Hitchhiking experiences?

Caesar_Bojangle

Has anyone ever hitchhiked or even picked up hitchhikers and do you have any funny or weird tales?

Only Human

Caesar_Bojangle wrote:

Has anyone ever hitchhiked or even picked up hitchhikers and do you have any funny or weird tales?

Yeah, I hitchhike everywhere during the summer when I'm in Roundstone, Connemara. Everyones so friendly down there so it's great, they'll pick you up no bother. We hitchhiked 10 miles to an off lisence and hitchiked 10 miles back again with four crates of carlsberg.

namaimo

Last summer I was in Hawaii and I missed the bus to work so I decided even tho it was getting quite dark I'd hitch to work as i feared the consequences of being late...
so I was only standing at the side of the road 2mins when a black pick up truck pulled up and i jumped in and said i was going to work&i hoped he wasnt going out of his way and this man in his mid 40's turned 2me and said 'no problem i just got outta prison and im on my way home...'
so i kinda turned from staring out the passenger window and noticed his clothes were covered in blood! so there i am nearly hyperventilating in the front seat and he turned and goes 'no!no! I work as a chef in the prison this is just my apron...'

Hester

I was just wondering about this recently when I saw a hitchhiker on the road out of town. I remember a few years back, it wouldn't have been unusual to see somebody hitchhiking there but nowadays it's a much rarer sight (at least in my area.) Do many people still hitchhike in Ireland?

I think it was last summer that I saw a guy hitchhiking on the same road, one evening I came home from town. I had something to eat, showered etc. and when I headed in to work a few hours later, the poor guy was STILL there

sound_wave

and you still didn't pick him up?

Gone West

Yeah I got a few lifts in clonmel before, i find that in rural areas its a lot easier to get lifts. Hitchhikers are normally just poor students, yet most people ignore them.

Hester

sound_wave wrote:

and you still didn't pick him up?

I was walking!

Anyway, I don't think I'd pick up a hitchhiker if I was driving on my own. The episode of Six Feet Under with the hitchhiker really freaked me out.

Waylander

I don't really have a problem with the concept of picking up hitchhikers, but I have to say that if I picked up someone that I could not stand on a journey of any distance I would go mad. This just puts me off picking hitchhikers up in practice

Gone West

sure, hitchhikers In my experience (both the 'hiker' and the 'hikee' !!) They won't talk unless the driver asks them questions. They will usually just be happy to get a free lift, evnen if it means not talking for an hour or so.

Pet

Waylander wrote:

I don't really have a problem with the concept of picking up hitchhikers, but I have to say that if I picked up someone that I could not stand on a journey of any distance I would go mad. This just puts me off picking hitchhikers up in practice

Ask them where they're going first.


Personally, I hitchhike now and again, when I've missed the bus or when I can't be bothered waiting an hour for the next one. I've waited for up to 2 hours for people to stop - it's ridiculous. Really feeds the oul' misanthropy..But when I have been picked up, I've only ever had good experiences, so I guess that makes up for it.

Willymuncher

Hmm well a few years back, we picked up a guy and brought him a good distance into our town and left him outside our gate, little did we know, he was on his way to kill a mother, her son and a priest in Whitegate, Co. Clare a few days later. Brendan O'Donnell was his name for anyone that would remember....he actually seemed a fairly nice guy before he err...did that. Stopped picking up hitchhikers after that though

irishgeo

Willymuncher wrote:

Hmm well a few years back, we picked up a guy and brought him a good distance into our town and left him outside our gate, little did we know, he was on his way to kill a mother, her son and a priest in Whitegate, Co. Clare a few days later. Brendan O'Donnell was his name for anyone that would remember....he actually seemed a fairly nice guy before he err...did that. Stopped picking up hitchhikers after that though

That would stop you picking up hitchikers. Your just unlucky.

Crucifix

I remember being very young in the back of the car and my dad picked up a hitchhiker, who started telling us too much about his private life very quickly. I was terrified at the time.

joejoem

No way, and reading some of these stories, No Way!

uberwolf

hitched a few times into work when the bus didn't suit. No problems.

My first experience hitching was when I was very small, I was tucked up in my dads jacket and the chap giving my parents a lift didn't know i was there for the first half an hour until I hiccuped.

netwhizkid

I have never hitchhiked in my life, although i don't drive, (because of high insurance costs) :mad: When i do start driving i would pick up hitchhikers, down my way in Kerry, it is called "thumbing" i know this will have the P*ss take out of it but thats what alot of people calls it. Basically it got that name from sticking out your thumb to get a lift. Like this thumb on top of my post.

Regards netwhizkid

gulp

namaimo wrote:

Last summer I was in Hawaii and I missed the bus to work so I decided even tho it was getting quite dark I'd hitch to work as i feared the consequences of being late...
so I was only standing at the side of the road 2mins when a black pick up truck pulled up and i jumped in and said i was going to work&i hoped he wasnt going out of his way and this man in his mid 40's turned 2me and said 'no problem i just got outta prison and im on my way home...'
so i kinda turned from staring out the passenger window and noticed his clothes were covered in blood! so there i am nearly hyperventilating in the front seat and he turned and goes 'no!no! I work as a chef in the prison this is just my apron...'

i would have a s*** attack in that situation!

boneless

I was hitching down in Clare once. I was having no luck and was getting a bit despondent. as the hours rolled on I was just sticking the thumb out when I heard a car. I heard one so put the hand out and the car slows down, stops right beside me and a voice said "Where were you a half hour ago?" It was the local cop and there had been a break-in in the area. I was in custody in Ennis for 24 hours!!

Who saw "My Cousin Vinny"? It was a bit like that. Oh! The outsider must have done it!!!

Sarky

When I was very young I was convinced that the gesture of sticking out your thumb was actually a pedestrian's way of telling cars that they're off the road and that they're free to pass them by. It made sense of all the available evidence...

Tar.Aldarion

so did communism