A good start from Holland to Poland

‘Take care and have fun!’ that’s what my parents said when they dropped me at 8 o’clock in the morning at the highway ramp. Just one last picture with mom and let’s go!

Trying to get used to it

“Next week we’ll go the Germany and we’ll pick you up” shouted a young student ironically when he passed by on his bicycle. Much more other students who passed by seemed to be surprised to see a hitchhiker who wanted to go the Germany at this ramp.

Yep. I had to get used to this hitchhiking again. But luckily two cars stopped within half an hour. Both cars drove to Emmen. I gambled I could better stay at this ramp.

Well gambled! After 35 minutes a Czech trucker stopped and told me he was going to Germany.

In the truck he told me he had to unload some stuff just after the border in Germany. After that he could bring me even further to Magdeburg, 400 kilometers further! Perfect!

Good time for a beer

Close to unloading place the truck driver offered me a beer. Very kind, but I thought it was to early for beer. It was not yet 10 o’clock. So I kindly thanked him.

Only a quarter later, we were waiting to unload the freight. So now he grabbed the beer and gave it to me. Czech hospitality I guess. I didn’t want to spoil the party, so I decided to take the beer. Of course I appreciated the gesture.

That’s how I got a beer at 10:15 in the morning, when I wasn’t yet 2 hours on my way. Cool right?

Campsite in Magdeburg

My mom advised me to search for a place to sleep early at the first day. This would be a comfortable start. So I did 🙂

After the truck, just one more car brought me to the campsite a little bit after Magdeburg.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by World Hitchhiker (@theworldhitchhiker) on Apr 17, 2019 at 12:55pm PDT

Great place for a first night. After a hot shower, I crawled into my sleeping bag for a cold night around freezing point.

Are we really going to Poznan?

The next day only two cars were needed to bring me to Poznan. Atleast that’s what I thought.

The first couple picked me up at the highway ramp. They were on their way to a funeral.

The second lift was a van with 2 Polish guys, a grandma and a dog.

The driver worked for Porsche in Leizpig. After a few Polish phone calls with his manager he told me that he had to go back to Leipzig for work.

I was disappointed. Who knows where I would be dropped off if they were going back. So I asked again if they were going back to Leipzig. Unfortunately the answer was ‘Yes, we are going back’.

In the mean time we already passed several exits. They didn’t seem to hurry for turning around. After half an hour I just asked again about the current situation.

Then it appears that they had to go back in 3 days. So they were able to drop me in centre of Poznan, great for me! Nice case of language barrier.