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Matt and Prunel, a couple, hitchhike from France to an adventurous unknown in pandemic world. Yoldaprojesi met with them when they were in Turkey. While the road was writing their stories by itself, they certainly had something to say. Matt puts it very well “There is no guide for hitchhiking life, just take your staff (not mandatory) and go. All the questions will be easily answered on the road”. Of course life will be a sheer joy then. Spontaneity is essence for them. Watchfulness of this existencial phenomena is still mystery and rational mind can’t explain this in words… But we believe somehow language of cyber/digital world needs keywords for whom the people to find free spirit! Now is the time to hear their story from them:
Why I’m leaving this kind of life ?
You think that going to work every morning is boring ? That sitting on that chair in front of your computer all day long to complete some tasks that you even don’t know if it’s useful for your company is something that’s just making missed your life ? That the life is too short to do something that you don’t like ? That the world seems to be interesting, amazing, beautiful and the idea of dying without knowing even 1% of it makes you sad ? If you think like this, don’t feel alone, I experienced this feeling for few years before to change my life. Change it radically. Like travelling, wondering the world in a minimalist way. And you and me are not the only ones. Probably all the hitchhikers community. I’ve worked 5 years for the automotive industry, those who wants to produce bigger and faster, even if the humans needs are not following, even if the planet cannot provide them the resources. I could have worked for another company, more eco-friendly or human minded but that’s would be mainly to have more money in my bank account. And I didn’t need it. In France (you guessed I’m french), you can easily earn 1500€/month. Rent your flat for 400€/month because you don’t need the biggest villa to sleep (not in Paris, but there the incomes are also higher). Spend about 100€/month because you don’t need to eat lobster every lunch. And let’s say 200€/month for some extras. That means that you can save 800€/month, almost 10 000€/year. And do you know how much I spent for my first hitchhiker year of living, all inclusive ? 1857€. So with a 1 year working while saving, I can live this awesome life for 5 years. Moreover, our 8 billion people society cannot provide jobs for everyone. Why, if I have enough money, should I work hard every day instead of letting my job for those who really need it ? That was my cogitation who made me start a new way of living.
MATT
I’ve found that running makes me happy, and the more I run, the happier I am. It is linked with the discovering, the more I discover, the more I enjoy. But running 5h every day is tiring and if I am not nomad, all the discovering part goes. With Matt, I met hitchhiking. Hitchhiking is unpredictable, always different experiences, you can meet rich and poor people, artist and carthesist, turtles and pilots, single and mother of 10 child, Christians and Muslims, etc. Every day is different. What makes me leaving France ? Maybe the everyday life, the willing of discovering, meeting and sharing. There’s no real answer but I understood that I wanted to see something else than an office every morning. I had hitchhiked 2 times in my life but I wasn’t afraid to go around the world by hitchhiking. I was pretty sure that it will be a good way of traveling. After 2h in the road, I knew that it’s the best way of traveling. There’s no other way to be “on the road” like Jack Kerouac. Deep conversation, geopolitic lessons, philosophical moments are waiting for me. This way of moving, without any transactions allows me to spend nice moments because nothing is expected. The real me is in every cars in which I enter. So many things can be exchanged, from hiking times to a place for the night. You can meet someone who will not talk and 10 min after someone who will never stop talking. You will sleep, sing, laugh, try to communicate, eat, drink, smoke, take a selfie, be recorded, speak through the phone to unknowns, stop in the middle of nowhere for a picture, stop in a village to drink a shot. You can’t predict what is going on. I think this is what I was looking for. Standing on the road with the thumbs up is one of the best feeling that I experienced. You always know that the person who stops for you wants to help you and that’s the best part of this game. Imagine all the people that you will meet tomorrow will help you ? It’s a big step on the path of happiness I think. After presentation, comes the questions : Why aren’t you married? Where are your children? Why do you do this ? My answer is often “Why not?” or “because it’s fun” and then most of the time they laugh. But I think the real question that they were thinking of is why are you different? And to this there’s no answer, and because they stop for taking us, I think that somewhere in their mind, they thought about “Why not stop and meet these people, maybe we’re not so different”. Every morning I don’t know where I will be in the evening, who I will meet, what will happen, it’s an every-moment life. It teaches me to enjoy every moment because you really know that it won’t last. And you understand how it is pleasant to share and to receive joy. Then it’s another step on the happiness’ path. Thanks to hitchhiking, I realize how your presence can change the evening of someone. And old man living alone, a big family, 2 young guys, everyone who invited us and thank us for being here, they told us that we bring the happiness, what makes me happier and happier. Then it’s the infernal spiral of happiness. Hitchhiking makes me understand the power of the small drops. Thanks to all these small drops, all these people who will just do 10km with us, we will go very far. Our record in a day is around 1000km, we never wait more than 20-30min except 2 times. Most of the time, in less than 10 min we are on the road again. Once we were 11 people in a car, several times in truck, in the trailer, on a motorbike, in a Porsche, in a very old Fiat 500 of 1 million kilometers. And with people from all over the world. Hitchhiking gives me the opportunity of increasing my tolerance because I don’t choose who will stop, they choose to take me. I have to accept who stops, whoever they are. Instinctively, humans wants people that looks like them, as colons wanted natives like them. But when you hitchhike, you can’t act like that. That makes you love the other, all of them. And, for me, that’s the biggest step on the happiness’ path.
PRUNEL
And they traveled from France to South Africa:
