Hello hitch-hikers, backpackers and travellers around the world! Welcome to our first photo challenge of 2013!

As we’ve already had our first hitch-hiking trip this year, coming from New Year celebrations in Bristol back to London, we thought that the first photo challenge in 2013 should correspond with our favourite way of travelling.

Have a look at our selection of hitch-hiking photos, which is not that impressive as when we hitch-hike we usually focus on getting the lift more than taking pictures of getting the lift :)

Hitch-hiking in Aragón, Spain, on our way from Aínsa to Torla and Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido. Empty roads and enticing mountains on the horizon…

Posing for a photo with our drivers in Debed Canyon, Armenia. If you want to start hitch-hiking, Armenia is the perfect choice for you: it’s easy, cheap, the people are really friendly and the landscapes are stunning!

Read the summary of our hitch-hiking trip in Armenia.

One of our many Turkish drivers. We didn’t share a common language so we had to make do with gestures and smiles.

Read the summary of our month-long hitch-hiking trip in Turkey, in which we covered 4233 km.

Portugal is not the easiest country for hitch-hiking. Sometimes it took us 7h to travel 30km, so we recommend it only if you have a lot of time to spare.

We very rarely make signs, as we believe some people might not stop if they are not going to exactly where we have indicated.

However, on our way from Porto to Coimbra, the waiting got to us and in our desperation we made this appealing sign.

I took this photo from a lorry window while hitch-hiking in Turkey in 2011.

With one of our drivers in Spain, during the last stretch of our “A dedo por la Península Ibérica” trip in 2012, in which we hitch-hiked across Spain and Portugal.

Jon’s hairy legs resting on the dashboard of one of our Turkish lorries. Read about the advantages and disadvantages of hitch-hiking in Turkey.

One of our drivers in Georgia. We were so lucky to be picked up by this guy twice in two completely different parts of the country! How lucky is that? :)

Here with other hitch-hikers from Poland we randomly met in the deep south of Armenia.

One of our relaxed Turkish drivers. He liked being comfortable while driving and, I swear, I saw him drop off to sleep a couple of times… Glad to still be alive!

Some lovely Spanish people who picked us up on our way to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Tony, an ex-heroin addict, now a truck driver, helping us cross the Spain-Portugal border. Read Tony’s story and watch the video of our border crossing experience.

These two Turkish families met while helping us on the road and then all together we were invited for dinner at one of their houses! There are no limits to Turkish hospitality!

Looking at these pictures makes me think that it’s a really big shame we have no photos of us hitch-hiking in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Greece and the UK, but live and learn. Next time we’re on the side of a road praying for a lift, I’ll make sure we’ve got our camera handy too!

Now it’s your turn to show us how you hitch-hike!

Make sure to read our other articles related to hitch-hiking:

• Why hitch-hike – get to know the reasons why we think hitch-hiking is superior to all the other ways of travelling.
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• Basic rules of the thumb – some handy advice to help you get started.
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• Crossing borders while hitch-hiking – crossing borders need not be a stressful experience. Here are some handy instructions to help you on your way.
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• When things go wrong – prevention is key and spotting trouble before it starts is the best way to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience..

• How to travel on a budget (transportation: part 1 – hitchhiking) – as hitch-hiking is an unusual means of transport, it is important to get the first-hand perspectives, tips and accounts of people who’ve been doing it for years. Discover this handy list of hitch-hiking blogs, run by people who know the business well.

• Country guides – find the country in which you want to hitch-hike.

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It’s hard to believe but we’ve been running this blog for a whole year now! It’s been a great experience and we are really happy that you’ve been with us all this time. Without your support, interest and contributions we would have never got so far!

Let’s have a look at some basic stats after one year of travel blogging.

Hitch-Hikers’ Handbook was launched on 18th March 2012.
Since then we have:

• written 137 posts
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• been visited 85,066 times by people from 171 countries
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• been awarded a “Blog of the Week” award by Wanderlust Travel Magazine
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• run 32 weekly Travel Photography Competitions
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• attracted a sponsor for our Travel Photography Competition of the Year 2012
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• been promoted on Freshly Presses and The Daily Post
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• had our beautiful logo made by a couple of professional graphic designers
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• had our first interview by orbitorun.pl
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• been featured on BBC News, BBC Mundo, Yahoo Travel, La Vanguardia, Wanderlust, Travelfish and many more.
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• had our first Hitch-Hikers’ Handbook postcards printed
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• managed to gather 2502 followers on WordPress, Facebook and Twitter
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• had on average 10,000 visits a month for the last 4 months

Our aims for another year of hitch-hiking and travel blogging:

• get over 20,000 visits a month
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• get sponsors for all our Travel Photography Competitions, as we’d love to get some good prizes for the many talented photographers who send us their travel shots from all around the globe
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• publish our first guidebook
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• find sponsors for our 6-month trip around South America
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• cover at least 25,000km by thumb!

Now, have a look at some funny search engine terms people typed in before they found our website. I bet some of them must have been thoroughly disappointed ;)

Thanks for being with us in 2012 and we hope you’ll stay with us next year too!

If you have any ideas for posts, tips or competitions we could do this year, let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear your ideas!

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About	Our Publications

Types of roads

1) Autopistas (A-roads, AP-roads) – motorways with the speed limit between 60–120 km/h (37–75 mph). The majority of them are toll roads. Hitch-hiking on them is illegal.

2) Autovías (A-roads) – lower rank motorways with the speed limit between 60–120 km/h (37–75 mph). They are never toll roads. Slow vehicles like bicycles and agricultural machinery are allowed as long as they don’t disrupt the traffic or cause any danger. Hitch-hiking on them is a grey area.

3) Carreteras Nacionales (N-roads, CN-roads) – national roads with speed limit between 45-100 km/h. Hitch-hiking on them is legal.

4) Carreteras Comarcales (C-roads) – country or secondary roads run by the Spanish Autonomous Communities, not by the state. Hitch-hiking on them is legal.

Map of autopistas and autovías

source: Wikipedia

Speed limit on Spanish roads

Source: Wikipedia

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Absolutely essential hitch-hikers phrasebook

 - hello – hola (OH-lah)
- thank you – gracias (GRA-th-yas)
- yes – sí (SEE)
- no – no (NOH)
- please – por favor (POHR fah-BOHR)
- goodbye – adiós (ah-DYOHS)
- hich-hiking – autostop (AW-to-stop)
- I don’t have money –  no tengo dinero (noh TEN-goh DEE-neh-roh)
- we don’t have money – no tenemos dinero (noh teh-NEH-mos DEE-neh-roh)
- money – dinero (DEE-neh-roh)
- I’m going to … – Voy a… (BOY a…)
- We are going to … – Vamos a … (BA-mohs a…)
- I am… – Soy… (Soy)
- I am from… – Soy de… (Soy deh…)
- Nice to meet you! – Encantado (ehn-kahn-TAH-doh))  (if you’re a male) / Encantada (ehn-kahn-TAH-dah) (if you’re a female)
- I don’t understand – no entiendo (NOH ehn-TYEHN-doh)
- now – ahora (ah-OH-rah)
- today – hoy (oy)
- yesterday – ayer (ah-YEHR)
- tomorrow – mañana (mah-NYAH-nah)
- friend –  amigo (ah-MEE-goh)
Very useful when they ask you where you’re staying. The concept of Couchsurfing is often too difficult to explain, so just say you’re staying with a friend. You can also use this word to express the relationship between you and your fellow travellers.
- Can you stop? – Puedes parar? (PUEH-dehs PAH-rahr?)
- I want to get out – Quiero bajar (KYEH-roh BA-khar)
- Turn left – gire a la izquierda. (HE-reh ah lah ees-KYEHR-dah)
- Turn right – gire a la derecha. (HE-reh ah lah deh-REH-chah)
- Straight ahead - todo recto (TOH-doh REK-toh)
- here – aquí (ah-KEE)
- over there – por allí (por ah-EE)
– beer –  cervesa (sir-BEH-sah)
You should know this word, you will be often invited for some.
- bus station – estación de autobuses (es-tah-THION deh aw-toh-BOO-sehs)
You should know this word and listen out for it to avoid situations when your driver, in their best intentions, takes you off the road and drives you to a station.
- train station – estación de tren (es-tah-THION deh tren)
- Help me – ayúdame (ah-YOU-da-meh)
- Look out! – ¡Ojo! (OH-hoh)
- street – calle (CA-yeah)
- road – carretera (CA-rreh-teh-ra)
- roundabout – rotunda (ro-TOON-dah)
- crossroads – cruce (KROO-theh)

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Main Border Crossings

Spain – EU countries

Since Spain belongs to the EU, border crossings with fellow EU states (France and Portugal) have become obsolete. They are no longer manned and thus should not present any problems for travellers.

 Spain – Andorra

 There are two border crossings between Spain and Andorra

•  Juberri – it’s the main border crossing located on the CG-1 road between Andorra la Vella and la Seu d’Urgell in Catalonia, Spain. Since Andorra is not part of Schengen, there is a customs control on the EU side of the border

• Port de Cabús – it’s a mountain pass at an elevation of 2302 m, located on the CG-4 road. It’s paved on the Andorran side, but not on the Spanish.

Spain – Morocco

There are two land border crossings between Spain and Morocco.

• Ceuta – is a Spanish enclave in Morocco. You can access this border crossing by road only from the Moroccan side. If you are coming from Spain you must book a ferry, which are quite frequent, from Cádiz. There is a full passport and customs control. Don’t forget that Spain and Morocco are in different time zones, you will gain 1h by entering Morocco.
• Melilla – is another Spanish enclave in Morocco and therefore it’s very similar to Ceuta.  From the Spanish side you can get there by ferry using Acciona Trasmediterránea from Malaga (8h or 3,5h by fast ferry) and from Almeria (6,5h or 3,5h by fast ferry). From the Moroccan side you can get there by road or by train using ONCF from Taourirt.

Spain – Gibraltar (UK)

Gibraltar is not part of the Schengen area, which means that there is a full passport and customs control (if you are from the EU you may show your passport or an ID card). If you are not an EU citizen you will also require a Gibraltar visa, a UK visa valid for at least one year, or a UK permit of residence valid for at least 5 years.

The land border crossing is open 24h but expect long queues, especially when planes are landing, as the main road to Gibraltar is also an airplane runway!

After crossing customs, you may be asked to cross the airfield, being exposed to planes. Just keep calm and walk normally :-)

written by: Ania

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Our Experience

We hitch-hiked in Spain as part of our ‘A dedo por La Península Ibérica‘ (The Iberian Peninsula by Thumb) trip in 2012.  Furthermore, we’ve been living in Barcelona for nearly three years now.

When hitch-hiking in Spain we covered 4026 km and got picked up by around 90 drivers from 14 different countries!

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Hitch-hiking in Slovakia

source: lonelyplanet.com
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Visas

Citizens of Schengen countries can move freely in the area.

For citizens of the following countries no visa is required for access to the Schengen Area for a maximum of 90 days: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, United States of America, Uruguay, Vatican City, Venezuela.

Other nationalities should ask at the Slovak embassy in their countries.

More about requirement of visas in Slovakia you will find here.

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Advantages

Close to some touristy spots you may expect that hitch-hiking would be easier because visitors from other countries stop more often. Many tourists from Poland, where hitch-hiking is popular, visit Slovakia during the holidays and st weekends. Coming home they can give you a ride for a longer distance. You can also count on foreign trucks driving through Slovakia.

What is important – hitch-hiking in Slovakia is  free.

Finding accommodation close to touristy sites is not difficult in Slovakia. There are many possibilities and types of lodging – hotels, guest-houses, farm stays, cheap private quarters and other. The problem may appear when you suddenly end up in a small, not popular among travellers, village. Better ask the driver if the place you want to go is good to sleep in.

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Disadvantages

Hitch-hiking in Slovakia is not so easy. The first thing is that Slovakian drivers rarely stop. Sometimes you can wait for a car for 2 hours in one place. Many cars pass you but nobody stops. You can stuck mainly on B roads, but the main ones are considered to be unfriendly for hitch-hikers too. The second thing is that Slovaks often drive only for short distances. It means that your journey will be divided into many pieces.

Hitch-hiking Slovakia is for people who have a lot of time and patience.

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Things you should be aware of while hitch-hiking in Slovakia

Slovakia is a European country and there are not so many things that can surprise visitors. Worth mentioning is that Slovaks are Catholics – it means they observe the Sunday day of rest. Visitors coming to the country may be astonished that some shops are closed and roads empty. Also public transport (especially buses) is reduced on weekends and public holidays.

Before visiting northern Slovakia it is good to read more about the Roma minority in Slovakia. They are also known as Gypsies. Roma  place great pride in their culture and traditions and they are famous for their music and colourful outfit. Unfortunately they live in very poor rural and urban conditions in isolated settlements. The cultural and social differences may be the reasons of misunderstandings. If you don’t have any special need, it is better not to enter their communities. Otherwise you can even unwittingly violate local rules and customs. The greatest concentrations of Roma are in the Prešov, Košice and Banská Bystrica regions.

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Absolutely essential hitch-hikers phrasebook

• hello – ahoj! (a-hoy)
• Good morning - Dobré ráno! (do-bre ra-no)
• Good bye - Dovidenia! (do-vee-dye-nya)
• Good evening - Dobrý večer! (do-bree ve-cher)
• Good night! - Dobrú noc! (do-bru nots)
• thank you – d’akujem (dzya-ku-yem)
• here you are – nech sa páči (nyeh sa pa-tchee)
• no – ne (ne)
• yes – áno (a-no)
• please – prosím (pro-seem)
• excuse me – prepáčte (pre-pa-chtye)
• money – peniaze (pe-nya-ze)
• how much? – koľko? (kol-ko)
• bus station – autobusové nádražie (awto-bu-so-ve na-dra-jye)|
• bus stop – autobusová zastávka (awto-bu-so-va zas-ta-vka)
• train station – vlaková stanica (vla-ko-va sta-nee-tza)
• where is? - kde je? (gdye je)
• now – teraz (te-raz)
• today – dnes (dnyes)
• tomorrow – zajtra (zay-tra)
• accommodation – ubytovanie (u-by-to-va-nye)
• for one night – na jednu noc (na ye-dnu nots)
• friend – priateľ (pree-ya-tyel‘)

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Map of motorways in Slovakia

source: Wikipedia

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Main border crossings

1. Slovakia – EU countries

Since Slovakia joined the EU the border crossings with other EU countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary) have ceased to function. You can cross the border without any problems and procedures.

2. Slovakia – Ukraine

There are three car border crossings between Slovakia and Ukraine.

• Ubľa (Slovak Republic) – Malyj Bereznyj (Ukraine): citizens from all countries of the world, passenger and commercial traffic up to 3,5 tons; opening hours – nonstop

• Vyšné Nemecké (Slovak Republic) – Užhorod (Ukraine): citizens from all countries of the world, passenger and commercial traffic without any restrictions; opening hours – nonstop

• Veľké Slemence (Slovak Republic)  – Mali Selmenci (Ukraine)

There is also a railway border crossing: Čierna nad Tisou (Slovak Republic) – Čop (Ukraine).

Slovak Absolute Musts

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1. Most Beautiful Nature Spot

Mountains! They occupy an area more than 60% of the country: Containing the Tatra Mountains, Low Tatras, Choč Mountains, Great and Lesser Fatra and Slovak Paradise they are perfect for one day trips as well as several days’ trekking with a tent.

I try to hike the Slovakian mountains at least a few times a year. You can find more about hiking in Great Fatra here.

The greater part of the beautiful Tatra Mountains lie in Slovakia. The main advantage is that they are less crowded than on the Polish side, which makes hiking more enjoyable. The Slovak Tatras are divided into 3 parts: Western Tatras, High Tatras and Belianske Tatras – each has its own specifications.  In the High Tatras you will find the highest summit of the whole Carpathians range – Gerlach (climbing it is possible only with a mountain guide). The mountains are rocky and sharp here, what makes them interesting but difficult for inexperienced hikers. The Western Tatras are slightly less jagged with easier hikes to accomplish. While hiking you might have the chance to meet some wild animals like marmots or chamois.

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2.   Best Cities / Towns

Košice is a city which has the largest and best preserved historical centre in Slovakia. It is really impressive! The main street has been turned into a pedestrian zone what makes visiting all the more pleasant. You will find there the largest of Slovakia’s church – the beautiful Gothic St. Elisabeth Cathedral. Cozy streets, plenty of cafés and restaurants and fountains help create the unique atmosphere of the city.

Find out more about Košice here.

Spiš Castle (situated above the town of Spišské Podhradie) is a huge medieval complex situated on a hill. It is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Site. It was founded in 12^th century and has been rebuilt several times. Nowadays tourists can visit the well preserved ruins of the castle. The castle is famed for being one of the biggest in Central Europe.

Close to Spiš Castle you will find the old medieval town of the Levoča and ecclesiastical town Spišská Kapitula with an old cathedral. You should have at least two days to visit all interesting sites nearby the castle. If you need a break go to the  beautiful karst region – Slovak Paradise.

Read about the region here.

Our Experience

I wouldn’t claim that it is impossible to hitch-hike in Slovakia as I have never had to change my plans and use public transport. I hitch-hiked the country several times, with one friend and in a group, in winter and in other seasons. In my opinion it is a little bit more difficult than in my homeland Poland. If you have a lot of time and you aren’t in a hurry – of course you can try hitch-hiking in Slovakia too. Beside many unsuccessful attempts to hitch-hike Slovakia quickly I also had some positive memories, like being picked up by a garbage truck :)

written by:  Monika

I have been hitch-hiking for about 10 years. I started in Poland, the country I live in. Most often I hitch-hike in Poland and Slovakia. I have also hitchhiked around Slovenia and Estonia and did some shorter trips in other European countries. Hitch-hiking is very addictive :)

visit her blog at:  geographers-eye.blogspot.com

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We’ve had a great response to our latest photo challenge and received a very interesting selection of photos you’ve taken while hitch-hiking.

Massive thanks to everyone who participated and we are very sorry we couldn’t publish all the photos you sent but we loved every single one of them.

This is your gallery and your stories

The first photo we’d like to show you is the oldest one we’ve received. It was taken by Jean-Paul Bois-Margnac while hitch-hiking in Algeria in summer 1954.

“Hitchhiking on the road Algiers-Oran, a few months before the 1954 tragic All Saints Day which saw the start of the “War” of Algeria. Note the woven straw hat hanging on the backpack that I bought during my visit to Tlemcen. For this self-portrait, I had put my camera on the edge of the road and had activated the timer.”

