A great many people, besides my mother, are worried about me going around big and dangerous Europe all alone. I will now give a few examples of why you should worry less.
First a very short story from last hitchhiking trip (Githio to Kardamyli over Sparti and Kalamata). I got off in the middle of the mountains between Sparti and Kalamata, because of a very dodgy driver, the spot is really so I start walking towards the top. It takes some time, but only two cars pass me, standing on the top off the mountain I start waiting. I expect to wait quite a bit because of the lack of cars, but lucky me the third car pulls over. This a young guy going to Kalamata with sugar and some other stuff. As we get close to the city he asks if I will continue hithhiking or take the bus - and I reply the bus. Yes! A defeat of my hitchhikers honor, but Greece is terrible and my destination was a far off village. We arrive at the bus station and he asks when the bus is leaving... FOUR hours later:( I thought then I will just have a look around Kalamata in the waiting time, but he insist on getting his private car and driving me an hour out in the middle of nowhere! Lucky him my helpX host was around Kardamyli, so he only had to drive a bit more than half. And his like are not a rarety, when you finally get picked up many people will drive huge detours to put you off at the door, get you the best possible spot to hitch on from or just make sure that you are filled to the bursting point with food before letting you leave.
Another story is a bit old, but nice. On my way from Italy to Poland in October I planned to stay a night or two at a previous rides house in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. Unfortunately I could not stay at his place, which he told me half and hour before I would have arrived there. In deep dispair (it's early October and in the mountains = pretty cold at night outside!) I tell my drivers who promptly offers me to call their friends and family in that city to host me. I say no, but instead I go further north to Namestovo with them. We end up drinking in their home town and not getting to bed before sometime late. At 7 a.m. they wake me up with a bowl of chickensoup, asks what my plans are and, as I say go to Wroclaw, Poland, drive me to Jablonka, Poland!
And a story from Italia. Jess and me are exploring the southern part of Sicilia and are mostly camping at this point. The night after the rabbits abducted and ravaged my boots we are again homeless and have decided to camp at the beach near Noto. A old guy picks us up and drive us to the beach as agreed, but talking to Jess on the way down there he also offers us to stay at his place - he has a spare room with a bed and there is really big, dark clouds coming in from the horisont. We get his number and say goodbye. 15-20 minutes later the rain is pouring down - the streets are big floods. So we hurriedly decide that he is cool enough to go sleep at his place. And he is, though a bit creepy and weird sometimes. Next morning he drives to the exact spot where he picked us up the day before. This is the day were we get a lot of free food. The ride to Siracusa was nice and he really thought we should see this village called Melilli. It should be adorable. We walk around Siracusa, gets free fruits (a crossing of mandarine and grape or somethiong weird like that), see the really ugly concrete umbrella they call a church, invent the "Peas & Love" -slogan and gets out of there. We have decided to go to the beautiful city of Melilli! On the way we get more free food, some apples and a mini cannolo. Before a fantastic girl, Angela, arranges an apartment for the night in Melilli.
Yes people are this great all the time. And I am not in a constant daanger of getting abducted, raped and murdered. As far as I can tell it is currently more dangerous to be in Oslo or Berlin. Generaly I have observed that everytime a have a bad experience with a driver, the next one will be out-of-this-world good.
Currently I am still in Greece. We have finally startet preparing for the olive harvest yesterday. And hopefully we will start harvesting next week, but we are on greek schedule so you never know...
