🌍 Traveler Spotlight: Lieven Artels
A fun talk about learning how to hitchhike, the joy of hostels, and traveling during fatherhood
Hey friend, welcome back to Itchy Feet. Sorry for the delay between posts! This week is something special.
My good friend Lieven Artels joined me recently for an interesting interview about his travel experiences. Lieven’s one of my favorite people to travel with, so this talk was a lot of fun.
Let’s dive into topics like hostels, hitchhiking through Europe, and what it’s like to travel after starting a family.
Reading time: 12 minutes
Can you share a little about yourself?
Sure, I’m Lieven Artels. I’m from Ghent, Belgium, and am 38 years old. I’m a teacher.
We met in Murcia, Spain in 2014 when we were doing the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program (NALCAP).
We became friends for many reasons, but one is that we love traveling.
How did you get into traveling?
In high school, I played a lot of chess. I’d travel to different chess tournaments. Most of the time this would be within Belgium.
A few times I went abroad to play, like to Greece, India, and other countries. This was my first taste of travel and being somewhere else.
I loved it. I loved breaking the routine and speaking a different language.
In college, I’d have long summers. I read a bunch of Bill Bryson books. Most of them were about traveling.
They woke up something inside of me to travel. So, every summer I’d pack a suitcase and go traveling. I went around Europe and the US.
What was traveling like during your first trips?
In Europe, I’d just take a train between countries and stay in hostels.
More than seeing new places, I enjoyed it for the adventure. I liked not knowing what was going to happen next, who I was going to meet, what I’d do. I wanted to see the world.
Traveling was different than today. This was before smartphones.
Things were very basic. I’d pretty much just arrive in a city and start looking for hostels.
I wasn’t prepared. I liked the unknown.
I’d just start walking around looking for hostels. Or I’d ask around at the train station.
I remember hostels had a nice atmosphere.
A few years after I started traveling, I heard about Couchsurfing, and then I started using that for my travels. This was between 2007 and 2014.
It was a great way to meet people. The internet was still pretty young.
CS was a great way to connect travelers and it improved my travel experience. It’s a good way to meet and stay connected to people.
Now, I think CS isn’t as good as it used to be.
Do you think hostels are safe to visit?
Hostels have a different vibe. You meet a lot of people at the same time.
There are lots of people from different countries. It’s usually the cheapest option and the best option.
In Europe, I’ve had mostly positive experiences.
You’d have like 6 or 8 beds in a room. They are younger, cooler people. There's a bar. There are people telling you where to visit. You immediately have people you can explore with.
In the US, I was surprised at how different hostels were. You would have like 20-30 beds in a room.
Not everyone was traveling. Some people could have been drifters. I remember not making any friends hosteling in the US. Maybe I went to the wrong places.
I also got bed bugs one time in New York, so that vastly influenced my opinion of American hostels.
How much does technology play a role in your trips?
Not much, really. In general, even in life, I like to stay away from technology as much as possible.
I think it takes something away from the experience if you’re on your phone or taking pictures the whole time.
Whenever I need directions, I always ask people.
I used to write down the address of the hostel I was staying at. I’d randomly search for a hostel. I’d ask a random person. Then another, again and again until I finally found my way.
Often, people would accompany me. I’d make friends along the way. It was part of traveling.
I noticed around 2014 or 2015, people would take out their phones whenever I’d ask for directions. That changed things a little bit.
For me, I liked traveling when smartphones were not that ubiquitous.
Technology takes something away from the travel experience. I prefer it old-school.
I’m thankful I got to travel in the “olden days.”
What have been your most memorable travel experiences?
In 2010 I made a trip to Morocco. I visited the desert, Marrakech, Fes, and Casablanca. That was a very nice trip.
Also, I did a month-long interrail three or four times around Europe. I went to a bunch of countries.
I’d take a train, visit a place for a couple of days, then take another train to the next place.
Europe is fun to travel because everything is close by. For example, you can go from Vienna to Bratislava by train in about an hour.
Major countries like Germany and France are very close.
Those were some of my best experiences.
I highly recommend getting a rail pass to see a lot of places in a short amount of time. It’s one of the best ways of traveling, especially in Europe.
When you travel by train, you have time to read and look out the window. You used to be able to meet other people traveling, but maybe now it’s more difficult.
You’ve done a lot of hitchhiking through Europe, can share more about that?
I was in Switzerland. I had a summer job as a night guard at a hotel. I was 23.
I’d have the day off every day, so I’d use this time to travel.
Trains were expensive there. The country was very expensive.
Someone at the hotel said, “You should try hitchhiking.”
So I went to the side of the street and stuck out my thumb.
I didn’t know anything about hitchhiking. The first person who picked me up gave me advice about where to stand and how to do it.
Basically, I learned to hitchhike from all the people who picked me up. They’d all give me tips about how to do it well.
In Switzerland, it was really easy. I’d get picked up after 10 or 15 minutes.
In one day, I could go pretty far.
In a different year, I found myself in Switzerland again. I wanted to go to Lichtenstein.
I took six cars to get there and seven cars to get back.
But it worked. It worked really well.
I met 13 people along the way. There was maybe two or three hours of waiting time.
In Lichenstein, I had a long wait. That happens sometimes.
You feel like you won’t get picked up, but then you do.
I liked it because it’s adventurous, it’s a different way of traveling. It’s a good way to meet people. It’s exciting.
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What advice did the drivers teach you for getting picked up?
It’s all about location. You need to pick a place where cars are approaching a highway in the direction you’re going.
Or a pass where everyone is going in the direction you’re going. You have to be visible.
For example, if you’re in a town you have to walk to the outside of the town.
You can also tell the driver what you’re thinking and get their advice about a good drop-off point.
