Hardcore hitching
Pissed off at yesterday's hitching I re-considered my route, I want to get out of Italy as soon as possible and this place is really not far from the Swiss border. I had also found out that there had been a death in Sylwia's family, I'd intended to go back to Warsaw to the funeral but she said "read my e-mail". So I thought I'd go to Wien where I could read the e-mail, work out whether to go to Warsaw and if not, head to Romania.
I hitched a small ride out of Edolo and then caught a truck that was going to Trento (that's right on the border), I caught a number of rides to the beginning of the Benina Pass and then another up to the beginning of a hiking pass.. although tempted to hike through the mountains, it's incredibly snowy, a long way and generally a bad idea, so I stick to hitching. I get a ride from a truck going through the Benina Pass to St.Moritz and beyond. The truck with chains across its wheels is making an almighty racket as huge amounts of snow fall onto us from the mountains, I'm glad I'm not walking here! This road is crazy, it's one of the nicest I've ever been on. I get dropped off by Saint Moritz and hitch about 12 different cars to the Austrian border, all kinds of people are stopping for me.. old men, women, trucks, Italian Swiss, German Swiss, French swiss! I never had to wait longer than 5 mins for a ride and it was great! The swiss were great and I loved hitching there, beautiful country! A wholly wunderbar experience.
Right by the Austrian border, I had a piss next to a sign which said "Native Spirit".. it was too tempting to resist. It's their fault for having an ambiguous sign. As far as I can work out, it's a group of hippies dressed in face paint, running around with bows and arrows. You can find the website here http://www.native-spirit.at/
Got a ride to Landeck in Austria and that's when the hitching became harder, waited about 40 mins there and got a ride a few km up the road to a petrol station. It was a bit chilly but eventually, some germans called me over and said hop in, we're going to Munich. They were driving in two cars, one full of guys and the other full of girls, the girls are a bit surprised when the man I was talking to puts me in the cars with all the girls! Nice enough girls - bit boring though, Vee Verr in Svitzerland, Jahr... Vee go Munken Jahr, Mein name ist Gertha, they gave me a bit of food and dropped me off just before Innsbruck.
What a miserable tankstelle, that turned out to be.. I'd do anything to switch back into the car going to Munchen with The Gertha's. Waited from 18.30 to 01.00am, originally looking for a ride north of Innsbruck, going to Salzburg, Rosenheim or Linz. Around 11.00pm, I had a little look around for somewhere to sleep, nothing going though.. so continued hitching. Eventually an Iranian guy took me to the Krankenhaus in Innsbruck, can't kip there though.. it's the Children's Ward. I walked around Innsbruck for a while in the early hours of the morning and finally found the train station, this place is perfect for sleeping. Loads of warm waiting rooms and no mentalists as you expect in most train stations. Infact, it was mostly filled with backpackers saving money by not going to the hostel or waiting for trains in the middle of the night going to Beograd, Budapest, Praha etc.
I thought about sleeping but like in Italy, I was pissed off with Austria and wanted to get out of there asap, I hate Western Europe (except Switzerland!), so I took a look at my map instead. Noticed that Linz was near the Czech border, hitching in Czech Republic was always a breeze for me, so I find out how much a ticket is to Linz, great.. I've got just enough!
I thought I had 3 and a half hours to have a sleep on the train but it never happened, the compartment was freezing and the lights kept on getting turned on. Get off in Linz at about 5.55, and look around the train station, there's an Internet Cafe opening at 07.00 am and an hour is supposedly 1 euro, so I'll wait for that to open and in the mean time work out how to get out of the city. Having not slept since Italy, I'm getting a bit tired but a coffee costs 3 euros, so fuck that! Internet - 1 euro? what the fuck, it's 5 euros for an hour, grrrrrrr.. disgraceful country, Austria!
I use it for about 10 mins and then start walking to the outskirts of the city (incidently, if your hitching out of Linz to CZ, just catch the bus no.33 until the last stop.. it would have been much easier). I try hitching onto the highway a couple of times but no success, so around 10 am, I think about getting to a cash point to get some food! Only problem is, i couldn't find a cashpoint, so I walk back about 3km where I saw one.. and what the hell? I've lost my bank card! How the fuck did that happen? Grr, i've not even been pissed this time.
