I did a hitchhiking race from Lille to Copenhagen in one week. We were 24 teams of 2 (m/m or m/f, for safety issues) with 15 organizers. Every morning, we were given an envelope with the destination of the day and we had to get there without spending a penny. We went to Utrecht (a mini-Amsterdam in the Netherlands), Niederlandenbeck (a small village of 40 peoples in Germany), Hambourg (a mini-Berlin), Kolding and Copenhagen (in Denmark). In one week, we did ~ 1400 kms (870 miles) and we got there with approximately 24 cars and one truck. The truck driver asked us to unshoe because he installed a little carpet. There was also a porn calendar and some kitchen paper at hand's reach, it was pretty funny. We went in a car with a CEO who just signed a 100 000 € contract and was pretty happy in a beautiful Mercedes, he created a product which aims to reproduce the yellow pages for compagnies. There was a guy who did MMA, a couple who went to a little cabin in Sweden to disconnect from the world and breathe, a sculptor, a fisher who fished in Antarctica and builds roads who was at 220 km/h (136,70 mph) on the highway in Germany. There was a guy who did a 500 kms detour for a team. Another who bought 6 burger kings menu to 3 teams. A lot of great people. Overall it was a really great experience.
Now I'm back to reality and I have to be ready for school/university interviews while searching for a summer job, but I spend way too much time playing Civilization V with friends. I'm also planning an Interrail trip in August and for now we planned to go to Milan, Rome, Athens, Istanbul and Prague. It should be another great adventure.
Wow, talk about a cool thing to do. I've never hitch-hiked but you make it sound like an interesting experience. Funny that you were in Utrecht, I have a friend who is studying there right now.
I hitchhiked with my boyfriends across the Balkans last summer. We made some awesome and interesting encounters as well! Here is what happened on only the first day we tried hitchhiking: http://foundonland.tumblr.com/post/96595634115/first-time-hitchhiking http://foundonland.tumblr.com/post/96701704525/hichkiking-adventures-from-romania It was no race so we had some nice leeway to just hang out and go with the flow of things. We did slept at the house of the person that picked us up twice during the whole trip. I guess saving money is one of the reason we did it, but we could have afforded buses too. If was just more of an adventure this way :)
That's some great encounters ! Yeah, I think it's important to just take a moment and enjoy where you are. We arrived at the periphery of Utrecht by truck (trucks can't go into the city), so we were some kilometers away from the finish line of our first destination. We were near a match of field hockey and we posed to just relax and enjoy. It was funny, because the crowd (18 years old) had big buckets of beer (3 liters) and we don't have that in France near playing fields. So we just posed, taked a beer, watch the match, and it finished 10-15 minutes after we arrived -- we were pretty lucky because then we found a player which was going home, directly to the heart of Utrecht, at the finish line of our race. There are some great tips here : http://hitchwiki.org/en/Top_Tips Basically, we found that having a sign isn't really necessary, because most people will not stop if they don't go to the city, even if they can help you by taking you for some period of time in the right direction. Most important : (1) Good spot : that means the car/truck can stop with safety and without interfering with traffic. The best spots are gas station on the highway, because people are going your way (generally) and if there is place in their car, it's extremely difficult to say no if you are a logical person. (2) Eye Contact/Speaking : I read on your blog you were shy of maintaining eye contact. I'm more an introvert than an extrovert person, but in the context of the race, we had to find a car, and the best way was really to just knock on cars to speak with them and to explain the situation. If you can speak to the person, I would say there is a 50/50 probability it's going to be good if they are going your way. It's harder to say no when you speak to them than when you just have your thumbs up.
Yeah, that was our first ever time hitchhiking so at first it's a bit uncomfortable. We got better pretty fast and were pros by the end of it ;) I found that our big Canadian flag really helped A LOT. Many people stopped to ask if we were really from Canada and then told us to hop in since they were already stopped. Huge facepalm when I forgot it in someone's car towards the end of our trip.
Awesome! I hitchhiked from London to Copenhagen and back one summer many years back. It was a great experience – stayed at some people's houses even. I was with a friend and we'd take turns, one of us holding a sign and the other juggling. We got picked up very quickly most times. Stopped in Utrecht on the way back and it became my favorite city in the Netherlands. Yes, like a mini-Amsterdam, smaller and quieter and not crowded. Thanks for sharing your story! Sounds awesome!
That sounds like a lot of fun. Did you get to pick the teams or were they chosen for you? I used to hitch hike in college from time to time. I stopped after being picked up by two weirdos in a van with beer cans all over the floor and hand guns visible. They never said a word to me. It was terrifying. All my other experiences were fine. Your next adventure sounds amazing too. Good luck!
We got to choose the teams, but I met my partner only 2 weeks before the race. We were discussing travelling destinations with friends and this race came up. We had a mutual friend which organized the race and we called him up and it turned out a team just signed out of the race so there was a new spot. We got pretty lucky there. There was 3 'accidents' : a team got in a truck and arrived in a hangar to reload the truck. Nothing happend, but you never know and it might have been dangerous. Another team got picked up by a huge weed-smocker. The guy had a carboy oxygen that he used after smocking to breathe while driving, pretty surreal, but they arrived safely. Another team got to an after party at 7-8 am in Hambourg and the host had a shoebox full of weed, was doing rails of coke and showed off his gun. At the end, everything went fine and it was fun, but it's risky.
I don't know if i'm going to hitchhike again. You can meet a lot of people and that's fun, but I find the argument 'it cost less money' lacking in the sense that, to get to Copenhagen (1400 kms), we did it in 40 hours while the best team did it in 30 hours. We can work for half of that time and take a car-sharing services to get there. It's less adventurous, but it's more secure. It's difficult to find a great balance.