From Russia to Europe and back without a dime in one’s pocket. Interview with a “moneyless” traveller

 And today I would like to introduce a man who has decided to get rid of emotional constraint of monetary system on him once and for all, leaving for a journey with an empty wallet.

 Alexander had grown up in Siberia but for the last two years lives and works in Saint-Petersburg. He is a highly qualified engineer and author of electronic music, whose tracks have been released by several international music labels. And also he is an adventure seeker. Almost a year ago he was reverently telling me about how he wants to challenge himself by taking a several months long trip from Petersburg to Europe, using absolutely none of his personal finances for that, only his personal ability to cooperate with people and environment. For him it’s not so much a way to cut costs (although being honest, a salary of a engineer working in a factory in Russia would not be enough to pay for such an extended trip), but above all it was planned as an experience of expansion of his personal borders, immersion into reality, self-discovery outside of the ordinary way. We even joked in our conversation that it is special training about meeting yourself and the world.
 I’ll lay down cards and tell that he was nervous. Although he was preparing for this trip, improving his English skills and starting to learn German, reading and talking to people who had travelled in this way to learn some tricks for survival in urban conditions, he still did not know fully what to expect. What if everything goes in the wrong way?
 But on August 8th, 2016 he left home without a single dime and on the same day he already hitchhiked to Riga. Since then total strangers are buying him food, giving car rides, inviting home to spend the night and even providing some finances.
In October I called him on skype to hear straight from the horse’s mouth what it is like to trust world and people fully, having let go of the idea that money define our capabilities. By that time he already passed through Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Germany and Belgium.

 Awispa: Sasha, hi! You look great for a person who has been basically living like a hobo for the last two months )) Aren’t you tired yet?

 Alex: Ha! My life now is more luxurious than at home in Petersburg.

 Awispa: Do you remember how you were nervous before departure? Judging from your mood today, your worries were totally misplaced?

 Alex: It was scary to start a journey like this just because I’ve never done anything like this before, and it was completely unclear how it would be...
 After all it is a step out of comfort zone, from familiar behavior pattern. When travelling many people carry their friends, hot showers, lunch in cafes, sleeping in a warm bed and other familiar stuff with them and, basically, they are sitting in the same box where they spend their routine days. I, on the other hand, wanted to get out of it. And this feeling of getting close to your internal boundaries, I think, is the main reason of fear. Honestly, I was so scared before the trip, I even woke up in the middle of the night thinking “What if I don’t find anything to eat there?”.

 Awispa: And how fast did your boundaries expand so that you felt really comfortable in your journey? Because as I understand you have to frequently ask help from strangers, ask for a ride, or help you with money and food? Generally it requires breaking some social boundaries..

 Alex: The fear of interacting with people has vanished quite fast. When I started my journey from the beginning I was extremely lucky.
 On the first day I hitchhiked from Petersburg to Riga with 5 cars, and between each of them I was waiting on the highway for 10 minutes at the most.
 Then I immediately got to Vilnius. And there was my first full day in the city and I had to survive somehow without a dime. I was sitting on a bench scratching one’s head and thinking “Ok, so what do I do?” And the next thought “Well, let’s start!”
 And I started. There was some Krishnaite parade and one of them separated from the crowd. I walked up to him and said “Hello! I am travelling without money. If you can support my trip in some way — with food or with some loose change, I would be really grateful.” He said that unfortunately he only has 20 euro and can not contribute. I said that it’s not so important and we just continued to talk of this and that. Later he bought me coffee, a bread roll and tossed in 3 euro. This was my first experience of that type and I was very happy.
 After that I walked inside some museum-church and met a nice lady. We were just talking and when she learned that I am hitchhiking, she said cheerily that she sometimes hitchhike as well and gave me her contacts in Krakow, so I could stay at her place if I’ll be there. I was very grateful. Then I said that I travel without money and she gave me 20 euro.
 After all that I was pleasantly shocked. Just imagine, in the first day of my trip I was given 23 euro, food, an offer for a place to sleep. And as you may imagine after that my fear for the trip was immediately gone. :)

 Awispa: So, you are telling everyone who you meet that you are travelling without money? Don’t you feel somewhat uncomfortable because people might think that you’re some kind of fearsome misfit? Have you had a negative reaction to this?

 Alex: Well, yes, I tell that to everyone. Because really it’s kind of my schtick. When people hear that they ask right away “Without money, what do you mean? What do you eat then? Where do you sleep?” Here I start telling how I interact with people and how they help me. And everyone has reacted very positive, because they find it interesting and amusing. In the end these people give me food or money to buy some food.

