Oh yeah... I did it! This was my first international adventure... :) a great one!
I could say that I was so tired that I needed 3 days to have a complete recovery. Now all the systems are at 100% capacity and ready for another challenge. I will tell you some details about this 4000 km trip I have, 'cause some of you are really really curious :)
Starting date: 20.12.2006, 19:00 hours.
After saying goodbye to my dear friends from Bialystok, Wojtek, the LCP, gave me a ride to the Bialystok hithhicking place. I was there with 2 big suitcases and another small one. It was dark and I had to enjoy a chill out rain. Wojtek also mentioned that I'm lucky, because exactly one year ago there were -20 degrees. I was thinking if it's really possible to do this trip to Lisbon in time, to be there for Christmas Eve...
Car no. 1: Bialystok-Warszawa
After almost 2 hours of staying in the cold and having that wonderful mini shower a weird off-road car took me. It was an interesting Jeep, instead of doors it has a kind of zip-locker, and it was closing like the clothes are, with that zipper. This guy was a Red Cross Volunteer. The good thing was that he spoke English, so I could explain him very easy my situation. The better thing was that he had a radio station like the track drivers have, so he tried to find for me the next truck for my trip. I felt so pity about this great guy. I remember some words he was repeating with passion for almost 2 hours... "czesc kolegi! ... rumunski student... transport Nemcia-Francia!!!" It was like a kind of commercial he did for me! :)
He didn't manage to find anyone who was going that way so he dropped me at the entrance of Warszawa. It was raining more and more powerful.
Car no. 2: Warszawa-Poznan
I found refugee in a bus station, and when I saw a truck getting closed I was getting out holding a paper with "Poznan" written on it.
A lorry stop it. The driver coudn't speak English, so I had to speak with him using my basic Polish. Somehow we managed to communicate :) It was funny, I was saying some words I knew in Polish to make sense together, like: "Ja... student... international praktika a Bialystok. Milosc... studenta... ale ona praktika a Lizbona. Ja... Lizbona a milosc ... Wigilia" I was showing him some pictures with Diana, and he smiled, telling me something about his kids which were students.
The good thing was that he insisted to buy me a big hamburger and a coffee at a stop. He was written for me the sign paper with following destinations... Odra ->Berlin. He left me at 20 km from Poznan, at a crossroad.
Car no. 3: Poznan- a crossroad in Poland :)
Another lorry stopped and picked me further. The driver could speak only few words in English, but we understood each other. He told me that there are 2 roads to Berlin and I wasn't on the best one :) Great! Fucking great! He left me at a crossroad, somewhere between Poznan and Berlin, showing me the way I have to go. His last words were: "YOU CRAZY!" and he lough :)
Car no. 4: anonymous crossroad- anonymous forest
Because I was at an important crossroad for lorries and an exchange office was nearby, I decided to exchange all my Polish zlotys into euros. I had to pay 50 grosz for the toiled, so... I was thinking that it's more efficient to do it in the countryside style in the bushes. It was night, so it wasn't a problem at all.
A guy stop it after a while and drove 40 km until a place in a forest. He told me that he will turn right and he will drop me there. OK... nice forest... somewhere in Poland! :) I stayed about 6 or 7 hours in that place. At least that annoying rain stopped.
Car no. 5: anonymous forest- a packing lot near Berlin.
A very young guy with a small truck picked me. He was Czeck and he could speak only his native language and some German. Great... not even Polish... now I had to speak in German. I tried to remember the movies I saw at Pro 7 in 1990-1992 when we had connection to a block cable network. German is not so hard... " Isch student..." "Diana student"... "Isch Bialystok" "Diana Lisbon" -> "Isch Lisbon". He told me that he is going to Prague, and showed me on a road map that he will let me in a gas station or a parking lot near Berlin. I chose the parking lot.
