Still filled with happiness in our hearts from the last ride, we walk up to the Ukrainian border guard. Hmmm, we could have known better. We give him our passports and as he flicks through them he says: "Where is your arrival stamp for the Ukraine?"
"We didn't get one", I answered.
"Impossible", was his simple reply.
I left Haydarpaşa a few hours ago and have been very sleepy during the first few hours of the ride. Waking up every now and then from my snooze, I would see large quays, harbour areas in the middle of nowhere and huge oil transformation complexes.
Embarking on a journey beyond the well-trodden paths is an adventure that beckons the bold and the free-spirited. For those who've dared to hitchhike in remote locales, you know the exhilaration of that moment: standing at the outskirts of civilization, peering at that elusive "sweet spot" a kilometer down the road, and wondering how to catch a ride. It's a quest for both destination and destiny, where the rules of the road take on a whimsical twist. Join us as we delve into the art of reverse hitchhiking – a thrilling dance of chance and strategy, where the road less traveled becomes your stage, and every car passing by holds the promise of adventure.
I found him on a bar stall in Virginia, hanging from a noose strung from the moon, chattering obscurities, drunk as a skunk. His eyes were full of the mountain snow that reached up above us, even now, at the end of may. They licked down every woman in the room.
The sun was going down somewhere behind the rain clouds and we weren't even halfway to our destination. After a series of rides off the beaten path from Amsterdam to Northern Germany, my partner and I ended up in a "not-so-good" place, where nobody seemed to be going anywhere that was even remotely relevant to us.
Today started as early as possible. I had no time to waste. I was heading to Odesa (Ukraina) from Chisinau (Moldava) for the 789 hitchhiking festival, a trip of only 180 kilometers. But I was up for a big challenge: crossing the borders of a country that officially doesn't even exist and that has scary stories attached to it.
I was on a mission - I wanted to see the midnight sun as far North as I could make it during its solstice, when the position of the sun reaches its northernmost extreme in the sky
This morning should have been an omen. But I was too eager to leave, to be back on the road. And so I stood at a forgotten truck-stop staring out from Poland on to The Czech Republic wondering why, and how.
I have just flown from Barcelona to Amsterdam in 60 000 kilos of steel speeding through the sky. It took three hours. When I boarded, it was 28 degrees, when I arrived at my destination: 13 degrees.
Hitchhiking in Syria, a medium-large country in Western Asia / the Middle East, can be considered “very easy” for foreigners, although drivers might not always understand the concept or reasoning behind hitchhiking.
