Belorussian Budapest Circus worker

Strangest ride ever (in terms of routing). The guy worked in Budapest in a Circus and could theoretically take me all the way to Bratislava if I wanted to (I had other plans). Hitched him in the most desperate location in all of Belarus and really saved my ass. He was driving to lesser-known border crossing to Poland to avoid a long wait. Drove along the border and had to go… (read on in Trip)

Older guy in a Lada

Smelled of gas fumes, how the guy didn't get CO poisoning, I'll never know.

Trucker

Friendly trucker who took me to Brest. Had been to Slovakia 3 days prior.

Nicest Retired Couple

Really nice older couple, even apologized for their dirty car. They were on their way home from a mushroom-gathering trip. Said they sell them to get some money as their pensions were low. Super kind and gave me Belorussian candy.

Trucker

Waiting behind a bridge for about 25 mins. Seemed odd because no one even noticed me. Then some cyclists told me that no one stops after bridges(illegal apparently) and that I should to a bus stop around the corner. Got a ride within 10 minutes.

Trucker

Nice trucker. Talked about our countries, told me he makes $200 a month.

Broken truck

Really friendly guy in a small truck. His truck broke down twice. The first time he told me to hitch because it might take time to fix it. I did but he managed to fix it pretty quickly so I rode with him some more. Then the same thing happened again and I managed to hitch another ride.

Family

Family that went out of their way to get me to Grodno. It felt odd because I didn't understand where the were actually going, it seemed like they said only 10 km. Had a 3 yo kid.

Couple in an SUV

Talked about visas.

Belorussian Trucker in a Russian Truck

Really neat trucker who picked me up, while waiting in rain. Talked about a lot of things. Seemed to quite educated.

First time I gave up hitching...

Girl in a former taxicab. Drove me for about 5km to the absolute middle of nowhere. I tried hitching there but it was raining and quite cold. Given it was a Sunday, there was close to no traffic. Gave up after an hour and took a bus (which I was lucky to catch since it only went twice a day) to the nearest town.

Quiet guy

Really quite guy, only asked a couple of basic questions and drove me for about 30km.

Belorussian Woman, Ethiopian Man (we get together every time we can)...

Shortest ride ever with the most interesting people yet. Hitched them on the highway. Said they were only gonna go for a bit (chyut-chyut), which I assumed was like 30 km (chyut-chyut can mean 200+ km in Russia), yet it was only about 1 km! Anyway, it was an Ethiopian man with his Belarussian wife in a Lada. Apparently, he came to Belarus (USSR back then) in '87 and stayed… (read on in Trip)

Two Guys

Two guys whose Russian was slightly difficult to comprehend. Didn't speak much. Took me for about 70km.

Family

Family on their way to their village. Mostly talked to the father, whose Russian was also quite incomprehensible. But we still had a conversation about visas and even Ukraine. Showed me their village and went out of their way to get me back onto the main road.

Quietest Guy Ever

Picked me up in a van. Listened to some technoish club music (which wasn't too bad) and the only thing he ever said was his name, when I asked him and "I'm going here. I'll stop at the bus stop for you." Later learned on hitchwiki that it's normal in Belarus for people to not be curious at all…

Short ride with a craftsman

Thought it was gonna be a nightmare getting out of Brest because there were 4 (!) other individual hitchhikers on the se spot but I only waited for about 5 minutes. The guy was a craftsman of some kind (didn't understand what job was exactly). Took me for only around 30 km.

Police officer driving to the airport to pick up his daughter

Retired police officer who took me for pretty much the entire way. His daughter worked as an officer on a cruise ship in US and was coming home for a 2 months vacation. We talked about a lot of things.

Short ride to Minsk

My previous driver dropped me off on a ramp because he was going to the airport and not to the city. This guy drove me for only about 10mins to the city outskirts. Talked about how he went to Nitra (Slovakia) to some "Slavic Festival" and how he didn't enjoy Vienna because of Muslims…

Two guys who open shops for a living

They were driving to Siedlce where they were to "open a shop". I later understood that they actually install credit card terminals. Spoke about how they'll go to a forest afterwards which was a little unsettling until I understood they were gonna look for mushrooms there (during working hours).

Mom on her way to pick up her son

Really nice mom who took me even though she was alone in the car. We had a nice discussion about the current political situation in Poland.

Confused Belorussian

Probably stopped onlynto tell me I was lost because the road only led to the border. "Why the fuck you stand here? There is only border!" "Yes, I'm going to the border." "Why?" "I'm going to Belarus." "Why are you going there?" "As a tourist actually" "WHAT?! As a tourist? To Belarus?" "Yes." "Get in!" Later on while waiting at the border: "So you're really going to… (read on in Trip)

Short ride from a desperate spot

It seems like Biala Podlaska is the Villach of Poland. I waited for an hour even though I was visible and there was plenty of space to stop. Finally I saw that there was a McDonalds sign in the distance and asked someone from the gas station (the only car that was there) to take me to the McDonalds.

Polish family from Scotland

A Polish family from Scotland who I talked to because I saw a UK license plate and thought they were Belorussians. Basically went out of their way to get me as close as possible to the border crossing.

Shortest wait and shortest ride...

Stopped pretty much right as i got on the road. Wasnt sure if she was going my direction and dropped me off after about 5 minutes.

