Grace wrote:
Yeah I'm putting backpacking through Europe on my to-do list, but first I want to deal with America. Europe I've seen, and there's that language barrier thing that I can get past with some more study. But America is what really interests me...so many fucked up people/regions. So little time.
I know what you mean.
hitchhiking in America has forced me to confront the difference between what it means to be a good person and to have good ideas. I've had xenophobes, sexists, homophobes, racists (usually all of those things at once) bend over backwards for me and treat me like their fucking son. granted, I have the privilege of relatively white skin and an unambiguous male gender presentation which probably allows for friendliness. but still, for these reasons I've really enjoyed hitching a lot of the states. Rural America is in your face and real as fuck in its own dirt poor, culturally backwards kind of way, and being a teenaged kid from a one horse town doesn't grant me the opportunity of kicking it with uber-cultured, sophisticated Europeans on a daily or evenly monthly basis which I feel like keeps me grounded and in touch with a lot of beauty and a lot of filth at the same time. its kind of an important thing to experience, I feel like.
And I'd lose my shit if my partner (female) hitchhiked in a mini skirt (Europe or not), but if it worked for artandrevolution + her friend than who am I to comment on it? If they were comfortable with how it worked for them its might be a tactic worth considering.