At the beginning it looks like a piece of cake. In Belgium, Michael Wigge is welcomed on board a ship bound for Canada and taken to a luxury cabin, until the crew discovers he is not a paying passenger. From this moment on, he has to paint ship railings, inspect containers, count tins. And sing karaoke with the Filipinos on board the ship.
He reaches the USA via Montreal, spends a night in an Amish village (in a barn) and is given a bible and a bike. He cycles across Ohio until he eventually trades in the bike for a bus ticket to New Mexico. In an ancient Mustang, he drives along Route 66 to Las Vegas where he stays in a hotel. But after a week, he continues his journey. After Los Angeles and San Francisco (and an unexpected but not entirely unwelcome detour to Hawaii), through Mexico, Central America and the entire South American continent, he arrives at the Antarctic. He is spared nothing, because every day he has to approach strangers to get something to eat and drink and to find a place to sleep.
Michael Wigge writes about couch surfers, “freeganism” fans and American railroad vagabonds who were thought to have died out after John Steinbeck. He takes his readers on an unusual and entertaining journey that proves that the world isn’t a bad place after all and that a lot of things are possible if you know exactly what you want.
