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Hitch Hiking

Nomis21

Has anyone Hitchhiked recently? How did it go?

I am a 50+ male couchsurfing host and have hitchhiked with many couchsurfers around Ireland (All females). We always got lifts within half an hour and sometimes within minutes. never got stuck anywhere. The more remote the road, the more likely a car was to stop for us when it came along.

The only place I ever had to give up was trying to hitch out of Dublin.

Why is it that the people who tell you that hitchhiking is dangerous have never actually done it?

Do you stop for hitchhikers?

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Santa Cruz

Ruu wrote: »

I pick up hitch hikers so I can have someone to talk to, offer them to come around to house for a cup of tea. You know, normal stuff.

Are you Larry Murphy?

Santa Cruz

keano25 wrote: »

Pulled in on the mobile once, looked in the mirror and saw this fella with a rucksack coming up behind me like Linford Christie.

Put two and two together and started to slowly drive along the hard shoulder.

After about 50 yards he gave me the finger, I gave him a beep and off I went.

Was quiet funny at the time.

Oh the fun we had doing that years ago. First the look of delight on their face as you stopped, then a little inquisitive look as you move away slowly, then the full blast of anger, two fingers etc. as you put the boot to the floor

fineso.mom

I gave a lift to two backpackers who were walking towards killarney from Farranfore in the pouring rain. They weren't even hitching and were on the other side of the road. Turns out they were Dutch and somehow thought Killarney was easy walking distance from Kerry airport. When they realised how far it really was they were very grateful.
I wouldn't normally do it but it was lashing and I figured bad guys would hardly travel in pairs and carry huge rucksacks.

Markcheese

I hitched a fair bit, here, England (not so great), australia and NewZealand, really enjoyed it...
Last time I hitched here wasn't so successful... (car was Knackered wasn't waiting for the bus) waited ages for a lift. Bus passed by , in the end my brother stopped, laughing his ass off ....
I wouldn't stop with the kids in the car, never stop in the work van and rarely see anyone anyway... I'd stop if they looked like a tourist and am definitely ageist..

Santa Cruz

Markcheese wrote: »

I hitched a fair bit, here, England (not so great), australia and NewZealand, really enjoyed it...
Last time I hitched here wasn't so successful... (car was Knackered wasn't waiting for the bus) waited ages for a lift. Bus passed by , in the end my brother stopped, laughing his ass off ....
I wouldn't stop with the kids in the car, never stop in the work van and rarely see anyone anyway... I'd stop if they looked like a tourist and am definitely ageist..

"ageist"? Do you mean the younger they are the greater chance of you getting them in to the car

Markcheese

Santa Cruz wrote: »

"ageist"? Do you mean the younger they are the greater chance of you getting them in to the car

More or less, If they're in 20s or early 30s then yeah, after that I'd think are they a bit odd or weird...

Bang_Bang

Karl Stein wrote: »

Went to the edge of Killarney town and stuck out the thumb, got a lift off Dracula.. well, a guy known as 'Paddy Drac' from Dublin who was going to Waterfjord, via Cork, to do a gig for some kids. We must have looked a state but Paddy Drac was a Boss and gave us a lift anyway in his big Ford Granada.

Fair play to Paddy Drac.

I grew up where he lived, sound man alright.

Micky Dolenz

I pick hitch hikers all the time. When they introduce themselves I respond with... "Do you mind if I call you number 21?"

PizzamanIRL

I always pick up hitch hikers but they pay me at the end of the trip. Feckers always say 'Well are ya busy?'

I think it's some sort of euphemism in the hitch hiking community.

fleet_admiral

Ruu wrote: »

I pick up hitch hikers so I can have someone to talk to, offer them to come around to house for a cup of tea. You know, normal stuff.

then make a jacket out of their skin and a table from their legs?

Raminahobbin

Picked up my first ever hitchhikers last week- was on a bumpy little laneway heading to Mizen Head and they were clearly backpacking tourists. They were quite nice and very appreciative- I would have felt like a dick to drive by, especially when I would have seen them in the visitors centre a few minutes later anyway!

lazeedaisy

nc19 wrote: »

Why should they get a free ride??

If I saw anybody over the age of 30 hitching I would think to myself why should they get a free ride. Why can they have lived 30 yrs and not done enough with their life to afford a car or at the very least a bus ticket

You for real?. Jeez.... Glad I live in such an open minded country full Of :rolleyes:

I regularly pick up people looking for a lift, due to the fact that public transport is not reliable in the rural area I live in. We don't all live in big cities with a real transport system, a few years ago they cut a lot of rural buses and it's had a huge impact on rural communities. I am glad to say the village I live in is a community who look out for each other, we are not ageist thank god

I would never think about it, it's just what it is and who cares why?..

I recently picked up a 50 y/o Brazilian man travelling the world, and had been in Ireland 3 weeks. Fascinating to listen to hs travels, why he was travelling etc, but to be honest, if anyone needs a lift I am happy to stop because I can

Nomis21

Back in the day I often hitchhiked from Roscoff to the South of France and back. It was easily done in the 80's.

I once got picked up by an attractive young french girl just outside Roscoff.

I told her that it was the first time that a single girl has stopped for me to give me a ride and I suggested to her that perhaps the girls might be frightened of me?

Her answer... "Tout le monde ont peur de tout le monde"

Hitchhiking is a great way to learn a foreign language

Markcheese

Nomis 21 you fecker....I've no idea what that means ...
Best I got was " c'est Ne pas interdit faire l'camping sur l'plage .... Or something like that ... Quite a few times ...

Nomis21

Markcheese wrote: »

Nomis 21 you fecker....I've no idea what that means ...
Best I got was " c'est Ne pas interdit faire l'camping sur l'plage .... Or something like that ... Quite a few times ...

