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'''"But isn't that dangerous? I don't think that's a good idea. Especially, not for girls."'''
I had a few people tell me this before my first solo-hitchhiking experience. This was my first mental block. And you know , the image of a psycho-killer (''Qu'est-ce que c'est ?'') driver. I planned to hitchhike from [[Leipzig]] to [[Kraków|Krakow]] and started the day with a sign, a quick look at this wiki, and some big expectations. But due to a case of the scatter-brains and ego, I got off at the recommended site but walked along trying to find a better spot by for myself. I asked for directions on how to get on the A14 highway but got directed toward the A38 highway instead. Increasingly tired, I settled for a place with some sort of proximity to some a highway.
'''My Sign/My Attitude'''
'''Defeat'''
Near the bus stop, after munching on some sort of würst, I talked tried communicating briefly with a what little German I knew with the guy working at the gas station. I told tried to tell him that I was headed to Dresden and was wondering where I could hitch a ride. He told me the area in front of the station could work. I stood there for about half an hour before losing faith in the process and heading to the train station.
'''Dresden'''
'''Attempt #2'''
The next morning, I got up and checked the [[Dresden]] website. This time I copied down the information word-for-word. I still had my a size-too-small sign but I overlooked this fact at the time. I got to the hitchspot at noon and waited for the next two and a half hours with no luck. At this point, I was frustrated and a bit confused on what to do next. After wandering around the center of town, feeling a bit down, I went and bought a A4 notepad and marker. Not wanting to pay for another hostel and wanting to be unreasonablefeeling defiant, I found a random place in the woods to pitch my tent. [[File:SuccessfulSign.JPG|thumb|this one worked for dresden]][[File:Route66.JPG|thumb|goodies from a kind-hearted trucker]]
'''Fear-Be-Gone'''
The time in the woods was the turning point of my so-far-failed-experiment. After passing a bunch of verboten signs and unsure exactly what I was doing, I ended up alone in the woods. Once it got dark, all my fears set in. Every sound I heard sounded like a footstep and every flash of light felt like an approaching threat. I managed to willed will myself unconscious after a few hours of paranoia. When I woke up at 6 in the morning and felt like a new person, I was strangely invigorated. What I had imagined to be threatening in pitch-black darkness, turned out to be a bunch of squirrels and birds. Later I also found that out I would have had a choice in of couches to stay in Dresden, but so it goes.
I tried the same location in Dresden again, and this time 15 minutes in I had a ride halfway to the German/Polish border. A succession of signs led me through [[Wrocław|Wroclaw]], [[Katowice]] and [[Kraków|Krakow]]. At the rest stops, I waited no more than 5 minutes for the next ride. Overall, the day was glorious...I was speeding down the autobahn, talking to an owner of a quarry, a trucker, a state attorney, a middle-aged couple and a leftist-magazine editor. '''Adventure TimeFinal Words'''
'''''Hit the road Jackie!'''''
[[Category:Stories]]