Take A (Virtual) European Road Trip

Footloose Norwegian photographer Sebastian Dahl, 25, recently went on a devil-may-care, Kerouac-inspired 10,000-kilometer (6,213-mile) road trip from Oslo, Norway to Beirut, Lebanon. Carrying little more than the clothes on his back, a small bag of provisions and his beloved camera, Dahl hitchhiked and "couchprovised"—his word for spontaneously crashing on strangers' couches—the entire way.

Altogether, he caught rides with 112 cars, trucks and scooters. He met, and was welcomed by, colorful characters including a sober (meditational) French ex-drug addict, a Norwegian book publisher with whom he shared common friends and an elderly Italian communist who opened up his home immediately when Dahl stopped him on the street.

It was the trip of a lifetime, the kind of improvised journey that reminds us of how beautiful, surprising and, well, surprisingly friendly the world can be, particularly when you fully embrace the fearless spirit of adventurous travel.

Scroll down through some of Dahl's photographs to ride along with him on the epic 6,000-mile ride (click on any to see larger versions):

Oslo-Beirut: Day 1
(Having a fantastic time hitchhiking so far.)

Last week in Paris. By chance and quite randomly Mélanie and I found ourselves at a really good concert by Chinese Army.

I might have left Oslo, but I'm not on holidays and here's a proof; last week I did a job for the young and talented people at Ours prod on the filmset of a short called "Chut!".

Gerald and Jef, 21st of September 2012
Getting back on the road after almost a month in France in a few days! *excited

Florence, October 28, 2012
Winter seems to be coming faster than I expected.

Rainy days in Roma, October 2012

Tomislav in Mostar, Bosnia // November 11th, 2012
I bumped into Tomislav in a bar the other day. He needed a scanner real bad, I needed a place to sleep so we exchanged services. I scanned photographed some documents for him and he let me stay at his place.
This picture was taken the next morning when we climbed to the top of a building in ruins to see the city from above. Tomislav is a retired ballet dancer from the National Theater of Croatia and he now works with web development.

Peter // November 8th 2012 // Somewhere south of Wien, Austria

Haris & Zekaj (father & son) // November 13th 2012 // Drove me from Podgorica, Macedonia to Pejë, Kosovo.

Macedonian countryside // November 2012
It ain't easy to be a vegetarian on the road :)

Sofia (Bulgaria), November 2012

Bulgaria, November 2012
I made a good friend who took me volunteering on the Bulgarian countryside. Together with some other nice people we removed cut reed and cattail material to create a habitat for rare Dragoman marsh dwellers. The biomass will be used for the production of (ecological) pellets for heating.

Istanbul, November 2012
Although I met some very nice people and had a good time walking around in Istanbul I didn't really like the city and left after only 4 nights.

Hitchhiking a thousand kilometers through Turkey, November 2012

Nevsehir, Turkey. November 2012
The only language that ruled here was Turkish, it didn't make finding a place to sleep easy but it was an epic night for sure!

Sleeping in a cave in Cappadocia, November 2012
I've seen worse sunrises and landscapes to wake up to.

Leaving Cappadocia, December the 3rd 2012

Lebanese mountains, December 2012

Beirut, December 2012



To learn more about Sebastian Dahl's awesome journey, check out his blog.