The Hitch From Prague to Amsterdam

Prague was an amazing city! I have some sort of odd obsession with architecture and bridges, so if you are like me, I suggest you see Prague!

I began my hitching journey from Prague at about 10:30 a.m. on October 10th. As I was heading to the highway (with 20 kilos on my back, a tent in one hand, and my computer in the other, I passed a sketchy man leaning against the wall of a building. Soon, I heard running footsteps behind me, and I flipped around. Rather than be scared, I was extremely pissed off, in fact I yelled at the man for running up behind a woman, to which he apologized repeatedly, and sauntered off. So, as a note to men, don't run up behind a lone female, especially one that is traveling alone, I am pretty sure I would have beat him with my backpack if he hadn't looked so scared about my response.

Anyway, I began my trip to Amsterdam with a rough start. I took the metro to a specific part of the city that I was told would be a great point to head out of, instead, I found myself stuck for four hours in one spot. Frustrated, I walked to the train station, and took the bus to Plzen, Czech Republic (5 Euro). I arrived to an extremely rainy city, which was fast becoming more dark (It's now about 5 or 6 p.m.). I decide I'm not heading very far, I'm too lazy/tired to walk to the highway which was two kilometers away, so I began to start hitchhiking in the city from a bus stop.

I was soon picked up and taken to small town on the very border with Germany, where it was still raining, but now I had a gas station to hang out in for a bit. Before long, a Romanian truck driver picked me up, and soon we were headed towards Nuremberg, Germany.

We reach the outskirts of Nuremberg, and I am shuffled to another truck who was heading the same way I was trying to get. This driver was Romanian as well, crosses and religious items placed about the inside of the truck. He began our journey talking badly about other religions, and tearing his work card up (the one showing that he had already driven his limit for the day) and started a new work card.

I cannot explain to you how much I disliked this guy! It was night time, he apparently hadn't slept in a great amount of time, was eating sunflower seeds (which he proved that he didn't know how to drive and eat at the same time), and began driving off the road, and not just once or twice, but several times I had to yell at him! I kept telling him, let me out let me out, and he just responded "not a good place, no good place." Needless to say, I didn't sleep one minute that night and found myself in Cologne, Germany quite early in the morning the next day.

By this time, I should have been in Amsterdam, he stopped several times, no no reason that I could gather, and I was quite angry about that. In Cologne, he just sat there and I bugged him to get going...finally he blurted out "No sex?" I screamed at him, told him to go F*** himself, that he should be ashamed of himself, told him he was a disgusting excuse of a MARRIED  and "RELIGIOUS" man, and got out, he grabbed my bag to throw it down to me, and decided to tear it, not that its hard to tear at all, sadly, that bag is quite easy to destroy...it was made in Romania.

I walked into the truck station and told the office people what happened and that I needed to know how to get back on the highway. Soon, a young Turkish man appeared and was told to drive me to whichever gas station I needed. He drove me up and down the highway from station to station looking for a good ride for me to take, he personally got out of the car and asked, trying to make sure I ended up with a good person. It soon became clear we wouldn't find someone, and he had to get back to work, so I told him to leave me at the station, I could figure it out.

I was now walking through the trucks looking for a Netherlands truck, running from all the Serbian, Macedonian, and Romanian trucks. I was picked up by a trucker from Utrecht, Netherlands, his name was Bjorn. he took me 50 kilometers outside of Amsterdam, it is now about 8 p.m.

I sit outside of the gas station and wait for my next ride. I wait about an hour, and soon a Turkish man picks me up (he was raised in Amsterdam), This guy was hilarious, talking to me about the last hitchhiker he picked up, and how he swore to himself he would never pick up another...He told me stories of growing up, until we finally reached my destination, he took me all the way to my friends' apartment in the city....where I party a few more hours (on no sleep in two days).