My hitchhiking trip in Poland

Hi everyone, today I will tell about one of my hitchhiking journey that happened in Poland.

Hitchhiking for most of the people sound unbelievable. Ask yourself, how many times you’ve been thinking to do it or you actually did it ?

I was 20 years old and working as a customer assistant in petrol station. I remember I got 4 days off from work and the final destination where I was travel Mokrany Nowe village is very close to my heart. The reason is that from 2001 to 2003 I was visited my grand grandmother there every summer. After 2003 because of some family issues it was impossible for my family to visit this place. The main problem for me was that I make so many friends with people in this village and we lost the contact for very long time because no one of us has phone in 2003 to save the numbers. I remember I found my friends in 2010 on Nasza-Klasa website ( it was like Facebook but only for polish people ) We managed after 7 years to contact each other and organize to see again.

The Journey begins

My journey on Google Maps – This is how my journey looks like.

4th June 2015 the all journey begins. Start from 5:30 from my home town I was walk to the closest bridge I have possibility to go under and try to hitchhiking. The first driver take me only 20 kilometers further. Which is not that much but it give me a lot of strength and motivation to continue.

Next stop was in the circle road and the old family take me to the Szczekociny city. We drive together almost 100 kilometers I remember that they went for funeral so the atmosphere wasn’t the best to talk about positive topics but I was trying my best to cheer them up. They’ve been very interested about me and asking what did I do, did I study where is my destination. Thanks to their kindness I left them in city center where I continue walking.

Stop after 4 kilometers I found the bus stop which was a good stop to try hitchhike. Next person take me to the nearest petrol station, where I can change clothes and buy water. After that I start looking around the cars who stop and ask them about take me further. Luckily it take me only few minutes to find it. I also figured out that asking in face to face give you more possibilities to success rather than thumb up.

Robert take me around 100 kilometers further which actually very speedy my journey. We’ve been talking about everything, he also told his story when he was hitchhiked in Poland and Europe. He was kindly to pick me to the next petrol station where I can rest for a while.

A little crisis

In the petrol station I remember that was my first call to my mother. Actually I don’t tell them the true that I was travel by hitchhiking. I don’t want to bother them so I said them that I will travel there by bus or train. There I spend a lot of time to find another person who wants to take me to the next destination.

A car came and stopped on my thumbs up. I still remember the moment when the window opened and I saw a woman with a plaster on her eye. She looked a bit like Caribbean pirates. However, the initial slight amusement turned to sympathy. Marcin and Kasia, the couple who took me in the most critical situation, were just returning from the hospital. Kasia underwent laser eye surgery which was risky anyway due to the possibility of losing her eyesight forever. However, they took a risk and Kasia, I hope, today she has been watching the world in better colors since then.

After many standard questions about where I came from and where I am going, Marcin decided to take me to his parents for dinner. On the one hand, I felt bad about it, but on the other hand, I was grateful to fate. Marcin’s parents cooked a fantastic dinner. However, my time passed and I had to move on as soon as possible. Marcin was kind enough to take me to the nearest gas station and talked about how he was trembling for his girlfriend’s health today.

Closer as further

After arriving at the gas station, I caught another hitchhiking after a few minutes. Grzegorz, who traveled to visit his family, talked about his hitchhiking trip around Turkey. After less than an hour, I found myself in Radzyń Podlaski. I was lucky because I managed to catch another hitch. This time it turned out to be a family with a son. Krystian, who was driving, talked about his adventures in Belgium and how he landed in a hostel that turned out to be a brothel. He also managed to take part in one of the actions organized in the hitchhiking race, I will not say it would be fun to take part in it one day. You can read about the race more here Hitchhiking race.

Krystian dropped me off on the motorway, where it is forbidden to stop cars. I risked a bit, but luckily I managed to catch another car quickly. Students from Biała Podlaska were extremely interested about my trip and wanted to invite me to their party. It was nice of them, but my plans were different. But what surprised me the most when I told them where my destination was, they knew exactly where it was. They offered me a ride to the village itself. I didn’t believe myself, I was excited and happy. I arrived at my destination around 20:00.

End of the journey

My friend’s grandmother was waiting for me, with whom we agreed that I would also spend the night. I made a phone call to him and announced that I was standing in his yard and in response I heard “I can’t believe you did it”. After a few minutes, he arrived with his friends from college. We opened vodka for the occasion and started celebrating. The last memory was when we played uno and I won the game and fell asleep. After traveling all day, I was so tired that even the noise and loud music couldn’t wake me up.

I hope that I managed to get you interested in hitchhiking a bit. Believe me, it’s worth trying, at least to test yourself. This trip gave me a lot. I have opened up to the unknown and learned to deal with problems.