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Hitchhiking trough Europe: These are the best stories


We start our world trip in an adventurous way. With our thumbs raised and a cardboard sign with a destination written on it, we hitchhike all the way to Italy. My parents drop us off at a parking lot near our hometown Utrecht.

We expect that we will get a ride soon and assume that safety is not a big issue. But you never know who will take you. What if it’s uncomfortably silent in the car for 2 hours? Or the driver turns out to be a creep? We trust our instincts and get into more than 10 cars on our way from the Netherlands to Italy. These are the best stories of our hitchhiking adventure through Europe.

Speed demon Lucas

We have only been waiting for about a minute at a parking lot near Cologne when Lucas walks up to us. “Can I give you a ride?” He asks. We are amazed at how fast we get picked up. But once we are in his pimped BMW on the highway, it becomes clear why: Lucas loves to be fast in every way. Lucas comes from a small town near the German city of Darmstadt. He is doing a traineeship in Düsseldorf and has just finished his first full week. “I can use some company,” he says with a smile. He talks about his small apartment in Dusseldorf and about the limited pay he gets for his work. In the meantime, he is making good progress on the German autobahn. Lucas only left his home a week ago, but he already misses his parents and friends a lot. The speed indicator passes the 200 kilometres per hour. Patrick holds tightly. It’s very expensive to drive this fast, but he makes an exception especially for us. On his way to his parent’s house, Lucas even makes a detour and drops us off right in front of our hotel.
 

Angel and his mother

We are already waiting for half an hour at an uncomfortable parking lot along the motorway between Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Only one family car stopped but it’s full of children and holiday stuff. I almost lose hope when a pale, red Volkswagen van hums into the parking lot. A Dutch license plate! Patrick walks up to the open window and asks if they can give us a ride. Before the driver can even answer, the 5-year-old co-driver calls out “yes!”. Angel is enjoying his holiday with his mother and they have enough space in their van. “But I have to adjust my underwear first because it’s to sticky like this.” Angel is very happy that he has some new travel companions. As soon as we turn onto the highway we get highway bingo playing cards pushed into our hands. “Whoever sees everything first, wins.” Angel starts to cross of words on his card. “A caravan! A bird! A parking sign!” This kid is good! We can never win this game.

We stretch our legs comfortably on the backseat/bed of the Westfalia camper-van. Laundry is hanging to dry in the open window. The kitchen cabinets are crooked. The old van has trouble with the extra weight. The engine starts to roar on every hill. I look at Patrick: “I also want a van like this one day.”
 

Opposites Claudia en Daniel

Claudia is a teacher and Daniel works in IT. She likes to travel, he does not. Claudia is still wearing her brightly coloured harem pants that she bought in Thailand. It was her idea to offer us a ride from Stuttgart to Austria. Claudia is very interested in our desirable plans. “I wish I could get Daniel to travel as well.” Daniel thinks travelling is too expensive. He prefers to spend his money on another hobby. His Toyota MR2 Turbo from 1994, which he has been working on for 3 years and which he tells about in detail and very passionately. Claudia spends all her holidays on long journeys, while Daniel imports rare car parts from the same far away countries. Claudia hopes that there will come a day when Daniel goes with her. If it is up to Daniel, they make a tour in his shiny Toyota. “If I ever get it to drive again!”
 

The hunter and his best friend

“Hello!” Two men shout at us, waving enthusiastically from a distance. They want to give us a ride to Innsbruck. We throw the bags in the back of the van that is full of camping gear and strange looking black bags. We look at each other quickly. Does this feel right? We give the men the benefit of the doubt.

Hanno and Bastian come from a small town in the south of Germany. “Nothing ever happens there, everybody knows each other. They know everything about you.” Bastian opens a big can of beer. Driver Hanno is drinking a large bottle of cola. A wistful German schlager song sounds from the speakers.

Every year the friends go hiking in the mountains of Austria. They have been doing this for 25 years. How fortunate that we run into them. Bastian is an avid hunter. “It gives a little action to the boring village life. If you go to India you can borrow my AK-47.” He says laughing. We look at each other. Does he have weapons in the trunk? Then he tells the rest of his life story. He is an architect and enjoys nature enormously. He studied in Innsbruck. When we enter the city, he feels like he is coming home. He says that we should definitely stay in Innsbruck for a few days. But we stick to our plans. They drop us off at the edge of the city. “This is the road to Italy. Many Italians pass by here,” he assures us.
 

Fabian and his familia

When hitchhiking, there are two very important things u need: patience and perseverance. We are dropped off at Innsbruck around seven o’clock PM. We are very close to our final destination Trento. We have to decide now: call it a day or continue and hope for the best. Suddenly raindrops start falling from the sky. I’m already searching for a hotel in the neighbourhood. Patrick tirelessly keeps on waving to every car that passes by. When he finally wants to stop as well, a white Italian family car drives into the parking lot. There is an exuberant wave coming from the car. Is that for us? The 24-year-old Fabian gets out and says they are driving to a town near Trento. “We have enough room in the back.”

Patrick takes a seat in the back, next to Fabian’s brother and his girlfriend. His mother is behind the wheel. In the trunk, a seat is folded up for me. There is just enough room for my short legs. The Italian Fabian speaks German fluently. Just like his mother and brother. They come from the autonomous Süd-Tirol in the north of Italy. An Austrian region that became Italian after the First World War. The region is divided. To this day there are protests from residents who would want to return to Austria. His Austrian mother lost all contact with her family because she married an Italian. Fabian looks at it differently. According to him, Süd-Tirol is the best of both worlds. “The wealth and stability of Austria and the Mediterranean lifestyle of Italy.”

Did you enjoy this story? Then you will also like these:

1. 10 ultimate tips for safe hitchhiking in Europe
2. Oerol for beginners: 20 tips for the best festival experience
3. 7 things you probably didn’t know about Utrecht
4.How to get to Chi Phat: the special Ecovillage in Cambodia
5. Ecolodge: Discovering the Treasures of Inle Lake, Myanmar

Daisy
About me

Meet Daisy, freelance travel journalist, filmmaker and cookbook author. Some people know her as a leftover queen, others as a travel addict or a world improver. She can't be described with just one word. She travelled for a year as a travel reporter for Expedia in the Netherlands, held a TED talk about food waste, wrote two cookbooks about cutting down on waste and won the only professional prize for travel journalism with an article about her stay with the nomads in Iran. With this website, Daisy wants to show that sustainable living, travelling and eating consciously is not only simple but very valuable and enriching.

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