In July 2018 I tried something that has been on my bucketlist for a while: hitchhiking! After hearing some great stories from friends back home and others I met during travels I decided that I really had to try it. Besides a great trip I actually learned a lot and even made friendships! One of the lessons I learned is that positivity and a smile will get you (literally) further. Be friendly, enjoy life and keep positive. I also encountered a lot of friendly and helpful people and we shared a lot of stories in the different cars, ranging from sharing travel stories to discussing (local) politics. Wanna know how I reached Riga in 3 days with 18 rides and give you a new trick on how you can get a premium airline seat without any extra charge? Continue reading!
Being dropped off right at the Mazury lakes in northern Poland.
Not much people were interested in joining me on a hitchhiking adventure through Europe until Stephanie told me at a birthday that she really wanted to try it as well and thus we started planning! Although our “planning” was fairly easy: block a few days in your calendar, book a flight back from Riga and pick a gas station closeby Utrecht, that was it! We did not plan anything else and off we were for a great adventure!
Day 0-1: Utrecht – Warsaw
It all started on Thursday evening at 10pm, we started later at night as I had a meeting from work and Stephanie already took the Friday morning off so we wanted to use the time wisely and thus started already in the evening. We started at the Texaco gas station in Bunnik near Utrecht, I can recommend anyone who wants to start hitchhiking from the Netherlands to start here as this is the main road towards the border. Within 20 minutes we got our first ride from this gas station to the Dutch-German border from Gert and his son Mike, they work at night to maintain the railtracks for prorail and were on their way for their night shift. Here, at the border, our patience was tested. It was already midnight and traffic slowed down, every few minutes a car showed up but most of the cars were packed with families going on vacation. By 2am we considered looking for a hotel, but there was no hotel nearby.. luckly it was warmer outside than inside the Shell gas station so we just sit down and started up Netflix to watch a movie. Just after 3am Gerrit and Anna, who were on their way to Dusseldorf airport, stopped for a coffee. We asked them if they could take us and they gave us a ride into Germany! During the 45min ride we learned that Anna was about to fly for her first time to visit her sister in Spain! It was a nice ride where we could also give something back: we answered all her questions about flying! We explained her about the lack of cell service and that whatsapp isn’t working mid-air.
Still looking happy despite the wait!
Despite the sun already rising we were just getting into the hitchhiking mood after we got dropped off around Oberhausen! When a British car with 3 “lads” pulled up we thought: they should be able to give us a ride. We quickly found out they were going into the same direction: Dortmund, but also that their car was just a 4-seater. Despite this we had a nice chat with Steve and his friends and just decided to ask if we really couldn’t squeeze in. They were in a good mood and decided to take us for a bit and dropped us off at a gas station near Dortmund. As this was the main road towards Hanover it only took us 5 minutes until Nikki offered us a ride! Nikki, from Germany was on her way to visit her mom. It turned out she studied in Utrecht for 4 years and speaks Dutch fluently! After some chatting she offered us to drop us off around Magdeburg, a ride well over 4 hours. We fell asleep (as we were tired and hadn’t sleep yet) and woke up a few hours later when we were there. We offered Nikki some coffee and had some breakfast before continuing.
Our next goal was to reach Poland, so we made a Polska sign. This worked out good as Alex stopped within a minute. Alex works in IT and was on its way to visit friends in Poland. I had a nice discussion about cryptocurrency with him and it turned out he was travelling to the village where Woodstock festival is held every year. Because of traffic he bypassed the main autobahn towards the border and took a shortcut. As we wanted to stick to the autobahn we asked him to drop us off after one hour. When we got out at this gas station south of Berlin we realized we forgot our carbon boards (except the Polska sign). At this gas station almost everyone was going towards Berlin and not Poland.. therefor it took us more than an our before we were able to convince Chris from Belgium to take us. His car was fully loaded, but we squeezed in between the luggage and work materials. Chris reminded me about Philippe Geubels, not only was he bald but he was also joking the entire ride, you could see he enjoyed our company! By now people started to recognize us, at this gas station a couple waved at us and said: “hey you guys made it! We weren’t able to stop as our car is full but good luck!”
After 20 minutes or so a van with Estonian licenses plates pulled up, I walked up and started chatting with Teevi. First he was a bit hesitating but I convinced him to take us across the border into Poland! Teevi is an awesome guy, he works for himself and attended a business meeting in Amsterdam and was driving home. We chatted a lot and Teevi offered us to drive us ALL THE WAY to Riga!! Stephanie and me were really tired and wanted to get some sleep, so we were thinking about going to Poznan (where I have some friends) and spending the night there. Teevi explained about his plan to get a hotel around Warsaw with a spa and a pool and to continue the next day to Talinn. He said: just get some sleep in the car and spend the night in Warsaw. We thought: yea why not, and we joined him to Warsaw. This way we were able to take it easier the next days as we were already well beyond halfway. In the evening we offered Teevi a dinner, drank a beer with him and we relaxed in the Sauna and pool. It was Friday evening by now.
