spirits that I set off from Frankfurt. I had enjoyed a leisurely breakfast followed by a spot of relaxing chatter with my hosts before embarking at around 2 that afternoon. Little did I realise that Frankfurt just wasn't nearly so cool as Karlsruhe...
Ok, so one minute was my record from the previous day. Now to beat it! My phone had just flicked over to 2:04pm when I reached my starting destination at a nearby bus stop (located via google maps) and as I placed my bag down next to me and unlatched my sign, I prepared for another quick exit. Now let's see what happens...
1st hour: The day began well. Waves, toots and smiles galore.
2nd Hour: By now the bus drivers, who follow a continuous route through the city and so are passing me each half hour, have begun to laugh along with me at my humourless fate.
3rd HOur: The local police force, whose building I am standing next too, have also now begun to support my efforts each time they pass on their rounds. But my biggest support of the day was definitely the locals who had begun to approach me. Questioning where I was headed and why I was not taking a train they mostly wished me luck. A few tried to flag down cars for me and there was also one local pedestrian user who questioned me for 15 minutes straight about why birds could fly but he could not?
4th HOUr: I am now told that there is no city Bonn in Germany and that I must mean Bornheim and that as such I am heading in the wrong direction. Huh? Scared for a few moments, I hit up a few locals and am soon assured the old capital of Germany is still located somewhere up this road of mine. More people are approcahing with wishes of luck and my bag is beginning to overflow with the stuff! I have also kept up moral with constant snacking on dried peanuts, sultanas, bread rolls and a green green pear. The iPod also came into play when moral began to ebb...
5th HOUR: Music is my spinach. From a lifeless and somewhat prostrate (though still shivering) figure hunched over in the gutter, clutching at a wrinkled sheet flapping lazily in the breeze, I have been transformed into SMILE-O-MAN! Dooon dooon dooon! With laughs beginning to flow again, the drivers began to get back into it as well. They wave (I am not the queen), and shrug (Yes, I too do not understand why it is that your empty king size car with only you at the wheel and a number plate telling me you are from Bonn cannot fit me in either), toot (I am not supporting anything and so by tooting, neither are you) and smile (unless you are an extremely hot girl smiling is not really helping me reach my destination any faster), yell things out the window (contrary to popular belief, it is actually kind of hard to hear what you yell out as you whizz past me at over 100km/hr and if what I think I heard - you telling me to jump -was correct, I think I'll take the next offer but thanks all the same) and some just simply ignore me (Now as a hitch hiker, let me let you in on a few of our secrets. Firstly, yes, we know you know we know you know we are there. Secondly, no, ignoring us does not make us go away. What it does do however is tell us that you will not be getting any presents from Santa this year. And lastly, as you pass by without stopping, know that your plate number is being recorded so that we can make fake reports to the police about it and have your selfish arse arrested for dangerous driving (o:
6th HOUR!: WTF?!??! 6 hours! Six hours! S.I.X. hours! Ess, eye, ex friggin hours! One quarter of a day! The time it took for an entire war to begin and finish back in 1823. Newton discovered gravity, Einstein discovered relativity and Rutherford split the atom in less time than it has taken me to get picked up! Shame on you Frankfurt. Shame!
7th HOUR!!: WTF?!??! 7 hors! Seven hours! S.E.V.E.N hours! Ess, ee, hahah, nah. I got picked up after maybe 6 hours 20 minutes or so. I didn't even notice the car pull over. I was cold, saddened by the lack of niceness shown by the people of Frankfurt and did I mention cold? The driver had to actually yell out to get my attention but when they did... wow! Hug and smiles and laughter and party poppers going off all over the place! Some locals even cheered me off and I like to think the bus drivers and cops were given an extra smile for the day when they found me gone when they passed by on their next circuit.
Great finish too. Lovely lady and her brother who explained the sights of the countryside as we passed and invited me out to tour Bonn with the next day if I liked. For the last 6 hours I had kept telling myself that all I needed was one nice person. Just one. And in a way the 6 hrs was good for me as I will now never give up. Good things come to those who wait and wait I can. If I have learnt anything through travel, it has been patience. This and that you get a reeeeally sore arm after 6 hours of holding up a sign...
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