Travelling experiences in Bulgaria
by Laci Bodnár
To be an Evs volunteer is a very good opportunity for a young people without life experiecnce, becouse it is not only about the working and developing yourself, it is also about the traveling and discovering new countries. Usualy the easiest way of traveling is to book a ticket and hostel, and just go to the chosen destination, and enjoy all of the services. It is very nice, but in fact it needs a lot of money, witch means that this option is not very ideal for a volunteer.
Before I came here I had a preparation training organized by my sending organization in Slovakia. I have learned a lot of useful things, and I have also some „lessons” about the ways of traveling suitable for volunteers. They suggested me to try a hitchhiking and the coachsurfing. To be honest in the past I was a bit sceptic with the hitchhikeing. When I came here fortunately I met some travel experts, and after sharing they experiences and memories, I have decided to try it. After absolveing my first trip in Bulgaria with hitchhike i felt in love with it. My first journey was to Sofia, and even further with two other volunteers. It was a nice beginig, becouse we had a luck with the drivers and we reached or destination relavitely very fast. We discussed a lot with the volunteers from other projects about the traveling, and the conclusion was that Bulgaria is very easy to hitchhike. Bulgarian drivers like to pick up foreigners, and they are very courious about our impressions usually. Sometimes there can be some comunication dificulties, but still it is possible to understand each other somehow. Usualy the drivers who picks up hitchhikers are sympatizants with this way of travelling and in lot of cases there are ex-hitchhikers, so for them it is kind of rewinding the nice memories from the past.
Usualy like everything on the world, hitchhiking have also positive and negative sides. As I wrote it I am also a beginer with hitchhikeing, but I have alredy have some experiences, so now I will introduce the positive things according to my opinion:
1, It is for free
2, Sometimes is faster than the bus or the train
3, You have a opportunity to have new friends, becouse usually the drivers who picks up hitchhikers were travelling also with the same methods
3, You can have a nice conversations, and you can practice your language skills (in my case, I have learned a lot of Bulgarian during my hitchhikings)
4, Somtimes the driver can invite you for a coffe or tea, or even for a meal
5, Somtimes it is more comfortable
6, In some cases you can also book the trip to way back
And of course there are more positive sides, but for me these are the most importants.
Negative things:
1, Somtimes risky, and you can feel unconfortable if the driver is driveing to fast.
2, In case of long distances you can stuck even for a night
3, It depends ont he weather
Some useful instructions:
Choose this way of travelling only for holidays, not for catching the plane or meeting where you need to be on time.
Always be positive, smile, have a good karma and nothing bad can happen.
It is very important to find th ebest spot, it is usually the end or begining of the city.
I think a best a combination to hitchhike is one boy and one girl.
For girls it is easier to hitchhike, but you need to be more carefull and you need the control the unconfortable situations and in .
According my personal opinion, the biggest chance to catch a car is if you are alone, or two, but if you are three somtimes it can be hard.
Always good to have water with you, especially in summer, becouse you can stuck somewhere for a longer time.
Be patient
It is good to have map with you
For long distances is better to make a sign (in Bulgaria make it in cyrilic), but for short distances is not necessary.
For people who like adventures I suggest to try it, but maybe for the stresfull ones is not the best way of travelling. So „Get ready for the adventure, thumbs up and have a nice time”!
