Now I am chatting with the CEO (who is also a rock star) of a Swedish construction company, and it turns out that the lift to Germany (or a music festival in the Netherlands) that I had hoped for...
...is not gonna happen.
More Swedish wilderness
So how am I going to make it back to Berlin? Swedish drivers have proven to be none too fond of hitchhikers.
Not to wory, my host (the CEO) says... he knows a better way.
One of the guys who runs a corporate coffee supply company in his building is driving down to Helsingborg the next day.
In a large motorhome.
And would probably be overjoyed to have some company on the long trip.
Win!
Now my host is leaving for the Netherlands that day (today) so I can't stay at his place.
But, in the back of his company's office they have a day bed for workers.
As well as a full shower and locker room.
So I am welcome to stay there for the night.
He even gives me a giant glass of fresh local Swedish honey to take with me.
I thank him profusely and assure him that his office will be safely guarded with me there as the impromptu night watchman, except for the parts when I am sleeping on the job of course.
(I would make a terrible night watchman.)
Fortunately the night passes without incident and the next morning I meet up with my new lift, the corporate coffee connoisseur.
He's taking a brief vacation to go see his daughter perform at the very south of Sweden, in Helsingborg.
And, since I am trying to get to Germany -- which will take me through Denmark -- that's perfect. Helsingborg is one of the major crossing points from Denmark to Sweden.
The other thing is, this man is a very successful coffee salesman.
So where hitchhiking often means squeezing into cramped, dirty, junk-filled sedans with tattooed guys (whose muscles mean they are not paranoid about personal security or dangers from hitchhikers) ...
...this time I am going first class.
Cruising shotgun in an RV that is all while leather, all new, and about as comfortable as you can possibly make a motorhome.
And we are doing it for not a short lift of ten or fifty kilometers, but all 350-plus kilometers down to Helsingborg.
Hell yes!
And all the while I get to learn the ins-and-outs of the (more interesting than it sounds) corporate coffee delivery business from a good-time-loving former-salesman-turned-entrepreneur who wants nothing more than to practice his English.
Which I am more than happy to help him with, seeing as I don't speak any Swedish.
(Except, of course, for "fika.")
Several hours of smooth Swedish highway and a brief lunch break later, I extricate myself from the warm embrace of the leather co-pilot seat and grab my backpack from the back.
The coffee entrepreneur leaves me at the Helsingborg ferry terminal, with a smile and a wave, no doubt wondering where I got the crazy idea to travel from Sweden to Berlin without spending any money.
But I've got some successful lifts behind me, a big fat sharpie in my pocket, and a big piece of cardboard that I borrowed from the rockstar-turned-construction-CEO.
How hard could the rest be?
Hahahahaha... famous last words...
(What happened next ... will be posted soon ... follow me 