Hitch-hiking Back to Balkans. Day One. Bye Riga!

Hungary, 6 km away from Serbian border

Here I've gathered bit some pieces from my journey to Serbia at the end of June 2011. Although my final destination was Serbia, beside exploring the road stories and people I met on the way in Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Serbia itself, I also managed to go a bit further to Macedonia, which was my EVS (European Voluntary Service) country in 2009/2010. Each blog post on this journey (with a label Back to Balkans 2011) presents one day on the road and all the details I've managed to grasp on the way in form of people I've met, thoughts I had and sometimes silly experiences that I got myself into. The journey started in my home country Latvia on 23rd June 2011.

Last bits of Riga and a Short Introduction to Latvian Pagan Traditions.

Today is an official holiday in Latvia and that means a lot of traffic going to the countryside. Well, that might be true, but not at six in the morning. By the way – 23rd and 24th June is known as the celebration of summer solstice in Latvia.
Basically it means drinking a lot of beer and getting extremely drunk from this activity, jumping over the fire, eating cheese that is made specially for this event and barbecue-ing, having sex somewhere in the bushes (as a part of the legend that suggests that couples should go look for the flower of fern, which in reality doesn't blossom at all, but the legend says it does exceptionally on this night). However, in households with children as well as in public events dedicated to this celebration this weird pagan tradition as well as many more other are told in a more fairy-tale manner, and the secret of the fern flower stays only a legend. This nation-wide celebration also suggests that bigger cities like Riga become completely empty or close to that point - as every townsman makes sure he's gone into the wild, namely closer to the nature. For me obviously it is a spare topic to discuss with random drivers I hopefully will get on the road.

A part of that famous Orange Bridge in Riga.

So the last good-byes and “Good luck” wishes are said. Bauska), I enjoy the sunrise, because there’s actually nothing else to do. Some lonely car passes and signals at me, letting me know that I’m not really welcome on this part of the road, though I don’t really see any danger in it, but that I guess that’s my subjective opinion. After a while of walking on the newest Bridge in Latvia (Gosh, I love that smell of the new;y-made road), I decide that the smartest idea would be to take a tram to the city center and get a bus from there going to the nearest towns in direction to Lithuanian border. It’s already 6:40 AM and the time starts to stress me out, as I haven’t moved anywhere yet.
It’s a little bit before 6 AM and I leave my friend’s house walking towards the legendary Orange [also known as South] Bridge (legends unsurprisingly are held around corruption topics and other money issues). I see dead traffic, but as I follow the road signs I need (towards town called

Luckily, I have a little money left, so it’s enough for a tram ride and possibly as well for a bus ticket to the other cities that are on my preferred way. I arrive to the bus station. Next bus to Bauska goes only around 7:30 AM and there’s not enough money in cash to buy a ticket. So I have to use ATM and there will be again some leftovers of money I will not use for ages and probably will give as souvenirs to those interested. The relatively long waiting and being still at the starting point really pisses me off, but I go and buy a small kebab at the place I recently discovered. So at least I get some gastronomic pleasure which overshadows my small morning failures of grand journey I am about to experience.

7:30 AM. The bus is on time. I hear people chatting about their plans for today. Yeah, today these plans are important – because they all have a common goal... how to celebrate summer solstice. Around 8:50 AM I arrive to Bauska. I have been here before. Not exactly in the city itself, but always passing through and the bus station, as well as the road leading to the border is very familiar to me. So I continue the way on the road, the city and its surroundings are in a shy fog and are still sleeping untouched. This morning is actually very fresh, as it rained tonight and the weather forecast is not really predicting anything better. The rain is not my best companion on the road, but I still hope to escape from it. It would be another random thing to talk about with drivers, but the previously checked weather forecast  suggested that the rain is going to follow me and my chosen route.

