Why Hitchhiking Felt Like a Barrier

April 2016

Before Romania, hitchhiking was one of those things I always kept at a distance. I had traveled for years and figured out plenty of other ways to move around, but hitchhiking always sat in that category of travel I respected from afar without fully trusting for myself. It felt unpredictable, exposed, and mentally harder to cross into than buses, trains, hostels, or even Couchsurfing ever had.

During my voyage across Romania, I had already spent two months in Europe and kept hearing the same thing from other travelers and hosts: I should hitchhike. Almost everyone I met had a story, and most of those stories were overwhelmingly positive. Even then, I kept resisting it. I had started using BlaBlaCar in Romania and loved it, but hitchhiking still felt like a line I had not crossed.

That is what made Romania such an important place in this voyage. It was where the idea stopped being theoretical and started becoming real and eventually an integral means of traveling.

The Ride from Bran to Râșnov

After a rideshare to Sibiu and two trains later, I found myself in Brașov, which immediately made sense as one of the places people kept recommending to me. It had the mountains, the atmosphere, and the kind of town center that makes you understand the hype quickly. I used one of my full days there to head out toward Bran and Râșnov.

Bran itself did not really win me over. Between the crowds, the price, and the general feeling around it, I left with much less excitement than I expected. But that disappointment weirdly helped. It pushed me toward doing something different instead of standing around waiting for the day to organize itself for me. I realized I did not even know exactly where the bus would pick up, and instead of losing momentum, I decided this was the moment to finally try hitchhiking.

So I walked north toward the edge of town, found a place where I could be seen clearly, and after a month of hesitation, fear, and excuses, I put my thumb out. Almost immediately, a Romanian man driving a pickup truck pulled over. That was it. The line I had built up so much in my head was suddenly crossed in less than fifteen seconds.

The ride itself was short — only about 11 kilometers and maybe 20 minutes — but it meant far more than the distance suggests. He was genuinely happy to pick up a smiling traveler, and even more amused when he learned I was American. What made the whole thing better was finding out that I was his first hitchhiker too. It turned into one of those simple, human travel moments that stays with you far longer than the logistics around it.

Despite the language barrier, we connected easily enough. He dropped me near Râșnov Fortress, I thanked him in Romanian, he taught me a few words, and that was it. A stranger for twenty minutes, and still somehow a real connection.

What That One Ride Changed

Hitchhiking in Slovenia from Novo Mesto to Ljubljana

At the time, it just felt like a breakthrough. Looking back, it was much more than that. That short ride in Romania changed the way I moved through the rest of the trip. It removed one of the biggest mental barriers I had built for myself and showed me that flexibility on the road could open up a completely different kind of travel experience.

December 2016 : when I looked back on that six-month run through Europe, I knew that first ride in Romania had shifted something fundamental. After that moment, I went on to hitchhike around fifty more times across Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, and Greece. I’ll even add hitchhiking in Hawai’i. Hell, even in the Marshall Islands and Nauru Island.

Not every experience was perfect, but most of them were incredible. They opened doors, created human moments I never would have had otherwise, and yes – saved money.

Coming back to this post a decade of voyaging later, this was not just my first hitchhiking ride. It was an inevitable turning point in becoming a different kind of voyager. And for that, I will always connect that change back to Romania, and to the guy in that pickup who stopped without hesitation.

Hitchhiking in Northern Macedonia FYROM

Hitchhiking in Albania from Tirana to Saranda

Hitchhiking Big Island of Hawai’i atop Mauna Kea

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