aka My Hitchhiking advanture race
I was about to do the most free-spirited thing in my life and for some reason and I wasn´t even afraid. All I could feel was a great excitement of what was coming – 10 days of travels with no fixed plans and no money with a guy I have just met. I was in Prague at the start of the Low-Cost Race where you travel in pair to the checkpoints spread out around whole Europe fulfilling crazy challenges on the way. I´ve always enjoyed challenging myself, leaving the comfort zone and doing something out of ordinary and I knew this race was a great chance to enhance my confidence and to collect a series of unforgettable memories.
To go on such an adventure with an unknown guy (my friend´s friend to make it more accurate) might not have been my original intention, but since I couldn´t find anyone courageous enough among my friends and I felt like the experience I could gain from the race was worth the risk, I decided to with Pavel, even though I´ve never met him before. We named our team Strangers in Crime and were ready to set off.
As I´ve always been fascinated by the beauty of Switzerland, we decided to make it our first goal. And because we were not allowed to use money (we only had 100 euro for emergency reasons and we would get minus points if we´d come back with less) it was time to get my very first hitchhiking experience. It took almost an hour of standing on a burning sun until a driver stopped for and we almost didn´t make it out of the Czech Republic the first day. But just as we were losing our last hopes, looking for a place where to pitch a tent close to a petrol station, we found another driver and ended up sleeping in the open lake by a stunning lake in Germany just a couple km beyond the borders.
To go on such an adventure with an unknown guy (my friend´s friend to make it more accurate) might not have been my original intention, but since I couldn´t find anyone courageous enough among my friends and I felt like the experience I could gain from the race was worth the risk, I decided to with Pavel, even though I´ve never met him before. We named our team Strangers in Crime and were ready to set off.
As I´ve always been fascinated by the beauty of Switzerland, we decided to make it our first goal. And because we were not allowed to use money (we only had 100 euro for emergency reasons and we would get minus points if we´d come back with less) it was time to get my very first hitchhiking experience. It took almost an hour of standing on a burning sun until a driver stopped for and we almost didn´t make it out of the Czech Republic the first day. But just as we were losing our last hopes, looking for a place where to pitch a tent close to a petrol station, we found another driver and ended up sleeping in the open lake by a stunning lake in Germany just a couple km beyond the borders.
Things didn´t go as we planned the following day and the day after, and after... But that´s where all the magic was. We would always wake up into a day full of new stories, we couldn´t plan who will we encounter, what will we eat, who the next driver would be or where we will sleep and it forced us to live in the moment, which was the best thing that could have happened to me. Yes, it was frustrating sometimes. Standing for three hours on the road hitchhiking with no success is tough especially when it´s getting dark and you have no place to sleep, but it was exactly at these moments when I would completely lose hope, when something magical happened, and people saved us from the hopeless situations. I could talk for hours about all the stories that we´ve experienced, but it´s not just the stories, it´s the life-lessons that Low-Cost Race taught me, that I value the most.
Hitchhiking for over 8 500 km throughout Europe made me experience, there are still many good people in this world, willing to selflessly help strangers. I´ve learned that where you travel to doesn´t determinate your experience nearly as much as what´s your attitude – if I wanted other people’s help I had to bring along positive energy, I had to get out of my comfort zone and reach out for help when I needed it. It made me believe in myself more and it also made me live in the present moment more (how can you live in the future if you don´t know what comes next minute?) and appreciate the daily blessings like getting a free ice cream, walking around Berlin with a local or being invited for a lunch. And mainly, it taught me, that hard moments are followed be the happy ones and I should never give up on myself and my dreams.
I would truly like to encourage everyone to fight their fears and do the same to go hitchhiking. It will teach you a lot about yourself and the world, and you will get the kind of knowledge, a school could never give you.