 Awispa: It appears that you often don’t even ask for food, but just tell about yourself and people offer help themselves?

 Alex: Well, yes. You know, I haven’t even asked for food for quite some time. I just get by “freeganing” or people, with whom I stay to sleep, offer me dinner.

 Awispa: When you say “freeganing”, do you mean “finding good food that was thrown in the garbage”? You are in Paris now, so how are the dumpsters there? :0)

 Alex: No, I don’t ruffle through garbage here, lately I just find good food in the streets. Just yesterday I found an unopened can of salad.

 Awispa: What do you mean? How? Usually when I take a walk in the city I don’t see much food that is fit for consumption.

 Alex: I have no idea. I looked up and this salad was good “before 2019”. Don’t know why they’ve thrown it away.

 Awispa: So you just walk in the streets and get meals without any problems? Do you suppose there’s some kind of support from above in this? That your luck is a protection by some kind of supreme forces?

 Alex: Yes, of course. I have the feeling during this trip that God is helping me with everything. I am in a such positive flow through all journey that it’s an incredible feeling. Really everything is so cool that in all that time there was absolutely nothing negative. The only difficulty is that sometimes I have to walk a lot with a heavy backpack that weighs about 20 kgs. So sometimes I get very tired physically, but lately when I arrive in new places I find accommodation very fast, I drop my backpack there and walk light-handed.

 Awispa: And how do you find a place to stay, especially fast? As I understand you’re mainly using Couchsurfing, but you also have a tent with you...

 Alex: You know, with sleeping it’s the same as everything else. If there are people, in most cases there won’t be a problem with that. Once in Brno (note: city in Czech Republic) I did not have any prior arrangements for accommodation. Not on Trustroots, not on Couchsurfing I did not get any replies, and initially I planned to pitch up a tent in the park, but my tent was wet because it got damp on the other night and I didn’t have time to get it dry. And suddenly I thought: “What the hell! I don’t want to sleep in such conditions. Let’s go and try to find a better option.” I was walking around the park and it was Friday night, so there were many people in the park. I walked up to two groups, both were very welcoming, shared the food and apologized that they can’t help with accommodation. After that I talked to a girl and she was happy to help me, but she didn’t have enough space in her flat so she sent me to her friends. Where I spent a splendid night.
 Later in the same way I found a place to sleep in Vienna, so when I was going to Graz (note: city in Austria) I already thought: “To hell with Trustroots and Сouchsurfing, I will just go and find something on the spot!”.

 Awispa: How many times did you sleep outdoors in all that time?

 Alex: Not many. In Slovenia I have spent 3 or 4 nights by the sea, but it was just really pleasant to sleep outside, in the nature. The weather was beautiful, I felt like in a resort.
 In Poland I slept a couple of times outside because I couldn’t catch a ride.
 In Salzburg (note: city in Austria) I slept outdoors on the mountain top. But it was gloriously cool!!! The stars were so magical and bright! The moon was very wonderful and it was so quiet! I could hear blood flowing in my head, because the silence was so deep.
 
 Awispa: Cool, sounds amazing.. So in two months you were sleeping without a roof over your head for about a week in total. Did I get it right that apart from that you either found good people right on the street, or used the aforementioned Internet services? Or are there some more hacks for finding a place to stay?

 Alex: Also squats are very cool thing. I was walking in the street in Berlin. I did not have any ideas where to sleep. I even thought about sleeping in a stairwell. But I decided to walk along Rigaer Straße — I heard about that street that it was full of squats some time ago. I walked in one house and people told me that it’s some kind of HouseProject, where people are renting apartments now, walked in another — the same. And after that I saw a house that was all damaged, painted and covered with banners. A guy with double mohawk was just walking out, this cool punk. I ask him: «Is this a squat or what?» He replied positively. And then I wondered if I can sleep there. In a few minutes I was already on the third floor where they showed me the toilet, bedroom and kitchen, where I could take any food.

 Awispa: Is it exclusively in Germany, the thing with the squats?

 Alex: Not really, for example, I heard there are very cool, unique squats in London.
But in Berlin, well, it is a distinct culture that emerged historically. When they brought down the Berlin wall, many people fled to the West. And the Eastern part became abandoned. All the punks and anarchists decided that it’s a great chance and started squatting those buildings. They had major confrontation with the police back then. They barricaded the streets, had some clashes and so on. But now they don’t have any illegal squats except one. All the others were legalized and converted to HouseProjects where they organize some events and ask donation for living of about 5 euro per week: thus they pay for electricity and other communal charges. Plus they are supported by the government because it is considered a part of Berlin culture. In fact their status is like some kind of living museums. Once a week they usually have an open day when people come to see how the squatters live, eat with them the food that they prepare and so on.

