We believe in Humanity... After having hitchhiked 30,000 km in Asia. Back in Europe and resting for Our trip begins February 2016 in Asia.
We are a common couple who decided to stop their jobs in order to follow their dreams and their instinct of wanderlust. But the world is big and the curiosity for us has no limits. Willem (The Netherlands) & Anna (Spain).
Today I am becoming 33 years old! (What a beautiful number😊). ❤️
I am super happy spending my birthday while experiencing this micro-adventure with our bicycles around the Netherlands. Freedom is the most amazing feeling.
Once a friend told me: "I am the sum of all the people I met". And it's so true!!
Thank you, family and friends from all the parts of the globe.
Have an amazing third of July ❣️
Oh Home! Let me come home... Home is wherever I'm with you ❤️💕
Somewhere in the north of Greece, at a beautiful service area. 😊 June 2017.
For two years we have been hosted by many people and now it's our turn to open our doors. This week we had these two hitchhikers from Spain. Nacho is a born adventurer and a person which is aware that we need each others help to move forward and to make the world a better place. Fernando is an architect student but inside him he released three years ago a true artist!
So young and already so wise, their parents must feel proud! Right now we are not on the road but hosting people make us feel part of their journey and gets us excited for new adventures.
*hosting people is another way of traveling* 😍 mi casa es su casa❤️
"So the main characters of the story are not us, are them. All the people we met, the people who hosted us, gave us a smile, gave us food and picked us up on the road. Thanks to them we managed to hitchhike 30,000 kilometers through Asia until reaching Greece and therefore we strongly believed 30,000 times in Humanity."
Unfortunately not all of them are in the video, but we do have them in our hearts❤️ -
http://trotamoon.com/people/
LABAS from Lithuania🇱🇹! In two and a half days (56 hours) we managed to hitchhike 1689 kms thanks to 13 cars (Dutch and Polish drivers). Our super heros yesterday were a cool polish family who picked us up on the quiet border Poland-Lithuania and brought us to Vilnius. It is an amazing feeling to have managed this because we had doubts ourselves... We are still believing in humanity 😍
Greetings from Vilnius!! 👍
New and short trip: Heading to Vilnius (Lithuania). First time hitchhiking in the Netherlands and we have to say...it went very smooth! We were nervous upfront about the reactions...but we just had to wait 3 minutes until the first car stopped😃 and the Dutch people were very helpful and their reaction were very positive! Super kind people💓🙏 Yesterday we set a new record and we hitchhike 921 kilometres with the help of 6 cars! We crossed the Netherlands, whole Germany and now we are in Poland!! Greetings from Poznan😍
"Paso firme, espalda recta y mirada al frente. Que no se note que no tenemos ni p**a idea de a dónde vamos"
The Erasmus bridge is one of the most iconic parts of Rotterdam. OK... We know it is not like the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra but in everything you can find the beauty. 😍 And...It is super nice to re-discover this city in the most dutch way... By bycicle 🚲☀️🔅 ❤️
Rotterdam is not a city which will be "love at the first sight". Some people are not fancy about this city because it doesn't have the Disneyland environment that many Dutch cities has (for instance Delft or Utrecht). Yesterday we were walking towards many different spots in Rotterdam. We were walking from crazy skycrappers and futuristic buildings to the traditional Dutch houses hearing Turkish, Papiamento, Sranang, Arabic, English, Chinese, Dutch and I can't tell which languages more... An amazing melting pot. Right now this city feels home.🙏❤️
Groetjes vanuit Nederland 😋 Greetings from the Netherlands.
Willem finally showed me those beautiful tulip fields 🌷🌷🌷
HITCHHIKING in MOROCCO: We did 2127 kilometers thanks to 28 cars and 5 trucks.
Hitchhiking was pretty easy and safe. In comparison with other countries where we hitchhiked in Asia, here they understand what we are doing and we met many locals hitchhikers. We got home made cookies, a bottle of parfum, two prayer necklaces (one muslim and other Christian), invited for lunch several times and the most important we met amazing and helpful people on our way. And we always invite them to come to our home but they always say: insha'Allah 🙏
Yesterday we hitchhiked 386 km from the quiet coastal town Sidi Ifni to the busy Marrakesh. We got picked up by very interesting people. One humble school teacher who was running foundations for orphans and handicapped children. Afterwards we got a ride from a British guy and his lovely dog which he adopted from Greece. He was a nurse. He helped out refugees in Greece for a year. And then the last ride the director from a big company. He told us that he earns more than the French president Macron and didn't want to have family because "if you marry you stop growing".
A day with many contrasts...and when you hitchhike you definitely make an encounter with all layers of society and hear different voices. Hitchhiking is not just moving yourself forward with the help of people but overall a learning experience.
