How you finding the UK? I've never hitched so i cant really offer any advice.Weather up North is ok for sleeping out though,not too cold atm.
Being in UK and Ireland was great! And I will definitely come back soon.
Other than I thought I didn't hitchhike and I also didn't sleep outside. So, much of what I carried I didn't use (sleeping bag only once cause it was cold in the room and I didn't manage to close the window lol, tarp and sleeping pad not even once) but it was okay. I'll use the stuff sometimes in the future, soon.
I didn't hitchhike for a small part I think because I'm still a little reluctant, even while I really want to try it out. (I think I'll try it here for the first time, I read more than once that Germany is like hitchhiker's paradise
) For the most part it was because it was quite cheap to travel by bus/coach and/or I wasn't sure to make it to the destination in time by hitching. For example, bus from Dover to Canterbury was about 5 pounds, coach from Canterbury to London was 16. Megabus from London to Liverpool 13 pounds ...
Except my first night in Leuven I never booked a bed in a dorm room ahead, I always walked into the next hostel and got a place to stay. The only exception was Liverpool, there I didn't find an affordable place (and StP was offline) so I decided to go to Dublin the same day. Accommodation for the night + making it to Dublin for 43 pounds seemed to be a great deal, since the ferry alone would have been 39 pounds.
Without the coach to Dublin perhaps I would have been forced to sleep rough, but I'm glad I took the coach cause on the ferry I met a couple going for vacation in Dublin (hostel too) and they invited me to come with them. Got a bed in a dorm room there and later (after partying in Dublin till 3 am and a small trip to Galway alone) we met again and I stayed with them a day and a night in their flat in a town near Leeds. We're still in contact every day and they will come to Germany soon, where I can show them around. So a quite - let's say - unfortunate day let to great experiences and friendship ...
I'll write more about my first trip (even if it's only mildly interesting in the context of StP
) and add some photos to the gallery.
As said I'll definitely come back to UK and Ireland (and if possible Scotland too) soon. Right now I'm quite low on money, so my next small weekend trips will most likely be Netherlands and Belgium, but I'll cross the channel again in Nov/Dec I think, Jan the latest.
