Why anyone would hitchhike?

For someone it might be obvious, as with why anyone would use Couchsurfing - you save money. But it's not only about money saving. Essentially I would say it's not about money saving. So why? I would like to tell few stories which for me were eye-opening and make me ask "why would I ever not hitchhike?".

I hitchhiked first in 2012 in Lapland with my friend Marine. It was actually just an idea we got while traveling in Finland and we decided to avoid travel costs. Despite that we waited for long time, we had a good time and met some awesome Lapland people. The second time I hitchhiked was in january 2014 when I was starting my trip from Ushuaia, the southest city of the World in Argentina, to the north, and I realized all the busses where booked for one week and my budget was not even enough. Then it started.

Option 1: You wait until the next available bus (at least 3 days), buy a bus ticket from Ushuaia (Argentina) to Puerto Natales (Chile), you pay nearly 80 euros, you sleep most of the way and look at un-interesting pampa landscape.

Option 2: You get picked up after 5 min of waiting by Buenos Aires businessman who takes you around whole Tierra del Fuego where you have no option to go without own car, he pays you an own hotel room in Rio Grande, then drives you across the southest part of Ruta 40 which was in such a bad condition it can only be driven by 4W vehicle. You teach him English and he teaches you Spanish. You keep in contact still after a year.

The same happened in El Chaltén towards Los Antiguos - no bus available. I pulled out my thumb again.

Option 1: You wait until the next availabe bus (at least 3 days), take a night bus and spend one night without sleeping in a bumby dirt road and wake up tired in Los Antiguos.

Option 2: You secretly transport yourself in the front side of a bus with the driver till the crossroads, where you are literally in the middle of nowhere with no place to hide from the antarctic winds, you wait there for 2 hours not sure if that was the worst decision of your life because there is no traffic at all, finally you are taken into a dodgy mining town Gobernador Gregores where you set a tent until you meet with a French couple who decide to bring you 800 km across the border of Chile - you spend two nights camping, cooking and singing together, you drive during the daytime listening to Rodrigo y Gabriela and watch ñandús and guanacos pass the road.

How about traveling from Puerto Cisnes (Chile) to El Bolson (Argentina)?

Option 1: You struggle with extremely bad connection of buses and decide to not do it at all. Or you take a boat to Puerto Montt or Chiloé which might be expensive but perhaps nice (who knows?).

Option 2: You are picked up by Chilean professor who takes you through Patagonian rainforests trying to capture the most beautiful picture of a bird, driving off-road and swimming in thermal baths. You cross the border to Argentina in a place that is not even an official border control. Later he helps you to write you your CV and motivation letter for your internship and gives you a recommendation letter, and you eventually get an internship in South America.

There is no public transport to go from Angastaco to Cachi (Argentina). What do you do?

Option 1: You rent an expensive car or you try to do it with collective transportation that goes once a day.

Option 2: You get a drive in a water truck driving through every single village and farm, and end up sleeping in Seclantás because you find it beautiful and serene. You didn't even know about the existence of this village before. There you are invited to learn chacarera with a group of Argentinian.

Alright. Then I did it the easy way and traveled all the way to Ecuador with busses. But how about traveling in Ecuador?

Option 1: You take busses. Cheap, efficient and comfortable.

Option 2: You sit in the back of a pick-up truck playing songs in charango.

So traveling in South America by hitchhiking can be fun. How about Europe? Traveling from Szczecin to Lodz (Poland)?

Option 1: You take a train. Simple and comfortable. Or you go with Polskibus. Shit cheap.

Option 2: You get picked up by a truck driver who transfers you to second truck, who transfers you to third truck, who transfers you to fourth truck, who brings you to Lodz. While traveling you learn Polish and play charango for the truck drivers.

Then from Lodz to Kaunas (Lithuania)?

Option 1: It's snowing like hell so you take a bus to Warszawa and continue with another bus to Kaunas. You spend a shitload of money (like 20 euros!!!)

Option 2: You freeze to death and decide to sing christmas songs and eventually get picked up with a guy who got from prison 1 month ago and drives 180 km/h, finally you are saved by a Georgian truck driver you entertain with your charango music and he offers a place to sleep in his truck, but you are hopefully rescued and brought to Kaunas. (actually some moments I did regret because there was a serious storm with all kinds of shit coming from the sky).

Then you travel from Moletai to Riga (Latvia). Straightforward, right?

Option 1: You take some kind of bus-combination and make it so Riga safe and sound.

Option 2: You get totally lost on the way because you try to speak unsuccesfull Russian and the Lithuanian guys are so helpful they don't actually think that "driving just to some place" is not the same as "driving towards right direction" so you end up even further from your destination but get to see beautiful lake side of Lithuania and eventually cross the border to Latvia at the east side and get a ride from European Parlament journalist who speaks excellent English (the first one to do so) and 2 hours pass just too fast while talking about anything under the sun.

How about Riga to Tallinn (Estonia)?

Option 1: It's only 10 euros by bus if you find a bargain. Why bother hitchhiking?

Option 2: You don't care about discount tickets and you make the same mistake as in Lithuania and end up at wrong side of Estonia in Valga. You don't care because the road is very beautiful. My Ukrainian friend made business contacts on the way with Latvian guy and also we got to witness a car inspection. Finally you are awestruck with the place and make a concert to your Ukrainian friend in a park while the city seems to be completely abandoned. You manage to make it to Tartu by night where you have no place to sleep so you go to a student bar. You stumble upon with a group of Estonian businessmen who invite you all the beers and share great knowledge about life and before you notice it's 4 o clock and you are drunk and your boat is leaving from Tallinn to Helsinki in 5 hours. You manage to catch a bus at 4.30 and wake up in Tallinn at 7.15 and make it to Helsinki.

After all.. is it about money, or is it about giving the chance to random variables that have the possibility to shape your trip into something more interesting, something worth remembering? Is it about meeting people that might have a long-term effect in your life, not spending your travel time sleeping in a bus but actually actively living to the full? Someone quoted: "Sometimes it's not about the DESTINATION, but about the JOURNEY itself". I think that if this person always choce the option 1, he had no idea what he was talking about. I would have never visited those places in Tierra del Fuego or Chilean Patagonia, I would never had learnt chacarera in Seclantás, perhaps I wouldn't have got an internship, I wouldn't have got to know those hidden off-the-beaten-track sides of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that everyone who visits those countries should get to know, I would never have visited Tartu and learnt that it's possibly one of the awesomest cities to have a party in the Baltics.

So was it worth it, after all?

So with these words I would encourage more people to try hitchhiking, don't be afraid of the world! And you guys who have cars, take hitchhikers: learn their story and tell them your story! Because we all have something to share with each other and we should not be afraid of strangers. We are not strangers -  we just aren't connected yet. If we consider each others strangers, how could we understand or help each others? Let's be the change you want to see in this world! ;)