To: "'strange@cyber-adv.com'"
Subject: Hitch-hiking stories...
Date sent: Thu, 17 Apr 1997
Hello.
I've just been looking at your CYBER ADVENTURES web page, and I've got some really funny travel stories (which are completely true) which you may like to look at from our 24 Hour Hitch in 1990.
Arrive at Nazareth. Dave and I get out of the lorry, after he wakes me up. He has a lot of trouble waking me again. We are at the side of a motorway. There is a small service station at the side of the road (the right-hand side) where we get out. As we walk towards it, I am very confused and don't understand where we are. I ask Dave, "Where are the others?"!!
We go into the shop and ask the cashier where we are on the map, and how we can get to Ostend. We ask drivers just outside the shop, and loiter around there, and the cashier tells us to go away (he has a hole in the window outside so that people can pay him for petrol, or whatever).
There is another half of the service station at the left-hand side of the road a little bit further along (for traffic coming up towards us). We know we cannot stay on this side of the road. It is biting cold and we can't get any lifts, and don't expect to at this time in the morning.
Dave sees some bushes and trees at the other side of the road (the left) and says we should sleep under them, on the ground. He says it's a lot warmer. I don't believe him (although I do now), and tell him that I won't sleep on the ground. I suggest we cross over the motorway and see if we can sleep in the toilets there (at the other half of the service station).
We cross over the busy motorway many times. We RUN for our lives!!! The shop is at the end, so we stay in close to the building as we get there so that no-one sees us from the shop.
We go through the outer door and see two doors, one for gents and one for ladies. We go into the gents toilet. There's 3 or 4 urinals in there and a door leading to the sit-on toilet on the right as you enter. I sit on the floor, then lie down, with my head below a urinal bowl. I realize this is not a very good position, what with people walking in to use it all the time, so I lie the opposite way. Dave sits on the toilet, leaning against the wall, with the door open.
Someone comes in to use the toilet, and I realize I must look weird spread across the floor, so I sit up against the wall. I think Dave finds it uncomfortable on the toilet, so he sits down in front of it. We both sleep. At many times people come in to use the toilet. Most of them give us weird looks, but continue to use the toilet.
Some people see us, and leave. Maybe these people needed a shit but see Dave in the cubicle. One person comes in and speaks some Belgian - "bla bla blub blub squatters blub blub." He then leaves. I worry that someone might tell the man in the shop about us, and we might get thrown out but, luckily, no-one tells him.
I wake at about 6.00am, and wake Dave. Apparently I've been snoring loudly all night. So people would have heard me as they approached the toilet. Also, we were lucky the man in the shop didn't hear me, since I do tend to be loud.
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