Michel Pretzsch took this lovely photo while hitching in the middle of nowhere in Australia.

This photo was taken by Hallvar Hauge Johnsen while hitch-hiking across the Lofoten Islands, Norway.

“After the summer of ’11, a friend of mine was going to down south to work and we figured we wanted to hitchhike through Lofoten (Norway). We started in Svolvær and planned to get as far as Å. The shot was taken when we were waiting for a ride for about 45 minutes. I placed the camera on a little rock and ran up on the road to be a part of the picture. By the time the the picture was taken, the camera had tipped to the side and gave the whole image a more dramatic look.”

Camila Ulloa took this picture while hitch-hiking in the Andes in Chile.

Matei Domnita hitch-hiked with his friend from Cavtat, Croatia to Montenegro.

This picture was taken on the way from Osaka to Tokyo, Japan in 1977 by Ric Brooks. This is his story:

“While studying in Japan another student and I went on our first trip in Japan since starting classes. This was December of 1977. We hitch hiked from Osaka to Tokyo on our way to the island of Hokkaido in the northern part of Japan. As was usual in Japan at this time (don’t know if it is true now) the Japanese were more than gracious hosts even in their cars. We were taken out of their way to find us another ride and even had lunch bought for us. (…) The second ride we got gave us this awful dried banana. It was black. We had to do the right thing and eat them. Uuuuuuugh!”

This action shot was sent by Attila Juhász who was hitch-hiking in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.

And this is Erik Butenschon “hitchin a ride near Todos Santos, Guatemala“.

Check out this great shot by Robino who was hitch-hiking to Berlin, Germany.

“This photo is of me hitching to Berlin in 2010, taken somewhere along the German highway. I was hitching to Berlin to help organising the third edition of the European Hitchgathering.“

This is Jenya Dubova who took this photo in Trento, Italy.

“We came to Val di Fiemme hoping to ski in one of the most beautiful resorts of Italy. The weather was amazing, the nature was fantastic… but there was no snow! So we were hitchhiking through the mountains trying to find a snowy slope.”

This picture shows Flavio Ricci while hitching a ride in Newport, County Mayo, Ireland.

Ekaterina Izmestieva during her hitch-hiking trip in Israel.

Clabbe Bjurstrom standing on the side of the road in Dakar on the way to Saint-Louis, Senegal.

Haukur Sigurðsson hitch-hiked in Tehuelches, Argenitna. What an epic road to find yourself on!

Jim Dory took this shot while hitching in Idaho, USA.

“Taken along the lonely Highway 95, Idaho, perhaps at the Genesse cutoff but don’t really remember. One could spend a lot of time reflecting along that highway.”

Emmanuel Marshall took this picture while hitch-hiking in Victorian High Country, Australia. Read his full story about looking for the rainbow here.

Elizabeth Scupham hitch-hiked in the Italian Alps in 1969.

“I was with my friend Leslie, we were in the middle of nowhere and it was beginning to get dark.”

Mika Meskanen took this picture while hitch-hiking in Lapland, Finland.

“It’s not easy to get a lift in Lapland. Especially in a fog at 8 o’clock in the morning.”

This photo was sent by Martin  who hitch-hiked near Muxia, Spain.

“Having some bloody toes and generally being tired from walking on the “Camino de Santiago” towards the final goal – Finisterra (End of the World) – my friend and I decided to stop walking and try to hitchhike. Well, and we had no luck for 2-3 hours trying to catch a ride in the blazing Spanish sunshine. After 2-3 cans of delicious Estrella Galicia I came up with a more creative way of raising attention. And eventually it worked out. :D Good Times!!”

Here we show only one picture but you must check out the whole album by Thomas Parisot who hitch-hiked across Iceland. Thomas with an extraordinary meticulousness archives his rides, if only we were that organised… ;-)

This picture was taken on the way from Höfn to Jökulsárlón.

“This Australian guy was in Iceland for a week. Like Andrew and Brittany we’ve met days before, he flew from Germany. His parents still live there. According to him, Icelandic landscapes have a lot in common with Australia… except the ubiquitous mountains all around. Wilderness. Wide places. Emptiness. At least, it’s the case with the Souther Iceland. He climbed and walked in a glacier; not having a shower for 5 days.
“I stink!”
We stop to take a picture of him with his own camera. While framing, he climbs on the car, naked feet.
“Do you play American football?”, he answers an explicit “Oh Hell. Never. Ever. Never say to an Australian he is an American.”
Very gentle. He is happy to discover a new spot before going back to Reykjavik.”

This picture was taken by Artūrs Kozulis outside Paris on the way to Lyon, France.

This shot was sent by Botafogo da Russia who was hitch-hiking from Saint-Petersburg, Russia to Odessa, Ukraine.

“I’m glad to share with you a photo from our hitch-hiking trip from Saint-Petersburg, Russia to Odessa, Ukraine. The main aim was simple – to see the sea, so we wrote on a piece of paper not a name of the city, but this destination – “Море” (sea). 1500 kilometres away from the sea drivers were smiling viewing it.”

Dimitri Sregnob while hitch-hiking from Ivalo to Rovaniemi, Finland.

Wendy Watters hitch-hiked with her children in the middle of Australian desert. This is their story:

“Our first impromptu hitchhiking experience. Our car broke down in the middle of Australian Desert on our way to Uluru. We were in the middle of our three month drive/caravan trip around Australia. This day, we hiked around Kings Canyon 7 hours then hitchhiked back to the caravan park. We had no luck with the four of us… people giving us funny looks hitchhiking in the middle of Australia with two kids! We kept ourselves entertained playing on the quiet outback road. It was very hot and still. Then we decided to split up, father and son, mother and daughter. We had to go around the carpark asking for a lift. Reluctantly people agreed to drive us the hour back to our camp. All in all it was a really fun experience. It has given us the confidence now to plan our next big trip backpacking West Coast Canada.”

Michael Watson sent us this photo of his friend Joffrey hitch-hiking between Esquel and El Bolson, along Ruta 40 in Patagonia, Argentina. We’re planning to do our South American hitch-hiking trip next year and this definitely looks exciting!

Thanks to all the participants and come back for another photo challenge! We will set another one soon!

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In this week’s guest post we join Emmanuel Marshall as he ventures through Australia in search of the illusive Rainbow gathering. After learning about this ‘hippy’ festival from an unlikely source the story takes a turn for the surreal as our narrator follows his new friend home. And so, with the aid of a dreadlocked Kiwi and a drunken Chicagoan, let us explore the highs of hospitality, the lows of dog sick and the fun of being open to new experiences.

I heard about it from a bloke who gave me a ride near Budgewoi, on the NSW central Coast.
“You look like a bit of a hippy type” he says, “You’d probably like Rainbow”.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Rainbow Gathering.” He declaimed, making air quotes with raised eyebrows. “Its like a big get together of alternative-lifestylers, and weirdos ‘n that. My girlfriend used to go back in the day. She loved it. They go off in the bush and live in teepees for weeks, sit around and smoke pot and talk about peace and shit”.
“Sounds interesting” I said.

So I got online at a café, and tried to find out about it. I could only find v sketchy info. Nothing said where it would be held, but there were some dates, and a posting that said “…somewhere in the Victorian high country…”. The thing was supposed to start in about a fortnight, so I packed up my camp, and hitched south.

I got to Melbourne a few days later, and rode the train to flinders st. ‘Now what?’, I thought.

Waiting at a corner to cross, a handsome black man, wearing an expensive looking suit, stopped beside me.
“Hello..”
He was obviously slightly drunk. I could smell bourbon on his breath, and he had that relaxed stance of the serious drinker.
“Hi” I said and smiled.
“Buy you breakfast?” he drawled, in the over-pronounced manner of the intoxicated.
“ok, sure” I said. I was hungry.

We walked about a block to the foyer of a very plush high rise hotel, and my host ushered me into the lift and we rode to the buffet floor. To the disapprobation of the waiters, we settled ourselves at an immaculately set table. I propped my backpack in the corner as discreetly as I could, and tried not to be too smelly. My companions breath was doing a pretty good job of disguising my BO, I thought.
“It’s a buffet so just help yourself” he said, and we loaded up our plates with fresh fruit and pastry.
“No bacon” said my host. “I’m a Muslim”.
We returned to the table.
“I’m Jason” he announced.
“Emmanuel” I replied. we shook hands and commenced eating.

The food was beautiful and delicious. We had several cups of coffee and talked about ourselves. Jason was a stock trader for a large firm. He had lived in Australia only 6 years, having come over from the States. He was curious about my travels, and I told him about my mission to find Rainbow.

“Jesus” he said, wrinkling his nose with distaste “it sounds awful. I can’t imagine anything worse than sitting around in the dirt for weeks, surrounded by smelly hippies. Why don’t you spend a few weeks in Melbourne instead. This city is fantastic, and the clubs are awesome. I go clubbing three nights a week and I never get sick of it, because there are so many and they keep changing the wallpaper!”

After we’d finished eating, Jason paid our bill (the most expensive breakfast I’ve ever eaten) with his card and we floated down in the lift.
“There’s nothing like good coffee for a hangover. Come on, I’ll buy you a coffee.” Jason urged, and we sat at an open air table on the footpath outside some kind of civic centre or museum.

