Winter
Hitchhiking in winter can sometimes be very complex.
Essential rules
For the more advanced, as well as for the beginner, there are some essential rules to take care of:
- First and most important: Wear warm clothes!
- Limited daylight: In winter, most time of the day it might be cold and dark. For example, around the 21st of December there is only 8 hours of sunlight per day in Western Europe, so it's already dark at 5 in the afternoon. If you don't want to find yourself hitchhiking at night (when temperatures drop even further), you have to carefully choose your routes.
- It's good to stick to gas stations on the highway, where you can wait inside, next to the coffee machine with a sign.
- When on an on-ramp, bring a torch to shine light on yourself and your sign. You should also try to stand someplace where there is a lot of light from the streetlights.
- Dry cold air is not as bad as when the air is humid.
- Some people prefer to dress in layers like an onion to keep warm and unpack as it is needed. However, alex prefers to not have a lot layers under a warm jacket as cars are mostly well heated and he hates the hassle to dress and undress for every (short) lift he gets.
Equipment
When hitchhiking in winter, temperatures can be very low. In case of longer waiting times, bad weather conditions and other things, a hitchhiker should carry these (more or less) essential equipment with him/her:
- Gloves/Scarf/...
- ...
- Long underpants, woolen ones keep you warm outside but do not let you sweat inside
Traveling through different climate zones
It can be a problem when you travel from warm to cold zones or the other way around (and you like to travel light with little luggage), e.g. during Winter from South Iran to Turkey. However, traveling from cold to warm seems to be less a problem as, when you get to the warm zone, you can just ship your winter stuff back home. Nevertheless, it does not have to be costly or implies heavy luggage to travel the other way around. Long woolen underwear and gloves (alex got some from a driver in Iran before he even had the possibly to buy some somewhere - thanks Ali!) can be found on most markets during winter time.
How do you deal with shoes? I couldn't come up with an easy, light and cheap solution. I bought now some new ones in Istanbul as my old ones are finished anyway and they have been quite cheap here, but that's somehow not ideal, but I do not want to carry and wear boots in the hot either. What is the Russian hitchhiking gear solution?
