Hitchhiking to Bratislava

Written by Ben on August 7, 2006 |

We tend to, as Americans, ignore the hitchhikers we come across on the highways; we actually notice them, but pretend not to and instead look straight ahead as if we were fascinated by our driving task. In reality, we assume that these people are bums, hippies, or too poor to travel the normal way; we think that these people are transients that are out to murder the passerby. No smiles, no nods, and no waves– we just drive on.

Every perception I had about hitchhiking changed after the European CSC– I thumbed my way from Vienna to Bratislava. To straighten out the timeline because my posts have been non-linear: I went from Venice to Munich to Eisenstadt (European CSC) to Vienna (E-CSC afterparties) to Bratislava.

The culture of hitchhiking is interesting, in which I got a great one day lesson from Jurgen and Martin. Because both were seasoned thumbers, I made the leap of faith to actually hitchhike and to trust that their skills would get us from Vienna to Bratislava. The distance isn’t that far, just 60km, and people can normally travel 600km in a day by hitchhiking.

We started the day by parting with our host (center) at Vienna’s Westbahnhof train station, where we actually hopped on the metro– not very hitchhiker like– to get to the Autobahn on-ramp.

It was at this on-ramp– a horrible location– where I spent some time getting the basics of hitchhiking. One would think that sticking ones thumb out is all that’s needed, but the seasoned hitchhiker knows about tricks that help increase chances for a pickup.

First thing, 99% of drivers will only stop if you happen to be going their way– I don’t want to know why the other 1% stop. Cardboard is lifeblood for the hitchhiker. It is the handy piece of material perfect for signs, so we prepared a sign for our destination. Jurgen also had another pre-made “10 km” sign (unpictured), which seemed to work like magic in getting a lift. This 10km sign got us every one of our lifts, and I also seemed to have been the one out there thumbing every time… Are us skinny Asian guys that non-threatening? I guess people just seem to be OK for taking you a short distance; but even so, one will find many willing truckers that go on long haul trips.

So with the sign made, I gave it a try. The next rule is to be cheerful and happy. Nobody will stop if you are sad or dejected looking (drivers will know it and you won’t get a bit of luck). So, I learned to get over my fear quickly to do what was needed: wave, smile, dance around. One must be committed to this because it can get frustrating fast when cars just zip on by. This is especially true when you don’t get any responses. I found it to be great when drivers would smile, nod, or wave back… it’s something that helps keep moral up.

We had absolutely no luck at this location, and location is really important. The things to look for are busy intersections (preferably on-ramps, police sometimes have issues when one is actually on the Autobahn), a place where cars can pull over, and good line of sight (for cars to see you well in advanced). On trick we pulled, at our second stop during the day, was to hit the crosswalk button to stop oncoming traffic for people to cross the street.

One can find notes from previous hitchhikers with tips and thoughts about the location. One told us about a better location than the absolutely horrible on-ramp we were at. We also left our own as we left with a dejected feeling (we had already spent a good couple hours making our way from our host to this point), but made up for it with a tasty treat (incredibly cheap for what we got):

We hoofed a bit to our next stop, which was a little bit outside of town on a local road, and parked ourselves at an intersection in front of a cemetery. This was quite an odd feeling for us to see mourners as we tried to pick up a ride… And we got some wave hand signals that drivers would have stopped, but were doing the funeral thing. A few basics on hand signs:

1. Driver points to passenger, then does the thumb sign: He’s got a hitchhiker, good karma dude!
2. Driver indicates a number (Index for 1, Index-Middle for 2): Driver would have taken 1 or 2 instead of the number of hitchhikers. In our case, it was 3 people… In this situation, one needs to wave, gesture ones palm (faced down) up and down to indicate “slow down, we can compromise”.
3. Driver points downward (with index finger) and optionally spins the finger around: He is staying in the general area, but would’ve picked you up.
4. Middle finger: Much love, return with kisses and waves.
5. Wave, or smile, or nod: Hi, we acknowledge you. A great feeling.

A good deal of time– much much too long, Jurgen said that I caught one of those days where hitchhikers throw away hours without a lift– had passed and I was getting a bit fearful that we wouldn’t make it to Bratislava that day. It took some mental readjustment to just find the inner calm and faith to believe that everything would work out fine. Luckily we got picked up by a trucker. He could only take us for a short distance, but I was ecstatic that I got my first thumb ride… the 10km sign did us some good after all. We all squeezed into a seat probably only meant for a single person. Jurgen was perched on some television between the driver and passenger seats, I took the passenger seat, and Martin was on the floor (with backpack covering his head, in case some police see). We went on for about 10km and got dropped off at a gas station.

The gas station is another place to hitchhike. One can be friendly and ask the motorist for a lift, but just don’t ask for a ride. Approach a motorist and ask for directions to where you are headed… then make small chitchat, and finally ask if they are going your way. This is definitely less threatening and may increase your chances for a “Yes” answer. But we didn’t have any luck at the gas station, instead we just took a timeout to have a quick lunch: made sandwiches and kept ourselves hydrated. Afterwards, we walked out of the gas station passed the roundabout towards our destination… and got a pickup almost immediately after we parked ourselves at the bus stop.

This driver definitely was an interesting character. He was Persian by decent, grew up in Austria, owned a rug import business and operated a computer repair shop, and zipped down the local roads in his early model Mercedes for a while… down the wrong side of traffic! Traffic was absolutely stopped going down our direction on the two lane road. Traffic was backed up for kilometers! And here this guy is passing all the other pissed off drivers and cutting back in as oncoming cars approached. After he dropped us off in town, we found that we jumped cars that passed us hours before… these motorists seemed surprised to see us waving to them again. Side note: it turns out that the famous Arsenal football teamwas in the small town doing a friendly practice match with a local football team– out in the middle of nowhere-ville, we found masses of tourists and locals.

Anyways, we walked a bit past all the traffic in the center of town to the road we wanted. We parked ourselves there for the next hour or so. The weather was baking hot, I was just glad to have found a shady place for us to sit. Finally, a couple stopped to pick us up and we threw our stuff in the trunk. Here’s the final tip: Leave the doors open while you get in and out of the car, this is so drivers won’t leave before all your stuff has been removed from the cab (or trunk) of the car and gives one a chance to lean back in to give a hearty thankful farewell to the driver. Jurgen says that he’s not worried about people stealing his stuff, just that drivers tend to blast off and have driven off with some small groceries before he’s gotten it all out.

So we drove on for a while with the couple, and on a whim the guy decided to drive us the rest of the way (about 30km) to Bratislava. The guy used to do a bit of hitchhiking himself and do us a great karmic favor, but we first double backed to pick up his car (instead of using the girl’s car); we found ourselves at the border not too long later:

Just past Bratislava’s border control and being just outside of town, we had to ask for directions to our host’s place, hike ourselves over the Danube river, and finally up a hill (somewhere in town) to a BBQ awaiting us. The Kiwi in the picture was another guest and the cook for the evening. Whew! We made it!

Over all, we spent eight hours to go 60 kilometers on a trip that would have cost five euro. I am still superbly delighted that I was able to do this trip; it gave me a perspective and experience that I set out on my travels to find and have.

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