Fin, or 'the end'

11 November 2012
2.30AM
I think we just scared the living daylights of an old woman who was walking home. We were trying to find our way to the station, and we saw her walking past; Jasmine shouted "Excuse me can you-" whereupon she promptly waved her hand at us and started walking faster. I do believe she was genuinely frightened of us, until I shouted "La gare, la gare!!!" and she slowed down.

Frighten an old lady - tick one off the list.

She was really lovely though, she let us follow her all the way because she lives somewhere near the station, so we walked "en route ensemble" until we were near the station. I also tried making small talk with her, but my French still isn't that great so I was only able to really start talking when she asked if I like music.

We're going to the Grande Hôtel Mouscron, because we are exhausted. How is it that by 2.30AM of the third day we are still stuck here in Belgium, when the organisers said we'd probably be in Amsterdam by evening yesterday?

2.55AM
This is hands down the dodgiest hotel I've ever been in. I managed to bargain the price of the room (in French) from €75 to €45 for three people. This just screams 'dodgy' it really does - the carpet looks like it could do with a new cover, and the wallpaper is old and awful. The bathroom is horrible, the toilet doesn't work properly and the mirror has that black growth you see on old mirrors, the tile looks awful and... You get the point.

But I think we're all so exhausted we don't really care.

I'm really looking forward to taking my reindeer costume off at long last. I'm not liking it so much anymore - this costume makes me want to burn it and throw its ashes into the sea.

At least the sheets look clean and the room is warm, oui?



Karan's checking train timings to Amsterdam, I don't think we're going to do the car-hitch thing any more, we're all that exhausted.

Goodnight everyone.

9.30AM
Holy holy holy we were all so exhausted we nearly overslept our train from Mouscron back to Lille. Train's at 10AM and why are we still in bed at this hour?!?! KARAN JASMINE WAKE UP WAKE UP!!!!!

By the way, I was wrong about the sheets - I didn't notice them last night because I was so tired, but I'm pretty sure those are stains I see on the underside. Oh god. I can't believe we slept in those things and actually put money down for them. Good god.

I guess we have time for some final photographs to document this dodgiest of hotels.



We're just paying for train tickets from here on out - we've had enough of hitching for a while.



1PM
We're in Brussels, Belgium, where we have to transfer trains, and we've got about half an hour in between our trains so we're walking around the station and looking around. LOOK WHAT WE FOUND!



Everyone knows that chocolate is the ultimate in happiness, don't they? So they'd be perfect for three exhausted hitchers, yes? Of course they're perfect. I mean, come on, look at them - every single piece polished to perfection. They're perfect. All perfect. So shiny. So delicious.



We bought a bag of them, even though they are really expensive - it's about €1 a piece, I think. That is pricey, for chocolate... But it is Belgian chocolate. So...



4.30PM
We are finally in Amsterdam!!!!!!! And by god I don't think I've ever been so happy to get anywhere, or to be anywhere.

*

So you know what, we didn't make it all the way, hitchhiking to Amsterdam. But we did hitchhike all the way to Mouscron, which I'll say is pretty damn awesome. That's a good 810km that we made it without paying a penny.

It was tough, and there were several points I seriously questioned what I was doing with my life and wondered why I was even doing this in the first place and so many times I wanted to give up.

I'm not going to end this one off with another sappy "I wouldn't have done it any other way" - the next time I go hitchhiking, I'm going to do it better. This crazy hitch has taught me a lot about how to get a ride, and when to take it easy. But, mark my words - there will be another hitch.

I don't think I've had quite enough yet of this mad adventure and excitement.