Walked back 3km and began hitching, had to walk another 1km and finally got a ride around 11.30am, a combination of walking and hitching really small rides and I eventually got to Gallneukirchen. From there a ride to Freistadt and after realising I was holding my CZ sign the wrong way round, I got a lift up to Kaplice in Czech Republic. 5 rides got me up to Praha by about 17.30 and the last car dropped me in a good place having been a hitchhiker himself, I soon got a ride to Hradec Kralove.
In Hradec it was absolutely pissing it down and I was a bit fed up but a Polish car stopped and took me to the border at Nachod/Kudowa Zdroj. An old guy (who wanted to Napalm the Arab World and America in order to stop them selling petrol which would then stop global warming and stop Europe from sinking.. strange strange stuff!) but his son was much more peaceful and they invited me to stay in Kudowa Zdroj with plenty of moonshine and whiskey. I decided to continnue hitching though.
I had a bit of money on me, so finally had something to eat and then observed some strange stuff (2 gun shots went off and then two people legged it across a car park and over a fence at the TIR park, then a man in one of the Exchange places discovered his car tyres had been flattened, lots of shouting went on but I just ignored it - not really sure what happened!). After 4 hours though, a car took me to Wroclaw.. the guy had been to Praha airport to drop his friends off who were going to Sheffield (my birthplace)! He'd worked there and loved the place, wouldn't stop talking about it! Cool guy, he dropped me off on the outskirts of Wroclaw, where I waited under a bridge because it was pissing it down for 3 hours, it seemed much longer though.. perhaps because I'm not used to waiting such a long time in Poland or maybe because I hadn't slept since Italy and the road was empty... either way I had a strange experience, saw a guy walk up the stairs and across the bridge, then come down to my side, he looked a bit dodgy.. I kept an eye on him and he was looking at the bus time table, I stuck my thumb out for a car.. turned around and he was gone.. but there was no way he could have left to anywhere in that time! About 30 minutes later, I smelt a strong smell of aftershave, so turned around expecting to hit the guy but there was no one there!!
At 4.15, a car stopped and drove like a maniac to Warsaw, I finally got 2 hours sleep and I was at Janki by 7.45 and then caught a bus into the centre and that was the end of a bastard hitch!
I hitched a small ride out of Edolo and then caught a truck that was going to Trento (that's right on the border), I caught a number of rides to the beginning of the Benina Pass and then another up to the beginning of a hiking pass.. although tempted to hike through the mountains, it's incredibly snowy, a long way and generally a bad idea, so I stick to hitching. I get a ride from a truck going through the Benina Pass to St.Moritz and beyond. The truck with chains across its wheels is making an almighty racket as huge amounts of snow fall onto us from the mountains, I'm glad I'm not walking here! This road is crazy, it's one of the nicest I've ever been on. I get dropped off by Saint Moritz and hitch about 12 different cars to the Austrian border, all kinds of people are stopping for me.. old men, women, trucks, Italian Swiss, German Swiss, French swiss! I never had to wait longer than 5 mins for a ride and it was great! The swiss were great and I loved hitching there, beautiful country! A wholly wunderbar experience.
Right by the Austrian border, I had a piss next to a sign which said "Native Spirit".. it was too tempting to resist. It's their fault for having an ambiguous sign. As far as I can work out, it's a group of hippies dressed in face paint, running around with bows and arrows. You can find the website here http://www.native-spirit.at/
Got a ride to Landeck in Austria and that's when the hitching became harder, waited about 40 mins there and got a ride a few km up the road to a petrol station. It was a bit chilly but eventually, some germans called me over and said hop in, we're going to Munich. They were driving in two cars, one full of guys and the other full of girls, the girls are a bit surprised when the man I was talking to puts me in the cars with all the girls! Nice enough girls - bit boring though, Vee Verr in Svitzerland, Jahr... Vee go Munken Jahr, Mein name ist Gertha, they gave me a bit of food and dropped me off just before Innsbruck.