We ordered coffees, and Jason continued to try and persuade me to stay in Melbourne. “You can stay at my place” he said emphatically, leaning closer to grip my arm, and breathing a mix of croissant and malt liquor into my nostrils. “I have guests all the time”.

Two tables away there was a girl watching us. She was in her early twenties, with dreadlocks and a backpack sitting beside her. We smiled at each other.
“Do you want to sit with us?” I asked her, feeling the need of some female company.
The girl came over and sat down, plonking her bag beside mine.
I introduced myself, and Jason, and she shook hands with us and told us her name… (I’ve forgotten it. Sorry. If you read this get in touch and remind me)

She was a Kiwi, she told us, and she had just arrived in Australia, at Melbourne airport, the night before. She had spent the night in a park, close to the station. I congratulated her on her thriftiness, and we chatted for a minute about our favourite ways to avoid detection by council workers when sleeping rough.
“If you want a place to stay tonight” I told her, “Jason here has a sweet pad in town, and he’s a very generous host. Maybe if you ask him nicely he’ll let us both stay at his place tonight?”
Jason made a face for a moment, but graciously extended the invitation and we all set off to find his car, which was in a mysterious location somewhere in the region of the club district.
As we walked, I asked the dreadlocked girl where she was headed after Melbourne.
“Well,” she said, “I’m not sure. I’m going to a thing called Rainbow gathering, but I don’t know exactly where it is…”

Once we found his car – a very shiny late model Mercedes coupe – the ride to Jason’s house was pretty quick. The dreadlocked Kiwi and I talked about Rainbow the whole way, and Jason did his best to hide his aggravation at being made the third wheel.

The coincidence of our meeting was irresistibly cosmic, so being hippies we naturally interpreted it as divine intervention. It was a pretty astronomic co-incidence. Some of her friends had been to gatherings in the past, and she reckoned only a few dozen people usually attended the Australian ones, so the odds of two of them finding themselves at adjoining tables in a café were pretty impressive.

Once we got to Jason’s we were back to earth though. Walking in the front door, one was struck first, by the stench. Once you got over the eye watering smell of unwashed stock broker and dirty carpet, you noticed the way the place looked. There was stuff all over the floor. Garbage, clothing, full ash trays, half full bottles. The couches had numerous large stains and were splattered with damp looking piles of what turned out to be dog vomit. (Jason had two long haired terriers, with dreadlocks almost as impressive as the Kiwi’s).

We sat down on the clearest patches of floor we could find, Jason poured us stiff drinks, and we tried not to stare at the dog vomit.

Jason told us to make ourselves at home and stay as long as we liked. Then he shuffled off to the bedroom with the bottle of whisky and started to snore.

The kiwi and I decided that it would be rudeness of the highest order to just abandon ship. She had a slip of paper with the number and address of one of the Rainbow organisers on it, and she was hoping to meet them the following night, to get a lift with them to the, as yet undecided festival site. Apparently the plan was the organisers would jump in their van with the tepee on the roof, and drive off into the Victorian high country until they found a suitable spot, at which point they would call someone else, who would then announce the location on the web forum.

If we met up with them the next day, we would get onboard with the festival from the get go, and get a ride to the site to boot. It seemed like a good plan to stick it out at Jason’s for the night, then locate the convoy the following day.

Jasons fridge was full of neatly stacked groceries in home delivery bags, so our food needs were taken care of. The kitchen was in an unusable condition though. There were dead cockroaches on every horizontal surface that wasn’t actually covered in rubbish, and live cockroaches on every vertical surface. We decided to do our host a good turn, and we set about cleaning the joint up. We cleared all the rubbish out of the kitchen, emptied all 13 ash trays throughout the house, scrubbed the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, put the dogs out in the yard and sprayed jif all over everything until the place smelled like a hospital. Neither of us ventured into Jason’s bedroom. We didn’t want to disturb him (or find out just how rank his bedroom actually was).

We made some pizzas for dinner, and Jason shuffled out of his room rubbing his eyes just as we were getting them out of the oven.

When he saw the pizza he looked green. When he saw the house, he cried. Not a noisy cry, just a lot of hot tears running down his face. “Thank you, you guys” he said, and hugged us both.

Jason declined pizza, but poured us all big glasses of top shelf whiskey. We sat on the floor eating, and he got out a cigarette carton full of photos. Most of them were of a tall black woman with strikingly beautiful features, and primly coiffed  straightened hair. “That’s my mother” Jason told us proudly. “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She died 10 years ago. I left Chicago when she died. I just couldn’t stand the family anymore. She was the only one who accepted me. I wore her second favourite dress to her funeral. She was buried in the best one, but I still looked fabulous. Not one single member of my family has spoken to me since that day.”

We had several more rounds of whiskey, and Jason passed out around eleven, with a picture of his mum in one hand and a burning cigarette in the other. We butted out his smoke in one of the thirteen clean ashtrays on the coffee table and put a blanket over him.
The Kiwi and I rolled out our sleeping bags on the floor next to our host.

The next morning, while Jason still snored, we rolled our sleeping bags up again, and set out to find Rainbow.

written by: Emmanuel Marshall

Emmanuel Marshall began traveling in 2006, hitchhiking around Australia and South East Asia. Emmanuel’s mission is to live a nomadic life with one bag and thousands of friends.

visit his website at: rawsafari.com

Transport

Granada airport is located 15 km west of the city and offers mainly domestic flights, especially to Madrid and Barcelona. However there are a few seasonal international flights to Rome and Paris.

Granada’s  train station Estación de Granada, (Av de Andaluces) is located 30 mins walk north of the city centre, but by taking the number 3 or 33 bus, the centre can be reached very quickly. Services are provided by RENFE and links with Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla daily. There are also local trains which service the many villages around Granada, such as Loja, Guadix, Iznalloz and Moreda but the route is not so well developed and it is probably better to take a bus to these destinations.

The bus station, Estación de Autobuses de Granada (Avenida Juan Pablo II) can be found on the outskirts of the city, 3km from the centre, with the number 3 or 33 bus providing connections to the city proper. There are a number of operators with the most important being ALSA, who offer services to cities such as Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Malaga, Seville and many others.

The local bus system is run by Transportes Rober which offers a number of lines that run all across the city, including 5 lines that focus on all the main tourist attractions. Single tickets cost €1.20 , with multi-trip card options also available (€5 for 7 trips, €10 for 16, and €20 for 33 trips). Check out this useful map with all the stops and lines clearly marked.

Granada lies on the A-44: Autovía de Sierra Nevada which runs to Jaén and Madrid in the north and Motril in the south. The A-92, which connects to Sevilla to the west and Almería in the east, also passes close to Granada. The national road N-432 leads north-west from Granada through Cordoba and onto to Badajoz near the Portuguese border. 

Hitchhiking Out

North-east towards Córdoba

Take the number 9 bus from anywhere along Gran Vía, heading west, to the stop Avda. Andalucía 6, the very last stop before the bus circles the roundabout under the A-44 motorway. From there walk under the motorway (be careful, its a bit dangerous) continuing for about 700 m until you find a REPSOL garage. We had to wait about an hour but remember this is Spain and nothing happens fast!

 South towards Motril

Take the number 6 bus from anywhere along Gran Vía, heading east, to the very last stop Neptuno and cross under the motorway. Although it isn’t a great spot you can try on the motorway slip road or perhaps more advisably the nearby petrol station.

North towards Madrid, Jaen

Take the number 10 bus from Camino de Ronda, just south of the city centre, heading west. Leave the bus at the stop Juan Pablo II 5, anywhere along this route before the motorway slip roads is worth a try.

West towards Sevilla, Málaga: East towards Murcia

Although a little out of the city, by all accounts this seems by far the easiest way of reaching these tricky to reach destinations. Take one of the following buses, 122, 123 or 117, from Calle Rector Marín Ocete near the Train station to Albolote. After arriving in Albolote make your way through the down along Calle Real towards the A-92 Autovía de Andalucía. There are conveniently placed service stations on both sides of the motorway here. If you want to go west simply head under the bridge and turn left.

written by: Jon

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Types of roads

1. Auto estradas (A) – motorways with the speed limit of 120 km/h. A number of auto estradas are linked with the Spanish motorway system and are normally toll roads. Rather confusingly each auto estrada forms part or all of an IP or an IC road, and are labelled with an “A” code as well as an IP or an IC code. Hitch-hiking on them is illegal.

2. Itinerários Principais (IP) – dual carriageways running north-south and east-west with a speed limit of 100 km/h. There are nine in total. Hitch-hiking on them is illegal. 

3. Itinerários Complementares (IC) – dual carriageways supplementing the Auto estradas and Itinerários Principais network with a speed limit of 100 km/h. There are 37 in total. Hitch-hiking on them is a grey area.

4. Estradas Nacionais (N) (National Routes) / Estradas Regionais (E) (Regional Routes) / Estradas Municipais (M) (Municipal Routes) – lesser roads that span the country. The speed limit is 50 km/h in built up places and 90 km/h out of town. Hitch-hiking on them is legal but be warned traffic is extremely light on these roads.

