# 45 Day Hitching, Train Surfing, Europe



## Komjaunimas (Sep 29, 2008)

Well I'm new, so in short about me: I'm an almost 20-year old punkrocker from Vilnius, Lithuania. I'm proficient in the Lithuanian, Russian, and English (85% out of 100% in graduation exam) languages. Intermediate in Polish, German. Beginner in Spanish

07 03 We were partying in a friends house, we got drunk and was bitchin about how cool it would be to get on the road...

07 04 We woke up with bad hangover, so me and my friend went to a supermarket and bought some water, vodka, cigarettes, medicine. Took a bus to the highway and started hitchin, in about 15 minutes a van stopped and took us to some crappy place called Merkine, I knew that it would be hard to get out of here from the last trip so we opened up some beer and in about half an hour a Polish truck stopped, took us over to the Lithuania/Poland border. We were stuck again, after few hours, a car stopped and took us to Suwalki, all the shops there closed and we had to cross the town on foot. We managed to find some great bushes and made a camp in there, finished our vodka and went to sleep.

07 05 At about 4AM it started to rain heavily and there were no trees or shelter around, so we covered our backpacks with plastic trash bags and waited for the rain to end. We changed into our dry clothes and started hitchin again, in 5 minutes, 2 ladies stopped. They talked fluent Russian so it wasn't a problem. They drove us about 50kms in Warszawa direction. After waiting 5 minutes or so, stopped a very strange guy who was also speaking Russian, he took us to Lomza, we crossed the town and the rain was starting again, my friend hid under a tree and I was hitching. After an hour or so, an only-Polish speaking guy stopped and he took us to the center of Warszawa (we are idiots to end up in a middle of the city with a population of 4 millions+ ). It took us all day to get on the right road.

We met some Lithuanian guys there, drank some beer and started hitching further. About 1 minute later a lady in hers 50's stopped and took us about 50km further. We found a nice bush and called it a night.

07 06 We had woken up at about 8AM, the sun was shining and after some time a car stopped took us about 30km in direction of Poznan. He'd let us out near the supermarket, so we bought some water, milk, had a breakfast and was hitching again. After 5 minutes or so another car stopped took us 50km further, it was a road split so we needed to cover few km's on foot, and just for our luck there was roadworks so we had to walk four about 4hrs in the sun by foot. After roadworks finished, we started hitching, about 2hrs later an English speaking guy stopped and took us about 50km further to the next city. We filled our bottles with water and were standing on the road for about 2 more hrs, finally a truck stopped there were 2 hitchers already so with a driver we were 5 . We truck let us off at big petrol station/truck stop 100km to our point Poznan. We flied a sign at the on ramp with "Poznan" and in our luck in 5 minutes we were hitting the road. We went to a park in Poznan in thick bushes, opened some beer and called it a night

07 07 We once again had been waken up by rain, we packed our stuff and went to the beautiful Center/Old Town to look for squats or kids that i knew from earlier trips, but everything was evicted. We ate breakfast and our friends sms'ed us that they are in Gdynia (a port town south), so after breakfast we took a few trams to the highway that goes to Gdynia/Gdansk. Made a sign Gniezno/Bydgoscz and in 15minutes we managed to get a ride from an English speaking guy to Bydgoscz (half of the road to final destination), he managed to get us thru the town on the highway that we could hitch further. After about an hour a small car stopped there was a pair (guy and girl) who have hitched all over US, Europe, Africa told many crazy stories. They let us off at the bus station and in a minute were riding again, the guy took us about 100km further and let us off at another crappy bus stop. It started to rain heavily and in about 2hrs a truck stopped and took us about 70km further letting us off at the petrol station, from there by foot we crossed two small towns and was on the highway again, in 5 minutes a truck stopped he was going about 20km's to our destination. He let us out on our road in another minute we get a ride for another 10km, the guy let us off on the highway with no shoulder (its legal in eastern europe to hitch on interstates/highways ). We thought we would die here (literally) but in another minute a guy stopped. He spoke good English and took us to the center of the town to meet up with my friends. While waiting for friends we made friends with 2 polish punkrock couples, after friends came with alcohol we went to the beach and got totally wasted.

