after Anna’s arrival we prepared the first sign - Chyżne - and stood on the road in front of the BP station looking for the first ride. around 3:30 I asked two guys who stopped on the station if the can take us at least outside of Kraków. they eventually agreed, but they didn’t want to go the main route. now try to imagine some raid in Sierra Nevada… they were driving close to 100kph down some narrow and winding roads. and there were no belts for passengers in the back, so we were simply flying inside the car. but that was fun after all and a pretty good beginning for a trip which supposed to be full of adventures.

they dropped us off close to Sułkowice. we were fooling ourselves for a while that there is a chance for us to catch a car going from there to the border, but soon we got more rational and started looking for someone going back to Zakopianka (the main route going south). it took us around a half an hour to find somebody, ‘cos as you can imagine the gas station in the middle of nowhere wasn’t very busy around 4 in the morning. but we got lucky and around 4:30 we were on the main route again.

it was cold and no one wanted to give us a lift for like 20 minutes, but it felt much longer when I was dancing my I’m-trying-to-warm-myself-up dance. I should’ve been looking for my coat instead, but I had lots of hope that somebody would take us from there soon. I was losing my hope as time went by, but finally we got lucky again - the white truck stopped and the guy told us that he was going to Nowy Targ, but he’d drop us some place convenient. Anna fell asleep in no time and I was trying not to. but even if I was sitting not very comfortable between the driver and my friend I started to consider sleeping with my head on the windscreen.

a few minutes before 6 our driver turned on his CB radio and started to look for somebody to take us further. but no one wanted two nice girls in their truck, so eventually we ended up on the crossroads in Rabka. we were half asleep, so we smoked cigarettes. not many cars were going in the direction of Chyżne, but we haven’t waited too long when the black Mercedes stopped. the driver helped us to pack our things to the trunk and there we were, passing the misty hills with a guy who was working in cobblestones’ factory in Chyżne. he dropped us off on the turn leading to the factory and then I started to do my warming dance again, as I was freezing.

we waited more than a half of an hour for the next lift. but finally a girl in silver Cinquecento stopped and she took us to the town on the Slovakian side of the border - Trstená. we got together and I was sitting on the pile of our stuff writing a sign to Budapest. people passing us by were mostly inhabitants of the town, so we had a little chance for somebody going further to stop. and we used that little chance, or I should say, Anna used that little chance and she caught a big Polish truck going to Turkey with TV sets.

Napoleon, as he named himself (there was a real name too, but I’ve got a terrible memory when it comes to names…), was going a little bit around, but we didn’t care anymore. I fell asleep for two or three hours and that was all I cared about. I just remember that Napoleon told us, that it’s a pity he’s not driving any bananas, so he could treat us with some. Anna replied that they’d probably be green and then I learned another use of condom - bananas are going yellow very fast when put into one. oh well. anyway, we went through Košice and then south to the highway in the direction of Budapest. there was one 45-minute break, because truck drivers have very strict regulations about breaks, sleeping and so on. a few minutes after 2pm we were standing on the road again. this time it was a highway.

it was bloody hot in Hungary and the grass was yellow because of the sun. no trees around and I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt. luckily we still had some water. cars were passing us by and sun made us tired. but after over 50 minutes of showing our sign for Budapest and Anna’s thumb up, a Hungarian guy stopped. he spoke no language we know (he knew German, but that’s the only language I was never even close to learn, ‘cos I hate how it sounds), so we had to use our hands and some international words to communicate. anyways, it happened not to be so bad after all. we couldn’t have a real conversation, but the guy took us exactly where we thought we needed.

on the way I was admiring Hungarian grapes’ fields, wondering if the famous Egri Bikavér was produced in this area. or maybe the famous Tokaji? then the fields of grapes changed into the fields of sunflowers. that was awesome! and the music was very adequate - “Fields of Gold” by Sting.

before we reached Budapest, we stopped on the gas station for a coffee and the guy told us that after Budapest he’s going to Nagykanizsa, which was right next to the border with Croatia. we think we’re lucky, ‘cos it’s like the whole Hungary with one driver. great! but on the way he wanted to do some shopping in Budapest, so that slowed us down a bit.

anyway, seeing Budapest again was great! with my photographic memory I remembered main points of the city and I was trying to show them to Anna, but she wasn’t that interested. the guy wanted to stop for all the shopping in the shopping centre, but there was a bomb threat, so eventually he bought some baby stuff in some other shop and then we stopped again for some regular shopping in Auchan. we used the occasion to buy some Hungarian sausages similar to kabanos and more cigarettes, ‘cos we were about to have another tough night.

after all the shopping we were going 160kph to the border, passing by Balaton lakes and other pretty landscapes glittering in the twilight. around 7 we were on the last gas station before the border. but there were some things we didn’t know…