Day 2: Warsaw – Vilnius
Saturday morning we slept in, had some breakfast and checked out at 11am. The hotel was off the main road so we first had to arrange a ride to get us back on track. Luckly after 15min Arek pulled up in his Mercedes and had to wait for traffic. This was our chance, with a big smile we explained we were hitchhiking and looking for a ride to a gas station. Arek decided to take us and even showed us his company where we received a bottle of water before dropping us off at a tactical place. He was so into our adventure that he couldn’t leave us there without fixing us a ride. So while we actually planning a short break for toilet and food there was no time.. Arek literally was asking all other drivers in the station to please take us, and with succes! While we were still getting our bags from his car he walked back with a big smile: guys, you see that big Hyundai? That’s Kristoff and he will take you further! We wondered maybe he would like to join our hitchhike as he made more effort for rides then we did ourself! Kristoff, who works for an oil company in Prague, was on its way to visit his family for the weekend and we had a nice chat. There was a traffic jam on the main highway so we drove through the forest instead, very picturesque road through the countryside with many small villages (we even stopped for a bit to walk around and take a picture). After 1.5 hr he stopped at a gas station with a restaurant and we had some lunch and coffee.
Small village on our way with Kristoff
The gas station Kristoff dropped us off was actually on the wrong side of the road (we had to go the other way). Stephanie thought we would never get a ride here but I said: “no lets just stand on the opposite side of the road”. After crossing the road within 30sec two cars stopped, so we were a bit confused, first no cars and now 2 that both stopped. We quickly figured out Kamil and Paulina were together and that they just bought a new volvo car and were heading home. They decided to give us a ride all the way to Agustow. Kamil was so nice to drop us off right at the beachside of the Mazury lake in Augostow (the first picture in this post!). We decided to hang out, swim and relax for a few hours here and grabbed a nice waterfront dinner in the city while thinking about where to go next..
Working on our sign while waiting for the dinner to arrive and some pictures of Mazury!
We decided to go to a crossing with a Lithuania sign, from this crossing the road would split: left for Kaunas and right for Vilnius. But this crossing was a 40-min walk from the restaurant and it was already getting dark.. So we asked around and pretty soon Sjemon stopped and drove us to this crossing, why walking if you can be driven in a luxurious Mercedes for free? Soon after being dropped off by Sjemon a car with UK license plates stopped and opened the windows: I go to Vilnius, you wanna join? Of course we said, and we got into the car with Nis and his 13yr old daughter Monica. So we went right at the crossing and were on our way to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania! Pretty soon after getting in we noticed that his driving skills were not so good and the AC wasn’t working so it was really warm inside. Maybe Nis was very tired (as I can’t imagine he would be drunk with his daughter next to him..) but we decided to get out at the first gas station after the Polish-Lithuanian border. We politely asked him to stop and explained we wanted to switch cars in order to meet more people.
It was Pitch dark by now, but fortunately Lithuanian people are very friendly and helpful. It did not take very long before we met Antanas. He drove us to Vilnius and we even had a small accident as he hit an animal on the road. Antanas was very sympathetic and caring for the creature he hit, unfortunately it was a roadkill and upon reporting it we continued our journey. Antanas recommended us a nice hotel in the center next to his home and he dropped us off there. We decided to meet up for drinks and we even got a night city tour of him. We were joking he is on a Duracell battery as he knew so much about the city and kept on walking and talking. We actually saw a lot of the city and had some good converstation. The sun was already rising by the time we came back at the hotel!
A small collage of our adventures in Vilnius with Antanas!
Day 3: Vilnius – Riga
After our night city tour in Vilnius we had breakfast and coffee at Brew, Antanas his favorite coffee place. There we left a small gift for our new friend, a Brew coffee giftcard for all trouble he made! As we were on a trip through Europe and meeting lot of different people we thought it would be nice to visit “the geographical center of Europe”. So we made a sign saying: center of Europe and were standing at a bigger road in the city center of Vilnius. We waved at some cars and suddenly a guy named Nikodemas walked to us and said Andreas (his dad) and Kate(his mom) wanted to give us a ride to a gas station outside the city and the car was waiting just behind the corner. Wow is it really this easy?! They even pick you up and walk you to the car! (Really, why am I still ubering..). On our way to the gas station they were talking a bit in Lithuanian and not much later Nikodemas (who actually visited a friend in Utrecht recently!) smiled and said: ok guys, we just came from church and don’t have any plans. Plus we have never been to the Center of Europe, so we will join you there and bring you back to a gas station so you can continue towards Riga! After the nice visit they dropped us off at a perfect spot outside Vilnius.
