Hitchhiking IX

Thinking I had all the time of the world and only around 400km in front of me until I'd reach Vienna, I started hitchhiking from the border of Krakow at around 9am. I had decided to take the smaller roads through the mountains and Slovakia, instead of the probably more popular road west of Krakow towards Czech Republic, because well, I'd rather see some mountains than a highway :D

I was standing around a bit on a bus station and tried out my newly purchased spraypaint, for which I was looking all the way from Gdynia - only to break the whole thing when opening it, so that the paint was stippling out of the can instead of being sprayed. Awesome. I managed to paint a sign anyway and held it up for a while, but I didn't really like the spot so I walked to a nearby gas station. Not a lot of cars were using it, so I stood just at the entrance of it to catch a car from the road, but after some time Mirek approached me and invited me to go to Zakopane with him. Perfect! Mirek was actually working as a truck driver, but was no going on vacation to the probably most crowded place in Slovakia. Clever :D

For a moment I thought of going down all the way to Zakopane with him, just to say that I was there as well (it's a major tourist attraction, the mountains must be amazing, but I have some like those at home probably haha), but thanks god I didn't. 

Instead I got off when the street parted in Zabornia and went straight for the Slovak border. 

After about 15 minutes of waiting at yet another bus station (sometimes I believe they're just there for lost hitchhikers) Miroslav offered to take me right to the border. He spoke excellent German because he had been working in various German cities in various professions ("Staubsaugerfuzzi" was one of them), and was now doing business with what I understood to be the raw material for plastic products ("Plastigzeugs"). We really had lots if fun in those 30 minutes, because I couldn't stop laughing about the mix of Polish and Northern German accents. 

He dropped me at the last gas station before the border, where someone had obviously though it was a good idea to have horses just next to the main street.

After a surprisingly delicious tuna sandwich I had enough energy to wait for  around 35 minutes on the road (the gas station was almost not used at all) until a truck pulled over. Truck drivers are the best really <3

Piotr was coming from Poland and was going to Izmir through Hungary and Romania within around 10 days. That sounded really tempting to me, but in the end I got off in Dorny Kubin shortly after, because I don't want to be late for my beloved brother's birthday :)

There I had to walk through the center (I guess) for about 10 minutes until I reaches the street that was right for me (I don't know what I would do without my offline map). There I waited about 20 minutes until Martin stopped his van with a big smile. He didn't speak any English, so I didn't even understand what he's transporting, but he dropped me off in Kral'ovany anyway.

At that point, at around 2pm and still over 300km away from Vienna, I was still wondering if I would have to wait for my flatmate Pierre to come home for work - I don't know how I could underestimate the distance so severely :D

In Kral'ovany I waited for around 10 minutes, hoping for some clouds, until Ewa - the second woman of the while trip! - pulled over very dramatically which screeching wheels and everything :D She was only going to Martin, the next town, but in the end she made a detour to drop me just at the end of Vrutky, so that I could continue to the highway more easily.

There I waited for about 25 minutes while wondering who would want to destroy this beautiful landscape with a tank memorial.

Actually two cars had stopped before I finally got a lift from Miro, but they were both going to the center of the city, Žilina, and I definitely didn't want to spend a lot of time walking. Miro spoke good English, so I could explain to him that I had to get to the main street out of the city - and he offered to take me there. Thanks to him I now also know what civil engineering is :D

He kindly took me to the gas station just before the end of the city, where I could resist taking a picture of my awesome jeans. Love them.

After 20 minutes or so of asking around (people were either going back to the city or only some kilometers on the highway), a Czech called Peter could show me on the map that he was going to Pieslany, which was around 50km before Bratislava. Even though at first he had claimed that he didn't speak English, we still kind of managed a conversation about my trip, after which he wouldn't stop offering me sweets, because he thought I didn't have enough money for food :D

At around 5pm we reached a gas station just after Pieslany, where I bought a coke and then got a lift by the first person I spoke to, Rasto. He was a self-employed photograph just coming back from a wedding, so he was in a good mood accordingly, and we had nice talks. The cherry on top was the fact that the name/word written on my bottle of coke was "rasta" - destiny as we said ;)

When I checked my map I realized that Bratislava is really the worst place for hitchhiking I've ever been to. This I found prooved when Rasto eventually dropped me at a big mall (after making a detour, because he didn't want to drop me at an wen shittier place) - there was a huge street leading through and out of the city to the highway, but said highway only parted after a few kilometers in two directions. The highway to Vienna then parted again after a few kilometers - this meant that catching the right car was almost impossible.

I soon saw that there's no point in staying at the mall, because it was basically still in the middle of the city, so I walked for about 30 minutes until I reached the entrance to the highway. 

There two other hitchhikers approached me and asked if I knew "any good hitchhiking spots around here" - if I didn't, I certainly wouldn't stand here, I said, haha. They had been trying to catch a ride to Hungary for around an hour, but not a single car had stopped. No wonder I thought, their sign was unreadable for anyone driving faster than 20km/h, and the cars were passing with at least 50 to 70km/h.

Signless myself I left the bus station towards the highway and stood it before the actual beginning of it, but the few Viennese cars that passed didn't react to my waves.

At this time I was starting to understand that the way to Vienna was still a long one. Actually I had to hope that I would arrive at all. I guess you can see this realization in my facial expression :D

in the end I decided to try my last chance - the country road to Vienna. Obviously there was much fewer cars, and only half of them had Austrian license plates, but this also meant that they would see me earlier and could stop easier.

I don't know how long I had waited at the beginning of the road, when, just before I would give up and start hiking to a gas station on the highway 5km away, a car stopped. Halleluhja for Michal, who was returning to Petronell-Carnuntum (yes, that's a town in Austria, and it even has a n annual gladiator fight happening this weekend)!!!

Michal, who was originally from Slovakia but is now working at Vienna Airport and waiting for his family to move in with him,  not only showed me the sights of his town (the amphitheater where said gladiator fight will take place, and the remains of the "Heidentor") but drove me to the closest metro station in Vienna. 

I don't know where I would've ended up without him. Thanks!! <3

So after almost 15 hours on the road (if you count the time I spent in public transport to and from my hitchhiking spots) I finally reached home sweet home in Vienna. Now that I've been writing this story everything sounded as funny and exciting as it probably sounds to you - but I can assure you it's not so exciting to stand on the street without a tent and watching the sun set :D Still I guess that's what they always say: No risk, no fun ;)