Visiting Slovenia during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hitchhiking in Slovenia. Being basically illegal in the country, thanks to a truck driver, the last thing we want, was getting on the radar of the police.
Where is this story playing?
This happened in Slovenia, near to the Italian border. It was close to the city of Trieste in Italy and the city of Koper in Slovenia.
Slovenia is a country in Central Europe and shares borders with Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia.
The start of the day
While hitchhiking through Slovenia, there was the issue that people were not able to leave their section of the country. This made hitchhiking really difficult in a country, where hitchhiking is supposed to be not the easiest, but more durable than their neighbor Italy.
The start of the journey was in the capital Ljubljana. The goal was the harbor city Koper, near the border to Croatia. Only 100 km distance, not hard, when an average of 300 km was not a problem in the majority of the trip. Also when thinking of two major cities, it is never hard, when getting out of the first city.
We were walking to the outskirts of the capital, walking on the highway, to reach the nearest gasstation. This didn’t take long, but the time at the gasstation took forever. We were talking to everyone, who was stopping and nobody wanted to help us for the upcoming hours. Some didn’t speak English, but most were full, or didn’t want to have strangers in their car, during the pandemic.
The idea was there, to find somewhere to stay, because it didn’t seem good, until a lumberjack finally was taking us out of the capital region. He was in the capital to buy tools for his work, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to drive there.
He drove us almost half way, until another gasstation, where the hope was higher, due to being outside of the capital region.
What happened with the police?
We were not waiting long for the next ride, a guy from Albania, who was living in Italy and that is where he drove. Right before turning on the highway to Triest, he was leaving us, due to our wish, at the highway. We just wanted to get closer to Koper, the day was already about to finish, so we were not happy spending the whole day on the highway, with not getting really far.
We put our high-visibility vest on, to not be in danger during the traffic. The try and hope was to hitchhike on the highway, which got destroyed quite soon from the police officers.
They came after not even five minutes on the highway and took us with them.
It got talked about, to bring us to the police office and may have cost a fine. They controlled our passports and were so kind, to just drop us on a countryroad and not give us a fine.
We were more than just lucky, because they seemed serious, but in situations like them, it is always important to stay calm and nice. When you are behaving bad infront of the officers, then it is unlikely, that they are more likely to punish you in general.
What happened after this?
We were now stranded at the country road not too far away from Koper, but too far, to walk it. We didn’t want to go back to the highway, due to the police. Challenging luck was not our intention.
It took a long while, until someone was willing to take us, but an older man did. He even drove us directly to our host family in the city, who we found on Couchsurfing.
Days like these are showing that even 100km are not meant to be easily reachable. Especially when you can hitchhike over a 1000km in another day. Also it is important to always believe that you are going to reach your destination. Also when you don’t, just have a backup plan. We were always able to put our tent up and do some camping.
There are always some people kind enough to help you and also police officers don’t always want bad from you. Of course there are examples, even in my travels, where it is the opposite, but that does not meaning, that all cops are the same. This goes also with groups of people. Always be kind and help others, to also receive kind actions from others.
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