Stories

Alex and Kirsty, Castletown, Scotland

“This scar?” asked the man in the sports car who had just introduced himself as ‘Neil Neon’. “I got that sliding down a hill head first on a tea-tray at 70mph. It’s one of my hobbies…” Neil was just one of the eccentric but wonderfully generous people we encountered on Jailbreak 2011. Others included a garrulous blonde woman who loved quantum physics but who didn’t know where the M1 was; a small child so concerned about our pennilessness that she offered us chocolate eggs; and the amazing manager of Glasgow Queen Street station, who signed a Letter of Authority for free travel to Inverness! Thanks to the kindness of strangers, we eventually reached Castletown on the north coast of Scotland – 461 miles from Cambridge and (completely inadvertently) slightly further away than John o’Groats! On a windy January night, its boarded-up petrol station and single shop didn’t seem too appealing. But sunrise revealed a stunning coastline, and we realised our adventure had definitely defied our expectations.

Ant and Noami, Munich, Germany

When we set out from Parkers Piece on a cold Friday morning it was with the assumption that we’d still be there 36 hours later and either have to face extreme humiliation or photoshop ourselves into a picture of us in front of the pyramids. After two failed attempts to get free flights we were more convinced this would be the case. Luckily we were rescued by a beautiful German called Sebastian who we met in Dover who, despite not having any room in his car for passengers, volunteered to drive us all the way to Munich. What followed was an epic 14 hours driving across Europe through the night. Whilst probably the most surreal night of my life it was also one of the best, featuring a 4 am stop to make pasta at the side of the road and being played a tape of Sebastian’s own songs which he’d written about sustainable fishing… You probably had to be there. Despite the fact that he’d been awake for about 36 hours, Sebastian got us to Munich in one piece and we were able to do a cheeky bit of sightseeing before we realised that having got all that way for free, we’d actually have to get home somehow too.

Alex and Fiona, Paris, France

We got a lift from a Turkish lorry driver who spoke about 10 words of english but still wanted to chat with us. ‘Woman no sex, no sex’ meant female colleague and raising his hand to different heights meant son, father and grandfather. We were on the Paris metro in cow onesies attracting a lot of French disapproval and people kept asking us if we were recently married.. no idea why. Also we spent 2 hours drinking beer in a carpark with some French teenagers, completely forgetting the ‘get as far away as possible’ thing.

Josh and Yusuf, Normandy, France

Jailbreak was for me a pretty good experience. As much as anything else, it’s just about meeting people along your route, depending on the kindness of others who had no obligation towards you and being in new places (I can now say “I’ve been to Southampton, but I’ve never been to Scunthorpe”). My favourite memories from it are just to do with the time I got to spend with my partner really. We both used to be good friends in first year, but drifted apart as time went on. We hadn’t actually intended to be together, we both had other partners who had pulled out, and until about 3 days before we had assumed we weren’t going. We’d made no plans, collected no sponsorship, not managed to get work out of the way, but we did it anyway – and got to celebrate by drinking cider on the streets of Alencon, Normandy, in the freezing – really fucking freezing – cold.

Hester and Matt, Brighton, England

The lowest point on Jaibreak was when me and my partner were caught hiding in a train toilet on the way back to Cambridge. The ticket collector was not impressed but yielded after a few minutes of explanation and us almost bursting into tears!