How I Failed at Hitchhiking in Portugal
Hitchhiking…I’ve never done it. Sounds like a terrible, terrible idea. Like…in horror movies, you always yell at the person on the screen saying, “Why did you get in that stranger’s car??!” And thinking only the worst case scenario as the outcome of the ride. Well, despite me thinking this is how hitchhiking goes, I still attempted it. Smart, right?! Haha…so this is what happened…
So, my German travelmate, Maren, proposed hitchhiking from Porto to either Coimbra or Lisboa. I was skeptical at first, but then ultimately agreed because Maren had done it many times in Germany and convinced me it was safe, we both can judge character right away if something was off with whomever would offer us a ride, and I wanted to try something new and go on an adventure. I suggested making a sign so the drivers knew where we wanted to go….and then we were off! Excited to find a free ride to our next destination and meet friendly travelers/locals willing to pick up foreigners.
We started off at a busy intersection right outside our hostel for about 30 minutes…and received smiles, waves, laughs, but ultimately..all rejections. One of the drivers informed us that we should keep walking along the river as that would be easier to get a ride….so we did just that.
We walked through the tunnel and made our way along the river walkway holding our sign and hitchhiking thumbs out. After walking for an hour or so with somewhat close calls, we decided to hit up a gas station and ask cars getting gas for rides.
Upon arrival to the gas station, Maren and I split up the cars to ask if they were heading south, but conveniently, all of them were not going in that direction.
At this point, I was starving and it was around lunch time, so I went into the restaurant next to the gas station and ordered food to go. While waiting for my food, which I had the waiter choose for me because they did not have an English menu (jardineira – so good!), I sat next to a local that spoke English. I told him about our hitchhiking attempts and he stated that they do not do that here…primarily due to safety concerns. He provided me with information on how to get to the train station and then Maren and I were on our way…planning to walk 20 more minutes with our bags to the train station feeling defeated.
Then after a couple minutes of walking, we saw this car parked on the side of the road and the driver still in his seat. We decided to give it one last try and see if he could take us down south. Unfortunately, he was from the area and had no plans to leave town…but was willing to take us to the train station instead. Relieved we didn’t have to walk any longer, we were happy with anything at this point. Minor success!!
We took the train to Coimbra to visit the university for the day. Our plans were to head to Lisbon by train…but upon arriving to the train station, Maren wanted to see if we could try hitchhiking to Lisbon. I reluctantly agreed to a maximum of five minutes of trying. We found a spot along the road and five minutes turned into 20 minutes with me doing majority of the hitchhiking attempts, lol. In the end, I called it quits so we could make the next train down to Lisbon. Another failed attempt…
I’ve met a bunch of people during my travels in other countries that have successfully (and safely) hitchhiked from one destination to the other…sometimes it’s their only option due to lack of funds. And despite the stigma, there are some positives to hitchhiking! You can meet new people (locals and travelers alike), its low cost to travel (aka free), better for the environment (maximizing empty seats in cars), you get to your destination usually faster than public transportation, and the adventure of it all!
So, to sum up…we either suck at hitchhiking or northern Portugal doesn’t really operate in this way. It may be a combination of the two as well as not knowing where in town to optimally stand whilst hitchhiking, but nonetheless, it was a funny and memorable experience. We ended up renting a car when we got to Lisboa and vowed to pick up any hitchhikers that we saw during our road trip because we knew how it felt to be in their shoes (but didn’t see any). Oh well….here’s to failing at hitchhiking!!
For more articles on Portugal, read the following: