VILNIUS - I have hitchhiked in 10 countries in Europe so far, something I recommend to anyone who is wandering around Europe. It's a bit like sailing: you sit and wait for the wind (a car) to pick you up and push you along. While things don't always go to plan and you may be blown off course, a good map, good planning and common sense should fix that.
My latest hitching expedition was from Tallinn to Vilnius via Riga. I went through all the Baltic capitals in one day without spending a kroon, lat or lita on transport. We started out in Tallinn at about 10:30 a.m. and got our first lift to the outskirts of the city.
We hadn't waited more than a few minutes before climbing into a beautiful leather-seated Renault driven by a man in a business coat and swimming shorts 's you meet all sorts when traveling. He took us about 20 kilometers to the fork in the road between his town and the road to Parnu. As often happens while hitching, he offered to take us to his hometown and show us around, but we unfortunately had to decline with so much road left ahead.
We stood on the side of the highway looking up at the threatening sky, which was turning from gray to black very quickly, when a van with Romanian number plates skidded to a halt in the dirt at our feet and a boy, aged nine, flung open the sliding door. We clambered in and sped off toward Riga. The driver was taking his wife and child to the Riga Airport after a family visit to Helsinki.
The boy in the back of the van made this one of the best rides ever 's he was so much fun to have in the car. In some cars I have been bored to death, and in others I have made hours of conversation with drivers who understand nothing in English and I nothing in their language. Other times I have caught myself falling asleep, but this boy had a new wardrobe of toys and we spent the whole time playing with stuffed toys, namely a shark, a rabbit and Pluto from the Disney cartoons.
The parents loved having us there, enjoying some free time from their bored child over the two and a half hour ride. By the time we alighted from their car in Riga, the driver had asked me to make him CDs on his laptop for his wife, and we had taken some family photos on a Latvian beach. It was real Eastern European hospitality.
They ended up dropping us off 10 kilometers farther than they needed to drive, proof of how good strangers can be to each other. The spot they dropped us off at should have been a great spot to hitch from 's it had lots of cars traveling at low speeds, the drivers could get a good look at us, and there was a lot of space to stop. For some reason, though, we didn't get a lift for over an hour.
Finally an off-duty policeman picked us up in his new Audi and we were speeding along the Via Baltica towards his hometown, Bauska, on the Latvian-Lithuanian border. We chatted for a while in English, Latvian and Russian, a conversation that was more or less incoherent but still informative. We found out he was really good at shooting guns, and he found out I wasn't from Europe, and therefore interesting. To reward my novelty value, he kindly drove 17 kilometers past Bauska and dropped us in Lithuanian territory.
After a filling yet unhealthy meal at the roadside eatery, two twenty somethings picked us up in their '70s Mercedes.
We didn't go very fast, but they took us all the way from the Lithuanian border to our doorstep. We got home at 9 p.m. Hitchhiking brings out the best in people and reminds me that most people are pretty good.
I recommend you try hitching, but only after thoroughly researching its techniques and dangers.
