Hitchhiking from Scotland to Turkey?

‘Ah man I can nae belive yu, yu’ve got some cheek min. That’s the only reason A’ve picked yu up yu know. I’m tellin yu, go to googlemaps and check the history of this place - it’ll say “dinnae go here, groups of men with bats and dogs threaten security”. Or something like that.” Mikey tells me as we are just about to leave the outskirts of Edinburgh to venture south.

I had just began my trip for the summer, which entailed hitchhiking from St Andrews in Scotland to Istanbul. From the very beginning luck appeared to be on my side as I somehow managed to get out of some Edinburgh suburb with the hep of Mikey.

‘Right, so you where exactly are you heading again?’

Mikey replies with a wide smile: ‘Ah nowhere min, like I said it’s yur cheek that made me give yu a lift. But dinnae worry, A’ve got no plans till five. I can bring yu anywhere yu like within a two hour radius from Edinburgh, I just wan to be back home for ma tea.’

This luck continues downwards and with a couple of lifts I arrive at Wetherby Service Station near Leeds. By chance this was the exact same place which I had camped out on once before, during my hitchhiking trip to the Latitude festival. With rain splattering down onto the wet and somewhat flat spot that I had found after crossing a small tree covered hill, I set up camp for the night.

The next morning the journey continued and I arrived in Dover much earlier than I had anticipated. However, this is where the luck turned as there were nil people willing to stop, understandably because there really was nowhere to stop. In the end this meant I had to buy a passenger ticket, and wait in the P&O ‘lounge’ to get on the ferry.

‘Wow, this place is surprisingly empty, isn’t it?’ I say to the woman sitting next to me, who happened to be the only other person waiting in the P&O hall that could’ve comfortably seated about 40.

‘Absolutely, that were just my thoughts actually. I guess people don’t really travel across the channel without a car nowadays. What brings you here then?’ She replies and turns towards me on the metal bench.

After a brief overview of my plan to hitchhike to Istanbul from Scotland and continue by plane to Iran, I find out that she had decided to volunteer in ‘the Jungle’ for a couple of days while on break of her work as a producer of television. Ultimately we continue the conversation throughout the journey and due to her having booked a room with three beds I was able to sleep in a comfortable hotel for the night. Thus, it appeared that what seemed unlucky turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as no matter my speed it would've been impossible to get to Amsterdam that day and I would’ve had to spend a night in my soaking tent.