07 08 I was woken up by a cop, they checked our ID's and kicked us off of the beach. All of us wondered what to do now and by our luck a Polish guy Rohu with his girl Diane offered that all of us take trains without tickets to Poznan and crash in their squat. We accepted the invitation and went to train station. We covered about 200km's and it was still 80we needed so we called it a night at some small town in a park. An the polish guys gave their numbers to me and hitched out from petrol station.

07 09 We woke up, took a train to Poznan and in the middle of our destination (about 40km's) we got kicked of by conductors. We met a 30ish punk, he was the only guy from subcultures in the whole town and was happy to see him. He bought as a ton of beer, we were chatting, gave him a bottle of propper and took our next train. We arrived at Poznan Glowny ( central station), waited for Rohu to come, bought a shitload of beer and went to the squat. It was sad that only Rohu and Diane could talk English and all others only polish, I knew polish quite well so for me its not a problem but for my friends it was.

07 10 We woke up, drank some beer and Rohu took us all on the highway that goes to Germany, we were 6 lithuanians 3 x 2 but one pair got in a serious argument so they split and it was 3 x 2 x 1. Me and my partner managed to get a ride from a truck first, directly to Germany. We got out in a middle of nowhere on the off ramp and started walking to a truck stop. Police stopped checked our ID's and took us to the truck stop. We asked truckers if any of them were going to Netherlands but it was always negative, before we went to sleep i saw a new truck, and to our luck the guy was heading straight to Eindhoven (Netherlands) at about 9AM. So we bought some beer and went to sleep.

07 11 We woke up, the trucker was still sleeping, we met another Lithuanian trucker which was going to Paris, France. He gave us 2 plates of omelet with vegetables and pork, a mug of coffee and a pack of cigarettes, wished us good road and took off. By that time our trucker had woken up and we started rollin, at around 7PM we were at a petrol station in Eindhoven and was heading for Amsterdam. We stood on the highway for about 2 hrs, some punk on X and black guy totally stoned pulled up, took us about 70km to our direction.

07 12 Its a late night, all i can see is roadworks, we started hiking along the highway and saw a bus stop, for our luck in 5 minutes a truck stopped and he was going in our direction and woul let us out at some petrol station 40km's to our destination. But a thunder storm started and he asked if i were Catholic i answered yes, so we went to a truckers lounge, had some warm soup and chocolate, he insisted that we took a shower and let us sleep in his truck. In the morning he took us on the wrong highway. But for our luck in 5 minutes we got a ride to the highway we needed. In another 10minutes we were in Den Haag, we were about 20km's to our final destination and for our luck the highway had no off/on ramps, no shoulders nothing... so we took a train to Amsterdam, at Dam Square we met few friends and the rest of the day we just smoked hash. At night we went to a park to get a sleep.

07 13 I was woken up by the police, its illegal to sleep in the park so we all got 90euro fines. We went to a hostel and pretended that we are from it so we got loads of food that we took to our backpacks. At Dam square we happened to meet two girls which were friends of mine. They had a squat, but the kids at the squat didn't want to take us, so we went to Albert Hein (chain retail store like walmart) and bought 2 x 24 cans of beer and for my luck i saw 3 more Lithuanians and one of them was my long time no see (3 years) friend that just disappeared from my country, he had a 4 story building squatted almost in the center of Amsterdam, we all went to crash at his place. The "kids" were really cool at that place 
26yr old James from Boston, 26yr old Melanie from Quebec, 42yr old David from Paris, 3 x 20yr old Lithuanians, 39yr old Zo from Portugal. So we made a good party got totally wasted and i passed out

07 14 Finally our last friends from Lithuania managed to get to Amsterdam , we all went to a library for some internet access and met another friend from Lithuania. It was one girls 17th birthday so we bought and stole a shitload of alcohol and once again we got totally wasted.

