Hitchhiking in Europe or how to start your Erasmus, so you will never forget

Our student, Mykhailo Dziubi, spent a semester at KUL's partner university, the Catholic University of Zagreb, as part of the Erasmus+ programme. He wrote about his four-day hitchhiking experience, which he found to be an ideal way to travel green.

Hitchhiking in Europe or how to start your Erasmus, so you will never forget

The four days of hitchhiking taught me more lessons than several years in school.

When the international office at KUL asked me if I would go to Erasmus by bus to use the green discount? I answered that I would travel by hitchhiking because, in my opinion, it is the most green and wild way to travel. And I did it!

Four days, five countries, and 20 people who picked me up. That is how I started the Erasmus semester exchange between the Catholic University of Lublin and the Catholic University of Croatia. 

 On the first day of the trip, my goal was to come to Katowice, where a friend of mine hosted me. We met at Taize, an event for Christian youth in Europe. The next morning, after a tasty breakfast, I started hitchhiking to Gliwice. A man who picked me up told a story about his trip to the village called Havasu Supai, US. The following person was an old lady who was going to a sanatorium, but she had gotten lost. After, I had the most challenging stop near the border with the Czech Republic. It was four hours of waiting because no one stopped. Finally, a nice Polish guy drove me to Ostrava, the nearest Czech city near Poland. He told a story about his traveling by hitchhiking across Europe for three months. For me, it was a motivational story, inspiring me to be braver!

After I was lucky, the next stop was only 2 minutes, and a very kind blue-collar worker treated me with lunch and drove me next to Bratislava. In an hour, I came to the city center, where I met a person who was my host. She was a sister of my friend I met on the Erasmus youth exchange. Michaela even cooked me dinner. It's incredibly nice how people took care of me along the way!

Day number three. Quick breakfast, and I am moving on. It was hard to start from Bratislava, so when people were waiting for a traffic light, I asked if they were going to Hungary. The first person picked me up at village Samorin and the next one to the village Velki Meder. Soon, I had lunch, and after three stops, I was in Hungary. At the first gas station in Hungary, I met a Korean entrepreneur. I asked him to drive me only 5 km, but ultimately, he pushed me approximately 100 kilometers. In Székesfehérvár city, I was asking people who were going to Balaton Lake, and luckily, in three stops, I was 50 km before Croatia, where I made a big mistake. A truck driver from Romania picked me up and said that he would drop me on the turn to Slovenia, and I said: "OK."

But I didn't realize it would be a highway. I had only one option: to sleep in a tent. The night was so cold that I wore probably all the clothes I had.

Last morning, I was on a highway a few kilometers from Croatia. The chance that someone would stop was so small that I was even not expecting. The harder part for any hitchhiking is to stand on a highway. Anyway, no one stopped. So, I decided to return to the nearest gas station 5-10 kilometers away, and when I made the first step, a truck stopped. That time, the driver was from Albania. He picked me up at Krizevci village, and the last person was a Croatian guy, Tomislav, who drove me to the final destination and invited me for a coffee. For Croatian people, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes is like breathing. 

 Finally! 

I came to Zagreb, the capital, the most populated city in Croatia, the international center of Balkan countries. It is a green city, including the "Lenuci Horseshoe," the Botanical Garden, and Maksimir Park.

Through these four days of experience, I understand the value of people probably more than for my whole life. I learned that people say "No," and it's OK. When I hitchhiked for 5 hours, 500 cars did not stop. I started to work on my reaction because the answer was not in my control. But the reply was. Twenty stories, twenty photos, twenty "Yes!"

A new story at the Catholic University of Croatia began!

fot. Mykhailo Dziubi