A Lithuanian Selling Polish Strawberries in Riga Central Market

Standing on the hitch-hiking spot in Bauska's outskirts

So here I am. At the same hitch-hiking spot I was 3 years ago on my way to meet Balkans for the first time. There’s a couple of youngsters standing just before me. Their plan today is to get to Poland and I still hope that I look more 'professional' (meaning better prepared) hitch-hiker than they are – so that I could be picked up faster by the guys going longer distances. Those kids are nice. We’re chatting about random stuff to make the time pass as the road is actually almost empty. It’s already 9:15 AM and I’m still there. But I know that I will get a ride, so I become more determined in my thoughts – to attract a driver that is going at least across the border... And actually I got quite lucky (so the Secret's secret of 'the THOUGHTS BECOMING THINGS' works to a certain extent). So my first driver on this journey is a Lithuanian guy in his 50-ties called Romas. As his English is not sufficient and my Russian is quite perfect, we communicate in Russian (yeah, his Russian is quite perfect too). He’s on the way home right now – to a city called Panevežys, but otherwise  he’s always rotating between Warsaw and Riga. Well, it’s an seasonal summer job he has right now – he is delivering and selling strawberries on Riga's Central Market. He tells it is a quite profitable business. He purchases strawberries in Warsaw and delivers them to Riga. Beside the travel expenses, Riga Central Market seems to be a good selling spot for strawberries. So the business goes on. At least that’s what he said. We keep on talking as the way takes around 1,5 hour, so that time has to be filled with some random topics. We speak about the dramatic economic situation in smaller towns and curse on politics and politicians of our countries. and then we suddenly discover that he actually has picked up a girl on the way to Riga a few days ago, whom I personally know. So we smoke another cigarette (yeah, that was one of our topics as well – in matters, which cigarettes have a reasonable quality, and the prices that are not reasonable) and laugh about the coincidence and that the world is such a small village, at least the European district for sure can be considered as one!

I get off on the highway, just before the turn to second biggest city of Lithuania – Kaunas. I walk up to the main highway, feeling happy that I actually finally started moving... and being out of Latvia finally is a sign that there’s for sure no way back. The idea of getting to Warsaw today seems more real than it was in Bauska with the dead traffic, but still there’s plenty of uncertainties to worry about. My goal today is to reach Warsaw before it gets dark as hitch-hiking in the dark period of the day doesn't seem like the safest option to me.

A Ride to Remember: Leonid from Prague

I’m on the highway, the road signs show the distances in kilometers to the cities near Kaunas and Kaunas itself. I switch the sign to “Kaunas”, but the first 5 minutes I have no luck. Then I decide to put a sign 'Warszawa'. So no matter what – the drivers will be informed I’m not the local and I’m not trying to catch a cheap ride home, just because I’m a poor student and I’ve spent all my money on beer last night. Why am I telling all this? It's just because the guy who stopped, while I kept changing the signs in those 5 minutes, told me afterwards that I looked like a professional hitch-hiker and that’s why he stopped. We agreed that he would take me to Warsaw at first, since I was not really sure if I should tell all my crazy travel plans to a stranger straight away. The guy's name is Leonid and he's 41. We communicate in Russian, however to my surprise he knows a bunch of phrases in Latvian. Later on I get to know that he has a girlfriend in Latvia. Leonid's goal today is to reach Prague at latest next morning as he has things to do in Prague. So if I wouldn't be expected in Warsaw or Krakow today I would make my own personal hitch-hiking record - going to Ostrava with two cars, which is 1080 km in total.

Somewhere in never ending Poland.

Lithuania disappears like the morning fog and here starts Poland, which always seems so big and never-ending comparing to any of the Baltic states. Small towns and villages just manage to change their names on the green road signs. My companion on the road tells me when he was young he also was a passionate hitch-hiker himself, when he was young and that he met his first wife on one of those trips. He mostly traveled alone or with a friend, so his hitch-hiking experience is filled with thousands of kilometers and a bunch of incredible stories, though as he says they happened in different times, Soviet times... so the final destinations were also different. Leonid says he managed to hitch-hike all across the Soviet Union and that he met his first wife when he was 19... and surprisingly she was a lot like me as he said. A girl that just escaped home and went to look for her fortune somewhere else. Well, maybe I have something common with this wild cat of the previous generation and I am on the way to the country (Serbia) to which my heart belongs, letting myself experience the life of unexpected, which I just enthusiastically entered.

I become curious how come he ended up living in Prague? His story in Prague started randomly - he just went there and stayed, doing all types of jobs and trying to survive, and that was already 15 years ago. His hitch-hiking adventures stopped quite fast - already in his early 20-ties as his wife got pregnant, so there was other stuff to take care of. In 90-ties Leonid made a successful business connected with computer technologies, but he doesn't want to talk about it much, since now he has time to enjoy other things as seemingly the business pays off. The lesson learned from this discussion is that it is important to be in the right place at the right time.

His two oldest daughters are a few years younger than me. From his words I understand that they've been indecisive about their future in a sense that they don't have an exact clue what to do with their lives, though they have managed to study in a few universities already. We both agree that when the right time comes, they'll know what to do and what's best for them. The youngest daughter happens to have a difficult name - Natalia. As Leonid explains the difficulty is in the character of the person that has this name, since the name of a person can add some 'extras' to their personality, and Natalia adds some toughness. Since my mother is called the same way, we agree on the coincidental complexities of the complicated natures of Natalias.

Countryside views of Poland.

