An Interview with Kris Mole, Skint In Europe (1/3) By Steve Rudd

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3).

Intrepid travellers unite, and meet Kris Mole... metaphorically speaking! He's a globetrotting man on a mission, determined to visit the capital city of every EU country on a budget of... wait for it - NOTHING! And all in aid of charity, too! How, you might ask? Well, if you read this here interview that Kris took time out to conduct with Steve Rudd, all will be revealed... Hi Kris, how are things?

Hi. Well, there have been better times, but overall I'm fine, thanks. If you'd asked me the same question before yesterday, I would've told you I'm feeling on top of the world, but things are getting rough now I've hit the East.

You are currently attempting to get around Europe without any money whatsoever. What inspired you to do what you're doing? I finished my job in a Brighton language school at the end of the summer as I was about to go into the Army. I'd already got through the process, pretty much, and was due to go for my fitness test, when I managed to damage my ankle ligaments quite badly at football training.

I didn't fancy looking for another job, so I was thinking of something cool to take up my time. There were a lot of initial plans that I kept tweaking, until finally I'd come up with this challenge and decided that it was so mental that it was perfect. Also, I really want to do this to raise money for Cancer Research to do something to help. That's the main goal.

How tough has the art of relying on charity been so far? In Scandinavia it was the easiest thing in the world. I only had to tell people what I was doing and they were so eager to help me. I really had only positive experiences up there. Then as I got into Germany it became a lot harder, almost impossible actually.

Basically, rather than relying on charity, I decided that I had to break a few rules and get myself into little bits of trouble to achieve my goals. Saying that, it's only in a professional way that the Germans are mean. The young people that I met and stayed with treated me like an old friend that they couldn't do enough for. For that reason, I don't want to slag off the Germans in a general way. I made some great friends there that I'll have for the rest of my life.

Do you have a rough route in mind to take you across the continent, are you literally making this mad stunt up as you go along? I'm pretty much making it up as I go. Looking at the map and seeing where I should get to next. Yesterday I couldn't decide between making my way from Berlin to Prague or Poland, for example. In the end I opted for Poland, and after some tough times here I am.

After here I'll attempt to conquer the Baltics, and hopefully get myself onto a boat to do Finland too. Then I have to come all the way back the same way through the Baltics and Poland, and after that I don't know. I'll play it by ear, and see what happens.

Continued .... Next Page (2/3)

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