RIYADH: German hitchhiker Pia Budde thinks the Middle East is full of characters and subcultures.
During her travels from Europe to the Middle East she has been fine-tuning her Arabic skills and experiencing the region’s culture first hand. Since leaving her Berlin home, she has journeyed through countries including Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Budde said: “I started to learn Arabic one-and-a-half years ago. I wanted to understand this culture and language, because there are so many people in the world speaking Arabic. And I have to learn the language to understand them. If you learn a language, you also learn the culture behind the people who speak it.
“Not all places in the Middle East are safe, but most are very safe places. So, I said, OK, I want to go there, and I don’t want to take a plane, I want to prove to people that it’s possible to travel without flying because planes are very bad for the environment. If I travel without flying, I see a lot of places,” she added.
During her trip, Budde has met many people and increased her understanding of Arabic culture.
She said: “I’m here to learn about different lifestyles. That’s why I’m hitchhiking. It allows me to meet different people and go to all kinds of places, and to practice my Arabic.
“I always think that it’s better not to make plans because they usually don’t work out. I always say I go with the flow. If there’s an opportunity, I take it. So, my first thing was, OK, I have to go to Istanbul from Berlin. I thought maybe it would take me one week, then two-and-a-half days later, I was in Istanbul, and I was like, this is going well. That was the first step. I then decided to pass through Turkey, and I hitchhiked through the country.”
After enjoying her time in Turkey, Budde contemplated where to visit next.
“I tried to find a boat to go to either Egypt or Israel because I thought maybe I could go to Jordan. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a boat, but I got a ferry to Cyprus, and from there I had to take a plane because there was no other way to get to one of these countries.
“I flew to Amman and stayed in Jordan for two months. I just wanted to practice my Arabic. I had four to five months, and just wanted to enjoy the time but I did not want to go back by plane. I thought about how I could manage to do that, and now I have a route and hope to get a visa,”
she added.
Budde made her way to Saudi Arabia via Jordan and has visited Jeddah, Abha, and Riyadh among other destinations in the Kingdom.
