We arrived to Pula! It’s boiling hot and I couldn’t spot a single cloud all day. We went straight to the Rojc barracks where I lived for nearly two months at the beginning of the year. We left our bags and had a little stroll around town and to the coast. So much more is happening in the streets at this time of the year.. Tourists everywhere and people sitting in cafes, in parks and around the monuments, kids showing off on their scooters. We met Petra on the street. She is the woman that did my fancy pocket belt, maybe someone has seen me wearing it before. 😉 She invited us to her place, we had some tea, made plans for a trip to the countryside and she shortened the belt a little. Now we are back in Rojc and I said hello to all the dudes and duderinas. OK, here is a little wrap-up of how we got here:
From Prague to Wels near Linz, Austria (2004-06-05): At around noon we went to a busy hitchhiker’s spot south of Prague. People coming and being picked up all the time. In finest car chase style a young trumpet player drove us the first 30 km to the main road towards Austria. After a little while a steam engine enthusiast took us three villages further. He well used the time to promote the sights of his home: “Boys, I recommend you to visit ..”, “Boys, you should really look at ..”. At a bus stop in the middle of nowhere a junior architect picked us up and drove all the way to Ceske Budovice, 20 km from the Austrian border. We stopped, had another Knedliki meal and went on in lashing rain – yuck. Under a pedestrian bridge we found shelter and a few minutes later a fallen DJ equipment dealer now growing weed for living brought us to his boring hometown 10 km from the border in his 30 year old Lada. We got off at a petrol station with little to no traffic. After the rain stopped we walked some kilometres along the road towards the border and were picked up by an older Austrian man that just returned from a small shopping tour. With his glazzy eyes he looked at us and muttered something about German citizens being allowed to take 10 packs of cigarettes over the border. We stopped at the duty free, bought 20 packs and went over the border passing waving working girls standing beside the road. He offered us a beer and had one himself while driving. 20 km after the border we got off and were immediately picked up by the only Georgian translator in Austria. 😉 He looked more like a DJ or something though. He was so kind to make an extra trip of 50 km to bring us directly to Wels “because it’s raining and getting dark”. At a petrol station Seppel’s sister picked us up and brought us to her place where we stayed for the night.
From Wels to Rijeka, Croatia (2004-06-06): We had a nice breakfast and before noon we stood at the drive-up to the motorway to Salzburg, after 45 min a DJ Bobo look-alike took us to a busy motorway service area some kilometres before Salzburg. Waiting for an hour.. Then a nervous Indian-type guy with searching eyes behind big sun glasses brought us to the next service area near Salzburg. Some minutes later two young guys in a station wagon picked us up. After half an hour of Drum and Bass, Raga and Minimal house from the biggest car bass box that I have seen in my life we were dropped at a petrol station with friendly signs [photo]. We waited for around one and a half hours there, playing Frisbee, making jokes about passing cars. Then we were very lucky, a former Punk-Rock guy now building Irish pubs and selling exclusive rock star watches and sun glasses was on his way to south Croatia. We decided to skip Ljubljana and go with him to Rijeka, one hour from Pula. At the Slovenian-Croatian border though there was some trouble with the watches and glasses that he had in his car and so he was delayed for a longer time. We were a little confused about what was happening, but our driver assured us: “You are free”. So we decided to go on because it was getting dark. The second car, a frenchman working at an oil company in Rijeka, stopped and took us to Icici, a fancy beach town a bit outside Rijeka on the road to Pula. It was dark by now and cars did not stop. We met a group of young people on their way to the pub. We had some beers with them and went to their place a bit up the hill in some kind of student bungalow. We drank Bambus, wine and cola – the local student speciality, and then I don’t remember much.. 😉 Drinking games, swimming in the sea at sunrise, stumbling to someone else’s place, staying there for the night.
From Rijeka to Pula (2004-06-07): In the morning we stepped out of Oz’s cave-like place without windows and unbelievable sun was beating down on us. The view over the Rijeka bay was amazing. We got a free meal at the restaurant where some of the students work that we met the night before. We said goodbye and started hitchhiking again. On the street we met more people from last night. Now the odyssey began.. There is a busy road to Pula and then there is the small, touristy path meandering 80 km along the coast. We walked along the slow road until after 5 hours or so a German couple stopped and brought us some kilometres. Stranded again somewhere in the middle of nowhere we stood an hour until a local bus came by. He gave us a free lift to the next bigger town. When we arrived there it was dark. We walked some kilometres to the bus station. No more busses this night. Some more kilometres in the dark along a narrow serpentine road until we reached a village that had some even ground to sleep on. A little monument gave us some shelter [photo].
From Rijeka to Pula part II / with a vengeance (2004-06-08): In the morning I got up and got some food from the local shop. Some local guy with perfect German gave me a short lift. After our picknick we went on walking in glowing heat. Walking for ages, no car would stop, noone would even look at us. What’s wrong with this road?? We will mark it with a big skull on hitchhiker’s maps. After 4 hours of walking along the narrow and actually quite busy road we stopped a bus to Pula because our feet hurt and our backs were sore from the heavy weight. An unexpected end of our hitchhiking trip, but by the time I’m writing this it’s already forgotten and I’m happy to be in Pula! 🙂