These last two weeks I've barely had time or internet access. I'd arranged to meet Ilze — a Latvian girl I'd met in Riga — in Warsaw, to travel together during her holidays. All by hitchhike.
Our plan was to travel through Ukraine, but the weather forecast was grim. So once we reached Lviv (Ukraine) we headed south towards the Croatian beaches instead. When her free time was nearly up we made for Budapest, where she was due to fly back to Riga.
But she missed the flight. We checked prices for other flights from nearby cities and they were all sky-high — the cheapest was €200. After five minutes' thought I suggested hitchhiking the 1,500km back to Riga, and the "yes, I'm in" didn't take long.
The following afternoon, after recharging at a Budapest hostel, the race began. The idea was to reach Riga on Sunday so she could be at work on Monday.
Having already experienced the nightmare of hitching out of Budapest — the first 20–30 kilometres are hellish for getting a lift — I decided we'd take a suburban train. Less than €2 and it took us 35 kilometres out and left us 100 metres from the motorway, where we could start thumbing properly.
Ten minutes later we had a van for 35 kilometres, then another ten-minute wait and a Polish car heading home appeared. We rode with them to Katowice (southern Poland) and spent the night at a roadside motel, then continued the next day with the same people, heading towards Warsaw.
As you can see, even with the rush, there was still time for more
Halfway there we had to leave the car — we were hungry, lazy and thirsty. So we found a restaurant, had something to eat and made a start on a bottle of vodka bought at the service station.
After a couple of hours of rest we decided to get moving again as the sun started breaking through the clouds. In under two minutes we were in another car heading to Warsaw, which dropped us off on the road towards Białystok (towards Lithuania).
We got out of the car and had barely started mixing our first roadside cocktail when another car had already stopped for us. By honour, the devil take whoever leaves anything behind — we climbed in. This new car took us about 100km further. It was getting dark, so we started looking for a motel, hitched again and a pair of brothers helped us find one in Zambrów.
Next morning we stocked up at the Lidl — in this small town they weren't used to seeing foreigners, let alone ones with backpacks. As we assembled our picnic on the street everyone stared.
After digesting we continued hitchhiking towards Latvia. While we were waiting (under five minutes again) a Polish guy arrived who was also hitchhiking the same way. A couple offered to take us both to Białystok, and since there was plenty of room we offered the newly met Pole a seat too.
From there a local lad helped us cross to the other side of the ring road, to the soundtrack of Polish rap. A Russian in a van took us almost to the border while marvelling at me teaching Ilze Spanish. And a lorry driver dropped us practically at the Lithuanian border.
There, after about five minutes' waiting, I went into a restaurant to borrow a pen and paper to write "LV" (Latvia). I walked back out, held up the sign and a car braked hard, reversed and picked us up to take us straight to Riga. Two pretty decent lads who bought us lunch on the company card.
After proposing to us for the second time in these two weeks, they said goodbye with: "We hope you enjoyed the journey and our company. We hope to be of service again on future occasions, and if possible we ask that you book in advance next time."
And so by Saturday we were in Riga — a day ahead of schedule. We covered the whole distance in 2 days and 2 hours, at a comfortable pace, without staying up through the night or getting up early to make an early start.
Any other stories of covering a serious distance in just a couple of days by hitchhike?
