It was Friday. Bad day for any activity for young people in itself. Some people were hitchhiking to have fun, meet the friend and to swim in the Baltic sea. They did not know that the highway can be as awful as hell.
Once a year Lithuanian hitchhikers face a day, which could be freely called a hell. Two kilometers long rows of hand-lifters standing in any weather and waiting when a driver push on the breaks to take them somewhere, is common view to the Sea festivals in Klaipëda, taking place since 1930’s every July. This year the conditions of going that way are awful.
Lithuania is one of these countries where hitchhiking is considered to be a travelling way rather than looking for adventures. Hippie times have already passed, but young people continue going home, visiting friends or traveling for free. Some of them do not have money indeed, but this is getting more exception than a rule. Sometimes when drivers ask to contribute to buy petrol or gas, some folks after standing quite a long time on the road, agree. Basically almost nobody pays unless driver asks in the beginning. Elder people, also sometimes hitchhike, but they usually pay. Some drivers do not accept money saying: “I am not a taxi, I do not take money”. Almost all hitchhikers are students: young nice people, inquisitive, open minded and knowing a lot of jokes which could be the best remedy from sleeping, if a driver is tired. These people unanimously can say that there is some kind of hitchhiking culture in Lithuania.
Other countries lack some kind of culture. Latvian drivers, for example, say that in Latvia only drunk and people without money hitchhike. Students basically go by bus or train there. Indeed, in comparison with Lithuania, the roads are almost empty in Latvia. In Western Europe car lifters are not seen, because of highway traffic rules that do not allow to stand there. One can try to stop the car only in the distance of 15 meters of exit road from gas stations (so is in the Netherlands). If driver takes you, he or she already has a suspicion that you are a foreigner. The Dutch situation is very they are not engaged in hitchhiking. They have enough money (or at least know how to save them for a ticket) to use public transport, so why should they choose such dangerous way of traveling? Dutch are famous in the world for their rational and pragmatic thinking. Their opinion about hitchhiking is: it’s crazy, secondly, it can cost you more than taking a train, because you never know how long will you stay on the highway, what will you eat, and how much money will you spend if there would be an accident. For Lithuanians these arguments do not work. Still the main reason why they go on the road is meeting interesting people and having fun.
There was no fun on the highway Vilnius-Klaipëda last weekend. The famous Sea festival attracts a lot of people to Lithuanian port city. This year it seemed that half of Lithuania arrived to Klaipëda, it was impossible to get through the crowd in the city. Almost the same was on the road. Friday morning in the Western suburb of Vilnius was not very encouraging. People made about one kilometer long row standing 5-10 meters from each other with traveling bags and sleeping sacks. The weather was not very good. The situation there was quite good: people stopped the cars after half an hour of standing, some top-model looking girls even faster. Then the problems begun, but only for those who stopped the cars going not straightly to Klaipëda. The first stuck was in Kaunas. The hitchhikers Mecca, the highway next to the IX Fort, was full of people. The row was no shorter than 2 kilometers and weather was beginning to worsen. Every hitchhiker knows that if one is wet, the compassion of a driver is guaranteed and one is not going to stand on the road very long. This rule was absolutely violated. As another one: girls catch the car faster if they are good looking. The appearance was not an issue, that’s why some pretty girls have beaten their anti-records in standing on the road : 2-3 hours or even more. After this hell another awful stop is in front – Kryþkalnis. Even though there were not as many people as in the IX Fort, the situation remained the same.
After 5 or even 12 hours of travellinygf exhausted hitchhikers could breath fresh sea air and to have fun until Sunday. Concerts of all the kind of music from folk to techno, drinking good beer of “Ðvyturys”, roaming in the old town of Klaipëda made this festival unforgettable for a lot of people. But Sunday trip back home was even more incredible. Klaipëda is not the best place for hitchhikers even in normal weekends when students return to their parents or go back to studies. The festival like this was the worst hell people have ever seen. Some people begun lifting the cars from 4 o’clock in the morning, when it is already light, and they were still standing at 2 p.m. in the same place without hope to have some drivers’ compassion. For those, who had some money left, situation was not so tragic because they turned back to the city by bus. The busses in the central station were overcrowded, but private drivers always suggest going with them for almost the same price – 40 Lt. (the bus ticket costs from 35 Lt.). Some people who were left on the road simply returned to the city and continued having fun, because the closing ceremony and a beautiful firework took place only at 12 p.m. The fate of those who left on the highway having no money and obliged to return to work on time on Monday still remains unclear.
For some active hitchhikers this festival will remain in memory for all life. Also they got a very crude lesson about travelling on foot when all with wheels are going the same direction. Maybe next year this kind of situation could be prevented by buying bus tickets or looking for the friends with a car which could take people to and from the biggest Lithuanian festival – “Sea festival 2000”.