07 15 We squatted in another part of town that asked for help, because the marocians to whom this building belongs lost a case and now the only thing they can do is try to evict the squat themselves. We went to that place, helped them to build barricades and stuff. We went back to our place to have some meal, after we got back there were already 2 fights.
All of us expected problems at night so we poured tar and nails all over the roof. All of the girls with dogs went to another squat and i with one squatter took bikes and went there to take a guitar and some weed it was a 4 room flat squat, all other flats weren't squats  

07 16 After some partying we went to sleep in the morning we went "home". We met two more friends from Lithuania. We had to get back to other squat to help them but was tired so we just drank beer.

07 17 Met some kids from Estonia who took us to our squat.

07 18 Smoked some salvia, shitted my pants and had to take a bath in a channel 

07 19 Smoking, Drinking nothing special

07 20 It was time to hit the road again we needed to go to Rostock, Germany for a big punk festival, While we were walking to the train station we met another Lithuanian that joined us. We took a train without tickets and we were kicked off at Arnhem, police told us either we get tickets or get the hell out of here. So we went to highway there were 20 of us standing, at about 10pm there were 8 of us left. The thunderstorm was coming so we hid under the roof of IKEA, smoked few joints and went to sleep.

07 21 We managed to get to Emerich Am Rhein and took trains without tickets from there we were lucky and by the evening we were in Rostock, found all other friends and some squatter kids gave us place at the basement. Germany is a heaven for shoplifters , no cameras, no security, no "magic exits". We stole as much alcohol as we could hit and had a party and passed out.

07 22 We decided that we will be 3 teams of shoplifter by 2 people. One is carrying a backpack other is getting stuff into it we got a lot of stuff for about 1000 euro in total from the shops. We got drunk and was in a fight with 6 Nazi Skinheads , they got their ass kicked and ended up in the hospital and i ended running from the cops with 20grams of Ecstasy in my hand. We had a good party at night, one squatter kid invited my and my girlfriend to his room we smoked some hash and i passed out.

07 23. Same shit ... shoplifing ... drinking ... partying. We met another lithuanian and american Dane.

07 24 It was time for us to hit the road to the festival so we shoplifted 2 shopping carts of goodies and went to the train station. Took a train and again we meet another 2 Lithuanians, and another two... so we are now about 26 people . We put up a camp and i pass out while drinking with some German punk's

07 25 Stole some patches and badges from the vendors but got totally wasted and didn't see a single band. Got 10 euro from some punk to get food while we were dumpster diving

07 26 Our supplies were out so again we 3 teams of shoplifters went back to Rostock to get some more goods. Saw few bands, got wasted..

07 27 We made a trip to a beach stole some more alcohol, saw many bands

07 28 The festival was over so we went to the beach to get clean again, jumped from the bridge to a sea, got threatened by lifeguards and went back to Rostock, 2 guys passed out so were carrying them in shopping carts. Went to sleep in the train station.

07 29 The cops were at the station and didn't let us board the train without a ticket so we bought ticket for 10 people to hamburg for 50euro. But we pretended to be dumb and with that ticket we managed to get to Aachen (boarder citie to Belgium). Called a night.

07 30 Took a train to Liege (Belgium) but they threatened us with cops so we split and started hitching before some more shoplifting. 4of us managed to get to the boarder of Luxembourg to some parking lot and called it a night.

07 31 We managed to beg a bus driver to took us on the road to Luxembourg, then we took a train to France, all 4 of us ended up in Nancy France, and called it a night.

08 01 We took some more trains to Lyon, got us wine and went to sleep near the train station

08 02 We went to train station but took the wrong train, while waiting for our train back to Lyon we thought, fuck lets not go to Barcelona, lets get back to a squat in Amsterdam, we took trains and by night we were at Kobelnz( Middle Germany).

08 03 By the evening we were in Amsterdam, tried to shoplift there and we succeeded

08 04 We met two other Lithuanians, Shoplifted, smoked, ate, partied.

08 05 Shoplifted, smoked, partied

08 06 Shoplifted, smoked, partied

08 07 Shoplifted, smoked, partied

08 08 Shoplifted, smoked, partied

08 09 Shoplifted, smoked, partied

08 10 Shoplifted, smoked, partied

08 11 Shoplifted, smoked, partied

08 12 Was the last day in Amsterdam, the kids made a good bye party.

