I took a bus to go far fom the influence zone of the city. I hitch-hiked from a road with many cars driving quite fast.
After a while a russian driver stopped. He spoke very little english but he could teach me a few words in russian. He brought me to Smiltene. At mid way, we stopped for a coffee. To be honest i didn’t feel confortable to leave my bag in his car. I have this rule to never let the small bag i have in front of me with my tablet, money and important documents and take it with me all the time. I let the bag with clothes and sleeping bag in the car though.
Actually there was no reason to not trust him because he just wanted to help me. But i’m a beginner about hitch-hiking and i need more time to develop this skill to feel if people has good or bad intention.
Anyway everything went well. In Smiltene i waited a bit and a driver gave me a lift. After 1 minute of driving i realized that i forgot this small bag i carry in front me on the road. Panicked, i made know about this to the driver. He gentlely tapped me on my leg to reassure me and we went back. The bag was still there. A good lesson for me. The excitement of seeing a car stopping after hitch-hiking shouldn’t make me only focusing on the car…
A few kilometers further he left me on the road because of our different destinations. I waited there two hours. Many thoughts like : i could spend the night in this forest and hitch-hike tomorrow, how to let know to my host in Valga that i won’t come tonight as i don’t have her phone, how long time i should hitch-hike again, and so on…
At 5.30 pm a driver gave me a lift for a few kilometers. Then an other. A man like 70 years old with a big smile telling me jokes in a language, maybe latvian or estonian. We crossed the border from Latvia to Estonia in this town seperated into two parts : the Latvian part called Valka and the Estonian part, Valga. I met my host Laura at 7.30 pm.
I slept at her place one night and the day after we went to her village Ala, to meet her familly and to visit a castle from which we had an amazing view from the top of its tower.
Laura and her friend showed me a forest in Ala ( 100 inhabitants in Ala ), and then she called one of her friend to bring me by car to a gas station to hitch-hike to Tartu. It was very helpful for me.
I hitch-hiked one minute and the first car that i saw stopped and brought me to Tartu. I spoke a bit Estonian just to say my name and sentences like : nice to meet you or stuff like that which made them laughing obviously because of my accent.
World trip : Words about it 