Monday, March 13
Hitchhikers speak (5)
C and S:
"The experience of hitch-hiking is really unique. Though it’s cold and sometimes wet (especially untill Poznan) it's a nice way of travelling. We met many people, even a Belarusian in a little blue car who gave us a ride, and was really sympathetic. He drove really slowly, so we met him three times on the way to Warsaw. We were very lucky. On the first day somebody even offered us to drive to Berlin (from the Netherlands). Just superspontaneously! He brought us to Hannover to spare our time in the bad weather."
J and R:
"Most drivers who gave us a ride had a personal interest in human rights (for example a former soldier from the DDR (German Democratic Republic, former "East Germany") who was stationed at the border in 1987 and succesfully fled to the West), but also quite many who felt sorry for us, hitch-hiking during winter. Even with a polarproof jacket, two woolen sweaters, three t-shirts and a bottle of wodka (at 10.00 am) it was often impossible to stay warm. Twice we were even offered money for coffee to de-freeze a bit.
Our worst experience: A Polish guy gave us a ride from Berlin to a place in the neighbourhood of Poznan. Because of heavy snow, the roads were totally iced. Not seeming to notice he just drove on, slipping from the left to the right side of the road. After hearing about the action, he started a pro-Lukashenka rant of at least an hour, in Polish, only pausing at the border by a loud cursivication through the open window at the policemen working there. We promissed him a bottle of wodka and three packages of Marlboro and were shaking but safely dropped off at a gass station."
W and J:
"A great demonstration in Warsaw today. In a march we went through the city where we stopped at a couple of places where we let people vote for freedom of speech in Belarus. Collected more than 50 voting ballots today, because the Polish people easily signed for the freedom of expression in Belarus.
It was very cool as well to get the fiat from Amnesty Germany to offer the longest petition of Germany to the embassy of Belarus in Berlin. Of course they didn’t accept it but the conversation with the ambassador and the consul was worthwhile.
Furthermore from Poznan there were also two Polish guys hitchhiking along to Warsaw where they participated in our campaign."
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