At 14.00 on Saturday afternoon, a little later than planned, Gillian and I set off for our Climate-KIC adventure. At the official Utrecht hitchhiking stop, just past the Galgenwaard stadium, I took out a black sharpie and wrote ‘Copenhagen’ on an old notepad. On the other side, to keep it a bit more realistic, Gillian wrote ‘Amersfoort – A28’, the next city on our route. At that moment, our states of mind could not have been more opposite. Gillian was the very picture of serenity, holding up the sign, beaming at every car that passed. I, on the other hand, was feeling very anxious, convincing myself that this had been a stupid idea, desperately thinking of contingency plans, feeling more and more rejected with every passing par, my plastered-on smile stretched so wide it was starting to hurt.   Then I looked at my watch. It was only 14.05. “Get it together,” I had to tell myself firmly, “there is still plenty of time.” The first time a car stopped for us, rel