And then we arrived at the surfer town Taghazout. After a few minutes we already realised that we aren't as cool as the guys overgere. The Moroccan surfers have their own style (the curly and blondish hair topped of with a cap), peace and love and of course you hear Bob Marley on the background😂. We don't look as cool at all next to them 🤣We see surf clothing, surf boards,l and surf instructors. We also see many tourists with pinky/reddish sunburned skin (don't forget to use suncream!). Everything is about surfing here. A guy with perfect Spanish asked us if we needed help. "We just arrived here and look for a place to sleep but we don't plan to surf". And then the guy asked.. "so what are u guys doing here?" So... Again... We don't know. 😎😂😅
Yesterday our hero was Lahcen, a super friendly Moroccan man from Agadir. He picked us up on a quiet road from Essaouira to Taghazout. On a day we thought it was going to be difficult, and then he appeared. He actually made some stops to show us few beautiful places and we had lunch together in a fisher town. He is a lovely man😊. We were lucky again 🙏😍. We always find nice people around the world! Shukraan 😊
Beautiful trash! Plastic everywhere 😞
After being in Asia we realised how much plastic we use for everything because the waste management in some countries is not as good and you see the trash everywhere. We became more aware and started reading about "the zero waste movement". We stopped using shampoo (Anna is using now rhassoul clay), we make our deodorant, we hydrate our body and face with coconut oil and now we are making our tooth paste as well. We also started drinking water from the tap (the water in Morocco is pretty good, the taste is much better than in Valencia) and we always bring our bags for the groceries. It is sometimes hard to make a zero waste lifestyle because everything comes with a package and most of the times is plastic package but small steps can make a big difference. We know we can't change the whole world but still... Why not tying? If we think about our parents, grandparents or grandgrandparents. They were not surrounded by so much plastic. We are in the era of plastic. Zero plastic is much better! Our beautiful planet will be grateful🙏😊
😍 4 days ago we started our day of hitchhiking from Fes. It was a rainy, windy and cold day. Perfect day to hitchhike 200kms 🤔. This young guy of 24 years old stopped. He couldn't speak English, Spanish and neither Dutch (obviously 😂). But we understood he was happy to bring us to Rabat. We spent half a day together, crossed several police controls, ate typical moroccan soup (harira), and he showed us pictures from his family. We didn't know what was his work until yesterday when he showed us his amazing studio. Before entering we had no idea about it. We didn't expect this at all. He and his family are making this beautiful mosaics 😍. It is very difficult technique. They shaped the small pieces and like a puzzle make this beautiful walls, all pieces of art. He is an amazing artist. Before departing to Casablanca he gave us small pieces. Beautiful souvenir😍. Shukraan Ahmed😍🙏🙏
Tetouan was a city ruled by the Spanish (Spanish protectorate in Morocco) until 1956 so many people speak Spanish. We could feel the Spanish influency all around. The architecture, the street signs, the food, they even have a Spanish cinema and they also watch lot of Spanish TV. They do have a beautiful and lively medina. Unfortunately this picture is the last picture our camera could take. When Anna saw the goats she immediately wanted to walk next to them. A flashback of our times when we were sheperds in Mongolia.
Tetouan was lovely city, and there weren't so many tourists but we weren't lucky with the weather.
Now we don't have a camera and we have to use our phones (so unlucky because we are now in Chefchaouen, a beautiful and charming city). Anyway... Willem is watching YouTube videos see if we can repair it ourselves. 🤗 insha'Allah 🙏
Tangier has for centuries been Europe's gateway to Africa. We crossed the strait of Gibraltar and immediately see the differences between both sides but somehow it feels familiar. We see the labirinth of Varanasi (India), a little bit of Turkey and Iran as well. A city where a complete mix of people gather. As being a border city, a gateway and having one of the biggest ports of Northern africa it attracts all those people.
One thing we were wondering was, where are the locals eating? An man answered us, "here we don't eat outside so if you want to get real Moroccan food you have to go into the family homes." Just 30 km from Spain and it is a new world to discover 😊
After 8 months we are happy to be back on the road! ☺️ Yesterday we hitchhiked from Sevilla to Tarifa (the most southern part of Europe) and hitchhiked 144 kms. The last 50 kilometres we had to take the bus because after hours of waiting still nobody was picking us up. Oh yes, we heard it many times "It is very hard to hitchhike in Spain" and after the long day we had yesterday we can confirm... Spain has been the hardest country that we have hitchhiked (so far). Anyway we always keep our smile and try 👍
After arriving to Tarifa we took a ferry and one hour later we arrived to Tangier. Greetings from Morocco ☺️
Happy women's day!
This picture was taken exactly one year ago in Iran. In our travels we always notice that the women's position is worse than of the men and inequality is still considered the norm. This inequality in some countries is worse than others but still in all of them lots of battles and revolutions need to happen in order to break with this norm. We have felt inspired by meeting many strong women in all those countries and they made us feel strong and confident that we will break this norm and equality will be there for all of them. Jargalan in Mongolia, Daya from India but living in Sri Lanka, Susu in Myanmar, Lana in China, Jinling from China but living in Thailand, Elham Bigdeli in Iran, Kalaiarasi Rajagopalan in India, Belkis in Turkey, Fytra in Malaysia and Mati Pellicer (my mother) who is a superwoman. 😍 And many more...
