The Sunhitcher, a Book by Tomi Astikainen

The Sunhitcher is a story about a lone guy who embarks upon a journey without money. Helped into the moneyless journey by unpaid student debts in Finland, Remmus Reverof, the protagonist, is a delightful mix of truth and fiction based upon the writer’s own experience as he journeys 90,000 km in search of love on a journey that spans (at least) one and a half years. Love within oneself, within others, and within the world. The story is a mix of thoughts and events, interactions and loneliness. In the journey there are highs and there are lows, but there is no grey area in the middle.

The narrative delves deep within the characters personal beliefs and relationships, offering a frank and straight up view of the world and things that are going on. It shows the nature and extent of both people’s kindness and lack of. Hitchhiking, eating, and sleeping are all dependent upon others along the path as there is no money involved in this journey. This ensures a roller-coaster of success and failure.

If you want a little bit of inspiration or a kick in the right direction, this book is a good starting point. It is an adventure without boundaries and without entry requirements, other than a little bit of faith and a whole lot of love.

Notable Ideas Within the Book

An address of Kabbalah and the willingness to give and receive. Ultimately it culminates in the idea that the highest modality of existence is to receive for the sake of giving. One accepts something, not for personal gain, but to please the giver.

The Book of Boring Questions answers all formality questions that a person feels obliged to ask about another. By having this book, one can limit conversation to interesting topics rather than practicalities.

The existence of Beneficio, a modern day thriving hippie community in the Alpujarra mountains.

The idea that there is only one thing better than happiness and that is freedom.

That one can always find a purer form of everything, ranging from refusing couch surfing because it is too much luxury through to not using passports because they are artificial restrictions against freedom of movement.

Hope is not the same as optimism. It is the certainty that something makes sense, rather than the conviction that it turns out well.

The flaws that one loathes most in others, may actually be the flaws that one sees clearest in oneself.

The Sunhitcher Cover (English)It’s OK to be lost.

Polyamory. The idea that love is not limited to one person. As long as it is based upon honesty and openness, it is different from cheating or polygamy.

Closing Remarks

I stumbled upon this book by chance. While reading through the website, I realised that I had briefly met the author at a hitchhiking festival in Lithuania several months before. However much is truth and however much is fiction, I hope that the journey continues. Truth is often what we make of an event, thus it is only in the eye of the perceiver and it should only be taken with a pinch of salt. This is a brutally honest, and sometimes graphic adventure that makes an enjoyable read.

Where Can You Get This Book?

You can download the book for free from the author’s website by clicking here.

By | 2014-12-01T23:10:37+00:00 January 21st, 2013|Thoughts and Inspiration|2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Tomi Astikainen 03/11/2014 at 03:11 - Reply

    Hi bro,

    Thanks for the publicity! 🙂

    Here an updated download link: http://astikainen.wordpress.com/download/

    • Jamie 01/12/2014 at 23:11 - Reply

      Thank you for sharing you story Tomi. And for the updated link – I have updated it. Happy wandering, I hope you’re enjoying wherever in the world you are now.

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