Sometimes gas stations can be good. It can be annoying to people though.
You get to intuitively know where the good places are.
Would you recommend hitchhiking?
It’s been a while since I did it, but it was a lot of fun.
If you like adventure, traveling, and trying something new, then try it. I’ve been in over 100 cars and it’s been only positive.
Usually, the people who pick you up are positive or who have hitchhiked before.
Of course, it’s not for everyone.
Sometimes things may go slightly wrong and you need to improvise.
If you’re into that, then hitchhiking is for you. I wouldn’t recommend it to most people I know, though.
If you enjoy a planned vacation, then hitchhiking is probably not your thing. It’s ideal if you’re happy with the unexpected happening.
To be honest, I wouldn’t want my daughter to hitchhike. (laughs)
Did you ever meet a sketchy person and declined a ride?
One time someone asked, “How much are you willing to pay?”
I didn’t go with that person.
Other than that, I never said no. I never felt unsafe at any point.
A few times I’d be alone with a female driver. I realize now, that for these drivers there would be a totally different set of calculations.
I think for women, hitchhiking becomes something very different. The risk involved and the considerations you have to make can make it much more alarming.
The only time I felt unsafe was when my driver was passing other cars on one-lane roads.
He made risky maneuvers. If other cars were coming from the opposite lane, we could have died.
At the time, I didn’t think much of it. Now, as a father, I would have asked to leave the car.
Do you need a special mindset to hitchhike?
Yes. You have to tell yourself:
This is an adventure. At some moments it will suck.
You might be sticking your thumb up for a couple hours. This might suck.
But when you get picked up, and you know someone is going a few hours in your direction, then it becomes fun again.
In the end, everything worked out for me.
In the worst case, you may have to spend the night at a gas station.
How can someone prepare for their first hitchhiking experience?
I was always underprepared.
You could read up on hitchhiking. Make sure you look decent. Try to look like a decent student. (laughs)
Try smiling. When you get picked up, be talkative.
Be prepared to not be dropped off where you think you will.
Bring water. Just enjoy it. Enjoy the ride!
Make sure you know the culture of the place you’re at. In Spain, for example, people might not pick you up. In Switzerland, it was very easy. Don’t just try to hitchhike anywhere.
It’s one of the travel experiences I’m most proud of.
I got picked up by the police once. They told me I was standing on the wrong side.
They said, “We’re going to drop you off at this parking lot here.”
“But this is a bad spot!” And I asked them to just drop me off at a good spot. This was in France. And they did drop me off at a good spot.
This one time, also in France, I got stuck at a gas station at 10pm. A guy picked me up.
He said, “You should look for a hostel.”
I said I’d figure it out when I got there. He looked at me like, well, you’re hopeless.
He called his brother-in-law and said, “Ok, I asked them and they said you can stay with us.”
These kinds of experiences happen a lot when you’re hitchhiking. That’s what makes it so attractive. Most people who pick you up tend to be kind people.
As I said, I wouldn’t recommend it to most people. Maybe 90 to 95% of people shouldn’t do it. I think they’d be frustrated because it can be frustrating.
How has traveling evolved for you now that you have a daughter?
It’s completely different now.
When we travel, we mostly do it with the family.
Then you look for what’s interesting for kids. You have to consider where she can eat or if it's a long bus ride.
For example, my daughter gets sick if we travel by car or bus. We’ll travel by train and plane instead.
That does limit us geographically, but at the same time, you look at the world differently.
You look for parks and entertainment for kids.
For instance, I’ve been a single person in Murcia (where Lieven and I met) and now there with my family multiple times.
It’s a completely different experience but also truly nice.
As a family, you travel less. You have less time and more responsibility. But I’m cool with that.
I feel the type of traveling we did (hostels, Couchsurfing, etc.), was great when you’re in your 20s. You have more fun because you have that energy. You’re the same age as other travelers.
It’s different when you’re in your 30s.
Once you get to your 30s, you start traveling differently.
There are still many places in the world I’d like to visit. Visiting you (in the US) and South America places I need to visit at some point.
I’d love to do this with Sophie (my daughter), or maybe without her. We’ll see.
But when you’re younger there’s more of a drive to visit different places.
What kinds of experiences do you want to have with your daughter?
Now, I want her to experience what I’ve experienced.
Not just with traveling, but with everything like books, amusement parks, and museums.
I want to at least give her the option to do the kinds of things I’ve experienced and enjoyed.
My dream is to go on adventures with Sophie. We’d go to multiple countries, have time together, and hopefully inspire her to travel.
I hope she gets the travel bug and sees how beautiful it is to travel.
If I can do that, then that would be wonderful for me.
What values do you want to pass on to her?
Be curious and keep learning. Be open, flexible, and able to fit in anywhere in the world, and want to know the world.
Not be stuck in one particular way. Be at ease in any circumstance. These are skills you learn while traveling.
I hope she becomes a good human being.
Ok, last question: Favorite food, place, and culture?
My favorite food, well I like fries, waffles, and chocolate a lot. That’s very Belgian of me!
I also like patatas bravas (from Spain).
Murcia is where my daughter was born. I also made great friends there, including you. It’s a city where I have tons of great memories. I still enjoy every time I visit there.
I’m interested in all cultures. Ango-Saxon cultures are my biggest influence.
I read a lot of English books. So, I don’t have a favorite, I like all cultures. They’re all interesting.
Spain is nice though. Everything is open late. The people are great.
That’s it for this week, my friends. 🌅
Thanks again for reading this travel-inspired newsletter and THANK YOU to my good buddy Lieven for taking the time to chat with me.
Much love,
-Daniel
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PS: I’m always looking for people to interview to share their travel experiences. If you or someone you know is interested, please let me know!