New Year travel story 1997/1998

Written by Nemenchine

5 hitchers from Vilnius Hitch-hiking club went to Austria by hitch-hiking and other 6 by bus. So Augustas and Audrone left Vilnius in the morning of 25 December and went to Prague. They had an accommodation at Hospex's member's place and on 28th moved to Vienna. Dalia and me left Kaunas in morning of 26th and after 25 hours were in Budapest. We passed destination Lithuanian border - Budapest with 3 lifts. The first lift was Lithuanian travelers' bus, which was going to Slovakian mountains. During this lift we even spent 2 hours in Krakow's old town. After this lift we were picked up by the Turkish truck's driver Ali, which was going to Istanbul (!). Ali gave us a lift till Hungarian city Hatvan (50 km from Budapest). The third lift was directly to "our" hostel in Budapest.

If someone needs a cheep accommodation in Budapest we know a hostel for 3.5 USD in summer and 5 USD in winter. After 24 hours in Budapest we hitched to Vienna by one lift till the downtown. The last of our group, Domas, has hitched to Vienna via Brno. On the exit from Brno he met Augustas and Audrone. They reached Vienna together.

Vienna is a very nice City, but... very expensive. It was the most expensive city I had visited. Fortunately we joined the pilgrims' group from Lithuania and had an accommodation, food and transport in all East Region for only 10 USD per 4 days! No one of Austrian people know about such country - Lithuania!!! The usually answer was "Ah, so you are Russians, are not you?"

In December 29 Augustas and me had a supper with another subscriber of mailing list in his home. In December 31 we decided to visit Alps! We (7 hitchers from VHHC and 3 other girls from LT) went 50 km by train and after 25 km by hitch-hiking to the beautiful town beside mountains Puchberg. From this town we went 5 km to mountains and had a chair lift to the 1275 m under the see level. After one hour on the mountain we were late to the lift and had to climb down by foot. After 10 minutes all of us had a lifts to Vienna or Puchberg.
Next morning Augustas started to hitch-hike home via Brno (CZ) and Czestachowa (PL). He had an "accommodation" in Piotrkow Trybunalski in his tent.
Dalia and me started to hitch-hike at 2 p.m. via Bratislava and had a lift directly to Zakopane in Poland. There was a lot of snow in Zakopane, much more than in Alps or Slovakian mountains.
Domas and Audrone decided to leave Vienna in evening and go to Budapest.
After 26 hours Dalia and me were in Kaunas. The longest waiting for a lift was in Lomza (PL). From Lomza we had a lift till Lithuanian border. The driver was a good man from Druskininkai (LT). Then there were only 30 km till the border we noticed Augustas thumbing in the dark forest. There were about 8 p.m. and he was thumbing there approximately 3 hours. We and our driver immediately decided to make a joke. We had hidden down in the car and driver stopped the car beside Augustas. There was such conversation between the driver (D) and Augustas (A):
A: Good evening. Could you give a lift till the border?
D: How much will you pay?
A: I have no money. Could you pick up me free?
D: Do you know how expensive is fuel?
A: But...
D: O.K. You will leave your rucksack.
At the moment Augustas have noticed my rucksack through the window. "Vladas already left his luggage",- he thought.
D: Get in! We will negotiate.
We can not suffer longer and started to laugh. Augustas was shocked!
So at 10.30 we were in Kaunas and stayed in my parents' house.