What a miserable tankstelle, that turned out to be.. I'd do anything to switch back into the car going to Munchen with The Gertha's. Waited from 18.30 to 01.00am, originally looking for a ride north of Innsbruck, going to Salzburg, Rosenheim or Linz. Around 11.00pm, I had a little look around for somewhere to sleep, nothing going though.. so continued hitching. Eventually an Iranian guy took me to the Krankenhaus in Innsbruck, can't kip there though.. it's the Children's Ward. I walked around Innsbruck for a while in the early hours of the morning and finally found the train station, this place is perfect for sleeping. Loads of warm waiting rooms and no mentalists as you expect in most train stations. Infact, it was mostly filled with backpackers saving money by not going to the hostel or waiting for trains in the middle of the night going to Beograd, Budapest, Praha etc.
I thought about sleeping but like in Italy, I was pissed off with Austria and wanted to get out of there asap, I hate Western Europe (except Switzerland!), so I took a look at my map instead. Noticed that Linz was near the Czech border, hitching in Czech Republic was always a breeze for me, so I find out how much a ticket is to Linz, great.. I've got just enough!
I thought I had 3 and a half hours to have a sleep on the train but it never happened, the compartment was freezing and the lights kept on getting turned on. Get off in Linz at about 5.55, and look around the train station, there's an Internet Cafe opening at 07.00 am and an hour is supposedly 1 euro, so I'll wait for that to open and in the mean time work out how to get out of the city. Having not slept since Italy, I'm getting a bit tired but a coffee costs 3 euros, so fuck that! Internet - 1 euro? what the fuck, it's 5 euros for an hour, grrrrrrr.. disgraceful country, Austria!
I use it for about 10 mins and then start walking to the outskirts of the city (incidently, if your hitching out of Linz to CZ, just catch the bus no.33 until the last stop.. it would have been much easier). I try hitching onto the highway a couple of times but no success, so around 10 am, I think about getting to a cash point to get some food! Only problem is, i couldn't find a cashpoint, so I walk back about 3km where I saw one.. and what the hell? I've lost my bank card! How the fuck did that happen? Grr, i've not even been pissed this time.
Walked back 3km and began hitching, had to walk another 1km and finally got a ride around 11.30am, a combination of walking and hitching really small rides and I eventually got to Gallneukirchen. From there a ride to Freistadt and after realising I was holding my CZ sign the wrong way round, I got a lift up to Kaplice in Czech Republic. 5 rides got me up to Praha by about 17.30 and the last car dropped me in a good place having been a hitchhiker himself, I soon got a ride to Hradec Kralove.
In Hradec it was absolutely pissing it down and I was a bit fed up but a Polish car stopped and took me to the border at Nachod/Kudowa Zdroj. An old guy (who wanted to Napalm the Arab World and America in order to stop them selling petrol which would then stop global warming and stop Europe from sinking.. strange strange stuff!) but his son was much more peaceful and they invited me to stay in Kudowa Zdroj with plenty of moonshine and whiskey. I decided to continnue hitching though.
I had a bit of money on me, so finally had something to eat and then observed some strange stuff (2 gun shots went off and then two people legged it across a car park and over a fence at the TIR park, then a man in one of the Exchange places discovered his car tyres had been flattened, lots of shouting went on but I just ignored it - not really sure what happened!). After 4 hours though, a car took me to Wroclaw.. the guy had been to Praha airport to drop his friends off who were going to Sheffield (my birthplace)! He'd worked there and loved the place, wouldn't stop talking about it! Cool guy, he dropped me off on the outskirts of Wroclaw, where I waited under a bridge because it was pissing it down for 3 hours, it seemed much longer though.. perhaps because I'm not used to waiting such a long time in Poland or maybe because I hadn't slept since Italy and the road was empty... either way I had a strange experience, saw a guy walk up the stairs and across the bridge, then come down to my side, he looked a bit dodgy.. I kept an eye on him and he was looking at the bus time table, I stuck my thumb out for a car.. turned around and he was gone.. but there was no way he could have left to anywhere in that time! About 30 minutes later, I smelt a strong smell of aftershave, so turned around expecting to hit the guy but there was no one there!!
At 4.15, a car stopped and drove like a maniac to Warsaw, I finally got 2 hours sleep and I was at Janki by 7.45 and then caught a bus into the centre and that was the end of a bastard hitch!
posted by dangaroo at 3:34 PM
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