Thumbs up for a good adventure

Pablo Morales is hosting this month’s IndieWeb Carnival and he has invited us to write about adventures:

Close your eyes for a second. What comes to mind when you think of the word, adventure? Do you think of thrill? Do you take a risk?

I love a good adventure. I love to travel because of the unknown factor. You never know what’ll happen, what kind of exciting things you encounter and what kind of wonderful people you meet.

Back in the day when I was around 18-20 years old, I went on to three different adventures on consecutive summers, hitchhiking around the country to hang out with friends who lived across the nation, seeing parts of the country I had never seen traveling by train and meeting incredible, kind people who offered me rides.

What I cherish even more is that it was before the smartphone era. I didn’t have full access to everything at every given time. I did have a mobile internet dongle for my mini laptop to help me out in a pinch but otherwise I was out there, most of the time in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a pocket camera, beautiful summer and the kindness of strangers.

One day, I was picked up in the Eastern part of the country by a couple of guys who had just had their last day at work and were heading to celebrate that. They picked me up, I joined them to the bar, they invited me to watch Penguins - Red Wings Stanley Cup finals at their place, let me crash for the night and even took me to my next destination the following morning as one of them had a meeting there.

Another day I ended up joining a Finnish baseball (pesäpallo, significantly different from the American baseball as a sport) game because that’s where my ride was going. I was really happy about that because watching the sport has always been a delight to me and during these trips I always aimed to find a way to see games in towns I’d otherwise never go to.

A different day I ended up working for an evening selling tickets to a student event that my friends were organising at a bar because I had no other plans and wanted to help out friends. We ended up having such fun discussions during the quiet times and I met so many people I would not have otherwise met.

Unknown adventures are always exciting. One of the best parts of hitchhiking is that you cannot have any plans. It’s so liberating. You start your day by finding a nice spot leading towards a big road or highway to the direction you want to go, lift your thumb and sign (I used to write my destination to a cardboard sign to help people make decisions) up and see where the day will lead you.

Sometimes it took 10 hours to get to somewhere 3 hours away. But every single day I got somewhere and managed to find a place to sleep — either with friends if I reached my goal destination or with strangers if I didn’t.

Finland is incredibly beautiful, especially during the summer. I’m normally quite socially reserved and introverted but when I pick up my backpack and head on to adventures, I become surprisingly social, make small talk with strangers and look forward to meeting new people.

Thanks Pablo for hosting this month’s festival!