Two Days from London... Edinburgh

I started Tuesday from a petrol stop about 10 minutes north of Darlington. I grabbed a quick bite from the café across the street and then strolled over to the roundabout to thumb my way north. I was hoping to make it up to Newcastle early enough to catch a ride to Edinburgh by noon. Boy was I a bit optimistic… It only took me about 10 minutes to catch a ride with the morning traffic from a businessman called Ben. He reminded me a bit of Ian, but not nearly as easy to talk with. The ride was only 45 minutes or so into the city and we talked mostly about the economy and politics of the US and England. We arrived to Newcastle around 10am and I was stoked at how good I was doing on time.  I will tell you, walking through Newcastle from the south to the north is an absolute pain in the ass! I spent nearly all day trying to get to the A1 north out of the city. It actually turned out to be a bit of a treat since I was able to walk through the city and see the landscape. There is a breaking point where you just want to stop walking and get to your damn hitching post though. Mine came around 2pm after I had been walking for 4 hours…

River Tynes

At 4:30pm, I arrived at the rotary for the A1 north out of the city. Finally! Maybe, just maybe there was someone who would be traveling back to Edinburgh after spending the day in the city. Well, I wouldn’t get that lucky, but I did get picked up by Chris. He wasn’t going very far, but he was kind enough to drop me off at a parking area on the A1 about 5 miles north. This allowed me to avoid people that were using the rotary to go south or west, instead of north. This proved to be very helpful because I only ended up waiting about 15 minutes for Peter to offer me a ride. He is an absolute blessing of a man. Apparently, he had been traveling south to drop off someone and saw me trying to hitch a ride. On his way back north, I was still standing on the side of the road, so he stopped. He is such a wonderful and generous man that really went out of his way to get me as far as he could. Ultimately, he drove 45 minutes past his turn off to drop me off in Berwick-upon-Tweed (2 hours east of Edinburgh). All along the way, he pointed out castles and landscapes and provided lots of useful knowledge. Easily the kindest driver that has picked me up so far in my hitching experiences.

My final ride of the day came from a trucker called Michael. It was totally my first time in a trucker’s cab. Those things are roomy! Michael turned out to be a wealth of knowledge on Scotland. The ride was very easy because he provided most of the talking and I pretty much just listened and relaxed. It was great because even though I wasn’t waiting long, I was extremely exhausted and did not have the energy to engage someone for two hours. He took me all the way to Edinburgh and dropped me off near the airport. I didn’t know it at the time, but this turned out to be the PERFECT point.

It was a big part of our conversation: whether I should hitch into the city while he continued on the bypass or to go to the south of the city with him and try to figure it out from there.  Opting for the later, I ended up catching a bus towards the city centre and asked the driver if he could let me know when we got to a transfer I needed. When he called back, I was in the middle of nowhere and had no map or idea of where to go. There were a few people standing around waiting for their buses at the stop, so I asked a man that seemed to be a local. He looked up and said, “I can’t tell you where this street is at lad, but (He pointed) that is called the Calders.” Could this get any better?! I walked across the street and boom… Calder View. What’s not to love about Positive Mental Awareness (PMA)?

Edinburgh Castle

It took me two days and 8 lifts to cover about 400 miles hitching from London to Edinburgh… Mission Accomplished!

To Manchester… Well, Darlington. In the Bag!

I made some breakfast and put together my bad ass sign that we found on the way back from the pub last night. On one side, I wrote “E D N B R G” and the other “M N C S T R” in the event I needed a closer destination. Looking back now, “N O R T H” would have probably been a better choice. It took me until almost 1pm to get from east London to the start of the M1 in north London. During that time I was able to walk through Regents Park… in the rain. What is it with my luck hitching and shit weather?

I plowed on and stopped at a petrol station that I believed to be near the M1. To be certain, I even walked inside and asked the cashier if this was the last petrol station before the M1. He promptly responded, “Yes, it is.” So, I stepped outside and started making friends for 30 minutes trying to find a ride to Scotland (Or closer…). I was in luck! I approached two construction guys and asked if they were heading north. Success! They were heading to Glasgow (About 2 hours west of Edinburgh). I literally jumped in the air from shock and asked if they wanted some company for the ride. Before I hit the ground, one of the guys said he was bullshitting me… Not funny in the slightest. I know you’re laughing right now, but I definitely am not. I don’t know why the British find it hilarious to screw with people. He wasn’t the first and definitely hasn’t been the last. He was still rather helpful and suggested I continue on the road a bit to try a service station (Truck stop). I heeded his advice and moved locations. This was a very wise move as 20 minutes of walking later and 3 damn petrol stations, I found the M1. I hate people who don’t know things but answer anyway, a la previously mentioned petrol cashier. I don’t want to get on a rant here, but the worst knowledge you can share is false knowledge people! Moving on… I approached a walking bridge and as I started to crossover I noticed another traveler attempting to hitch along the road below. I yelled down to him asking if he thought two people would have better luck. He said no, but he’d enjoy the company anyway. This is how I met the man Commonly Known as Dom. You can Facebook him under that search name. He’s an extremely anti-establishment activist. In fact, we were approached by two highway patrolmen (Not police) because we were standing on the wrong side of a street sign. I found it hilarious because all they could do was ask us to move and should we fail to follow their orders a call to the “real” police would be made. It ended up being a fun day with him and I definitely learned some interesting conspiracy theories and legal information.

Thankful for my headlamp!

Dom and I ended up standing in north London for over 4 hours trying to get picked up. Finally, a plumber named Matthew pulled over and offered us a ride. It was an awesome first ride in the UK. He only had one front seat so I ended up jumping in the back, which was full of toolboxes and had no windows. I was actually able to situate myself quite comfortably and took a nap while we drove north. I didn't get to chat with Matthew, but I was extremely grateful for the lift. He was able to take us as far north as Leicester. From there, we were picked up by Sabrina and Selena about 15 minutes later. The two worked at a hospital in Sheffield (Only about an hour north of Leicester) and a big conversation topic was why on earth they stopped to pick up two male hitchers at 8pm. Sabrina threw Selena under the bus and confessed that she told Sabrina to pass on and not to stop. Thankfully, Sabrina was considerate enough to ignore that and offer a random act of kindness. Her ultimate reason for pulling over was to have some conversation for the remainder of the ride. Oddly enough, about 10 minutes into the drive, they stopped carrying on a conversation with us. Granted, Dom had passed out because he was exhausted. I really find it difficult to converse with some people when they answer any conversation starter with one sentence statements that warrant absolutely no response whatsoever. Perhaps, one of you can offer a solution to this dilemma…

Once we arrived in Sheffield, we were again picked up relatively quickly by Ian. He was on his way back to Darlington from Bristol. I can’t say enough about him in this post, but I will say that I don’t think I’ll ever be picked up by someone cooler. Not only did he offer us snacks, but he was a great conversationalist. He even went out of his way to drop us off at stations more likely to have traffic heading where we needed to go. Dom was still drifting in and out of sleep, but we ended up splitting ways after an hour or so. I decided that Ian was heading far enough north to skip out on trying to get to Manchester. It was a very long, yet successful day of hitching and I was ready for a solid night of sleep. However, I would end up having to suffer several trials before securing the shitty night of sleep I was in for…