Have you ever hitchhiked or taken a hitchhiker aboard your car?

I hitch-hiked all Europe and Russia, I know how hard it is sometimes and always stop when someone needs help. I guess I would let even a total bum in, without any hesitation. Not a matter of virtue signalling or doing good, I just walked in their shoes and can relate. They better look for a better company though, haha.

Not the smartest move NGL. I've hitchhiked at night a lot and always kept a big stone in my pocket for self-defense AND to throw at "funny" pranksters lmao

All of Russia? You can't possibly have reached Vladivostok by hitchhiking, right?

@Deathko Let's just say it wouldn't have been a smart move... but from the hitchhikers. I fear what my father could have done if someone threw anything at his car. He always had anger issues (and was a bit of an asshole, if it wasn't already obvious). But I take it you never actually used the rock?

Total stranger, never. Someone from the same college, or that was in the same party/event, yes. There is an app for free ride-sharing here too, it makes things a little bit safer.
My cousin friend was stabbed when they were 4 in a car one night, and it is dangerous for woman to ride even with taxi drivers alone, imagine random with a car.

@fleurbleue Not really ofc. I have only done 4 hitchhiking trips from Moscow: to Arkhangelsk, Crimea, Grozny and Chelyabinsk. But I think that was quite enough, haha.

Going all the way east is possible in summer, I guess. There is a major highway, and when I was fishing on rivers like the Anadyr, Kolyma, Indigirka and Yana, we traveled along it without much trouble. In winter though, hitchhiking out there would basically be suicide - you simply freeze waiting for a truck amid nowhere. And it's not a short waiting lol.

@fleurbleue Oh, I've thrown that stone once, at a car full of 4 young men who did the joke TWICE, while insulting me. But I'm terrible at throwing, and hitting a car that's driving away is hard af U_U I had some anger issues too, which I've sorted out a long time ago.

They will find you ofc - unless the beasts get to you first. Or people... Out there the wilderness brims with jails, and escaped convicts aren't just folklore, haha.

But seriously, I have thought it over, and I'm convinced: even in winter it's perfectly possible to hitch a ride. A little riskier, sure - not in the sense of failure likelihood, but in the sense the price you pay for mistakes - not a bad math, I mean.

When you travel that far by hitchhiking, you will be stopping for the night anyway, here and there along the way.

First off, picture a truck cabin in winter: sweltering hot, stifling with smoke, thick with the smell of unwashed socks and farts. Sleep doesn't come easy in that stew.

Second, the Siberians probably don't even do long-haul trucking the way we imagine. They think differently: why drive a load two or three days down icy roads when you can just throw it on the railway? Chances are, real truck stops barely exist in the way we know them.

A local driver will just push through in one go, roll into town, park at the receiver's lot, unload, then head off for dinner, a banya, and a bed. That's the whole story.

Third, you'll want the experience itself, not just the ride, lol.

So your rhythm will be: arrive, wrangle a night's shelter in a village hut, then in the morning wander into a roadside café at the gas station to seek your luck again. With any charm at all, the lady of the house who put you up might even line up your next ride through her neighbors - if you repay her kindness with, um, warmth, haha.

So no, you won't just be standing by the highway, thumbing for a lift. That's not how it works out there, I think.

And damn - writing this out, it sounds so alluring that I feel like packing up and setting out myself, right now...

What are you doing!? That's the step just before they take a weird detour down some remote back road!! You gotta be more cautious than that. 😭

My gosh, you're one of the most chill users around, I can't picture you being angry at all (let alone being a mad rock thrower).

@fleurbleue Just like true courage isn't the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome one's fear, true chillness isn't the absence of turmoils, but the ability to overcome one's turmoils 🧘

@PeripheralVision Honestly, making me angry nowadays would require some crazy amount of dedication. My employer likes to push his employees buttons, and they often snap, putting themselves in a defavorable position. Last time he tried this with me, I just told him "cool, prepare my paycheck, I'm coming to get it tomorrow" and closed the phone. He's treating me like I'm a bottle of nitroglycerin since that day lmao.

It helps to recognize when you're in a advantageous position in a relation. If the other party has more to lose than you do, there's really no need to get angry.

Honestly, the worst thing about being @PeripheralVision is that I can make people angry without meaning to. There is something in my countenance, my demeanor, that makes people want to hit me in various ways.

Well, if you ever disappear from MAL, I'll assume that's what's going on. Not that we would be worried or anything, you probably have enough experience for it (I'd be more alarmed about them kidnapping you and sending you to the Ukrainian front line).

@fleurbleue Doubt they are so desperate to kidnap foreign citizens, haha. You watch some weird news channel.

But look, I'm planning a trip to Afghanistan this Autumn. That could be kinda Russian roulette for sure.

@fleurbleue Doubt they are so desperate to kidnap foreign citizens, haha. You watch some weird news channel.

But look, I'm planning a trip to Afghanistan this Autumn. That could be kinda Russian roulette for sure.

Your father did that...?

Uhhh...that's...hmmm...

Anyways, I don't trust hitchhikers. And the bus serves travelers where I live, so I'm alright.

You can finish your sentence. Don't worry, I won't mind.