Hitch 2012 - Day Four, To Spain

We got packed up pretty early, and within a few minutes of standing next to a main road we managed to get a lift to Orleans with two political men and a teenage girl. They stopped at some traffic lights, where we jumped out and after deciding that Orleans was massive and probably impossible to hitch out of, made our way to the train station. In the train station we went searching for a place to buy tickets and accidentally went below the main platforms where we found a woman in short shorts staring at us and making crazy motions with her hands. I think she was a prostitute. Safe to say, we made a quick exit. Once we'd got ticket to Blois, I went to get a sandwich before settling down to wait an hour for the train. In Blois we ended up walking for hours and hours, it was a tiny little town and we managed to trek through some gypsy town where a guy on a motorbike came over and said something in French, laughed and then drove off. We walked to a little town where Aiden got some apple juice, and asked then about the main road. They'd never even heard of it, despite being near a main road that supposedly lead to it. I spotted a petrol station so we headed for that, but there was a river in the way of the path so we had to take a massive detour to find a bridge.
We finally made it to the petrol station and after 20 minutes of holding a sign a man pulled over in a Mercedes. We found out that he was the president of a petrol company for Paris. He drove us just past a toll booth on the A20 at around 6pm. We weren't sure if we'd get a lift as it was getting late but Aiden stood with a sign saying 'sud' anyway. After ten minutes or so, I told him that I wanted a go, because I wanted a trucker. In under five minutes a truck pulled over and I asked where he was going. The reply was 'Espana', so we jumped into this truck with the French lorry driver who really didn't speak a lot of English, Aiden in the seat and me on the bed behind the seats. I was ecstatic. Riding in a truck to Spain was basically my dream. The radio was on so there weren't many awkward silences and we did manage to work out that he was married with a to year old daughter. We stopped at about nine because (from what we could gather) regulations meant he had to stop for an hour. We stopped again at eleven so he could jump up on the front of his truck and wash the windscreen. There was one point at the beginning of the journey where he pushed his steering wheel back and stood up to shut the window above him. He was obviously pretty skilled at this; he made coffee for Aiden with a kettle that plugged in into the power socket thing. He had a whole draw full of apples and biscuits and just stuff that one might need if driving a lorry. When we got to the Spanish boarder the authorities stopped us for a while, and the driver got in trouble for having three of us when there was only supposed to be two. I think he had to pay a fine but when we asked him he said there was no trouble. He then drove to a little truck stop literally five minutes from the boarder and told us to get out with our stuff.

We started to walk away to find somewhere to sleep, but he told us to wait by the truck. He unpacked some things and then motioned for us to follow him. He took us up the road and to a car which he told us to get in. He then drove for about ten minutes to a little town area where he told us to get out and follow him up to an apartment. At the door he told Aiden to go up the stairs while he opened the door, and then invited me in. Inside i met his wife, who was tiny compared to him, but the way he looked at her was so adorable. He then suddenly remembered Aiden and told him to come inside, and his wife heated up some food for us; a delicious risotto type of meal with chicken in it and roasted peppers. Aiden ate like he'd been starved for a week. After we were told to shower and then given a bed to sleep in. It was such a strange experience to be asleep in a strangers house in a country we'd never been to where we didn't speak the language and yet still feel totally safe, and almost at home.