08 13 Said goodbye to everyone and took a train to Germany, we managed to get to Hanover.

08 14 We managed to get to Endless Summer festival to see Leftover Crack, met up with other Lithuanian kids and got wasted

08 15 It was raining all the day so went from our tent only at night, got wasted

08 16 Found good Vans skate shoes just lying on the ground so i took em. Took a train to Frankfurt Am Oder(Boarder city with Poland). It took a funny conversation with stations security :
-Where are you going? 
-Poland 
-But your train is early in the morning 
-So? 
-So you gonna sleep at the station? 
-You have anything better in your mind? 
-Nevermind...

08 17 We woke up i look at the map of the city and it was only about 15minute walk to the highway, and i knew a good truck stop at the boarder. We went to the highway and cops stopped, took us to Poland, and we had about 20km walk to the truck stop. We managed to find a van that was going to Kaunas(2nd biggest Lithuania's city only 100km from our home capital Vilnius)

08 18 At about 4AM we were standing on the highway to Vilnius, in about one hour we got a car home. We went to my grandparents i asked for some money, went to a liquor store and got wasted. 

Thats my crazy summer trip

More km's were done riding trains without a ticket than hitching
45 Days on the road
I now know Amsterdam like Vilnius
Most time spent in Amsterdam
Met about 25 Lithuanians on the road
I Fucking hate German punks, skinheads and all other ones. Wtf is taking an electric generator to a festival?.

Here are some fotos if you are interested :

http://public.fotki.com/migllee/eurotrip-08-/
http://public.fotki.com/zaliasiera/autostopu-lt-pl-d-n/

http://public.fotki.com/migllee/eurotrip-08-/eurotrip030.html <--- I'm on the right, riding an express train in a toilet

Sorry if there are some mistakes in the text, i didn't look for them  + english is not my mother tongue.


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## BrokeWhiteBoy (Sep 29, 2008)

Sounds like fun, man.

There were a handful of mistakes, but they were consistent, and were not terribly distracting. I will say you are far better with English than a lot of people who only speak it.


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## Komjaunimas (Sep 29, 2008)

Like i said i didnt double check for mistakes  everyone can make them even in their mother language


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## BrokeWhiteBoy (Sep 29, 2008)

Yeah, all is good.


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## elokupa (Oct 30, 2008)

Komjaunimas said:


> 08 14 We managed to get to Endless Summer festival to see Leftover Crack, met up with other Lithuanian kids and got wasted



i was in torgau at Grind the nazi scum 1 week before Endless summer, i was gonna stay for endless summer but a guy offered to take us to Köpi so we went with him

hahah i cant remember the name of the river in torgau but at grind the nazi scum 06 maybe 07 it had about 30 crusties in it all swimming naked. edit: cant remeber which year it was

how many people went to endless summer? only about 100 kids went to grind the nazi scum..


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## Komjaunimas (Oct 31, 2008)

I think atleast one thousand because it was a pretty big "tent city", but im never going back to Endless summer fest again. People in there are real fucktards. This summer ill try to hitch somewhere east, to Georgia or something...


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## elokupa (Oct 31, 2008)

Komjaunimas said:


> I think atleast one thousand because it was a pretty big "tent city", but im never going back to Endless summer fest again. People in there are real fucktards. This summer ill try to hitch somewhere east, to Georgia or something...



yeah man some of the german punks i met were fucking morons aswel

why to georgia?! you want to help with rebuild after the war?


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## Komjaunimas (Nov 3, 2008)

I dont know, because mainly hitching 4 years in western europe is enough. +Im expert in russian language so its no problem for me in the east


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## Jimmy James (Feb 1, 2010)

This picture from your trip is very funny- passed out in a shopping cart? Very convenient for transporting drunk punk...


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## Komjaunimas (Feb 1, 2010)

There was another shopping cart with another friend, we managed to go all the way from northern Germany to Belgium with trains and they haven't managed to wake up


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## bicycle (Feb 3, 2010)

I loved reading your story, thanks so much for sharing it.


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