Map of Motorways and Main Roads

click to enlarge and see more details
source: ezilon.com

Speed limit on Portuguese roads

source: wikipedia.org

Absolutely essential hitch-hikers phrasebook

- hello – Olá (oh-LAH)
- thank you – Obrigado (oh-bree-GAH-doo) (said by male)
Obrigada (oh-bree-GAH-dah) (said by female)
- yes – Sim (seem)
- no – Não (now)
- please – Por favor (poor fah-VOHR)
- goodbye – Adeus (ah-DEH-oosh)
- hitch-hiking – Carona (ca-RUA-na)
- I don’t have money – Não tenho dinheiro (now TE-nyo di-NYE-ro)
- We don’t have money – Não temos dinheiro (now TE-mus di-NYE-ro)
- money – Dinheiro ( di-NYE-ro)
- I’m going to … – Vou a.. (voo a…)
- We are going to … – Vamos (VA-mush)
- I am… – Sou.. (soh..)
- I am from… – Sou de… (soh de..)
- Nice to meet you! – Prazer em conhecer (prah-ZEHR ehn koh-NYEH-sehr)
- I don’t understand – Não compreendo (now kohn-pree-EHN-doo)
- now – Agora (a-GOR-ra)
- today – Hoje (OH-dzoo)
- yesterday – Ontem (OM-tem)
- tomorrow – Amanhã (AH-man-ya)
- friend – Amigo (ah-MI-goo)
Very useful when they ask you where you’re staying. The concept of Couchsurfing is often too difficult to explain, so just say you’re staying with a friend. You can also use this word to express the relationship between you and your fellow travellers.
- Can you stop? – Pode parar? (PO-dze per-RA)
- I want to get out – Quero sair (KER-ro sigh-ERR)
- turn left – Vire à esquerda (VEER-eeh ah eh-SSKEHR -dah)
- turn right – Vire à direita (VEER-eeh ah dee – ray – tah)
- straight ahead – Em frente (eng –FRENG- te)
- here – Aqui (a-KEY)
- over there – Lá (la)
- beer – Cerveja (sir-VE-dzya)
You should know this word, you will be often invited for some.
- bus station – Estação de ônibus ( shta –SOWNG de ON-nye-boos)
You should know this word and listen out for it to avoid situations when your driver, in their best intentions, takes you off the road and drives you to a station.
- train station – Estação de caminhos de ferro (shta –SOWNG de ka–MEE–nyoosh de FE-rroo)
- help me! – Socorro! (soo-KO-rroo)
- look out! – Ter cuidado! (ter kwi-DA-do)
- street – Rua (WHO-a)
- road – Estrada (e-SHTRA-da)
- roundabout – Rotatória (ho-ta-TO-ri-a)
- crossroads – Encruzilhada (en-CRU-si-li-ar-da)

Main Border Crossings

Portugal is a member of the EU and the Schengen Agreement and so the border crossings between Portugal and Spain are no longer manned and thus should not present any problems for travellers.

The main border crossings between Spain and Portugal are as follows:

• Northern borders:

- A3 : Valença do Minho (Portugal) – Tuy (Spain);
- IP3: Chaves (Portugal) – Verín (Spain);

• Central border:

- A25: Vilar Formoso (Portugal) – Fuentes de Oñoro (Spain);

• Southern borders:

- A6: Elvas (Portugal) – Badajoz (Spain);
- A22: Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal) – Ayamonte (Spain);

However do remember that if you are travelling to Portugal by car, you must bring a 20 € bill to pay for the toll on all the above motorways.

written by: Jon

***

Our Experience

We hitch-hiked in Portugal as part of our ‘A dedo por La Península Ibérica‘ (The Iberian Peninsula by Thumb) trip in 2012.

When hitch-hiking in Portugal we covered 672.1 km and got picked up by around 20 drivers from 6 different countries!

Read about our experience of crossing the Spanish-Portuguese border and watch a video here.

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It hadn’t been easy to decide where to travel next. We had many different alternatives and two main trips in mind:

• either go to Asia (Russia -> Mongolia -> China -> India -> Nepal -> Tibet -> Tajikistan -> Kyrgyzstan -> Uzbekistan -> Turkmenistan -> Kazakhstan)
• or to South America (Argentina -> Chile -> Peru -> Bolivia -> Paraguay -> Uruguay).

Both of these routes would require a considerable amount of money and at least 6 months to complete, which means we would have to give up our teaching jobs in Barcelona.

We’ve been also considering finding a hotel job in Norway in order to get some quick and easy money to financially support the trip. We’ve managed to find a job which would start in September (haven’t decided if we’re going to accept the offer yet as we really love our Barcelona lives), which means we have the summer to travel somewhere close and then either come back to Barcelona or go to Norway.

Whatever will happen in September, we have decided that in three weeks time we will start our Balkan Peninsula by Thumb trip and go back to where we met in Macedonia nearly six years ago. If you’re interested in how we met, you can read about it from our two different points of view: from Jon’s perspective here and from Ania’s perspective here.

We will start our 2 month hitch-hiking trip in Rome and finish probably either in Hungary or in Vienna, with Ohrid in Macedonia being our highlight.

This is our very rough itinerary:

.

It’s only a draft as we really haven’t thought about it yet but if you have been to any of the places on our route and consider it worth visiting or if you can think of any dos and don’ts, please give us you opinion in the comment box below. We would appreciate any first-hand comments and recommendations :)

written by: Ania

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Advantages

Let us be frank from the beginning, hitch-hiking in Portugal isn’t easy, but looking beyond the hours you will spend staring down an empty roads or alternatively watching hundreds of potential lifts whizzing by, there are some positives to be found.

At least the concept of hitch-hiking is understood, a small but crucial element which can take hours of a journey.

In summer, Portugal is an extremely popular tourist destination, and these foreign visitors will be your best bet of getting a ride, especially if you are heading to a popular tourist spot on the south coast or the major cities of Lisbon and Porto.

For those looking to hitch-hiking to or from Spain the A-25, which connects the centre of Spain and Madrid to both Lisbon and Porto, is very popular with foreign truck drivers, who are normally more than willing to help out.

Although the scale of the Portuguese motorway system can be very damaging for the hitch-hiker’s ambitions, there is an upside. The motorway service stations are very usefully positioned directly on the motorway. So once you do manage to get on the motorway, it is very possible to make good time,  if you are travelling long distances.

Disadvantages

Honestly, where to begin? Hitch-hiking in Portugal demands the patience of a saint. One unlucky drop off and the house of cards comes crashing down and the unenviable hellish trek in the blistering sun begins.

As a rule, the Portuguese rarely pick up hitch-hikers, of course there are exceptions but during our time there we mainly relied on foreign tourists to get around.

In the summer and especially in the hinterland, the heat is oppressive and the sun unrelenting. You will need more water than you can carry and an umbrella with which to shelter underneath.

If you do have the unfortunate experience of getting dropped off in a village or on a road where the traffic is light then be prepared for a long and most probably fruitless wait. More than once in our time in Portugal could we be found begging people to drive us to the nearest train station, defeated and exhausted.

***

Our Experience

We hitch-hiked in Portugal as part of our ‘A dedo por La Península Ibérica‘ (The Iberian Peninsula by Thumb) trip in 2012.

When hitch-hiking in Portugal we covered 672.1 km and got picked up by around 20 drivers from 6 different countries!

Read about our experience of crossing the Spanish-Portuguese border and watch a video here.

written by: Jon

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Great news everyone! Our next 2-month hitch-hiking trip across Italy and the Balkan Peninsula, which we’re setting off for on 1st July, will be followed by the media!

Our ‘Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013‘ has been granted media patronage by a great Polish independent travel website eTraveler.pl.

eTraveler is in our opinion the best Polish independent travel web portal where you can find practical information about your chosen destination; tips sent by independent travellers and backpackers; as well as stories, photos and videos from their trips. Furthermore, the website also provides a flight and hotel search engine.

We’re really happy as it’s our first trip recognised by the media. A good warm-up before our forthcoming epic South American escapade!

‘Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′

It’s a 2-month hitch-hiking trip, during which we are planning to visit 12/13 countries: Italy, the Vatican, San Marino (?), Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Hungary and Austria. Our rough itinerary indicates that we need to cover around 4000 km by thumb.

On our way, we’re planning to couchsurf and camp; speak to randomly met people; drink rakija with the locals; take plenty of photos; sightsee; swim in warm sea; see loads of beautiful things and learn a lot about those 12-13 countries!

Six years ago we found each other in Macedonia and we will also try to get back to the place where we met.

We also want to prove that it’s possible to travel the world with little money and we’re going to show you how to do it. Stay in touch and follow our trip here and on our Facebook page.

PO POLSKU ______________________________

Wspaniała wiadomość! Nasza kolejna dwumiesięczna wyprawa autostopowa ‘Półwysep Bałkański na Stopa 2013‘, na którą wyruszamy już 1-go lipca, będzie śledzona przez media! Świetna polska podróżnicza strona internetowa eTraveler.pl objęła naszą wyprawę swoim patronatem!

eTraveler.pl to najlepszy polski portal podróżniczy, gdzie można znaleźć praktyczne informacje dotyczące odwiedzanego kraju; relacje z podróży nadesłane przez niezależnych podróżników, backpackerów i autostopowiczów; ich porady, opowieści, zdjęcia oraz filmy z wypraw.