The center of Europe!
Just when you thought things couldn’t go any better we saw a really nice Mercedes pulling up at the gas station. We weren’t really ready to go yet (I was still drinking my coffee). But I thought hell why not, so in a silly mood, from my comfy chair, I yelled at the guys (in a friendly way): where you wanna go? Can you take us? Their response was genius: “ehh, but we have big sounds system in car”. We said: “no problem” and off we go in their Mercedes, blasting Russian songs with the roof open and a smile on our face! It was a very pleasant ride and they also liked it! We decided to take a drink during the trip and talk a bit more (this was difficult in the car because, well you know, sound system!). After 2 hrs they dropped us off but they were not even supposed to go to the city (Panavežys) where they dropped us. They were having a lazy Sunday and just enjoyed the ride so drove there for us!
Enjoying the Lithuanian hospitality!
The next ride was with Constatatin and Kate. They dropped us off just outside the city of Riga. We booked a nice hotel in the car and made some plans to out that night. At the gas station Stephanie had to go to the toilet. So I said to her: you go to the toilet and when you come back I will have the next ride arranged to bring us to the city center! I talked to a few drivers who were either full or not going to to the city center but I kept my promise and a minute later Dimitri wanted to take us, so when Steph came back we were on the road again! Dimitri dropped us off right in front of the hotel and this is how we reached our final destination: RIGA! The hotel had a nice spa wellness and the room was very comfy. That night we went out and saw a bit of Riga, but not so much.
We made it to Riga!
Day 4: Riga & Beach
The next day the weather was gorgeous again, so we wanted to go to the beach. The beach was 25km away so we had a few options: take the long train journey, take an expensive taxi OR be creative and hitchhike to the beach! Guess what we did? We went for the Uber. NOT! We made a sign with Jurmila (name of the beach) and walked to the main road going out of Riga (5min from our hotel). Before we even reached the road a car with two girls stopped and they said: we live there, you can ride with us, but we still have to drop something off at work so it will be 20min. The offer was nice, but we thought we can do it faster than that ^^. So we continued to the main road and stopped at the traffic lights (a tactical place as people are standing and waiting here). It took us maybe 2 or 3 red traffic lights before Aigars honked at us and rolled down the window: get in, I go there! Aigars and his daughter brought us right to the beach and even stopped at the supermarket so we could buy some fresh fruit and water. At the beach we sat down at Legend Beach, a beachclub with a pool. There were no sunbeds available anymore as everything was booked, so we decided to lay down some towels and pillows and created our own chill lounge at the pool!
We enjoyed the entire afternoon here. But after the nice dinner on the beach it was time to head back to the hotel. Everyone told us: take the train, it is easy. But we were not in a mood to figure out how to get to the station and how the ticket machine works. Luckily we kept the RIGA sign and walked to the beachfront road. Apparently we ended up in a high-end part of Jurmila and we saw a lot of expensive (and mostly Russian license plates) cars. We were hoping for another convertible. A few minutes later a convertible came across the corner, but unfortunately it was already full.. you can’t always be picky! Just a bit later a nice Volvo SUV with bright green license plates stopped and the women in the car said: I go to Riga but I am scared. Stephanie quickly approached her and explained what we were doing and she decided to take us! Later it turned out the green licenses plates were French Diplomatic plates, the women (for privacy reasons I can’t mention her name) lived in Strasbourg. So with our final ride of this trip we got dropped off at the hotel by a diplomatic car! Really, why do I still have Uber installed on my phone? ^^
Day 5: the flight home
We ended the trip in the SPA Wellness of our hotel and flew back the next morning with Wizz Air. As the flight was very full I was able to use my trick to get a free premium seat. In the evening, before checking in, I looked at the seatmap of the flight, I saw the plane was pretty full but there were still 6 regular seats. So I decided to wait a few more hours and checked the seat map again around midnight. Now that all regular seats were gone the only option for the check in system would be to give us premium seats. So I checked in the normal way and received the mobile boarding passes: 1B and 1C. Congratulations, we just got a premium seat with extra legroom without any extra charge! It was a great flight (I had a nice sleep) and we arrived perfectly before schedule so I was just in time (thanks to the time difference) for work on Tuesday!
Seat 1C, Riga to Eindhoven with Wizz Air.
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MKs Travel 