Can You House-Hitch?

At the CouchSurfing surprise party, I met a fire breather who promised to teach me, the next day, how to spit fire.

We arranged the lesson to take place outside of Claire and Adam's house so that they could document the event on film.

After the session, a huge glass of milk, and several Google searches on the dangers of swallowing lamp oil, Claire asked me what type of books I liked to read.

When I told her that I loved creative non-fiction, she lent me, Round Ireland with a Fridge.

The author, Tony Hawks, wrote a book about winning a bet that he couldn't hitchhike around the whole of Ireland with a refrigerator.

A certain passage on page 182 resonated with my feelings towards options and sharing everything.

"I had learned not to worry; to make my choice and allow things to happen.

For the most part they turned out to be good, and when they weren't - like the night from hell in the hostel - then they were character building.

There weren't any wrong or right paths to choose, just different ones, and where they led was governed by the attitude adopted towards them.

It seemed to me that was true of life also.

"So what else? Well, I couldn't manage alone.

The nature of hitching, especially when encumbered by a kitchen appliance, is such that you are reliant on others.

We may not expect it, but there may come a time in all of our lives when we have to hitch, either physically or figuratively.

It doesn't matter how important, wealthy or talented you are, if your car breaks down somewhere and you are forced to stick out your thumb and hitch, then your fallibility and the fact that you are no better than the next person will become abundantly clear to you.

You need someone else's kindness to take you to safety.

What I was beginning to discover was that signing up to this Trust was as liberating as it was fun."

Inspired to share your car?

Visit hitchhikers.org (English-language site for making plans to hitchhike) or greenwheels.nl (Dutch-language site about getting a subscription to use 'community cars' when you need one.)

Both are symbiotic car relationships!

Technorati tag: urban camping