Hitchhiking – Part 4

I took a walk around and, though I didn’t get my hopes up, since it was Saturday and my dear lorry drivers had to comply with the driving ban. I thought to myself that there could maybe be a refrigerated lorry hiding somewhere that could pick me up, but there wasn’t any anywhere in sight, now that I remember. I got caught up in a conversation with two Spanish lorry drivers. We exchanged a few words and then I went to stand back outside the toilet area as that was where my chances of success were the best.

I remember how a woman passed by and didn’t even so much as glance at me, so I didn’t pay her much attention, but when she came back out, she invited me to her car. So, Stephanie finally got me to a lay-by with a petrol station, a large restaurant, and in short, a place where lots of people stop by. She dropped me off at the Sindelfinger Wald lay-by on the A8, just outside Stuttgart. This time the lay-by was on the right motorway, so I could continue forward, but, for some reason, everyone seemed to have been driving south, at least towards Tübingen. Sounds familiar, right? That’s where Primož Trubar, a Slovenian Protestant Reformer, found his final resting place.

Anyway, instead of maybe waiting for hours on end for a ride to Munich, I decided for a short hop to Switzerland when a nice hippie offered me a ride to St. Gallen, almost close to the Austrian border and on the way to Lake Constance. Luckily, the driver kept following the motorway, so I ended up exactly where I wanted, namely at the Thurau lay-by, which I had already been very familiar with from my previous trips, the trips to and from Poland in August.

But that’s when I made a mistake by following the opinion of an old gentleman who took me on the Austrian A14 to the Hohenems lay-by, saying there’s more traffic towards Bavaria’s capital. I thought that could be true, but had no experience, which lead me to a test. Now I know it’s probably best if I don’t do that in the future. Maybe the man was even right, as I was able to hitch a ride to Lindau on the German coast of the lake relatively quickly, in just 20 minutes. On the way, on the Austria-Germany border, there was another hitchhiker, but he was waiting in a wrong spot, so now I wonder when he managed to continue his journey. The problem with that lay-by is that it works both ways, reducing your chances of getting a ride.

It was important that I continued forward, so I enthusiastically accepted the offer of a ride to the outskirts of the city. The ones who picked me up were comprised of a father and his three sons, and then also came a snail with his belongings on his back, turning the vehicle into a small tin can of sardines. I tend to avoid cities as much as possible, but right then I was hoping we’d stop there.

And we did. After grabbing some coffee at half the price of the one you can get on motorways and after about 40 minutes, an old couple offered me a ride. I wasn’t completely sure if dropping me off somewhere on the “mittelring” was a good thing. In the end, we agreed that they’d drop me off at the first lay-by outside the city, on the 8. Once you get there, outside Munich, you only have to continue forward to Slovenia, without any obstacles. Well, that wasn’t exactly the case.

Hofoldinger Forst Süd is a place that, in addition to a car park, also has a restaurant but no petrol station, so the the lay-by was only open until 10 p.m. I was out of luck, even though I was at the right place. The timing couldn’t have been worse. I managed to go to the bathroom and then the restaurant locked up and the unexpected happened. Enzo, an Italian lorry driver, stopped by for 45 minutes and he was headed to Italy through the Brenner Pass. I’m not sure where in Italy he was headed because I didn’t bother to ask. While waiting, I found out that the next petrol station, Holtzkirchen, was just 10km away, so we agreed he could drop me off there. After that an exit for Italy soon followed.

I slept through the night and then prepared to continue the journey in the morning. I started at 6:10 a.m. when it was still quite cold, and then hitched a ride in about an hour and ten minutes, getting me just a little further up my path to a weirdly connected Irschenberg lay-by. It was weirdly executed with lots of turns and a slope. I don’t know, I was still on the A8, so it should’ve been an advantage. But it was already 8 a.m. when I started and I still wasn’t in a hurry. I was so tired I fell asleep standing and woke up falling, barely able to catch myself.

When two Arabic speaking Turks offered me a ride to Venice, I accepted their invitation, since the city is just barely 150km from my home. It was already 11 a.m. when I hitched a ride, so I needed to hurry. All sorts of things happen when you’re hitchhiking. But you can also see much of the landscape, something that happened just then. It was a wonderful sunny day, which, now as I’m writing this, fills me with joy. During the night, I didn’t go south with Enzo, even though I could, the reason being I wanted to make the trip during the day – the same one I could’ve made during the night. But with an important difference – I had the opportunity to admire the beautiful Tyrolean landscape in the daytime. The grass was mowed by the centimetre like a golf course and cows happily grazed on it. When you see something like this you understand the meaning of cultural landscape.

I was dropped off near Padua, at the Limanella lay-by where I had the privilege of enjoying the Mediterranean sun at 4:35 p.m. It was a nice day; however, I was 150km from home, on a motorway, and had to start working at the reception desk at 11 p.m. I was nervous, though still hopeful.

A middle-aged couple offered me a ride to Villesse at 5 p.m., and I immediately said yes. Surprised, they went to grab some coffee while I basked in the sun a bit more, since the autumn sun was unusually warm and pleasant at that time. When they came back outside, they told me they were actually headed to Slovenia, more specifically to Gradišče ob Soči, after which they decided to refuel their vehicle and then they dropped me off almost at my doorstep. It was 6:30 p.m. when I arrived home, which left me more than enough time to take a short nap, something I desperately needed. I still had some time for dinner and then went to work.