‘Półwysep Bałkański na Stopa 20130′

Jest to dwumiesięczna wyprawa autostopowa, podczas której mamy zamiar odwiedzić 12/13 państw: Włochy, Watykan, San Marino (?), Słowenię, Chorwację, Bośnię i Hercegowinę, Czarnogórę, Albanię, Macedonię, Kosowo, Serbię, Węgry i Austrię. Nasza wstepna trasa sugeruje, że do pokonania będziemy mieli ok. 4000 km na stopa.

Po drodze mamy zamiar korzystać z couchsurfingu lub spać pod namiotem, rozmawiać z przypadkowo napotkanymi ludźmi, pić rakiję z tubylcami, robić dużo zdjęć, zwiedzać, pływać w ciepłym morzu, zobaczyć ogrom przepięknych miejsc i wiele się nauczyć o tych 11 krajach!

Jako że poznaliśmy się sześć lat temu w Macedonii, chcielibyśmy także odwiedzić tamto miejsce!

Poprzez naszą wyprawe mamy zamiar udowodnić, że można zwiedzić kawał świata za naprawdę małe pieniądze, wystarczy tylko trochę fantazji i odwagi! Tutaj pokażemy Wam jak to zrobić i mamy nadzieję także i Was zarazić naszą pasją! Śledźcie naszą wyprawe na blogu oraz na naszej stronie na Facebooku.

written by: Ania

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We’ve been asked many times to make a post about packing and trip preparation. Since we have just set off for our Balkan Peninsula by Thumb trip, I thought it’s a perfect time to share with you some of our tips & tricks.

Packing light is a skill which you must learn if you want to backpack of hitch-hike for a long time without straining your back and ruining your trip.

Let’s be honest, it’s useful even if you’re not planning a round-the-world trip with a rucksack firmly attached to your back. Have you ever thought that Ryanair’s luggage limit of 15 kg is not enough? What would you say if I told you that your bag can weigh 6 kg and contain all you will need for a two month trip?

Follow these simple rules and I can guarantee you less stress and back pain throughout your journey:

Rucksack

Your rucksack is your best friend, so choose wisely. Your ideal rucksack should be small and light.

Rule 1: A small rucksack

For a trip during which you’re planning to camp, the maximum size of your rucksack shouldn’t exceed 65 l. If your bag is too big but empty, it will be uncomfortable to carry.

If you are not planning on camping and you’re not taking a tent, a sleeping bag and a mat, then anything between 20 and 50 l should do you.

Rule 2: Personalize your rucksack

If you are planning to move around carrying your rucksack a lot, make sure you buy one with an adjustable back system. This will allow you to adjust it to your unique posture and size, which will make a big difference. The idea is not to feel your rucksack at all.

Rule 3: Straps & zips

If your rucksack is small, make sure it has a lot of straps, which you can use to attach things onto it or compress your rucksack to make it smaller.

It’s also a good idea to buy a rucksack with a bottom compartment which can be accessed separately.

Rule 4: In all weathers

If your rucksack isn’t waterproof, make sure you buy a waterproof rain cover. For example something like this.

Rule 5: Look unassuming

Not in every country it’s a good idea to look like a tourist. In many places tourists are considered easy targets for pickpocket or scammers so the more you look like a local, the better. Therefore avoid attaching anything to your rucksack, which would give an idea that you are a world traveller, like badges, flags etc. They might look cool, but safety first!

Clothes

Rule 1: Take the bare minimum

• 4 t-shirts / tops
• 1 long-sleeve shirt
• 2 pairs of zip-off trousers
• fleece
• waterproof jacket (maybe waterproof trousers)
• hiking boots
• sport sandals
• 4 changes of underwear
• 3 pairs of socks
• headscarf
• swimsuit
• 1 t-shirt + shorts to sleep

Rule 2: Take light & quick-drying clothes

If you’re backpacking, you have to wash your clothes on a regular basis; probably every second day. Sometimes you won’t have enough time to let it dry for a long time; you might get rained on etc… Therefore it’s essential to have quick-drying clothes made of light materials!

So forget about jeans, they are heavy and take ages to dry!

Rule 3: Double function

Think of ways in which one piece of clothing could serve more than one function.

Equip yourself with zip-off trousers, which can be used as shorts or long trousers, if the weather or culture require full-leg coverage. There are many of these kind of trousers on the market, but make sure you buy the quick-drying ones.

A headscarf is also a very useful piece of equipment, which you can use to cover your head & shoulders (weather or cultural reasons), use as a belt, rope, mat or cover…

You can also take one pair of underwear less and use your bikini bottom or swimming trunks.

Rule 4: Comfortable shoes

You will need two types of shoes: for good and for bad weather.

The shoes you choose for bad weather should also be good for hiking or all-terrain walking, so make sure they have gripping soles and protect your ankles well. They really don’t need to be expensive, choose comfort & light weight over the prize.

The shoes for good weather would normally be trainers. We avoid flip flops as you can’t really run or walk up steep hills in them.

Rule 5: Compact & light jackets

I always take two types of jackets with me: a fleece and a rain jacket.

A fleece is light, warm and can be packed in a compression sack really easily.

A rain jacket should be so small and light that it could fit in the pocket of your fleece or in your hand luggage without any problem. It doesn’t have to be expensive either, I use a 14€ one from Decathlon.

Toiletries

Rule 1: Take the absolute minimum.

(1) shampoo
(2) bar of soap
(3) deodorant
(4) toothbrush + toothpaste
(5) shaving foam
(6) razors
- quick-drying towel (rule 2)
(7) sunscreen
(8) wet wipes
(9) washy flower thingy
(10) tampons, pads and other girl accessories…
(11) cotton buds
(12) small bottle for a second shampoo (explained in rule 3)

 And this is what it looks like all packed in a wash-bag.

Rule 2: Small & quick-drying towel is essential

Forget about the old-fashioned terry-cloth towels; buy a modern light, small and quick-drying one!

Rule 3: Soap & shampoo

You won’t need anything more than these two hygiene items; be a minimalist.

You don’t need a shower gel. Even if you use it back home, during the trip it is absolutely redundant. Use soap or the shampoo. What’s good for your hair can’t be bad for your skin, right?

You really don’t need a conditioner, you hair won’t fall out if you stop using it for the time of your trip.

The soap itself is very useful in case there is no washing machine and you have to hand-wash your clothes.

If you are travelling as a couple, take one normal-sized bottle of shampoo + a small bottle where you can decant some shampoo and have showers at the same time. Don’t carry two large bottles!

Rule 4: Sunscreen

If you are hitch-hiking or backpacking, you will be exposed to the sun a lot, so make sure you have a good suncreen. Protect your skin!

This is all I take and you really won’t need more. Forget about make-up stuff, creams, toners, perfumes etc… You are a backpacker, not a model!

Rule 4: Wet wipes

We always carry with us a pack of wet wipes (the kind babies use :) in case we get stuck somewhere while hitch-hiking and won’t be able to have a shower for a day.

Packing

Rule 1: Compression sacks

If you have an old sleeping bag which you don’t use any more, take its sack and put your clothes inside. Pull the straps and compress it. You will be amazed how much extra room you will gain.

Let me show you how it works ;)

I roll up all my clothes up to minimize the creases.

Before: all my clothes apart from the jackets, shoes and the headscarf.

1) t-shirts, 2) trousers, 3) socks, 4) long-sleeve shirt, 5) underwear.

After: all nicely packed in a compression sack!

We use two compression sacks, one for clean and the other one for dirty clothes. You can also use one for your fleece.

Rule 2: Pack light, wear heavy

Pack all the lightest stuff you’ve got and wear the heaviest, e.g. the day you are moving with your rucksack, wear the boots, which are heavier than your sandals.

Rule 3: Take the bare minimum.

Think twice or even three times before you pack and get rid off all the stuff you MIGHT use. Take only those things which you will really need!

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We hope you will find it useful. It took us a number of years to master the art of packing light and we are happy to share our experience with you :)

If you have any other ideas or suggestions which could help us all to pack light, share your knowledge in the comment box below! Thanks!

written by: Ania

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About Hitch-Hikers’ Handbook	Budget transportation – hitchhiking

Hitchhikers Handbook are back on the road and all the familiar sensations come flooding back to us. Running for a plane that we are certain we are going to miss, we didn’t; Jon fearing we had boarded a plane to meet our demise, we hadn’t; and thinking we were ready because of the time we had spent at the gym, we weren’t.

Our first day in Rome was spent delving into its history: the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine hill and the Vittoriano. Many hours pounding the pavement in the blistering heat, but definitely worth the while to admire all the splendours of antiquity.

You clearly have to bow your head to the magnitude of the Colloseum, its scale and architectural skill are simply awe-inspiring. However, I don’t think we would have enjoyed a 117-day party (like those held by the emperor Trajan) during which 10,000 animals and 9,000 gladiators were slaughtered.

Other highlights of our stay in Rome included: visiting the world’s smallest state, the Vatican City and climbing up the 552 steps to the Michaelangelo designed dome of St. Peter’s; the Pantheon, the oldest surving building in Rome; and throwing a coin over our shoulder into the Trevi fountain, in the hope that one day we would return to the Eternal City.

We were also very lucky as we were hosted in Rome by a fantastic couple: Gianluca and Sabrina, who made our stay very enjoyable. Many hours were spent in their garden, drinking beer and talking nonsense. On our very last night, they took us on a scooter tour of the city and showed us some places that only locals know about. For a short time we felt like Romans, whizzing around the traffic on mopeds and drinking cheap beer in Trastevere, the working class district of the city.

