Thursday, 20th of February, 2020.
What a shit spot I chose to hitchhike. Maybe if I had paid more attention when I was searching… I probably would ended up finding a better place and in a different location. Shame on me.
After over an hour, with almost no cars stopping at the gas station, a nice couple stops and they are going to Ljubljana. I do again another mistake and, just when I am already inside the car, I tell them I am going to Brno. Apparently, there was another way to Brno which is before / not in the way to the Slovenia capital.
But Damir and Diana are great people and they are willing to help. At the exit which leads to Maribur, they drive around 20 minutes out of their route to drop me in a gas station, since we are in the highway. Damir used to hitchhike when he was younger so he kind of understand me. They are both lovely and I am very grateful for their help.
I am not sure about the gas station where they leave me though. It is full of people and truck, yeah, but I do not know precisely where they are all going.
Nika stops for me and she is going with her three beautiful kids to Maribur, for a spa vacation. She is also very kind and surprisingly a great mum! I say that because of so many parents I have met do not care at all for their kids. Meanwhile, Nika is driving about 100 kilometres just to spend two days with her kids in a different place. And also, she confesses me that, she still wants a fourth kid. Despite her husband different opinion, and after two dogs she got from him, to try make her calm down the idea, she still want another child. I think she might be the only woman I ever met who really love and enjoy to be a mother. She find a gas station in the way to Vienna / Brno, where she can drop me.
While I am waiting for a car, I look down and see written in the street: “Hi, hitchhiker”. And just beside that in a different pen: “Good luck!”.
After almost one hour, Jean-David stops for me. He is going to Vienna! I mean, outside Vienna, but still! Of course now is almost too late to keep trying go to Brno after that. I will just have time to buy some food and make my camping while there is still some daylight (which actually it does not happen because I forgot about time and when I came out of the Supermarket it was already fucking dark).
Jean-David is a funny French character, with long dark hair, beautiful blue eyes, and we talk the whole way. He advises me to take care in Paris because it is too dangerous right now. We make a quickly stop for him to grab some boxes before we get to his village. He is kind enough to show me a forest where I can camp, the exit I should take and drops me out at the Supermarket.
I eat in the back of the Supermarket, where there is some light and it is quiet. Then I walk to the forest, have some troubles to pass through some bushes without any light (laugh) and I finally make my camp. Unfortunately in the opposite as I though, during the night it is fucking cold and I barely could sleep. Even my good winter clothes were not enough to keep me warm. The problem is with the poor sleeping bag I guess. At least I survive and next morning, after some yoghurt with muslin, fruits and plus some rain, I am in the road around 7h30.
The exit is quite dangerous but by miracle, after a few seconds I am standing in there, still with my bags attached to me and not even holding the sign yet, Richard stops. He is a fire-fighter.
Richard was in the phone when he stopped so he quickly asked “where to”, to what I simply answer Vienna. I quickly put my bags in the car and we leave in which was all probably less than a minute since he stopped. He is a very nice and funny guy and he gets very surprised with my story. The trip is short but enough for us to chat a bit. I get surprise for the huge number of things that Richard does. He is not just a fire-fighter but he is responsible for a lot of different duties regarding people’s safety. When I tell him I am going to Brno, he quickly thinks where is the best place to drop me off. It is a great and huge place, with a gas station, a hotel, a restaurant and a trucks parking. The only problem is the fucking wind, almost caring me.
Not too much time pass but a lot of cars did and nobody stopped. Finally a small truck made a sign for me to come. Alex is a Hungarian man who just got a message to go to Brno to load and drive from there to Prague. He tells me he saw me there before but he did not know about his route yet. So as soon he got the message he checked my sign and then told me to come. Very honest and sweet guy too, as many other who stopped for me. He gives me an apple. We talk in Spanish. Alex drops me a bit out of Brno though, because he is turning before the town. At the gas station he dropped me, I make some sandwiches for breakfast and then I hold my sign.
I think it was less than a minute (which is great because otherwise I would be carried by the wind) when Radimir stops. “Russian name, Radimir”, he says, even though the is from Czech. A nice old man who does not speaks too much English and drops me in a central mall in Brno.