Day 16 – Welcome Back To Poland!

Date: 11th of July 2015

Route: Berlin – Nysa

Vehicles hitchhiked: 6

Nysa, where Maia’s grandparents live, was our next destination point after Berlin. This time we had to drive more than 400 km – it was the longest distance per day on our trip.

We got up around 7, and ate breakfast on an U-Bahn station, because we didn’t have time to do it before leaving Philipp’s flat. A slip road leading to a motorway towards Cottbus was a place where we wanted to start hitchhiking that day. We hadn’t suspected that it would be such a bad choice – we were standing there for an hour, and only around twenty cars passed next to us. 

We had a lot of free time while waiting for cars to appear on the road

We were starting to think of looking for a better place, but, luckily, a Nysa van pulled over, and the driver offered to give us a lift. We asked him to leave us next to the motorway, before he turned in some other direction. It turned out to be not such a good idea – cars were driving veeeery fast there. After we saw a guy who showed to us a sign which was supposed to mean that we were crazy [if we were standing in such a place], we started looking for some other place to stand.

It wasn’t an easy task. We didn’t want to walk many kilometres, so choosing some other point next to the motorway (a bad idea) or hitchhiking next to an airport were basically the only options that we had. Despite the fact that we had a resolution to never try catching a lift on any airport again (because of our experiences in Frankfurt), we decided to give it a try.

As expected, we spent a very long time on the airport. There wasn’t any good spot where we could hitchhike there. We ended up standing next to traffic lights just before a slip road leading to the motorway, and asking people through the windows if they were going in the direction of Cottbus. We spent certainly more than an hour in that place.

There wasn't any other better place to try catching cars near the airport

Eventually, a friendly guy let us get into his van. He said he lived in a village nearby, but, if we wanted, he could drive us further, because he had time. We asked him to leave us on the nearest parking lot (which wasn’t near, actually), so that we could have a better chance to catch another car.

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long there; a few minutes after our arrival at the parking lot a van-driver from Miechów (a town in Poland) agreed to help us (so far it had been a “van-day” for us). He told us that he had once taken four hitchhiking girls inside his car, and his wife had been very suspicious when she had heard about it. 

We often tried asking drivers for a lift on petrol stations or parking lots

After we got out of his car, on a petrol station near Cottbus, we asked several drivers for a lift, but none of them agreed; so we moved to try catching a lift near the exit. A few minutes later a Polish truck driver stopped in front of us; he took us to the Germany-Poland border.

While we were driving with him, he asked a few other truckers (using CB-radio) if they could take us to Wrocław. One guy offered his help, but he asked us to wait for him, because he had something to do before departuring. We arranged that we would meet with him an hour later if we didn’t manage to catch any other lift until then.

Several minutes later we managed to stop a car. The driver wasn’t willing to allow us into his car at first, but (from what he told us later) after he looked at me, he realised that there was nothing to be afraid of :-) He was a very amiable Polish man, who worked in Berlin. It turned out that we could go in his car almost directly to Nysa.

After we passed Wrocław, we ended up standing in a very long tailback on the motorway (for about an hour). Lots of people got out of their cars and relaxed, while waiting for vehicles that were in front of them to move forward. Welcome back in Poland!

People relaxing while standing in a tailback

The driver offered to drive out of the motorway, so that we could have it easier to catch a lift to the town centre. It was really kind of him – there was a fee for driving on the motorway, and he had to pay more money because of leaving it, and entering it again.

There were only 30 km to Nysa from the place where we got off. It took us only five minutes to catch the next lift. The driver, after listening to our hitchhiking&couchsurfing stories, eyed us suspiciously, and he probably thought that we were very poor. Or crazy.

We were left on a petrol station in Nysa; Maia's grandpa came by car to get us from there. A smile on his face and the happiness of the grandma only confirmed that it was a good idea to visit them on the way.