Hitchhiking in Croatia

Hitchhiking with Polish basketball fans!

Good morning everyone!

So after hearing from several other travelers and some local people, that hitching is pretty safe and easy here, I decided to give it a shot.  I'd spent a couple days at the Plitvice National Park (full of amazing waterfalls, aquamarine coloured water and good hiking), of which I will write about soon.  I needed to travel down south to Split, where a lot of ferries for the islands leave from.  The hitching option seemed the best way to get there, and could even work out to be more efficient time-wise, as the Croatian buses have been a bit slow, a bit expensive and a bit competitive (meaning that there are multiple bus companies going the same way, and if you get on the wrong bus with the wrong ticket, you have to pay for a new ticket, even though you already bought one for a different bus).

I stood in the shade outside the National Park, wearing my LA Dodgers shirt and putting my thumb to good use.  I figured I could get a ride with someone who was leaving the park as well and going down south.  After over a half hour, boom, I was in luck.  A super nice Croatian named Luka pulled over and I got it.  He would take me as far as Zadar (the big city in between the National Park and Split), which worked out great for me.  Luka is awesome, as he speaks great English has loads of travel stories from his years spent in Canada and kept the conversation going the whole time.  Turns out he owns a VIP car service over here, picking up famous people at the airports and taking them to the islands.  He mostly does musicians (Roger Waters next month, and Robbie Williams as well), and we stopped off at the Zadar Airport to pick up two Dutch DJs who were playing a festival on the island of Pag.  Last week, he had 8 vans for Snoop Dogg.  Pretty cool to be part of the pickup of the DJs, and be known as an "associate of the company".  He left me at a crossroads to get back on the highway to Split.

I waited under and underpass (that's what they're for right?), and barely 20 minutes later, a Polish van screeched to a start, and my second ride commenced.  Another jackpot, with great people.  This time, it was 5 girls and 2 guys from Poland, who were off to Split for the European University Championships of Basketball.  So I had a ride with basketball fans; I was in paradise.  Fun times talking, laughing and traveling to my end destination.  Good people, and then when we stopped for a toilet break, I realized tall people.  Huge!  Crazy how when you sit in a car with people they seem like normal girls, and then, they stand up, and they're taller than you. 

And that is how I got to Split, around 300km from the National Park, in less time than a bus would take, with way more fun.  Life is good!