What an interesting week.....

Well as the title says it was an interesting week. It started off with hitching home from Duncannon on Monday.  As in Bank Holiday Monday.  Now normally Bank holidays are great for hitching. Lots of people on the road and often willing to pick up.  My brother dropped me off in New Ross as he was heading back up the country.  I was on the road for 17:30.  By rights I should have been home in 3 to 4 hours.  Normally the Journey would take 2 to 3 hours if driving.  It took me 6 hours.  23:30 I was walking in the door at home. I may not even have gotten home that early save for the fact that the last lift I got was from a guy going from Dungarvan to Cork, who took pity on me and dropped me home.  Added an extra 30 minutes to his journey time at least.  Well done that man and thank you very much.  

Next was Wednesday.  I was hitching from home to Portarlington in Laois to visit my girlfriend.  I left home at around 14:00 a 3 hour journey at the most when driving.  It took me 7 hours.  I was starting to think I was losing my touch.  Thankfully I got a lift from Cahir practically to the door by a very sound lad.

Then on Friday I was hitching down from Portarlington on Friday.  Left at 11:00.  Didn't get home till 17:30.  There were some advantages.  I got to prove how utterly random and awesome the world is.  Myself and my girlfriend were after getting dropped at the top of the Cobh sliproad on the Cork/Midleton road.  After walking back down onto the hard shoulder and waiting a while we got a lift... It was the man whose tyre I had helped change.  Granted he could only take us a small distance but I thought it was kind of cool.

Anyway.  After some consideration I figured out a decent reason for the slowness of the travel.  At first I thought it may have been the fact that I was wearing a straw hat as I had left my leather one in my brother's car (Also known as my hitching hat. :P) .  But then I realized that there was another time when hitching took a stupidly long time.  Last summer it took me 5 hours to do 26 miles.  On a hot day.  From this I have deduced that hitching on a hot day is always slow.  The higher the temperature the less generous the people - sounds crazy but my brother who also hitches would agree.

Secondly my long trip on Monday was not helped by the fact that I had to walk through New Ross and Waterford City.  New Ross wasn't too bad but Waterford was a nightmare.  That city just goes on and on and on.  Took 2 hours.  Felt like one of the longest walks ever.   Never, never, NEVER!!!  Get a lift to the wrong side of a city.  It's not worth the trouble.  Even if it means you have to pass up a good long lift.  Just leave it.  Also never get a lift it is out of your way too far.  For example getting a lift from Portlaoise to Limerick when you are going to Cork.  Pass up the lift.  Wait.  You'll be better off.

Today I was hitching back from Ballincollig to Cork city and I got a lift from a suit.  I was surprised considering that I'm a scruff beardy freeloader...kind of.  That however wasn't the most unusual thing that happened to me today.  I was hitching out of Cork when I got picked up by a woman.  Now this in itself is a bit strange.  Women on their own don't pick you up unless they know you.  The really weird thing is the fact there was a wee panda purse on the dash.  (For those of you that don't know I'm known as Panda).  I said that I truly am haunted and she asked me why.  I told her that I'm known as Panda and then she said " So am I."  I was almost surprised.  I then went on to find out when she doesn't have/can't afford to run a car she also hitches.  I could do nothing but laugh.   A friend of mine used to say that there's a singularity of wierdness around me.  I think he may be right.....

Ok so there have been no updates recently but I have had some family stuff happening and at the moment I'm trying to put together a basic guide to hitching in my head.  I'm trying to word it properly so it'll be clear and concise. 

For now I'm just going to say one of the most important things about hitching.  Be nice to those that give you a lift.  For example at the weekend I went to Wexford.  On the way one of the cars I was getting a lift in got a flat tyre.  The guy that was giving me a lift said that he'd do it himself when I said I'd help.  I was insistent.  It's what you have to do.  The person is giving you a lift.  They are going out of their way to be nice to you so do the same. 

Bye for now.

And so it came to pass.....

For a long time I didn't understand the point of blogging. But then a friend of mine made me realize how useful they can be (only today actually). So I decided to start this blog and hopefully it shall lead somewhere rather interesting indeed.
As my be suggested by my screen name I hitch hike a lot. In fact this is what this blog is all about. Several years ago I was after missing a bus to the city from my village and my mother (yes of all people my mother) suggested that I stand at the edge of the village and stick my thumb out. I did this and soon enough I had a lift. This was the beginning of what soon came to be my preferred mode of transport. Soon I started purposefully missing my bus home from school to spend time hanging out with my friends, then hitch home. The first time I did this I was surprised to discover that I had beaten the bus home. I soon came to realize the true advantage of hitching it is mostly faster than public transport in this country.

To most hitching conjures up images of the the film The Hitcher and therefore causes them to recoil in horror at the mere thought of someone undertaking such a dangerous and risky endeavour as obviously the world is a horrible and dangerous place. In actually the opposite is true. I have been hitching for around 5 years and I haven't had a single incident. Granted it only takes one incident to break the record but I remain hopeful that my trend will continue. Also one can meet many interesting people. What I hope to achieve with this blog is to record my adventures while hitching an hopefully encourage more to do it.

Fast forward a couple of years to last year when I did my first bit of long distance hitching. Up to now I had only hitched up to a distance of 30 miles. This time I was doing around 100. Cork City to Shinrone in Offaly. It is not an easy place to get to using public transport. It tends to be a 4 hour journey via bus. When I managed to make the trip in 3 hours I knew I was onto something. Part of this I believe was down to timing. I left around 5pm which meant I was leaving at peak traffic time on a Friday. The return journey on the following Tuesday however took 5 and a half hours. This didn't bother me though as I had time to burn.

Yet again we fast forward to only last Thursday when I headed to Galway for Itzacon, a gaming convention of much awesomeness. I manged to do the journey in 3 and a half hours from city to city. I did it in 3 separate lifts which seems to be the norm for long journeys. On the Friday when the rest of the Cork contingent arrived they couldn't believe that I had gotten to Galway faster than them as it had taken them 4 hours on the bus. Yet again my return journey was in excess of 5 hours but this was yet again due to heading back on a Tuesday morning. The lifts however were a bit more interesting. The longest stretch I covered was from 5 miles out of Galway to a garage near Banogue in Limerick. It was with a bunch of lads that were going paint balling for the day but as they were unsure of where they were going they ended up going 20 miles in the wrong direction. This benefited me was the wrong direction was Cork. The next lift that I got was from a guy wearing the same shirt as me...rather strange considering my hippyish taste in clothing. Strange coincidences however are the spice of life.

I think for now I will leave it at that. But when I have more time I shall post anecdotes as I think of them and record all my major hitching endeavours.