Tmoon
The stats
My definition of 'hitchhike': a journey made
- for free,
- arranged at the moment the journey starts
- with the explicit consent of the vehicle driver,
- who is otherwise a complete stranger to you
(i.e. no car-pooling schemes or similar, public transport drivers must agree to let you travel without paying, and lifts from friends-of friends, work colleagues etc don't count)
Adventure #1: The Gent Escape, August 2004
Adventure #2: Home to Home to Home, June 2006
Adventure #3: "Jedzie Pan do Wrocławie?" "Tak! :)", June 2006
Adventure #4: AWOL in Europe, July-September 2006
Adventure #5: Bummit to Belgrade, March-April 2007
Distance travelled: 8860km of which 4977km hitchhiking alone, 2068km with one other hitchhiker, and 1815km hitchhiking in a group of three; done 8280km by road, 580km by rail, and not hitchhiked by sea or air... yet
Longest lift: I think it's 352km, through Germany from Inntal Ost (A93 services) to Pforzheim Nord (A8 services), September 2006 - and by the goodest good golly gosh were we grateful for it
Longest journey in 24 hours: 1042km, Rome, Italy, to Lausanne, Switzerland, August 2006
Countries hitchhiked (earliest first): Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia
Most useful lift: Gabor the Hungarian, who picked us up at Pforzheim Nord and didn't care where he was going - he wanted to be a personal taxi service. So we got him to take us to a mate's house in Kelkheim, 177km away. Although neither of us trusted him, and he tried to abduct my travelling partner, it was one hell of a useful lift
Least useful lift: the Slovakian white van man who took us to the wrong side of Bratislava, on the wrong motorway and facing in the wrong direction, making us fail the Bummit to Belgrade competition
Best hitchhiking spot used: Brunautal West (A7 services) in Germany, where three cool Danish guys dropped me off in front of around 200 hard rock fans going home from the Wacken festival. I could pick and choose... the only way the situation could have been better would be if I was among a crowd of hippies
Worst hitchhiking spot used: an empty motorway junction outside Meerane (near Zwickau), Germany. All hope seemed lost. Whilst I was thankful to the previous driver for going 50km off his route, he did it so as to drop me off in the most useless place he could find
Shortest time waiting: a couple of seconds, at Antwerp, Belgium. A driver pulled up just as we'd picked our spot, and took us towards the Netherlands. My travelling partners both fancied the pants off him
Longest time waiting: a spot in central Cologne, going east. I'd used the spot the year before and it took 2 hours for a lift to arrive. This time we weren't so lucky; after waiting for eight hours, we cut our losses and hitchhiked a train
Biggest moment of genius: none. In this era, your average hitchhiker has a few screws loose
Biggest moment of stupidity: spilling freshly squeezed orange juice onto my rucksack and sleeping bag whilst trying to thumb down a VW camper van outside Jönköping, Sweden on a hot, sticky afternoon. The van didn't stop and I had to grudgingly trudge back to Jönköping centre, wash out my equipment and catch a bus
Planned hitchhiking trips
Yes, some trips are planned :). I don't like hitchhiking alone as much as I like it with someone else, so if you're also interested in doing some of these trips then let me know!
Ireland
Germany
- Hahn > Traben-Trarbach > Klöden, Aug 30-31
- Klöden > somewhere (Frankfurt-Main? Prague?) > Denzlingen, Sep 3-6
- Denzlingen > anywhere, Sep 9-...?
Isle of Man
whenever there is a free day and some sun