I made a mistake earlier. What I would really like to know
about is hitch hiking through europe. Has anyone got good or
bad storeys that can convince me either way. Please let me
know. I will not have the largest budget when I travel so I
need to save money. What about camping through Europe. I
drove aound Australia and camped for 1 year so that is not a
prob...any storeys again.
Thanks for all your help
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Hitching thru europe is quite fun. If you're going to camp,
who's going to carry all your gear?
Come to England! Its a cool place for campers but your best keeping
out of the cities because there is no where to camp( but then you have
probably figured that out already!), See Scotland and the Lake
District District.Jump remember to pack your waterproofs because trust
me you'll need them!?!
Here's something I wrote for the presentation on my conversation classes. Hope you find it useful, if not amusing!
PS. Just in case you're wondering where those weird place names come from, I'm from Slovenia.
MY OWN HITCHING PHILOSOPHY
I first came accross the idea of hitching while in secondary school. One lovely summer day my best friend and I decided to try our luck on the local highway. We didn't care for buses since they were too boring and too expensive. After all, we were big girls already. So we stood ourselves near the petrol station where chances were best, put on humble looks and raised our thumbs. We were extremely lucky. Some nice fellow almost our age picked us up immediately. And that was it. From then on I only took a bus to Ljubljana when my mother begged me to, saying something like 'Oh, my child, no offense, but all those maniacs... Please!!!"
But nevertheless I didn't give up and I haven't so far. My first solo hitching trip occurred when I was seventeen. I had a boyfriend in Zagreb and I concluded hitching was the fastest and cheapest way to get there. Of course, my parents didn't know a thing about it. It happened while they were at the seaside. Croatia was still dangerous at the time and my mum would die if she learnt of my adventure. Maybe it was why I found it so exciting. And indeed it was a wonderful experience. I learnt how to live with the road, how to make it work for you. I started calling myself a babysitter of asphalt. I still do.
I soon developed my own hitching technique. Mostly I stand by the side of the road with my luggage at my feet, smiling bravely and looking innocent. Apparently it works. It might sound naive, but whenever I'm on the road I'm trying to feel its spirit, search for traces other hitchers left, in short, make friends with it. Well, the fact is that I never went without a lift for more than half an hour when alone.
If you travel long distance hitching, you are more likely to catch a genuine spirit of the country you're in than if you travel by train, plane, or car. First and most important, you meet natives of all kinds. And since people mostly give lifts because they're bored and they want to talk, you get firsthand information about things you want to know. The hint here is: try to make them criticize their own flock. If the drivers are open-minded enough - which most of them are, or else they won't pick you up - you get the picture of their society more complete than on Internet. Once in Dover I was picked up by a Scouser who hated his country so much that he moved to Spain. First thing he said to me was 'I only gave you a lift because no fuckin' Englishman would do so.' Thus began a two-hour lesson during which I learnt all I'll ever have to know about narrow-minded, paranoid, and egoistic face of workers on Elizabeth's farm. Maybe I would learn even more if the lesson wasn't given in an unintelligible Merse dialect, but I still felt so grateful for the instructions that I almost forgot I basically wanted to reach London. Similarly I recognized IRA as last Irish problem, was taught that Albania is a dream place to visit, and watched Germans tremble as soon as Hitler was mentioned. In short, hitching gave me the view of the world nothing else could.
MY OWN RECORDS
The longest lift I got was in a Greek truck which took me from Calais, Normandie, to Verona, Northern Italy. The ride was long thousand kilometres odd and it lasted for nineteen hours. The driver was very kind - he showed me family pictures and letters from his daughter - but unfortuntely a language barrier came between us. He spoke five languages, approximately ten words in each.
My shortest lift occured one winter night as I was coming home from the party in the neighbouring house. A guy in a blue Volkswagen bug picked me up and delivered me to my door itself - majestic two hundred metres!
My fastetst long-distance hitching trip was getting home from Berlin. It took me fourteen hours and five lifts from Spandau to Cesta v Mestni log 70, which is about 1100 km.
The slowest lift I got was a Croatian truck which needed three hours for about hundred kilometres of German Autobahn somewhere between Munchen and Stuttgart. Regarding the fact that the road was absolutely jam-packed, fair enough.
There is no evidence of the fastest lift, but I reckon two Croatian guys who flashed me through Austria at 200km/h got pretty close.
The most pleasant lift of mine was that from Saarbrucken on German-France border as far as Paris. I was picked up by a German guy who carried several thousand copies of 'Der Spiegel' magazine to French metropolis in a small van. I slept like a baby on the top of them.
My craziest came by occurred in Bohinj, Slovenia, where three of us were picked up by a Renault 4 already crammed with five stout skinheads. Since it was five in the morning and we were exhausted from disco dancing, we accepted it. And we had mad fun listening to TajΦi tape all the way.
i hitched through europe around the summer of '97 and had
virtually no problems. the countries included greece,
germany, france, belgium and luxembourg. i also used a 1.5-
man macpac tent, sleeping bag and thermal mattress, which
was not a lot of gear (i'm not into that scene where mainly
young yanks get around with sports/shoulder bags and slag
off backpackers - if you're hitching properly and have any
self respect, you want to be prepared for hard walking and
for all sorts of conditions). for me, france and germany
were probably the best places to hitch. just be sure to
find the right highway entrance. in greece it was good but
far from amazing. the greeks seem to think you've got no
pride to be resorting to such a measure or are too worried
that you're from the russian mafia. belgium was also good,
but beware the brussels ring road, which is quite difficult
to get around. luxembourg was the worst. the snobs in their
mercs, bwms, audis... at servos all just tell you to catch
the bus. and only once, in france, was i picked up by a
trucker. If you're worried about dangers, the only problem
i had was with the macho, but friendly young male drivers
in southern europe, who seemed keen to show how fast they
could get me places.
I had a great time hitching and camping in Europe- the only
unpleasant experiences were in Greece- but even most of that
was the best. Hitching out of Amsterdam is a matter of time
you will find so many other people trying to hitch from the
same spot you just have to wait your turn.
What we tended to find was that lorries dont' pick you up in
Europe and cars don't pick you up in the U- this is of
course vast generalisation but mainly true. Remember that
although lorries are the coolest way to travel roundthe UK-
they are all speed restricted so it can take a long time to
get anyway. But I guess that if you are hithcing then
probably time is not a problem. Enjoy the roadside
graffitti onthe way- always the sign of a popular hitching
and adding you rown is only increasing the enjoyment of
others- let's face it- who else is ever going to be
standing there?? It is not proper vandalism.
Have a great time
Hels