Friday, 2.8. (Day 2) Kaunas-Chestochowa

I woke up from the bush. Sun shined. It was chill. I ate a bit of dried fruits, packed my stuff and went to the petrol station to ask a lift towards Warsaw from the drivers when they fill their cars. After 30 min, I got a 5km lift to a next petrol station from a young guy. After a while, one man agreed to take me to a 3rd petrol station, which was along the highway to Poland, so it should be much easier to hitch from there. I started hitching with a sign along the highway, because the petrol station itself was totally empty. Sometimes a car stopped near for another reason and they refused to take me. After an hour, a truck stopped and took me to Polish border. He was a Russian man and couldn’t speak English. I had to try my Russian again. I almost fell asleep.

After he left me to the border, I wandered around a little to find a good spot. It was damn hot and I was tired. Few polish guys I met advised me to go to a place where drivers take breaks. Drivers said either no, or they were going to another direction. One car demanded 100e to drive me to Warsaw. I refused politely. I went to the road just before the border with a sign. It started to rain a little bit. I started to feel a bit desperate and almost smoked a cigarette but I could say no to the temptation because it would have felt like surrendering.

After 15min, a little truck stopped and agreed to take me straight to Warsaw. I felt so glad. Against all odds. He offered me a cigarette. It felt again as a reward. He couldn’t speak English that much but he laughed a lot and I could communicate quite easily with my gestures. He let me sleep because I was so tired and even apologized for bumpy roads. During the middle way, we went eating traditional Polish food. He wanted to offer that meal for me and refused when I said I could pay. How can he be so kind? The food was so good. Creamy soup with sausage and boiled eggs in it and sausage with sauerkraut and fries. And Coke! I’m 90% vegetarian but during this trip I loosed it a bit, to make things easier.

After he wanted to advise me for hitching and said where I should go in Warsaw. He also said that trucks are not allowed to drive in certain countries in Europe during weekends. He asked my number that he could call me after the trip to see if I was still alive. He was an amazing person. He left me on one of the ring roads in Warsaw. I had sent Couchsurfing requests to Warsaw and one was pretty sure to accommodate me, but he never contacted me.

So, I travelled in Warsaw, trying to search for the place to Katowice which Hitchwiki.org recommended. I had to ask from many people and they were very willing to help. One Polish guy came talking with me while hitching and we travelled by bus to a better place to hitch. After finding the recommended spot it was already dark, but only after 5 min, a car stopped and took me to Chestochowa, to a petrol station only about 60km from Katowice. I had had enough of hitching for that day so I went to nearest park, in the middle of trees and bushes behind a big pipeline, put my hammock and went sleeping.

Travelled distance for the day: 637km