Time passes quickly like the kilometers. My driver hasn't slept much the night before, so we stop quite often, so he can have his 10 minutes power nap. Meanwhile I have a chance to enjoy Polish countryside and forest areas - wherever a nomadic road takes us. Leonid says that it's a pity I don't have a driver's licence, as otherwise I could ride some part of the way instead of him. We stop a few times at lonesome petrol stations, have some hot meals. I thought I'll have an empty stomach on this journey, but no - it's totally full. However, it appears still confusing for me that somebody is buying me food. We listen to Russian 'Ozzy Osbourne', namely Boris Grebenschikov and I laugh at the lyrics of the songs, which are no more no less than bullshit, but that's where it starts to be interesting. From certain independent phrases you build the whole Universe of the song and then it actually makes sense. We listen to the latest album of Grebenschikov and it sounds quite funky to me. Leonid adds that this artist has tried everything as in music as in life in general. Later on we listen poetry of Sergei Brodsky. I wasn't really familiar with poetry readings in a CD format, but as I get to know the poetry is read by the poet himself. The ideas presented in combination with the poet's voice seem to me quite depressing. Seems like it's not my thing.

Warsaw Today.

It’s around 7 PM we arrive in Warsaw. I have to make a quick decision, whether I go further and get off somewhere on the way to Krakow or I stay in Warsaw today as I’ve been expected here by a Couchsurfing friend Daniel. As it seems that I am catching a fortune today I decide to go further and try to get to Krakow, and I expect us to be around that area in 3 hours. Warsaw is nice. Quite busy at this hour of the day. I don’t see much of the cultural heritage, just that limited amount which is available for view from the window of a passing car. And it’s fine with me. I see people on the streets, random couples, grannies, guys on bicycles, kids with balloons - everything like it should be in big cities. Lots of diversity and commercials. Gosh, I love big cities. They are so full of life!

The time passes quickly and it gets dark quite quickly too - which is still kind of unusual for me, but I assume - the more South you go, much faster the night comes. We drive on the highway, which goes to Katowice, which is around 100 km from Krakow. Leonid asks me countless times if I really need to be in Krakow today, since he could easily drop me off in Ostrava, where I am expected in two days, so I refuse the offer.

A few days before the trip I checked hitchwiki.org for the tips on the best hitch-hiking spots in the direction from Krakow to Ostrava, but recent entries suggest that the main highway (that I also need to take) is under construction. So speaking of alternatives, I've checked the cheapest possibilities for traveling through that area and Mother Google and the various forums I've found suggested me to take the train. However, the prices were not totally clear to me. Since Leonid is more of an expert in Czech Republic than I am, I use an opportunity to ask whether he knows how much a ticket from Krakow to Ostrava might cost. I also tell that from the information I got from a friend living in Krakow it's cheaper to go from Krakow to the border city with the train (as in Poland price is calculated in kilometers), and then buy a ticket in Czech Republic from there, but I haven't found any relevant information on how much it could cost in Czech Republic. Leonid cannot provide any information on that either, since he travels mostly by car. Then he gets out his wallet and hands me a banknote of Czech money. At first I am shocked and do not want to take the money, but he persuades me to take it. I count and it seems it's way too much, more than I would need anyway, and I don't really feel comfortable to take such a big sum of money. He replies that he doesn't have less and in any way I will need that money more than he will feel the absence of it. And then he says something that calms me down thinking of my future and the future hitch-hikers that I will take, when I'll have my own car: 'That's one of the ways I can pay back for all the good things that were done for me, when I was young and poor, and hitch-hiking'.

Our journey slowly comes to an end. We listen to the Rolling Stones and talk about global issues, particularly discussing actions of Russia on the global stage of the political circus. Leonid doesn't have very strong patriotic feelings or I would rather say he tries to look at things realistically by seeing the both sides of the coin presented in European and Russian media. He uses an interesting term for describing actions of Russia in solving problems in 'critical' areas - the SHARK principle. That is, a shark grabs the things just because of the idea of grabbing without having any clue why and whether it needs it or not.

It’s completely dark outside and Leonid misses the turn, where he should drop me off and continue his way to Prague. He says that probably it was a sign from God - just to take me a bit closer to Krakow. We drive in Shell petrol station, situated in one of the suburbs of Katowice, namely Sosnowiec. Further we exchange phone numbers and wish each other good luck on the way to our destinations. He asks me to text him, when I get to the next car and I see that he is worried that I’ll be hitch-hiking during the night, so I decide, no matter how smoothly goes my 'catching a ride' activity, I’ll text him in an hour that everything is alright and I’m on my way to Krakow. 

The 'Adventures' in Sosnowiec Petrol Station.