Tired Czech Van Driver

Some time ago, a professional driver warned me against hitching rides with van drivers because they were "the most insane drivers out there" who did 4 days without sleep because their cars had no recording devices, the way that trucks do. That was the case with this guy. I was super lucky to get a direct ride from a gas station that was mostly local traffic because he was… (read on in Trip)

Moravian trucker

Nice trucker from Breclav who spoke the local dialect which was quite amusing. Told me stories about how he used to smuggle untaxed alcohol and cigarettes for the mafia back in the "roaring '90s", how he used to drive to Russia and about his trucker friends who did contracts for the US army driving from Germany to Iraq.

Women soccer players

Two Slovak women returning from the Czech Republic where they took part in a soccer tournament. Didn't to talk much.

Polish trucker

Told me that most Polish drivers headed towards Warsaw stop on the Polish side of the border and took me there.

Gastarbeiter from Salzburg

Nice Polish guy who was going home to Bialystok for Easter. Took me from the Polish border all the way to Warsaw and we had a nice chat.

The Trnava Nationalist

Slightly nazi-ish guy (shaved head), wasn't a fan of refugees and invited us to an anti-refugee protest in his home town of Trnava. We were extremely lucky to hitch a guy who took us directly from Zagreb to Bratislava, having waited only about 20 minutes at a relatively hh'ker unfriendly toll booth. But this guy did leave us with a bitter taste in our mouths…

Guy in a VW T4 pickup

Only took us to the toll booth. Didnt talk much.

Guy in an industrial truck

Took us for about an hour. Very little space in the cabin, but the guy was friendly. I probably sat on the engine so my ass almost caught on fire.

Slovak family

A working class Slovak family who really squeezed into their VW Golf in order for us and our bags to fit. It was the first time they have ever been to the sea. Took us all the way to Zagreb.

Nice family

Couple with a kid. Didn't talk much.

Bosnian trucker from Split

Really neat trucker. Spoke good English.

Bosnian couple from Germany

Took us for a couple of kilometers. Really friendly and funny, drove further than needed just to get us a good spot.

Two Croatians from Mostar

A married couple that actually drove back just to pick us up because they saw our Dubrovnik sign. Really friendly, told us about their sons and how they do Couchsurfing. Invited us over for some snacks and a nice conversation.

Construction engineer

Nice guy, little suspicious at first but then told about his job and travels. He built dams in Bosnia, Iraq and Libya.

Two young students

Two guys, younger than us. They were driving to the South in a van to pick up some clients. Their first question was: "Do you smoke weed?"

Really awesome old hitch-hiker

Older guy in a Honda SUV, used to be a hitch-hiker himself. Told us many stories from his trips around Europe in the 80's (even in Czechoslovakia). Took us really far into Bosnia and gave us each RSD 2,000, for old times' sake!

Random guys saw us hitching, invited us for a drink

They had a a company in their garage, made some steel structures and machines. Really cool people, gave us food, water and took us to the nearest junction.

Guy in an old car

Odd guy in an older car. Asked if we were christian and replied "not good", when I told him that I wasn't. Dropped us off at the most scenic curve in southern Serbia and gave us each an apple and a pear – "organic, no chemistry!"

Friendly trucker

Really friendly trucker, stopped in the middle of a town and we asked if he could take us, which he did. New Slovakia, liked it (more than the Czech Republic, where someone stole fuel from his truck) and had Slovak cigarettes.

Two cousins

Two funny cousins, took us in an older BMW, joked about paying for the ride.

Three Austrian-Bosnians

Mother and her two daughters on their way from Montenegro to Sarajevo. Took us from a relatively desperate location in the middle of nowhere in Republika Srpska. She said she always takes hitch-hikers and told we a great conversation in German. She also managed to get away with going in the wrong direction right in front of the police.

Serbian guy

Nice Serbian guy who drove us to the next gas station near Krusevac. It was slowly getting late and we weren't likely to get much closer to BiH, so we decided to go to the nearby villages and asked around if we could stay for the night. It was pretty much the last attempt (after which we would camp out) that worked.

Bulgarian college professor

Neat guy who told us about his college. Gave us candy and money to buy snacks.

Turkish-Bulgarian guy

Lived in Istanbul, really intelligent, picking up his nieces, to get them to Istanbul.

Insane van

Van with three guys (half-naked) sitting up front. We sat in the cargo area, full of hay and with a half-naked guy.

Cool IT guy

Really smart IT guy, who works in Plovdiv. Good English and went out of his way to drop us off near the highway to Sofia.

Guy stopped without us hitching

Guy was speeding down a ramp and saw our "Sofia" sign so he stopped without us even hitching! He was really cool, combining Bulgarian and English. Drove us to the subway in Sofia and even gave us money for the tickets.

Cool dad and son

Cool dad and son, played club-like dance technoish music. Really unusual, the father was a little too old and the son was way too young for such music.

Russian-looking guy from Rize

This guy drifted on the highway, so that he could stop and take us. Had a brand-new Skoda Rapid. Looked very Russian, definitely not Turkish, but his mimics and gestures were undoubtedly Turkish.

Nice Austrian-Turkish family

Really nice Turkish family, they live in Vienna. "I normally tell my husband not to stop, but you looked so harmless."