Hitch Hiking

rebelccfc wrote: »

Have you ever hitch hiked somewhere?

Like a boss.

London to Prague in two lifts.

1. London to Zeebrugge with a trucker on the truck only Ferry. Free food, drinks and bed to sleep in.
2. Zeebrugge to Prague with a trucker who was on his way to Istanbul.

Job done.

Sorry to tell you but that means you are the weirdo.

Oh. That...does make sense. Would that explain my strange obsession with door knockers too?

Are any of you women or know women who have hitch hiked? I would love to do it someday....something to tick off the aul list! But as a female I would be a bit scared of doing it on my own.

Met a few girls hitching, but most of them were going as part of a boy/girl duo, which I guess is safer. Can't say I'd feel as comfortable going it alone as a female.

There is an annual European hitchhiking gathering that seems to end without any (reported) fatalities, though. Never tried it though, but hope to maybe next year...

In the late 70s and up till I went to England in the mid 80s I used to hitch everywhere. There wasn't the money for buses and everyone did it. Used to hitch around Dublin city during the bus strikes in the late 70s too.

Only had one really dodgy experience and several weird/edge of dodgy ones. A friend and I hitched from Dublin to Clonmel, to collect my passport, and back to Dublin one summer's day. Arrived back in Dublin at 6pm and decided there was enough time to hitch to her home in Ballinasloe before it got dark.

We made it as far as Athlone and were very pleased to be so close when we got picked up by two guys in their very early 20s in a gold Chrysler Alpine (never forgotten the bloody car). They were heading to Galway to some dance and asked us to go along. We refused on the grounds that her parents were expecting us but that we might come along later but they got very insistent. On the outskirts of Ballinasloe she gave me a dig in the ribs, muttered that they'd turned off the main road and at the same time told them to stop messing and to leave us off there. The lad driving laughed and told us that we were going to get what we deserved. They drove us about 15 miles out of the town up byroads and down boreens and finally pulled up in the middle of absolutely nowhere and told us that we should put out or get get. they didn't use that phrase but that was the gist of it. We got out. They drove up the road and we started walking back the way we'd come. A couple of minutes later they sped (is that even a word?) back towards us. If we hadn't jumped the ditch they'd have run over us.

We were terrified. Eventually we came to a house and gathered up the courage to knock on the door. Talk about more terror. The whole family came to the door - they were Cletus and Brandine from the Simpsons, except there were at least 4 sets of grandparents and they had more kids. We felt a bit out of the frying pan into the fire. They gave us lots of funny looks and complicated instructions on the way back to Ballinasloe which was about 13 miles away. We began walking again with dusk closing in. We hadn't listened too well to the instructions because we'd been so tense and nervous. We heard an engine again and panicked that it might be the two in the Chrysler back again but it turned out to be a tractor in a farm yard. We ran towards sound and found a man of about 70 getting out of his tractor. We asked the way to Ballinasloe and he looked at us like we were mad. We explained what had happened and he insisted on driving us back to town. Such a nice man.

Back in the safety of her house we discussed whether we should ring the guards but decided against it in case we had to give names because she'd get into trouble for hitching. She'd told her mother that we'd gotten a lift from a friend. I hope those bastards died in a single car collision before they pulled that stunt again. It didn't put me off hitching though.

Then there was the guy who picked me up on the bridge in Waterford and dropped me in Clonmel 21 minutes later and that was before the bypass. He had a low slung yellow Fiat sports car.

Another time I was hitching to Dublin from Clonmel and in Kilkenny got a lift from two guys in a van. I was a bit on edge getting in because the guy on the passenger side got out so I had to sit in between him and driver. Struggling to make conversation I looked in the back and stupidly asked them why they had the back of it carpeted - cue lots of dirty sniggers and knowing looks. The driver asked me did I like kissing men with moustaches and I turned into a simpering miss in defense claiming I didn't kiss or somesuch. I was only 17 so got away with it. They stopped in Naas for lunch and offered to buy me lunch but I spun a story about having to get to Dublin quickly. They said if I was still on the road they'd pick me up. I was never so anxious to get a lift from anyone, even an axe murderer rather than have them pick me up again.

Also hitched in Canada - a couple of times.

Just came across this thread - I was introduced to hitch-hiking last summer in Eastern Europe, having previously thought it was "a bit weird". Met a bunch of Polish kids in a hostel in Kosovo (of all places) who were headed my way the next day and asked if I wanted to join them instead of taking the bus. They had previously picked up a German guy, so in all there were 5 of us.

The next day we split into 2 groups and started the adventure. We didn't have to wait long, and even though the lifts only brought us a few miles each time, we never had to wait long for another ride. Thanks to the linguistic skills of the guys I was hitching with (the Polish guy altered his Polish so that he could communicate with the Serbian speakers, and German is popular in the region too) we got an amazing insight into the people who lived in the area. We were picked up by a couple of ethnic Serbs, who are the minority in the region and were obviously suspicious of the Albanian majority who were trying to force them out of the area they had lived in for generations. There was an older couple who had lived in Germany for a while, and a Kosovan who now lived in Finland.

The most amazing lift was from a Kosovan who now lived in Geneva. We got a lift from him just as we crossed the border to Macedonia - I was joking with my German friend that the car he order had arrived (it was a very swanky top of the range Merc) and it stopped right in front of us...we couldn't believe it!

It was also a lot of fun because we had split into 2 groups, it was like we were racing the other group to our destination. I didn't really do a whole lot of hitch hiking after that, since I was female travelling alone and a bit apprehensive, but I did a little in Romania a few weeks later when I missed a bus and was left stranded at a salt mine. I was picked up by a lovely man who had his baby daughter in the back of the car, so I figured I was safe enough. He had assumed I was Hungarian because I was so pale, and we had a nice chat in English.

The Poles had an amazing adventure all the way around Macedonia, Albania and Serbia - they ended up camping in town squares, playgrounds, in hotel grounds, in a hill overlooking Lake Orhid in Macedonia - none of the locals seemed to give a crap.

A Romanian friend of mine (also female) recently hitch hiked to Northern Ireland for a couple of days and got a great reception from those who picked her up (they seemed nostalgic for the times when it was more common). I have yet to hitch hike here, but I really want to give it a try!