Leonid is gone. I sit down in the green area of the petrol station and light up a cigarette. The station seems to be almost empty, i.e. not highly visited at this time, I decide to take my time and look through the maps more carefully. In an hour I send Leonid the promised text message. By time it gets colder. Although I’m in the South of Poland, which is at least 1000 km closer to the equator than Latvia, unfortunately it doesn't help in terms of warmer weather conditions at nighttime, but it does change the length of the daytime since it got dark already at 9:30 PM. As I notice later on the night seems never ending probably because of the same reason. Not much luck with catching the next ride - the car that pass by the petrol station are mostly the local ones. Black, black night and I'm considering to continue my journey on foot. If it doesn't work, I'll at least have time spent on doing something, probably useless, as it always happens while waiting. So I go to the highway, it's completely dark there. The only thing I see is the lights of passing cars, which dazzle my eyes, while I try to make my 'Krakow' sign visible to the drivers. But it's no use. I keep on walking. I pass a busy road, where four lanes are reduced to two because of the road renovations in the area, so I try to pass that tiny piece of road that I share with cars when I see no trucks coming from the back (as then there would be no space for me to walk). That's where some sort of street lighting is still present. Further I move the more the darkness swallows me in. The scary part comes, when something moves in the grass next to the road. I start to walk faster. I follow the big road. My walk in the dark takes me around 30 minutes until I come up to the fence, where I can't continue my journey on foot. The speed limit here for cars is already 100 km/h. So I turn and walk back, a bit exhausted, but happy that I'm spending this useless nighttime somehow, and hoping that the dark night soon becomes a lovely morning.

My way back to the petrol station is all dark except the car lights flashing straight on me. Soon I’m back to the two lane tiny road, but this time I don’t risk getting being hit by a truck if I don't manage to pass the intersection on time, but I try to cross the area collared with a fence, though having an open entrance (or I'd better say - unlocked). There's a small removable construction building in the middle. I am hoping to cross the area without being noticed, but unfortunately a guy walks out of the small building (Wow! Somebody is actually there!?) and walks towards me. I say 'Hello!', he's smiling, so that's a good sign. Then he asks me something in Polish, but I don't really understand and offer to switch to English. He refuses. With signs I try to show him that I'm heading to the petrol station and say 'Shell'. There our conversation ends. He waves good-bye.

Piotrek, Krakow's street of Red Poppies and Agnieszka.

I’m back in the petrol station, it’s just 1:30 AM and it’s dark and cold. Still dark. I spend another  two hours sitting on the asphalt, writing some stuff down, eating. The station is as empty as it was before. It’s already 3 AM and I’m fed up with waiting for the morning light as it seems it will never come, so I start to walk around and show my 'Krakow' sign to every passing car. A mid-size truck drives in the petrol station, and without expectations of getting a ride I show my sign, and actually the guy nods 'Tak' [Yes in Polish], and tells me in Polish that he’ll go to get some coffee first, and then I can join him on his way to Krakow. My five hours of waiting and madness are happily over. The journey can finally continue to the next destination.

Piotrek :)

The driver happens to be a funny guy in his late 30-ties. If I remember correctly, his name is a Polish version of “Peter”, which is Piotrek. He happens to be very talkative too, and he expects the same from me - in Polish! I get to know that he's been married in the past and has a daughter. I'm trying my best to respond to his questions, telling that I have a friend Agnieszka in Krakow, who is expecting me today. I think I lie about having a boyfriend just to be safe, and tell that I enjoy meeting new people in random ways like this. Piotrek is going to Krakow to deliver glass (in form of windows as I assume) to some company that is renovating some building in Krakow. It's 4 AM and it's still dark. The roads are almost empty. It's almost 5 AM when we arrive to Krakow and it's already light outside. We get to one end of the city where he needs to deliver the glass, on a street called 'Czierwoni Maki' (The street of Red Poppies, sweet, huh?) and stay there. I make a short glance on the city, which is still sleeping. I hear some random roosters singing their regular morning songs that are coming from the nearest village next to this 'end of Krakow' and take the offer to have a two hour nap in the truck on one of the two sleeping couches. Poitrek meets the customer around 6:30 AM.

On the way to Krakow.

At 6:30 AM I continue sleeping, while Piotrek deals with the delivery. Around 7:30 AM he asks me where I need to be. I give the address of my friend Agnieszka and it happens to be not very close to this 'end of Krakow', but somewhat in the center. Piotrek decides to drive me as close as the limitations for trucks allow him. In 15 minutes we get to the area, and the guy shows me on his GPRS screen, where I need to go to reach the street I need. I thank him for the ride and his joyful company, wish him good luck with the ladies and 'Happy Way!' (as much as I can make it clear with Czech-Polish-Macedonian-Russian-Ukrainian language mix), get on my feet again, put 'my home' on my back (meaning my backpack) and go further looking for Agnieszka's house. It's early and the morning feels beautiful. I made it.