Car no. 6: wrong parking lot near Berlin- good parking lot near Berlin
After 4 hours a German lorry driver picked me and told me that I'm not sitting in the right parking lot. He took me 10 km until a bigger one, where it was also a gas station and I had better chances to catch something to France. A! One more thing: I had a paper with "F" but I didn't knew that in Germany "F" means "Frankfurt" so I stayed in the wrong parking lot with a wrong sign for like 4 hours...
Car no. 7: good parking lot near Berlin- main parking lot in Hanover
A German guy with a Ford Transit van, like UPM has one asked me if I want to travel with him. I was shocked... I didn't knew if it was safe, it was the first time in my HH career when someone asks me to go with him... He said that he just know that he must give me a ride! Well, I had nothing to loose so I accepted. I had the keys in the right pocket, just in case... to have something to hit him hard if he wanted extra things from me. But this guy was very nice and interesting! He invited me for dinner at a restaurant, we spoke a lot about personal things, he told me many things about Osnabruck, the most tolerant city in Germany. He left me at Hanover where is one of the biggest parking lots for trucks in Germany. I had to go at toilet. I was shocked when I had to pay 50 cents. I didn't wanted, but didn't wanted also to repeat the bushes experience again in Germany. I found out later that with 3 bills from the toilet you can get a free coffee in Germany, so it's not so bad. It was nice to go with 160-200km/h on German A2 autobahn with this guy! We spoke so many interesting things and I manage to understand his way of seeing life.
Car no. 8: Hanover-Gent
I love Polish lorry drivers! :) Another one stop it for me and he told me that he is going in Belgium. Why not? It started also to be very cold outside. Belgium is closer to Portugal than Germany... He told me that I can sleep in the truck, so I slept for about... two hours. I needed that sleep because I was tired after one day of non stop HH. He was going to England, but he didn't speak English. No problem, I knew enough polish: " Ja student..." and so on :) He told me that he has been wrong and he will drop me in Gent, not in Brussels as he initially said. No problem... but... where is this Gent? After seeing where is on the map suddenly I had a headake. It was on the road to England, so I had to take a small detour. No problem... everything is under control... :) I knew that I have to go to Brussels and after that Paris. He dropped me in a parking lot for trucks. I saw in that parking lot 7 or 8 Romanian trucks, from CJ, AB, SV, B, BT but nobody stopped for me. Probably they were scared of me, I had a dark look and it was night. Probably I would play safe too if I were in their shoes.
Car no 9: Gent-Brussels
In the morning, a Belgian truck driver stop it and picked me. This driver after hearing my story gave me 50 euros me and he let me out in the main parking lot near Brussels. I didn´t want to accept the money, but he insisted, so thinking that it wouldn't been nice from me to upset this guy, I accepted it. A really nice guy.
Car no 10: entrance of Brussels- exit of Brussels
A weird... I mean a real weird guy with a van stop it and he told me that he can take me 10 km to a better spot. I accepted. He was listening to a kind of meditative music, like some sect members... He had a dog also, a very agitated one. He was liking me and scratching me almost all the time. The driver told me that the dog is agitated because I was sitting on the dog's place in the car. Great... I change the place with the dog and it was ok, the dog continued only to lick my face, without scratches.
Car no 11: Brussels- Belgium/France border.
A French old lorry stopped and give me a ride. The driver had to get down from the truck because only his door was opening, the other one was broken. It was a driver from Morocco, which didn't knew English, but he spoke French at least. So... you know what was next... another language I don't know... French: "Je suis estudent" "Diana est a Lisbon" "Je aller a Diana"... and so on. I really liked this guy. It was so bad that he toked me only 100 km to the Belgium/France border. I would loved to travel with him more. I liked very much the music that he listened, some Morocco singers, very very beautiful!
Car no 12: Belgium/France border - 100 km away from Lisbon
I was staying in that parking lot about 2 hours with a paper written with "Spain--»Portugal". Another old truck stoped. The driver get down from the truck, came to me and said:
-Do you speak English?