Happy New Year!!! 2017 was an amazing year for us. We celebrated 3 times new years! The Christian, the Chinese and the Iranian. Unfortunately 2018 is not going to be like this but ok... We are now in Sevilla so we can't really complain. Culos inquietos 😂
For one and a half year we were always the guests. so now it is our turn... during the last 4 months we hosted friends from Australia, The Netherlands, Sweden, France, Venezuela, Spain, Colombia, Germany, Australia, England, Lithuania, New Zealand, Greece and a 2 months baby born in Malta with German passport (no, we are not running a hostel or doing airbnb...) We are definitely making Picanya (Anna's hometown) and surroundings very international !! 🙂 lots of love, hugs, positive vibes... and of course, merry christmas to all of you!!
We can wear a lot of make up, but what makes us really beautiful is an authentic and sincere smile. And that we can't buy!
*Lovely women in Yunnan (China)
Tip for those traveling in China: If you need WIFi and you don't have the password, check the WIFI connections and try the following password: "88888888" or "12345678". They might work! 😊
This was one of the most popular postcards during Chinese New Year in Malaka (Malaysia). This is the Great Wall of China. We didn't want to see the Great Wall together with thousands of other tourists (because in China, when something is touristic, it can be very very crowded). Therefore we went to the non restored part. The wild part. The part of the wall which is not open to the public. Some people asked us if this picture was taken from a helicopter or drone. It wasn't . This picture was taken from Zhengbeilou Watchtower (991 meters). We climbed the wall and walked over it for 10 kilometers. Honestly it was not easy. Don't do it with flip flops or sandals. Anna would not do it again, Willem would do it when it is dry. It was impressive, it was beautiful, tiring with lots of adrenaline and some tears. If you are a rock climber this is easy for you. And once you are there you can understand why they call it "The Great Wall".
*Greetings to who listened to this story over and over again. 😊😊 we miss you!!
Beautiful Ancient village "Huang Yao" in Yangshuo (China).
*If you ask a Chinese her/his favorite number guess which number it is? 😮😊
Remembering China!
China was one of our favorite countries in Asia. Not so much for its beauty since we just went to random cities and did not visit all the "must sees" but because we experienced a generous and exciting China. We don't know who were more excited: us to be in China or the Chinese to see us. Probably it was interesting for them to see two foreigners of 1,80+cm eating a noodle dish for breakfast and sitting in those tiny chairs. China made us tired of those big and industrialized cities but we felt welcomed everywhere! In China we learned that you can cross the whole country twice (from south to north and vice versa) by hitchhiking without speaking any Chinese! Trust us we really tried but to hit the right tone (they have 5) is very difficult. It was challenging but it was so nice! We met this wonderful man, we called him "the baker". He brought us with a van packed with bread to our final destination. We laughed a lot with him. He could not stop talking to us in Chinese even though he knew we could not understand and speak a single word. And he was the first Muslim Chinese we met! 😊 this was our first day of "hitchhiking"- and after...30,000 kilometers more were coming! Lovely people around the world 😍
Willem feels Valencian (almost). Besides that he loves the paella he is telling stories about Valencia to a local.
Most of the times when we travel we try to discover and learn from each single corner of the places we visit.
Do you know the history of your city/village?
Read, listen, explore and learn..you will be surprised! Right know you are missing out on lots of interesting stories but once you know about them...that specific statue, building, street corner that you are passing already for many years without knowing will be looked at with different eyes. ❤️ valencian autumn
Three months in Spain. Home sweet home. It went fast and slow at the same time. Willem is feeling happy here, he is in the best Spanish school ever (Ele Aleph) and he learned a lot in just one month. He also found a really good hair dresser in town and his name is 'Jesus' (not everyone can say that "Jesus" is his hairdresser). And the best part of the day is the breakfast on our terrace. Anna always says... The Mediterranean has one of the best climates in the world 😊 and ey... We can't complain ☀️
Moon
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"So the main characters of the story are not us, are them. All the people we met, the people who hosted us, gave us a smile, gave us food and picked us up on the road. Thanks to them we managed to hitchhike 30,000 kilometers through Asia until reaching Greece and therefore we strongly believed 30,000 times in Humanity." Unfortunately not all of them are in the video, but we do have them in our hearts❤️ - http://trotamoon.com/people/
Hitchhiking in Iran is not just a hitch from A to B. It always includes dry fruits, nuts, sunflower seeds, lots of tea and of course big and warm smiles 😊😊👏👏
Amazing birthday wishes from Porto Alegre (Brazil) Roberto MUITO OBRIGADO. You're awesome, you're great, really you're great. Anna first Willem second :)
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