Cyrillicisms

Since the last post I still believe I'm sticking with the same route. I'm basically going to head towards the Montenegro/Croatian coast, via Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia. I'll probably spend a good few days there along the coast and chill out and meet some people. I'm hoping that I meet enough locals along the way that will give me ideas about places to visit and things to do there and on the way back. Which is where Couchsurfing will come in handy.

I don't feel like I have anything to do between now and when I make the trip.
I don't see the point in planning it, I suppose all I can do is find as much local information as possible that might help along the way. I noticed in Bulgaria (last time I was there) how much more difficult it is to get around and understand in a country that has a cyrillic alphabet, even though I wouldn't have a clue what anything meant if it wasn't in cyrillic! At least the spoken language is similar sounding to Czech in Serbia and Croatia, I might then be able to pick up a few phrases quite quickly that might make getting around a little easier.

Possible Route

Using Liftershalte I've been checking out possible itineraries for the trip. With this website I can scroll through a map of any area I like and find out about good/bad hitching spots.
The site is not very old as far as I know but already there are quite a few helpful spots along the (possible) route I want to take.

Leaving Prague I will probably head first to Brno, which can be reached along one road over a distance of X kilometres. From there I could head almost directly to Bratislava (where I could possibly meet up with Eva), then head for Budapest and Belgrade, before heading towards the coast in Montenegro.
I don't plan to stay in the cities every time I stop by them, since I want to spend as much time as possible in the countryside. It does make the journey a lot simpler though, especially since any drivers heading for cities are likely to be going a much further distance than any drivers that are not.

Destination Possibilities (still open to edits)

• The sea! (Adriatic)

Couch Collecting

Over the past few days I've been collecting contacts on Couchsurfing from various cities. Hopefully one or two of people can have me crash at their place on my trip for a night and help me experience places with a local as a guide!

The site is amazing. The idea is you search for anybody who has a couch available in the area and you can request to sleep on their couch for a night while you're travelling. Of course you can do the same yourself and host anybody from anywhere to crash for a night on your own couch.

This would be much more in preference to camping out alone all the time or staying at hostels which would 1. cost me money and 2. not give me many opportunities for meeting local people.

Destination Unknown

My original thoughts were to travel aimlessly on this trip, to take whatever routes and actions pleased me at any time. I'm beginning to think that this could be a bad idea and could make the act of hitching a lot more difficult. If I'm stood by the side of the road and I'm not particularly bothered where I am going; for one, whoever picks me up is going to be less interested and secondly, when I arrive at my destination I won't be particularly overjoyed to have reached it.

I have then come to the decision that it would be best to have a destination in mind throughout the trip. That way no matter where I am while I'm on the road (whether I'm travelling in the right direction or not) I'll have somewhere in mind as a target, and all matter of the journey will be relative, ie. whether I have enough money/time/energy to make it to the destination.

Question now is, where?

I have a few places in mind at the moment.

If I do decide to return to Prague after the trip:

• The coast would be nice (Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria)

Or if I decide to make an extended trip from Prague all the way home I could visit:

• France, Austria, Belgium, Holland

I will only be limited by my funds (I will have about 500 pounds to spare) and time (I have until December to return to England, and as long as the weather doesn't turn too bitter I'll be happy to stay on the road).

Inventory

I've begun compiling a list of a things I will need to take.

I intend to travel as light as possible, but already this list seems quite large!

• a stove of some kind
• mess tin
• tent
• personal medical goods
• towel
• relevant maps
• plastic watter bottle
• toothbrush/toothpaste/soap
• bog roll
• sleeping bag
• deodorant (who wants to pick up a smelly hitcher?)
• a book or two
• dental floss and needle (for flossing and sewing any ripped clothes)
• journal
• Swiss army knife
• matches/lighter
• fork, spoon
• string/cord
• insect repellant
• tweezers (if not with Swiss army knife)
• sun protection
• emergency food rations (nuts, dried fruit)
• clothes (two or three changes of socks and underwear, one or two t-shirts, fleece, hooded sweater, raincoat, hat)
• camera (I can't go on a trip like this without taking pictures)
• battery charger

To begin at the beginning

To someone who wants to hitchhike and has never done it before there are a lot of details to take into account, a lot of expectations, a lot of romantic ideas to dream over, and many fears to get anxious about.

This blog is basically going to follow my hitchhiking trip which will depart from Prague, Czech Republic on or around September 10th (for some reason I want to avoid leaving on September 11th).

Whether this trip will take place at all, whether it will be my first and last is yet to be known and is of no use debating about at this point.
I am going to record any thoughts, ideas, fears, mistakes, and any feelings I have from now until after the trip is complete.

At this moment in time I have no plans of a final destination or even an rough itinerary, all I have is a very vague direction I want to travel in. Because I have never done it before I am going to avoid a lot of forward planning concerning arrival dates and return dates. I have no expectations.

Up until the journey has begun I will make verious notes (hopefully they won't be too incoherent) of what I want or think I ought to take on the trip; what precautions to make on the way, what clothes to wear, how much money I will need/exhume and how many toothbrushes to take.

You get the idea.

The general direction of travel I want to take (for now) is in a South Eastern direction, avoiding Austria and hopefully passing through Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, or even Bulgaria. The journey will completely depend on how I feel at various points along the trip. If I wake up after 2 days of travelling and want to follow a river on foot that I happened to camp by all day, then I will do just that. If I didn't even venture out of the Czech Republic after 3 weeks but I was satisfied with my trip then I would still return home.

Here's to hitching.