How To Travel The World For Free

After reading the first chapter of How to Travel the World for Free I realised that travelling around the world for free isn’t for me. In this chapter, Wigge scales a high fence and gets food out of a restaurant bin in Berlin.  I’d rather stay in hotels and eat in cafes and restaurants!  

However, this is an extremely enjoyable and often hilarious account of Michael Wigge's journey from Europe all the way to Antarctica without money.  He works hard, meets lots of interesting people and has plenty of adventures.  He also manages to do a lot of sightseeing.

Wigge has to be very ingenious at thinking up ways to earn money along the way.  He becomes a human couch, earns money for pillow fights and endangers his health by carrying tourists’ luggage up high mountains in South America.  Wigge also tries to be a butler to the German Ambassador to Panama in a very funny scene in the book. He also begs restaurants and shops for food by telling his story.  

He mostly relies on couch surfing for his accommodation.  Sometimes, this enables him to live in luxury for a while but this is rare.  One man lets Wigge stay in his comfortable place for five days by himself, for example.  Wigge stays in many unusual places, including forest dwellings in Hawaii with Hawaiians who are proud that their ancestors killed Captain Cook!

Wigge meets girls who give him hash cookies in Montreal, a professional gambler in Las Vegas, and a large Columbian family who are kind enough to look after him for ages.  He learns all about the history of Hawaii and Hawaiian royalty and provides lots of fascinating information about the places that he visits.  He especially loves San Francisco with its scenic harbour, steep hills and seaside atmosphere.

He has lots of adventures and finds himself in many dire situations so I almost cheered when he finally made it to Antarctica.  The photos were good and helped me imagine his escapades. I enjoyed this book so much that I’m thinking about buying the DVD!