"Tout le monde ont peur de tout le monde..."

"Everyone is frightened of everyone"

(She wasn't frightened of me though, which was cool)

C.K Dexter Haven

When in college years ago, got a lift from a guy driving a big 1 year old jag. He was playing motivational tapes(as they were back then) on his stereo. He talked about how brilliant they were and how they helped him focus and hell, who was I to argue- penniless student Vs guy in big Jag.

Wonder where he is today. Hopefully enjoying a great retirement somewhere, real decent guy he was. His key point was hey, believe in yourself, keep yourself going. Had a lot of respect for him at the time, no nonsense kind of guy.

MonkieSocks

fineso.mom wrote: »

I gave a lift to two backpackers who were walking towards killarney from Farranfore in the pouring rain. They weren't even hitching and were on the other side of the road. Turns out they were Dutch and somehow thought Killarney was easy walking distance from Kerry airport. When they realised how far it really was they were very grateful.
I wouldn't normally do it but it was lashing and I figured bad guys would hardly travel in pairsand carry huge nucksacks.

Son Of A Vidic

Duggy747 wrote: »

Main thing to remember is to never pick up someone who looks like Rutger Hauer.

Or Christopher Walken.

Shakespeare's Sister

Nomis21 wrote: »

Why is it that the people who tell you that hitchhiking is dangerous have never actually done it?

Because they think it's dangerous I guess.

Paddy Drac - brilliant!

Mr. RED

Where y'headed?

C.K Dexter Haven

Mr. RED wrote: »

Where y'headed?

Cork!

Mr. RED

C.K Dexter Haven wrote: »

Cork!

Grand so!

Hop in the back there beside that suitcase that doesn't contain a hitchhiker I picked up last week. Sorry; I meant suitcase that I am taking on holidays to Cork; yes; Cork! Of course!

Hop in!

fryup

C.K Dexter Haven wrote: »

I saw two female backpackers a few weeks ago in Galway hitching from Spiddal into the city. Not 1 car stopped in 1/2 hour. I was a bit surprised at that to be honest, I would have thought someone would have stopped.

must have been mingers

C.K Dexter Haven

Mr. RED wrote: »

Grand so!

Hop in the back there beside that suitcase that doesn't contain a hitchhiker I picked up last week. Sorry; I meant suitcase that I am taking on holidays to Cork; yes; Cork! Of course!

Hop in!

But this is a motorcycle

Mr. RED

C.K Dexter Haven wrote: »

But this is a motorcycle

Well hop on the back there so!! Don't mind the rucksack that doesn't contain lots of food. Sorry; I meant rucksack of clothes that I am taking on holidays to Cork.

Hop on!

alias no.9

Nomis21 wrote: »

I would rather dismember the drivers who DIDN'T stop for me.

Never had a problem with someone just because they didn't stop, it's the attempts to somehow convey an apology or excuse for not stopping that used to irritate me (last century, it's been a while so could be very different now).

I saw some hitchhikers yesterday for the first time in a long time. I just kept going.

philstar

reminds me of a tale my uncle told me, he was a travelling salesman..he used to give lifts to people back in the day....but one day he gave a lift to a young french fella...drove for a few miles not peep out of the guy, my uncle thought well maybe his english isn't too good ..but all of a sudden the frenchie leans over puts his hand on my uncle's knee and whispers in his ear.."lets make love" well my uncle nearly drove off the road he got such a fright..(bare in my mind this is back in the 70s when such things were unheard of in ireland)...so he sped to the next town made an excuse he had to go for a errand and watched from a distance behind a tree until yer man left the car

never gave a lift after that

SafeSurfer

I carry fava beans and a nice Chianti on view in the car. Leather gloves and some rope in the passenger door. It really cuts down on the small talk pretty quickly.

C.K Dexter Haven

Mr. RED wrote: »

Well hop on the back there so!! Don't mind the rucksack that doesn't contain lots of food. Sorry; I meant rucksack of clothes that I am taking on holidays to Cork.

Hop on!

SafeSurfer wrote: »

I carry fava beans and a nice Chianti on view in the car. Leather gloves and some rope in the passenger door. It really cuts down on the small talk pretty quickly.

Safesurfer meet Mr. red, Mr. red, safeSurfer. I'm sure you'll get on famously:P

Nomis21

The first time I came to Ireland back in 1982 was by hitch-hiking. The most amazing point about it was that I wasn't planning to come to Ireland at all. Living in London, I was unemployed and bored so decided to go down to the start of the M1 motorway and go hitchhiking to Wales for a few days. After a few minutes an articulated truck pulled over and stopped for me. It had an address in Northern Ireland written on the side so when the driver asked me where I was going, I said "Northern Ireland". He said it was my lucky day and that he'd take me all the way to Belfast.

He said I was very brave to be going there for a holiday in the middle of all the civil unrest, but in London the 'troubles' were on the TV every night just like the weather forecast and most people didn't really pay much attention, including me.

That changed when I got my next ride just outside Belfast city from a German tourist who had just had his car wired up by the UK bomb squad ready to be blown up in a controlled explosion for parking in the wrong place. The German was so terrified of it happening again, he paid for all my food and accommodation for me to stay with him for a week as we travelled all around The Causeway, Derry, Donegal, Galway and Kerry and back on the ferry to London via Dublin.

The only scare we had after that was crossing the border near Derry and getting rifles pointed in our faces when the German didn't think he had to stop at the checkpoint. My London accent got us through that, so I was glad to prove a bit useful.

I've hitched thousands of miles around the World since then with plenty more stories to treasure from experiences that would never have happened on paid transport...