The ABC of hitchhiking

I actually just started with writing about some hitchhiking memories, but apparently this post turned into a real hitchhiking guide..... 


What?
When I was in Lisbon as an exchange student, I found a new hobby - hitchhiking. So fun, so easy, so cheap! Dangerous? Well, nothing in life is 100% safe if you don't stay at home 24/7, but using common sense I'd say hitchhiking is very safe! Usually I hitchhike with somebody, but once I did Lisbon - Porto (like 300km) alone and it was very fast and easy! Just arrived to the gas station where I used to take the rides to the North and within 5 or 10 minutes I was in a car with this nice young business man who was driving to Porto for a conference and took me all the way. I'd say hitchhiking alone is the easiest way to get a ride, people tend to have less prejudices and fear (yes, the drivers also fear the hitchhikers :D) if the person asking for a ride is alone. But having company gives more security to the hitchhiker, me too I prefer to do it with somebody, I'd just do it alone if I really need to get from one place to another and I don't wanna pay for it. Besides that, if you are in a bad spot for hitchhiking (means a place where the drivers who drive long distances don't stop), sometimes you need to wait for hours and its nicer to have somebody there to share with these moments of "endless" waiting, desperation and boredom. ;D

Where?

If you are not getting a ride, just take it easy and open
your bottle of champagne!

Usually I hitchhike on gas stations. It's nicer, you have more possibility to choose the person who is gonna give you a ride (I never even go to talk to strange or not nice looking people), you can convince the person to give you a ride talking to him and he can also see you are a normal, trustworthy human being. Besides that you don't feel like being "completely in the middle of nowhere" (even if you might be, but at least there are some other people too) and you always have a roof if it starts to rain. Good gas stations for hitchhiking you can easily check  on this site. It's better to choose the english articles so you have a possibility to find more places. Just write the name of the city and depending on what the fellow hitchhikers have written there, you might find a list of gas stations that you can use when you hitchhike from the chosen place to the north/south/west/east. Of course not all the cities appear on the page, so sometimes you just have to improvise and find your square one by yourself. I usually check on google maps, put it on the satellite version, find the city where I'm in, find the highway that goes out of the city to the direction I'm wanting to go, and then start to look for the first gas station on the map. If this sounds too complicated, just get out to the street, ask people which way to take to get to the city X and walk walk walk till you find a potential gas station (it should be outside the city though, people who go to the gas station inside the city usually also stay there). As I said before not all the gas stations are so good for hitchhiking, the ones inside a city are very bad (if you dont pretend to stay in the city) and it also depends on if the drivers that stop in that place are going to your direction (remember to be on the right side of the road, though... ;) ). Of course mostly you have to take just shorter rides for the next gas stations, if your destination is far you need to get quite lucky to get there just with one car. And sometimes you will also face the situation that there are no any gas stations near by and you just have to put your thumb up and smile for the cars that pass by. By the way, a sign is always good to have for this kind of situations (people pick you up easier if you have a sign of exactly same city they are going to, I think). I also use it on the gas stations so people can see inmediately what I'm doing there.

Yes,it might include also a lot of walking, but
it's just part of the fun ;)

How?
Sooo, when you are on the gas station, just go and ask anybody who looks like your next potential driver. ;D I usually ask if they by chance are going to the direction of the city X. If they say yes, I ask if they would mind to give me a ride... and so on! If they don't go till my real destination, I ask them to drop me off on the last gas station that is still on our common way.








Why?
But why is it so fun? It's not just about getting somewhere "for free", though that's also a very good point for the student budget. Besides than that it's about new, unexpected experiences and meeting new people. It's not like couchsurfing where you also stay with unknown people. The difference is that when couchsurfing you really choose the person by reading their profile, seeing their photo, comparing  their interests/age/whatever with yours. Hitchhiking you cant be that picky and you meet soooo different kind of people, from young to old! With some people you talk just a bit, with some other you talk a lot. And it's always an interesting experience (ok let's not lie, some people might be boring too, but I'm just speaking in general) to meet these completely new people and share with them some hours in a same car. Sometimes the conversations are so surprising, you might start speaking with this person about things you would never talk in any other situation with a person you just met! And I have noticed that for a lonely driver who has 5 hours to drive on his own it's always a good experience to have somebody to talk with, even if they would hesitate in the beginning. I got a ride maybe with around 50 different cars in my life and only with one driver I made good friends. Anyway I have everytime met so funny, strange and nice people! Not any bad experiences ever and also never heard about those from the fellow hitchhikers! :)

And I still have so many hitchhiking stories to tell! But maybe I save them for the next post. ;) But seriously if you are thinking about trying after reading this, you should! At least once or just a short distance! I wish hitchhiking would become more popular because it's really one of the best ways of travelling (when you are not in a hurry of course). More people there are doing it, less prejudiced the people are about it.