 Awispa: That’s funny. Those guys may say that their job is being punks :)

 Alex: Well, yes. It appears that they live there for free and also they get free food from bio-markets in the neighbourhood.

 Awispa: So they have some agreements with the shops?

 Alex: Yes, as a legalized squat they have the paper that gives them the possibility to make deals with different bio-markets, that on scheduled days give them vegetables, fruits, bread and even something like Nutella.

 Awispa: It seems clear about the food and accommodation, now tell me about hitchhiking that you actually use to travel. How hard is it and how much time, on average, it takes to stop a car that will give you a ride?

 Alex: Here, in Europe, people are really sympathetic towards hitchhikers and on average I wait for about 20 minutes. The only difficult day was when I moved towards Paris. I’ve spent one and a half hour at one spot and then 2 hours on another. But in the end I still got to Paris in the evening. But usually I can move very fast.
 Once it was like that: I walked to the gas station and was checking wi-fi so I have not even asked anybody yet. One guy approached me and asked me if I needed a ride to Czech Republic. So I didn’t even have to ask for it. Sometimes I come and ask the first driver I see, if he can take me and he agrees. So I just find a car instantly.

 Awispa: I think you’re lucky. I once hitchhiked in Italy and nearly died in the sunny spot, because nobody wanted to take me up.

 Alex: I’m not, there are just some rules. The most important thing is to choose a right place to hitchhike. First, you can’t stand on a highway, because the police may come and give you a fine and in general it’s just not safe. I only ride from gas stations or highway entries. The coolest place is a gas station on a highway where there aren’t any localities nearby. This guarantees that all the cars that stop there are travelling between cities. Even more perfect if there is some kind of cafe, parking for truck drivers. There are a lot of places like that so I either try to first catch a car to such gas station and then hitchhike to my destination, or just hitchhike to where I need to go from the city.
 It works faster when you go and ask the drivers personally. So you can stand with a board for an hour or two on the gas station exit, or you can start asking the drivers in the gas station and, most probably, you will find the person you need much faster in this way.
 For example, once when I was going from Budějovice (note: city in Czech Republic) to Prague I tried to catch a car near the gas station. A car with two men stopped, one of them went inside, I approached the other and asked if they can take me to Prague. He replied that he doesn’t know me. I offered to show him my passport, and after that he agreed to take me. So if I was just standing with a board they would not stop.

 Awispa: In order to speak in that way to strangers you need not only an open personality, but also language skills. Are you speaking in English with everyone?

 Alex: Yes, in English. A little German, but I’m bad at it.
 Now I live with a french family. I met Charlie in Berlin and he invited me to Paris to stay at his parents home. And it’s a really nice family. They all know English very well, but Charlie’s mom always talks to me in French. I don’t understand a thing, but she uses gestures, points her finger somewhere and smiles. I only have to shrug my shoulders and say “s'il vous plait” — the only phrase I know in French )) It is fun.

 Awispa: I think you have had a tremendous journey. And though you are telling how easy and fun it is, not everyone will have the guts for it, even when one wants to. And I think what you have received during the trip has changed you a lot. How do you think, what you will feel when you return to your normal life in Russia? Are you mentally prepared for returning?

 Alex: Yes, of course I am ready. I don’t know how this journey will affect my future life. But I know for sure that I am not ready to work like I did before. It is too robot-like. You see, here I sit in my office working hard and live from paycheck to paycheck, and after that I leave for a holiday for 3 months and spend 0 of my own money. This is much cheaper than living in Petersburg, and in addition I received an endless amount of cool experiences, developed some of my qualities..
 The only thing that is preventing me when I return to Russia from travelling further to China (I want to visit Hong Kong) is that my parents need money and I want to help them very much. So I have to think of something. But I think it won’t be the same work that I did.

 Awispa: But you do love engineering and you’re actually good at that.

 Alex: Well, yes, I do. But now I see that for 500 dollars a month it’s easier not to work at all… So after I return I definitely plan to improve my English and think about seeking a job in Netherlands. I am crazy about Amsterdam. It’s a fantastic place. Well, or I will think of some other options, now I’m full of inspiration and energy.

 Awispa: Cool! Good luck to you in all your endeavors! And thanks for finding time and Internet to share your experience.

 illustrations © Awispa