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."

Three friends from Istanbul

Three friends, funny guys, gave lots of fruits.

Spanish-Turkish trucker

Half-Spanish, half-Turkish trucker.

Two cute girls

Two really cute girls, whose way we kind of blocked in a narrow street, so they had no choice but to take us :)

Soldier

Really nice soldier (armed). Suspicious at first (checked our passports and entry stamps), turned out to be really nice. We talked about his life, the military, family and Turkey. Stopped and invited us for tea and gozleme.

Old cop

Old cop (armed). Relatively quiet.

Two friends lost in Izmir

Two friends from Konya, didn't know much about Izmir.

Security guard

Really nice (armed) security guard, who called his son to explain to us in English, where he was going.

Young guy

Young guy going to Kutahya to meet his girlfriend (fiancée). Stopped and invited us for cay.

Young couple with a toddler

Young married couple with a small toddler. My friend learned the hard way that you shouldn't shake hands with women wearing hijabs (at least not in front of their husbands.

Turkish-German guy

Really short ride, Turkish guy living in Berlin.

Ukrainian trucker AGAIN!!!

Met the same Ukrainian trucker who took me almost 700 kms the day before. Almost crossed all of Turkey with this guy.

Three friends

Three old friends returning from a funeral in Ankara. Suspicious at first, but then invited for some coffee.

Ukrainian trucker

Ukrainian trucker in a Bulgarian truck who took me almost all the way from the Georgian-Turkish border at Sarpi to Bolu on my way to Istanbul within two days. Got this ride after a desperate, 2.5h wait near the border. Stayed a night in Samsun with a friend and then hitched this guy completely randomly again the next day near Merzifon. He was quite religious and didn't smoke… (read on in Trip)

Two friends, commuting 150km

Two friends, returning from work in Zestafoni (excavator operators). One was pretty drunk, both funny guys really saved my ass from being stuck in Kutaisi at night.

Two old brothers

First, the older of the brothers stopped, with a fairly full van. Then his younger (60+) sibling stopped and I rode with him. He just returned from visiting his sons, who live in Russia.

Couch surfing hosts

A pair of Georgian couch surfing hosts, traveling from the border checkpoint with their guest (Crimean girl).

Two brothers

Two brothers, relatively quiet.

Drunk driver

Guy picked me up on the outskirts of Yerevan. When we stopped for breakfast he met his friends and after the sixth shot of some homemade liquor (at 8am), I decided to hitch another ride…

Armenian family living in Russia

Literally the second car I hitched (the first one stopped too, but it was just local traffic). It was a father and his too sons on their way to Yerevan to visit their family in a relatively luxurious Jeep. The sons really squeezed in the back seat to allow me to sit up front, with my bag on the back seat, on top of a huge pile of luggage. The father seemed really excited to… (read on in Trip)

The lost couple

A somewhat confused Armenian couple (husband was 40+ and the wife was ~30) who stopped because they were unsure about how to get to Armenia. I told them I knew the way and used my phone to navigate, while the wife repeatedly told me that we they can't go Azerbaijan because they're Armenian. I kept on reassuring her we weren't headed for Baku, but the driver still stopped a… (read on in Trip)