Before attempting the hitchhike to Siena we were fearful, given the stories we had heard about Italians not stopping. However, we needn’t have worried; 5 lifts and 5 hours later we had arrived in the stunning city of Siena ready for the next leg of our adventure.

written by: Ania & Jon

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Our next trip ‘Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′ in the media!	The Balkan Peninsula by thumb 2013: a rough itinerary

Having arrived in Siena with surprising ease and after a quick chat with a very unfriendly woman at the tourist information centre, who was upset at us for having the cheek to arrive 15 mins before closing when she wanted to go home, we settled on the Colle Verde campsite to lay our heads.

Siena is a wonderful little town, with one of the craziest central squares I have ever seen, like an upside down turtle shell titled at an angle with a giant town hall dominating the lower end. The architecture is also unlike anything I have experienced, falling over the dividing line between Gothic and Renaissance styles.

The streets which wind around the square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are charming. The cathedral, which Ania has declared as the best cathedral she has ever seen, is, in fairness, stunning. The view from the tower of the town hall also shouldn’t be missed.

There is no avoiding the fact that Siena, and Italy generally, is expensive and there is no end to the means to extract a little more from your wallet. The Cathedral is broken into separate sections, all with an individual entrance fee. Any food bought has an additional service charge included and all accommodation prices include a tourist tax. One fun experience was a run-in with a particularly particular woman. After being quoted 3 € for a beer, the disappointingly familiar price swap reared its ugly head again when we got the bill. We said no, she said yes, we said no, she said yes, we gave her 6 € and made to leave, she threatened to call the police, we said fine and sat on the step, she left, came back, left, came back again and told us to go. We did. Unfortunately we are learning pretty fast that money, and the never ending search for more, is quite important in Italy. Prices are high and toilets are for customers only!

written by: Jon

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Our next trip ‘Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′ in the media!	The Balkan Peninsula by thumb 2013: a rough itinerary

Filed under: *Photos*, Italy, The Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013 Tagged: backpacking, hitch-hiking, hitchhiking, Italy, photography, Siena, travel, travelling

This is the second part of the series of posts about packing light for a backpacking/hitch-hiking trip. In the first part “Backpacker’s checklist: What to take and how to pack light for a trip?” we advised you on the clothes and toiletries you’d need, and we gave you some handy tips about how to make your luggage light and compact.

In this post we will show you all the necessary gear you’d need if you’re going camping.

Camping gear

Rule 1: Waterproof and light tent

This is all you need. There is nothing worse, than waking up in the middle of the night in a soaking tent, so make sure it’s waterproof and you use all the straps and pegs to stretch it to the maximum.

If you are travelling as a couple, buy a tent for 3 people and use the extra space for your bags.

Our tent weighs 3,2 kg. it’s not too much but I think you can find lighter tents.

As we are a couple, we don’t carry it in a bag like this but divide it in two parts: the base + the poles and the flysheet + the pegs, and we carry those two parts in our rucksacks.

Rule 2: Tiny sleeping-bag and a mat

If you’re not just going hostel-hopping, but are planning to couchsurf, camp or sleep rough, a good sleeping-bag is important. We normally travel in summer, so our sleeping bags are designed for mild/hot weather, but if you’re planning to camp in winter, you’d need a warmer, more specialised one.

In the past we used to take cheap foam travel mats but this year we’ve switched to self-inflatable mattresses, which are only a tiny bit heavier but the added comfort is incomparable.

This is all the sleeping stuff we have:

Cooking equipment

Rule 1: Stove & gas

A small camping stove (9) and a small bottle of butane just in case you get stuck somewhere and have to cook an emergency meal. If you hitch-hike this might happen a lot.

Rule 2: Pots & pans kit

Buy a combined pot & pan kit (1), they’re really useful and more than enough for a couple.

Take a spoon-fork-knife in one (2), a small plastic device that will take you a long way.

Take a sharp knife for general cutting (3).

Take a small plastic cup (4), it’s not heavy and so much better to drink from than an aluminium pot.

It’s also a good idea to have a small bottle with washing-up liquid (5) and a small sponge for cleaning your cooking equipment (6).

And make sure you have a tin opener (7) and a corkscrew (8), they’re always good to have.

And this is what it looks like when all compactly packed together :)

Rule 3: Basic food

It’s also a good idea to have some backup food with you in case you get stuck somewhere for a night. You won’t need a lot, it’s just to keep you alive and you will probably be able to get somewhere and buy more food after a day.

We always have with us some coffee (1) and sugar (2) in light plastic containers. A cup of coffee in the morning is a lifesaver after a night of camping in the forest!

It’s also a good idea to have some instant soup (3) and some emergency pasta (4) or rice.

We also normally have some stock cubes (5) and some spices e.g. curry powder (6). They can be useful if you’re couchsurfing and you want to cook a nice meal for your host.

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We hope you will find it useful. It took us a number of years to master the art of packing light and we are happy to share our experience with you :)

If you have any other ideas or suggestions which could help us all to pack light, share your knowledge in the comment box below! Thanks!

written by: Ania

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About Hitch-Hikers’ Handbook	Budget transportation – hitchhiking

So, here we are in Florence. Our second hitch-hike has proved that travelling using your thumb in Italy is not at all impossible as everyone had warned us before we set off. Siena is no more than 80 km from Florence so the journey took us only one lift and an hour of our time, during which we tried to maintain a conversation with the driver using a mixture of Spanish, Italian phrases and words we’ve learnt so far and our trusty fake Italian accent. It all worked pretty well.

When in Florence, we got dropped off on a popular viewing platform, located on one of the hills overlooking the city, called Piazzale Michelangelo. And it didn’t take us long to realise how beautiful the city was; in my case it was love at first sight.

Florence, like Siena, reached its cultural peak in the Renaissance and most of its sights are perfectly preserved to this day. Stunning Palazzo Vecchio, serving as the town hall, with its massive clock tower looming over a square full of beautiful sculptures and tourists crowded around awe-struck, is just one example of how skilled the architects of the Age of Enlightment were.

But in Florence you don’t have to look far to find buildings that would make your jaw drop. A few squares away, there is the Cattedrale de S. Maria del Fiore, which is the forth biggest cathedral in Europe and seen from the outside gives you goosebumps, even on a hot day.

Put simply, Florence (or Firenze, as the locals call it) is extraordinary and has already managed to reach one of the top positions in my personal ranking of the most beautiful places on this planet.

It’s a city of art and leather. Art, not only because it houses Italy’s most prestigious galleries where you can find works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Raphael and many more, but also because you can’t get away from it. Art is present on every square where street artists and vendors try to sell their paintings and caricatures. Leather, because I’ve never been to a city whose every second shop or market stall sells clothes, shoes and accessories made of it. Leather, like art, is everywhere.

We spent most of our days in Florence walking from one sight to another, taking an infinite amount of pictures and queuing up for monuments. The only way to avoid spending between 1 and 2 hours of your day in queues is to pre-book your tickets, which is not really an option for people like us, who travel on a budget and count every cent. Italy is expensive, much more than I had expected and that’s not only because of the astronomically high entrance fees and price of food and drink, but also due to all the hidden costs you don’t really know exist before the bill is brought to you. In Florence you might pay a different price if you eat or drink while standing up or sitting down (the sitting option is more expensive, obviously); if you’re outside or inside; if the service charge is included or not. There are so many things you can be tricked into that now before we decide to sit down anywhere, we ask the waiter for the real cost. But even that cannot guarantee that you will pay a fair price. Today before sitting down we asked the waiter how much the coffee was if we sat outside. He said, in his very good English, that it was two Euros (!) or one, if we decide to move inside. Having learnt that, that is the normal price of an esspresso in Florence we decided to sit down and you can imagine how shocked we were when he demanded 6 Euros for our two tiny coffees and showed us the price in the menu. It obviously mattered very little what he’d previously said. Taking a waiter’s word at face value is a risky business in Italy so you should always consult the menu!

Repelled by the prices in bars and cafes, we decided to move our drinking to the campsite where we’re staying. Yesterday we had quite a heavy session with a group of 18-19 year old Irish and South African people. They were nice but drinking with people who are our students’ age made us feel quite old.

Tomorrow we are going to Bologna with a 100 km hitch-hike ahead of us. We are optimistic!

written by: Ania

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Follow our 2 month hitch-hiking trip across the north of Italy and the Balkan Peninsula: ‘The Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′. It’s happening now!

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Our next trip ‘Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′ in the media!	Siena and the search for a fair price

We started our hitch-hiking day from Florence to Bologna full of optimism. In theory nothing should have gone wrong: we’d checked the hitch-hiking spot on Hitchwiki, worked out how to get there using the city public transport and hoped that the 100 km journey would go like a dream. We arrived at the motorway toll-road entrance and assumed our positions right behind a “no autostop” sign but in a perfectly safe and visible place. One car passed, then another one, and another… We stood in the baking sun for about 40 minutes still praying that the next car would be the one.

Some cars pulled up and asked where we were going, but it turned out that they were all going in the opposite direction. As we were speaking with one of those drivers, a police car drew up. They spoke some English, asked us to show them our documents and after a brief conversation they told us to move. However, we couldn’t find any better place, as right before the toll road, there was a massive roundabout diverting traffic into many different directions. We decided to try a petrol station which was behind the bend, hopeful that people who were going north, would stop there to get some petrol and pick us up.

