December 23, 2013

Hitch Hiker's Guide to Prague

Step 1: Find awesome couch surfer who will hitch hike together with you
Step 2: Make hitch hiking signs using pen and paper
Step 3: Utilize your thumb in a pointing fashion
Step 4: Get picked up by a BMW and Audi
Step 5: Profit???!?!?!?

So I did my first hitch hiking ever here in Berlin. I stayed over at Tanya my couch surfing host for my last night in Berlin. Tanya is a fashion designer here in Berlin. She posted on couchsurfing website about traveling to Prague and since I was going there too we got into contact. Her home was just simply amazing and provided me with a sense of calmness as soon as I walked in. You can tell she is a very motivated and organized person as soon as you meet her. Having quit her stable job in states, Tanya is now working in Berlin pursuing her dream. I had mentioned about hitch hiking over the phone before I met her and without hesitation she said yes.

In the morning we headed out to the outer edge of Berlin and did our special hitch hiking dance on the side of the on ramp to Dresden/Prague. We had no luck for the first 20 minutes of so. But people were really responsive and looking at our signs and giving us a smile even if they couldn't pick us up. This was definitely a good sign! I was also just being silly in general to try to grab people's attention while Tanya held the sign which I think also helped.

Around the 25 minute time, we got a smile from a really kind looking man in a BMW. Just acting on my instinct I asked him where he was going and luckily for us it was pretty close to Dresden which is a city in between Prague and Berlin. So he told us to hop on. We had AMAZING conversations in the car and Markus who is a photographer from Berlin. Markus even went out of his way to drop us off at a rest stop in Dresden. But this was traveling in style. We couldn't believe our luck.

Right after we got dropped off, not even 5 minutes has passed I asked a cool looking guy having a cig outside the rest stop if he spoke English: "sprechen Sie Englisch?" He did and he was going to Prague too! He quickly consulted his girlfriend and told us to hop on! Such good luck! So with that we got to Prague in one piece from our first hitch hiking experience. This time in an Audi A4 - it wasn't as nice as the BMW but hey still sweet :D I gotta say it was pretty awesome! 

 Wherever you are Markus and the mystery couple thank you so much for making our journey amazing! 
Tanya, Marcus and I

Ballin ride

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Peace from Prague.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 26, 2013 at 7:06 AM

    Hi! Very glad to hear about your safe arrival in Prague. Indeed it was an amazing trip to Dresden with such inspiring an touching conversations! Thank you both very much for sharing your time with me! All the very best for your journey, Jack, and you, Tanya getting your ideas to life!
    Markus

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