When I met Keki in the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt on Monday afternoon it became fairly obvious that we wouldnt be making it to Amsterdam. It was just too late and we had had such a hard time hitching to Frankfurt. Also, as some of my things were in Dresden, it just no longer made sense to go all the way Northwest and then head further south than Berlin and then back up ... it was just a mess of planning. So we said that wherever we could get a rideshare first (wether it was Amsterdam or somewhere else) that was where we were going. So we ended up back in Dresden at noon the next day and as we sat down for lunch and to write a hitching sign, a couple asked us where we were going.
A couple of hours later we were in Prague ready to meet up with our last minute couchsurf host Phillip.
Now I loved Prague. A lot. The city is gorgeous and vibrant and full of history and people and delicious things and beer. But the public transportation authorities....
We had heard that they checked tickets on the trams and so even though we had yet to pay for public transportation (quite a tast considering we had spent hours on trams and buses in Germany) we decided to buy a 24 hour transport pass for while we were in the city (110 kc or 5 ish usd). So after taking the pass we had bought from a station employee down a ridiculously long escalator we were caught in the biggest government run tourist scam ever. The official stopped us and took our passports because the ticket wasnt validated at the unmarked machine up above. The officials were pretty much only stopping tourists and asking them to pay the 800 kc fine on the spot or else they would call the police and the fine would jump to 10000 kc (thats really 4 zeros). We were saved by two things. First, Kekis ability to hold her temper much better than I could (I dont think my exasperated "well then call the damn police" really helped anything. Second was the czech girl standing to the side mouthin "dont pay". So after 20 minutes of being detained and threatened, the official simply manually validated our tickets and let us leave. I was pretty much ready to pack up and leave at this point but Im so glad I didnt.
Our CS host Phillip was insanely nice and showed us all around the city even though he was exhausted. He took us to get dumplings (after we pressed him about typical Czech food), goulash, and good Czech beer. A walk through the castle, the bridges, and the Jewish quarter left us pretty touristed out so we made our way back for a quiet night in. We completed our sightseeing (and piercing shop perusing ... to no avail) the next morning and headed out of town. Not that I didnt have an amazing adventurous time in Prague but the hitch out was the real adventure.
After consulting hitchwiki we took the metro and some buses as far out of the city as we could but couldnt follow the instructions to the petrol station as they were in butchered English. So we kept asking people and they kept directing us to random places. In the rain. We waited by a roadside that didnt go to our motorway for several hours until being instructed to walk on the motorway itself. Also not advisable. By the time it hit early evening we were desperate enough to start wandering several kilometers until hitting the airport. What followed were a series of useless conversations with check people who knew neither English nor where the nearest Petrol station was. After making our way across a muddy field and through a thorn thicket we found a neighborhood randomly with hardly any people. After several more pointless conversations we struck gold when two guys looked at us like we were idiots and pointed to a barely visible petrol station roof in the distance. We ran through more dense woods to get there and ended up at this tiny station right on the motorway covered in mud, wet, and exhausted.
And there we sat. For hours. We had pretty much given up at this point and figured a hitch would come if a hitch came. So we settled in for a long cold night at the petrol station. At 22:00 though the attendant came out to our rescue and taught us how to say "Pristi Pumpa" or "next station" in Czech. Apparently we werent even fully on the motorway to Dresden yet and the next station was much better.
Two minutes after writing the sign a perplexed guy took us to the next station - only 2 km away - with a look of disdain for the two least ambitious hitch hikers ever. While we debated the feasibility of hitching all the waz back to Dresden from petrol station to petrol station and laughing about our fate, a guy looked at our Dresden sign and said something random in Czech. Confused, we just stared at him until he mentioned some town along the way to Dresden (teplice) and said it would be a tight fit.
Let me tell you that four people and two enormous backpacks IS a tight fit for a brand spaking new PORSCHE but we managed it. Pretty sure it was one of the most epic hitches ever and got us most of the way to Dresden in about 20 minutes thanks to Daniels 240 km per hour driving. I have never been so in love with a car. I know I always talk about how I dont understand high performance vehicles and sports cars and the like but I fully get it now. It was amazing. The guys were also really nice and kept offering us food. The passenger was born in LA but lived most of his life in the Czech Republic (didnt quite get the full story through the language barrier) and was hilarious. When we saw a speed camera, Daniel had to slam on the brakes to avoid being caught going 110 kmh OVER the speed limit and we asked what the rules were like in CR. After some babbling we didnt understand he came up with "the speed limit like in shop... you break it you buy it!" which he laughed about for several minutes. Also. Porsches have boots under the hood. And they can hold exactly two backpacking backpacks. Who would have guessed? Certainly not me.
When we got dropped at the next station we were on top of the world. We were only 70 km or so from Dresden and it was warmer so sleeping there for the night wouldnt be so bad. It was mostlz a trucker stop anyways by that time of night and as they arent legally allowed to take hitchers we would have to wait until morning. But as we lamented about how the days of truckers picking up helpless hitchers were over a string of cars pulled up. So when a guy we had unsuccessfully tried to speak to in German and English gestured towards the parking lot, we were excited but not fully surprised. We started to get a little worried as he passed all of the cars though and were a million times more confused when he gestured to an enormous semi truck. But up the ladder we went and settled into our dream come true long hitch straight to Dresden. He explained that if we were stopped by the police, we should climb into the luggage compartment above the bed and not make a sound. It was slow but so much fun. Full of horrible Sparta cigarettes and random music and the windows down. I even slept a little on the super comfy bed behind the two seats. When we finally got to Dresden, he refused to just leave us at a petrol station and took us mostly to the city center.
Surely we couldnt make the trifecta of all hitches and get dropped at our door. But taking a bus wouldnt be a problem. Theoretically. But when we realized that the buses had stopped running at that stop, even that wasnt a problem. We just stuck out our thumbs and got a ride literally to Kekis front door.
So yes I was complaining about hitching last time. I said that hitching trips always ended on a high note with a refreshed love of people and a sense of adventure that you cant get anywhere else. If I was disappointed last time, its just because I didnt wait long enough. The trip wasnt over.
Unfortunately, now it is. I stay in Dresden tonight but have to say farewell tomorrow. I leave for Berlin in the afternoon and will hopefully find a place to leave my things. Im actually quite panicked about it since I cant take all of it on Ryan Air... or even most of it. But regardless I have to make it to Berlin tomorrow to catch my flight to London. Only a flight, a night in the airport, and a couple buses stand between me and Katie Lower.
Ill send an update from the OLYMPICS!!
p.s. sorry if there are any "y"s mixed up with "z"s or if youre frustrated by the lack of apostrophes... Im typing on Kekis keyboard since "my" converter broke (sorry Michelle!) and I dont know how to use Kekis properly.
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