Eventually a young woman pulled up. She wasn’t going north, she wasn’t even driving to the motorway but she offered to take us to a town, west of Florence where we could try our luck. We got in her car and learnt that she also used to live and study in Barcelona. It was such a relieve to finally be able to speak to somebody in problem-free Spanish. She worked as a pedagogue and had a couple of children herself. We spoke about her experience in Barcelona and the economical situation in Italy and Spain, which she summed up by saying that in her profession she can’t really complain about the lack of work. I guess she was right, I’ve been teaching for three years now and haven’t had any problems as of yet.

We said goodbye at a petrol station which opened onto a mountainous road north of Pistoia, a medieval town famous for its vineyards. We stood there for a while and watched heavy grey storm clouds approach from behind the mountains. The wind was strengthening and we were progressively getting more worried; it was around 5 p.m. and we were still 80 km away from our destination, where our CS host was waiting for us.

At some point a car stopped and a family got out. They asked us where we were going and offered to give us a 20 km lift. They didn’t speak English but were eager to get to know something about us so we exchanged some basic information in Spanish and Italian. Then we spoke about politics. Their 12 year old daughter was very opinionated about Berlusconi. It often happens when we hitch-hike in Italy that people like to bitch about Berlu. Another topic is usually football; it’s easy to say a lot without speaking a common tongue. Naming some players, some teams then expressing our opinion about them by gasping or puffing at their performance is usually enough to break the ice.

The 20 km lift passed so quickly that we didn’t even notice when we had to wave goodbye. We were on the road again, waiting for the first drops of a downpour to fall on our heads. At one point the rain became so heavy that we had to put our rucksacks under a nearby tree and try to stop cars squeezed under an umbrella. We must have looked pathetic, but obviously not pathetic enough as none of the cars that went past stopped. Suddenly, we spotted an inter-village bus approaching us. We tried to wave it away but the driver stopped anyway. We told him that we were hitch-hiking and had no money to pay for the bus fare but he took pity on us and let us on without a charge.

We went on, in a nearly deserted bus that had just two other passengers and stopped at some God-forsaken places, where nobody was waiting for the bus to come. As we were going past one of those stone-cut villages, a local drunk got on and we didn’t really understand much of what he was mumbling in Italian. We learnt that we were going to Porretta, though, which was supposed to be a tiny hot spring resort. The bus chugged along and arrived at the centre of town, which we had to get ourselves out of.

We found a perfect spot outside a town museum, located somewhere in the outskirts. Our next driver happened to be an old Italian man. After the first Berlusconi driven conversation, he told us he had visited Poland which he loved. He remembered Toruń for its medieval architecture and massive carrots which he hadn’t known existed! He told us he’d been a vegetarian for 16 years and only this year he switched to veganism. All for the love of animals, he said.

He left us on the outskirts of a town called Vergato, which was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War. It was now the early evening and we were less then 40 km from Bologna. The next people who picked us up were a couple of men. One of them spoke a bit of English and told us about some lovely pilgrim walks in the nearby hills. He pointed to the Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca, which sat atop one of them overlooking the city of Bologna. They weren’t driving directly to the city centre but left us in suburbia around 5km away. Then with a mix of English and Italian we asked for some directions and followed a Romanian guy all the way to the centre, where we met our great host Pietro.

The 100 km hitch-hike didn’t go as smoothly as we had expected it to, but we made it in the end. And this is exactly what we love about this way of travelling. If we’d taken a coach, we would have reached Bologna within 90 mins but we would have never spoken to so many people, seen so much of the countryside and learnt so much about the local history. Sometimes the more difficult it gets, the more interesting it is and a short trip can turn into a day full of unexpected occurrences.

written by: Ania

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Follow our 2 month hitch-hiking trip across the north of Italy and the Balkan Peninsula:‘The Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′. It’s happening now!

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Art and leather in Florence	Siena and the search for a fair price

Continuing our snaking journey north and with the accompanying wonder of visiting and exploring new and diverse lands, our stop in Bologna has got me feeling all nostalgic. Perhaps it is the large student population or the relative lack of monuments but Bologna has me dreaming of Bristol.

While attending university I came to view Bristol as my home away from home and perhaps the city in which I felt most comfortable in my native land. The counter-culture atmosphere, the optimistic yet worldly people and the sense of community that is lacking in so many bigger cities in this world, all ensure that Bristol, and the friends I made there, will always have a place in my heart.

Walking around Bologna, one can almost touch the sense of freedom and creativity. Bologna, like Bristol, is not a major tourist destination, despite its inherent charm, so it’s easy to escape that feeling that you are merely another customer on the conveyor belt of tourism. I get the feeling that many of the people who went to university in the city find it extremely difficult to leave, an experience I myself endured when I finally made the decision to drag myself away.

Both cities are havens for bike riders in countries for car drivers, with cycle lanes creating a useful network, a rarity in major cities in England and Italy. Bars are more relaxed, less formal, with less people dressing to impress, with the focus on conversation and company. Everywhere you look there are different clothes and subcultures with mohicans rubbing shoulders with black booted rockers, and people just seem friendlier, not once have we been grunted at for asking for something in a shop.

But still our journey must go on, and so I sit at a bus station waiting to get to the edge of town (we missed the first bus, of course) preparing myself for the hitch-hike and the hoards of tourists that await us in Venice, thinking about my home in Blighty.

written by: Jon

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Follow our 2 month hitch-hiking trip across the north of Italy and the Balkan Peninsula:‘The Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′. It’s happening now!

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Art and leather in Florence	A hitch-hiking day that could have gone so easily…

The hitch-hike from Venice to Trieste was achieved with the minimum of fuss, for once. One bus from town to near the airport, a taxi driver who took us for nothing, a wise old lady whose car had some serious roof issues and a portly Italian gentleman, and we were in Trieste before lunchtime. After a coffee kick, we were ready to find our couchsurfing host, the wonderfully interesting Milad a PhD neuroscience student from Iran.

Trieste is perhaps the least typical of all the Italian cities we have visited. The architecture is a crazy mix of Austrian, Slavic and Italian influences with the Germanic austerity dominating (no surprise there then :). The people were also different to the Italians we had encountered, more measured, controlled and friendlier. Perhaps it is living next to the sea or the relative lack of monuments to attract the tour groups but the city felt more relaxed with space to breathe. Or maybe I felt that because we had just come from the tourist Mecca of Venice.

Our stay with Milad was interesting to say the least; he is a very intelligent man whose speed of thought enabled him to skip between the sciences as I would skip between dishes at a buffet. We talked about physics, biology, psychology and the unanswerable God question. Through his studies Milad moved in academic circles and we were lucky enough to be invited to the birthday meal of his Turkish friend Ertuğrul. The weight of intelligence in the room was mind-boggling, not often in my life have I felt like the stupidest person in the room but a little self-deprecation here, a splash of story-telling there and I found a niche in which to sit myself.

We finished our stay in Italy with a dip in the Adriatic. Well, I say we, Ania spend 15 minutes staring intently at the water before deciding she didn’t like the look of the waves so I waded in alone, got a big mouthful of dirty, salty water and decided: ‘that would do’.

Italy is a country in which we really only scratched the surface but learned enough to know that one day we will have to return. The history, culture, weather and natural diversity is simply stunning; it’s just a shame that the path has been beaten so frequently that the natives are extremely cynical, not to mention sometimes down right rude. Ciao Italy, until next time.

written by: Jon

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Follow our 2 month hitch-hiking trip across the north of Italy and the Balkan Peninsula:‘The Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′. It’s happening now!

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Venice: a tale of two cities	A hitch-hiking day that could have gone so easily…

The hitchhike from Trieste in Italy to the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana took 3 hours and two lifts. After getting from Trieste to the border we stood around for a while having absolutely no luck until a truck driver slowed down and yelled at Ania in Polish. As they say: ‘you can take the girl out of Poland but you can’t take Poland out of the girl’ and despite Ania’s protestations to the contrary, she looks Polish enough to be spotted by a truck driver from 50 m.

After being dropped off and working out our bearings, we realised that we were incredibly close to the home of our next couchsurfing hosts: Tanja, a 23 year old architecture student and her partner Borut, a 27 year old physiotherapist. Result!

Ljubljana is in so many ways perfect. It’s green, well managed, peaceful yet vibrant and quaintly beautiful. It is so small that the best form of transport is a bike, something which, thanks to the kindness of our hosts who lent us their city bike cards, we took advantage of. Peddling from our host’s house through the large city park to the winding medieval streets, admiring the architecture of the city was a personal high point of the trip so far. The medieval Ljubljana castle sitting above the town offers lovely views across the city and is also a must.

Whilst drinking beers with Tanja and Borut in the park I also tried something for the first time. Whilst living in Plymouth in England, Tanja and Borut took a liking to tight rope walking and had brought one to the park with them. So there I could be found, two feet in the air, one foot on a shaking piece of chord the other scooping air in a desperate attempt to stay balanced. Needless to say, I was crap.

We also visited an amazing area called Metelkova City: a squat, cultural centre, concert hall and drinking area that must be seen to be believed.

written by: Jon

________________

Follow our 2 month hitch-hiking trip across the north of Italy and the Balkan Peninsula:‘The Balkan Peninsula by Thumb 2013′. It’s happening now!

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