5,983
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
no edit summary
If you're hitching in a foreign country, it might be a good thing to express your nationality on your sign. Drivers will think you're more interesting, or will feel sorry that someone who lives that far off has to stand by the road in his country. Also, compatriots will be more likely to pick you up.
For example, [[User:Nathan|Nathan]] and [[User:Rocky|Bob]], who hitched through France had great help writing '2 belges' on their sign. [[User:Guaka|guaka]] was successful with a sign "from Holland" in both [[New Zealand]] and in several parts of the [[United States of America|United States]], once by a Dutch girl living in [[Santa Cruz]], most people were happy to pick him up just because they thought Holland was cool (oh and one guy was smoking weed in the car).
=== How to fabricate your sign ===
If your destination is really far away, writing it discourages drivers to take you nearer. E.g., if you are in Perpinyà, and you write Valencia in your map, it is unlikely that drivers heading Girona, Barcelona, Tarragona, Castelló... will stop, leaving you hundreds of miles nearer to your destination.
Some hitchhikers think it could be better not to use signs at big crowded petrol stations where it's up to you to ask people, like in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Germany]] on motorway [[petrol stationhitchhiking|petrol stations]]s (and speaking fluent English/German). It's not very likely that holding a sign will help if you can already clearly state where you want to go (and even show it on a map) and that you are hitchhiking.
Others always have a sign. To show it to people while their still in the car and then ask them when they pass by to pay for their petrol. If they don't understand what's written on it they also ask. And I already have it with me when getting out of a car, so people sometimes ask me right away if they can take me... So it's definitely good to have it. It doesn't have any negative effects so why not use it?
