Hitchhking Poland
Yesterday, I started my trip across Europe. I found another girl, Joanna, coming with me from Kraków. Joanna is Polish and grew up in the city I spent my last five months, but the last semester she spent in Valencia.
We agreed on meeting at 6:30 at the bus stop in order to get out of the city. The night before she sent me a message “Let's meet at 7:30”. Ok, more sleep is fine for me! When my alarm woke me up at 6:30, I found another message “My father gives us a ride to the highway, meet you at 8”. A time that was postponed another time to 8:30. We eventually met around 9.
Joanna is pretty cool, and we got along quite well from the very beginning. Her father dropped us of right before the pay tolls on the highway, a spot I was already hitchhiking from successfully before. When taking out my sign and seeing all those trucks approaching, I said to Joanna: “One disadvantage of being the two of us is that trucks would not take us”. In this very moment, I was just about to hold up the sign, the very first truck stopped. “I can take you to Opole”. Of course, thank you! Opole would be a third of our way, so on we got.
Being with a Polish girl, it turned out I didn't have the chance to contribute much to the conversation. When hitching alone, I tried my best using all the awesome Polish I knew. Here, I just listened. And watched, for example when the driver would decide to cook coffee while driving.
Now it comes to what I call “The Polish way of hitchhiking”, which is actually pretty common there. All the trucks and quite a few cars are equipped with CB-radio, so when approaching Opole the driver just started to find us our next ride – and he did! At a parking lot we changed car. I can't tell much about the next driver. I fell asleep, I just remember him swearing all the time. I woke up when Joanna would tell me: “We got a ride to Dresden”. Awesome! A bit later we changed again into a truck. Hitchhiking the Polish way.
Later on a gas-station, it occurred that we had to wait two hours for the truck being washed. Unfortunately, this service station has been a bit out of our way (direction Berlin), so we just waited, had a coffee, talked about non existent future career plans and very vivid travel plans.
Back on the truck, approaching Germany, I had to hide behind a curtain, as I was kind of an illegal passenger. Pretty comfortable though. It then didn't take long and we reached Dresden, our final destination for today. The driver dropped us of right at the highway exit, and we walked back to find a nearby bus-stop. Having a couch somewhere in Johannstadt, we just had to find a way to get there. I am usually pretty badly organised, so I didn't write down any directions. Well, we found our way, arrived safely and were warmly welcomed in his flat by Sebastian.
We agreed on meeting at 6:30 at the bus stop in order to get out of the city. The night before she sent me a message “Let's meet at 7:30”. Ok, more sleep is fine for me! When my alarm woke me up at 6:30, I found another message “My father gives us a ride to the highway, meet you at 8”. A time that was postponed another time to 8:30. We eventually met around 9.
Joanna is pretty cool, and we got along quite well from the very beginning. Her father dropped us of right before the pay tolls on the highway, a spot I was already hitchhiking from successfully before. When taking out my sign and seeing all those trucks approaching, I said to Joanna: “One disadvantage of being the two of us is that trucks would not take us”. In this very moment, I was just about to hold up the sign, the very first truck stopped. “I can take you to Opole”. Of course, thank you! Opole would be a third of our way, so on we got.
Being with a Polish girl, it turned out I didn't have the chance to contribute much to the conversation. When hitching alone, I tried my best using all the awesome Polish I knew. Here, I just listened. And watched, for example when the driver would decide to cook coffee while driving.
Now it comes to what I call “The Polish way of hitchhiking”, which is actually pretty common there. All the trucks and quite a few cars are equipped with CB-radio, so when approaching Opole the driver just started to find us our next ride – and he did! At a parking lot we changed car. I can't tell much about the next driver. I fell asleep, I just remember him swearing all the time. I woke up when Joanna would tell me: “We got a ride to Dresden”. Awesome! A bit later we changed again into a truck. Hitchhiking the Polish way.
Later on a gas-station, it occurred that we had to wait two hours for the truck being washed. Unfortunately, this service station has been a bit out of our way (direction Berlin), so we just waited, had a coffee, talked about non existent future career plans and very vivid travel plans.
Back on the truck, approaching Germany, I had to hide behind a curtain, as I was kind of an illegal passenger. Pretty comfortable though. It then didn't take long and we reached Dresden, our final destination for today. The driver dropped us of right at the highway exit, and we walked back to find a nearby bus-stop. Having a couch somewhere in Johannstadt, we just had to find a way to get there. I am usually pretty badly organised, so I didn't write down any directions. Well, we found our way, arrived safely and were warmly welcomed in his flat by Sebastian.
phaenomenal - 27. Feb, 10:02