Hitch hiking

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

The question is, what could I do with my hitchhiking skill?

I’m leaving again on Thursday. I’m leaving for a 5 day hitchhiking trip from Nijmegen in The Netherlands to Stockholm. 2 days there, 1 days there, concert Aphex Twin, 2 days back. I’ve done this kind of trip dozens of times. It feels relaxed and I actually always arrive.

Maybe it’s because of my own background (I have a master in organizational psychology) but for me there’s a lot of psychology in this. I make myself dependent on my surroundings, which makes me aware of my surroundings. I have little guidance on ways to achieve my planning, so I surrender to the situation. I connect with all kinds of people that I have learned to connect with over the years. When I hitchhike, everything around me is so different, which makes me think in a different way. I’m not a fan of standing somewhere for an hour or more, but it still gives room for reflection. And in the end it gives me faith in myself, faith in people and faith in fate.

The question is: can I do something with this? I have a wonderful job as a director in the music business and I would like to continue to do so for a very long time. But I think sometimes I could take people with me in my experience. And I can imagine that it is interesting for a lot of people to be completely taken out of their daily groove. Lifting gives room for creativity, for contemplation and for development.

Do you have an idea how I could shape this further? Are you interested, are you looking for a keynote speaker or do you have another question? I’d love to hear it :+1:

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#2

last time I picked up someone random he made demands to take him off my route and made me feel guilty for not complying with his request, never picked anyone since and probably won’t ever, unless I come from a music festival or something, then I can pick up people that I probably have at least something in common.
personally I would necessarily hitchhike though, if I can’t get a car or other transportation I would get the cheapest bike and pedal wherever I need, plenty of time for reflection!

(I realize that it’s not answering your question but the word “hitchhiking” just triggers something in me, sorry…)

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#3

…trust ur trust…and ur instincts…have a nice trip…aaaand get back in one piece…

greetings to richard… :wink:

#4

Thats the life! For two years i was traveling in the west part of europe, since im from the east, and did that mostly by hitch hiking. It was the best time! I had so much fun and adventures. Wasnt alone either. Started as a three person party and as we traveled we accuired new members. We had mostly no plan, except to make some money when we got to france and then we also found some work in swiss. People were generally very hospitable and accepting and we always found a way to make ends, through meeting people, going out of our comfort zones, connecting, exploring…
The most fun part actually was finding places to sleep, food and generally whatever we generally have for granted in our daily lives.
Before that i was in a pretty tough place psychologically and in a dead end in my life. But after travelling i got some new " super powers" that help with difficult situations.
I really hope i get to go back to some of the places i visited, see people i connected with again and have some new adventures at some point.

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#5

If you have a bad experience once, that doesn’t mean you have to make your world smaller :wink:
I always do my best to make someone feel like ‘this is something I will do again next time’. Many people don’t easily pick me up on the street, I usually ask at gas stations. I look pretty reliable.

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#6

I relate to your question wether you could make something creative out of it. I’ve wondered this myself - I work in the arts, including organising loads of workshops - so sometimes I dream of including my personal interests in some kind of artistic gesture.

It’s difficult for you to make an event out of it since you couldn’t really do the thing (hitchhiking) with a group of participants - but you could indeed experiment sharing the experience in another way like lectures or some fun exercise or something.

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#7

If you’d really want to make this into a workshop kind of activity - then I’d go about it by finding some kind of metaphorical substitution for hitchhiking if that’s not possible as group activity.

Was this the kind of direction you were thinking yourself - or did you have very different pictures in your mind? Curious!

#8

Don’t panic and always carry a towel

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#9

Excuse the cynical question, but are you looking to cash in on your experiences of hitching from NL to Stockholm? Not exactly the most wild of hitch-hiking ventures, but if you’ve got a way with words - maybe try writing a collection of short stories based on each trip or ride?

On a side note, as for hitch-hiking “skills”, standing on the side of a road with a sign is the very last resort. I say this from quite extensive personal experience, albeit from quite a few years ago.

#10

For me it depends on whether you’re going for speed or quality of experience. Asking drivers can often be faster. But standing by the road is a filter to the most interesting / kind / curious people passing by at that time. A lot of my most awkward rides were the result of being in a hurry and asking at gas stations

#11

You are missing the point, my friendl. I give an example of what I do, how I live, and ask my self: can I use this skill in a professional context

#12

Exactly: Asking at petrol stations is the fastest way to go. Ask drivers with plates from a region or country on the way, or to your destination. Intuition - if the driver looks or sounds dodgy, don’t ask or back out with an excuse.

My experience is opposite. Every petrol/gas station in Europe has multiple CCTVs, so potential baduns will be hesitant. Not the case with dark roadsides.

#13

Give me the angels who stop by the roadside anyday. Shame to be in a hurry hitching

Hitching deserves its own thread!

By awkward I didn’t mean unsafe. I’ve had tens of thousands of rides and I’ve never had a properly bad experience. A handful of times I’ve turned down a ride because it felt a bit off. I’ve found it to be extremely safe. But then I’m male - Talking to female hitchers I’ve heard loads of horror stories

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#14

You started an interesting thread but “can I use this skill in a professional context” implies profiting financially. Semantically, I haven’t “missed the point” of, or twisted your words. Apologies if I come across as an argumentative foker; your English is excellent, but may be you could elaborate upon, or reword “professional context”?

#15

i dont know much about hitching but what i do know about psychology tells me that it will get exponentially harder to find rides the more people you have with you. i guess theres a romance to hitching but at the end of the day its transportation, which normally tends to be something business needs to get done quickly and reliably. i guess im also confused what the question is.

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#16

Yeah we not doing that here, you’d end up in a hole somewhere

#17

Where?

#18

The United States

#19

I wonder if you could use it, teach your skill and observational psychology, as a ‘leadership’ skill. Sell it to businesses and their executives for money to buy things with, ideally allowing you more time to do better things for you while doing something you already do well and enjoy.

So many ways to shoot this down but I’m going to try walking down this road a bit and see…people can learn skills through interaction with horses…open mind time

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#20

I don’t have experience in the USA. A friend of mine has weird experience with picking up hitch hikers in the USA

This is what I found online.
So, as opposed to what every non-hitchhiker professed with authority, hitchhiking in the USA is not dangerous.

However, the USA was one of my worst country to hitchhike. People stopped not only to pick me up, but also to lecture me. They never hitchhiked, so they were quite sure it was dangerous, just like the bunch of armchair naysayers in this question. The police harassed me too, even though I was breaking no law. And I got picked up by a higher proportion of weirdoes than in any other country. Oh, and the religious fanatics…

Now, the USA is part of a short list of countries I’ll not hitchhike in (= I’ll never go there again. Cause, really, I hitchhike everywhere).