The Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe
The episodic character of Stephen King's novel, "A flaming glance," a bearded truck driver, drove the protagonist with his daughter when they were in a desperate situation, and gave a farewell saying: "Life is short and the pain lasts a long time, and we all live on this Earth, to help each other. " Apparently, the founders of the Academy of Free Travel, who declared the hitch-hike the method of knowing the kindness and unity of the world around, also believed. For him, almost no money, but it is necessary to have an open heart, optimism and faith in people. It is necessary to trust the road, consider hitchhikers. Then she will lead you to where you want, in the most convenient way.
Invented hitchhiking is not complacent hippies, but quite respectable Europeans during the First World War. With transport, things were bad, but military trucks drove regularly, so their services were used by both soldiers and civilians.
Of course, in such a difficult time no one thought to take money for it. A new wave of hitch-hiking took place in England in 1926, during a strike of transport workers: motorists, who massively brought people to work, were very helpful. Already in 1933 the word ("hitchhiking") appeared in the Oxford Dictionary, and the Second World this method of movement finally legalized. Is it decent to "stop" cars decent women? As practice shows - nothing terrible in this. A friend of mine, a journalist, the mother of three grown-up children, travels peacefully around the country and her forty with a tail. The main thing is to be able to understand people. And, of course, go on the track early: the best time to start the journey - at dawn. Hitchhiking and bukkrossingom for modern man can be considered complete freedom of action and thinking.
Community hitchhiking is very friendly and sympathetic, it is always happy to help beginners. In order not to seek extra money and for an overnight stay, it is worth to join in advance one of the most popular guest networks in the world.
By filling out the questionnaire on the site, you express a willingness to host any of the members of the hitchhiking club and bookcrossing for the modern person who will inform you in advance about their visit, you, in turn, will be welcomed by other unfamiliar, but pleasant people. Community rules prohibit asking for money for this - except that sometimes, by agreement, guests pay for the phone or the Internet, or independently buy food. Of course, there is no guarantee that your guest will not have unpleasant features or habits, but this is not an excuse to stop doing good to strangers.
In exchange for your goodwill, you get a pleasant company and an opportunity to live in another country, so to speak, "with immersion", which is strikingly different from the sterile hotel and excursion comfort. And of course, to make new friends. True, this requires the possession of at least one foreign language at a conversational level.
The exchange holiday is another new trend that came into fashion thanks to the eponymous film. Of course, not everyone can find, therefore, eternal love, but is it worth waiting too much from a vacation? Clubs for exchanging holiday homes can be found online. True, membership in such organizations, in contrast to guest networks, is paid. This is insurance in case of dishonest guests or simply scammers: in the end, to give their homes to strangers is a considerable risk. Hitchhiking and buccrossing for modern man has become very popular in recent years.
Best gift
In the publishing circles they say that at the current prices for printing, the book will soon become a luxury item, and the tribe of bibliophiles will simply die out, won by the popularity of electronic books. And even I sometimes surrender that Bradbury in "451 Fahrenheit" was not so far from reality. Conquestador's attack against such tendencies was the young and daring movement of bookcrossing, which was born in 2001 in the United States.
Bookcrossers in their own way are fighting for freedom of information, doing everything against market trends. Are books becoming more expensive? And we will share them for free! Is book piracy severely pursued? And we will do so that one copy can be read by an unlimited number of people, and the law will not be violated at the same time! The ultimate goal of bookcrossing is to turn the whole world into one large library.
In practice, it looks like this: you take a book that you would like to share with the world, and leave it in a public place - on the coffee table, on the bench in the park, at the reception in the dentist's, in the cubicle for dressing in the mall ... More from you do not need almost anything. If you wish, you indicate on the book that it is "released" (the term of the bookcrossers themselves) for anyone who wishes to find it, such and such a number by such and such a person.
True, attempts to promote the bookcrossing movement in the post-Soviet space have so far been unsuccessful: our participants prefer to take books, and not share them. But the resource for the exchange of books - BukRiver - has gained considerable popularity, there you can change the publications that you do not want to keep on your shelf, or just give them to read for a while or to give. Community "bukrivertsev" is quite active, new income is every day. And, in my opinion, books should also be satisfied with this state of affairs - they exist to be read as many eyes as possible.
Fly on, hurry!
The Internet is the main source of free cheese. No, it's not about portals and file-sharing networks, where you can find almost any movies, music or books - with their legal status is still unclear. We'll talk about those places on the Web, where you can get just so material things.
Here you can give and receive as a present almost anything: from clothes and cosmetics to old, but working home appliances or retro-exotics like fountain pens and pioneer icons. Periodically, the peaceful life of such communities is violated by heated debates about how much more or an expensive thing it is decent to give or receive as a gift, but there it is still possible, with due diligence, to find everything from charging for a mobile phone to a piano.
You can distribute clothes that are not entered in your wardrobe with the help of such communities, but you can arrange a girls only party, collecting all the girlfriends who also want to get rid of boring things. Looks like a "wrapping party" like this: on the floor a huge unceremonious bunch of things are falling down, and the girls can rummage in them as much as they like - search, study, try on ... With light cocktails and good music - this lesson can be indulged! Presumably, almost all things can be done this way. Such parties are a kind of anti-crisis version of American "garage sales": everything is exactly the same, but completely for nothing!
What do we have after we had a fun journey, got a chance and shared a bunch of new books and other things, and along with new friends? Only take a break for a cup of coffee. And regret that we have not yet got the charming custom of some Italian bars. There, anyone who wishes can pay not for one cup of coffee, but for two. The bartender makes notes about this on a special board, and by the evening to treat yourself to a free cup at the expense of unknown kind people can anyone. Coffee, like information, should be accessible to everyone - and here we understand the Italians very well!