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[Interview] Across the EU without a penny

[Interview] Across the EU without a penny

BRUSSELS –- Kris Mole from Brighton, England, is the 24-year old brain behind 'The Great Euro Freebie Challenge.' He aims to raise money for Cancer Research UK, by visiting the 25 capitals of the European Union, without spending any cash.

KrisMole.jpeg

Kris with a friend in Spain

Can you explain us your project:'The Great Euro Freebie Challenge'?
I'm in the middle of a challenge to get to every capital city in the European Union that are on the continent without any money in my pocket. My goal is to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Basicaly People follow the blog [ www.euro-challenge.blogspot.com ] and then sponsor me [ www.justgiving.com/euro-challenge ]. I have raised £1400,- so far. I hope to make £1500 for my charity before my challenge ends. I started on November 1st, so it's been four months and a week now. Hopefully I'll be done within four to five weeks. I started the challenge for a personal reason, my aunt had cancer when I started the trip, she was in a hospital having therapy. And since I started the trip she passed away. So now it's giving me more motivation to finish. And, the BBC interviews me on the radio every two weeks. They also have a webpage dedicated to my challenge as well. Somehow they just found out about me and then wanted to start following the story.

How do you get around?
This is the difficult part, sometimes hitchhiking, but most of the time I take the train. In Western Europe I usually get on the train with no money and see how far I can get. And in Northern Europe, it's possible to speak to the ticket inspectors and persuade them to let me ride for free. I only had to sleep outside a couple of times and then I would went into a train station and slept in a waiting room, which is not too bad.

Which countries have you already passed through?
At the moment I'm in Brussels. I already visited 20 capitals, of which three capitals that are non-EU. I started in Stockholm, went from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, back to Slovenia, down to Serbia, up through Bulgaria, Romenia, and Hungary, back to Slovenia, through Italy, to Switzerland, then through France, down to Spain, through to Portugal, back up to France and Luxembourg.

You have been in Slovenia two times, why?
For two reasons, one because it's in the middle of the East and the West, so I used it as as my go-through. Secondly, because I lived there for three years, so I know the place. I'm on my way to Amsterdam now and I still have to go to Prague, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki and Athens.

What has been your worst experience?
There have been a few, but right at the start of my challenge, I was trying to get from Berlin to Warshaw and a ticket inspector chucked me off of the train at the border on the German side. So I had to walk across the border but I couldn't find a train station anywhere and it was snowing. And because I was new to the challenge I didn't want to sleep outside. I tried hitchiking for a couple of hours, when I realized I was at the wrong side of the motorway to go where I wanted to go. It took me about 15 hours to get from Berlin to Warshaw, actually not to Warshaw, I didn't even make it to Warshaw, I got to .. 15 hours went on the train maybe one and a half hour journey and this was bad.
Another bad experience was that the fact that I got salmonella in Poland, that's the reason why I didn't eat for four to five days. I felt like I was almost dying.

What is the most incredible thing that happened to you?
Maybe... being stuck in a train station in Bordeaux, meeting a complete stranger when I had nowhere to go and hadn't eaten for three days. I was about to sleep in the trainstation, and one Chinese guy asked me if I could translate the French for him from the machine. So I helped him and then I realised: "Finally somebody who can speak English!" I explained him my situation and asked if he could buy me some bread. Instead he took me to his student home, cooked me dinner, let me sleep for the night and saved me.

Another good thing also happened to me in France. I was trying to get from Geneva to Lyon, where I had arranged a place to stay with a friend's friend. Unfortunately, I was thrown off of the last train of the night and I got stuck in a small village, 50 km from Lyon called "Amberieu". At a local pub, I asked the owner if I could use her phone, so I called my friend's friend and told him I wasn't able to make it and would sleep at the train station. After our talk, he asked if he could speak to the pub owner and they ended up speaking for 10 minutes. She gave me back the phone and the guy said that I could stay in the room above the pub. Well, that was another time when I could have been sleeping in the streets, but I got saved.

Or maybe the best moment was in France when I have got invited to help in a homeless soup kitchen for the evening. I was giving homeless guys hot chocolate and food and they were really happy to get something and I really felt good because I understood now how it was like to have no food and nowhere to go. And they were saying: “This is the only thing I had today.” But the ridiculous thing was that they had eaten more than me.

What do you plan to do after finishing your challenge?
I'm keeping a diary with all my different experiences. At the end I plan to put it all together into a book and I already have a contract deal with a publisher, so hopefully that's my next project.

If you are interested in reading Kris' blog and perhaps want to make a small contribution, then have a look at:
www.euro-challenge.blogspot.com and www.justgiving.com/euro-challenge