-Yes
-Are you going to Lisbon?
-Yes
-What nationality are you?
-I´m romanian
-Ok, you have an express ride, straight to Lisbon!
I couldn´t believed it! :) For a half of the road I had someone to drive me! Yupee!!! :)
This guy, Gabriel, is an excellent chef!!! He was cooking so fast and his meals were delicious!!! He had all he needed in his truck and when we had a stop, we ate. I could also have a nice rest in his truck. By the way, this is how I looked after 2 days of nonstop hitchhiking:
The first problem: we were out of fuel! He said he will not buy diesel in France because is more expensive that in Spain or Portugal, so he asked me to help him to move the gas from a tank of 400 liters in the fridge-trailer to another gas tank that his truck was using it. At the beginning we use bottles of 5 liters, but we saw that we were not very efficient this way. He calmed with the idea of using air pressure from his tractor to push the gas out of the first tank. :) It was working! We managed to move enough diesel in the right tank to reach Spain. It was a nice team building, at 2 am , at -4 degrees, somewhere in a park in France.
The second problem: When we were at 100 km from the Spanish border, a huge accident on A53 road happened, something involving a truck and more than 20 cars with many deads and woundeds, so the traffic was blocked for several hours. We had a serious delay because of that. A nice thing was that we met with Ilidiu, a truck driver old friend of Gabriel. They made a lot of funny jokes each other, competitions with their trucks and other funny things. Ilidiu had some food, so Gabriel cooked for all 3 of us. He also had a laptop in his truck so we could watch some movies, listen to music... etc.
On the second night spent with these guys, they decided to drink some wine and to watch a movie in Ilidiu´s truck. I was to tired and I went to sleep in the other truck. The engine was working, so I put the heat on. I didn´t wont to have a cold night. In the morning Gabriel and Ilidiu told me that all the cabin was full of smoke and by the time the movie ended, and if the engine was on for 30 more minutes, all the tractor should be burned. I didn´t knew that is not allowed to start the heat when the engine is off . So, these two guys came in a hurry when they saw the smoke coming out from the truck I was slipping in and stopped the engine... they kind of saved my life. :|
Well, you can imagine how many things we could spoke in almost 2 days of travelling together? We still keep the contact, we spoke at the phone from time to time, and he visits me when he is in Lisbon.
This guy gave me a ride until 100 km from Lisbon. He dropped me at a gas station.
car no 13 Police & a free train ride: 100 km from Lisbon->Lisbon
I was at this gas station, but there were no cars stopping by!!! It was Christmas Eve, so almost nobody was on the road! It was 8 o´clock in Christmas Eve, I was so close to Lisbon, and it was almost impossible to reach my destination in time!!! I couldn't believe it!!! I came al the way from Bialystok so close to my destination and I was stuck there!
I was asking the help of the employees of the gas station. There were so impressed about my story, they gave me juices, sandwiches, cookies, they called taxis companies, transport companies, railway station to find help for me! It was incredible, like in a movie with happy end!
:) Finally, a police car entered the gas station. I was asking for their help and they were so nice, they called their boss to give me a ride to the nearest railway station. Their boss came with a fast van and he toked me at the train. We were running with 160-180km/h in their police car trying to catch the train. We reached to be there just a minute before the train came! :) I thanked them, and I continued my road with train until Santa Apolonia railway station in Lisbon. The funny thing was that when the ticket controller came, I told him that the ticket office was closed so I want to buy a ticket from train. He didn't return as he said, so I traveled to Lisbon for free! :)) From the railway station in Lisbon I took a taxi until Diana's apartment.
I finished my trip at 24.12.2006, 23:05. I was tired, but it worth it! I was in the place where I wanted to be for Christmas, near my girl.
So, all in al, I travel for free, with included meals and also made a small profit! :) It's so nice to see that there still are nice people in this world! I was thinking if I would do it again... :) OK, why not? ... but not too soon! :))
